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Planet

of Giants

31ST OCTOBER 1964 - 14TH NOVEMBER 1964

(3 EPISODES)

1. PLANET OF GIANTS      2. DANGEROUS JOURNEY      3. CRISIS

Originally recorded as the penultimate serial of the show’s first season, Planet of Giants was held over to open the show’s second season, beginning a tradition that would run throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. This story had been in the pipeline ever since the series inception a year earlier, but due to its extensive visual effects requirement, the serial – originally penned by CE Webber – was shelved. Louis Marks ended up reworking Webber’s ‘miniscule’ idea into the three-part ecological thriller that eventually aired in autumn 1964, and I have to say that the result is one of my favourite William Hartnell stories. Whether its long incubation contributed to the story’s brilliance or not I do not know, but it seems that a year’s hands-on experience producing Doctor Who certainly imbued Verity Lambert and

her production team with the confidence they needed to attempt such an ambitious project.

For a low-budget serial that aired in 1964, the production values of Planet of Giants are out of this world. Monochrome may be quite forgiving, but even so director Richard Martin has managed to pull off some wonderful visual effects here. The clever use of scale models and camera trickery really helps to convey the difference in size between the real world and our miniaturised travellers, and best of all it doesn’t look cheap and nasty like the chroma-key laden catastrophes that would plague most 1970s serials.

Even more important than the

visuals though is the story itself.

Marks’ first Doctor Who script

manages to strike just the right

balance between spectacle and

that old chestnut education. Ian

and Barbara are at their school-

teacher best, each educating the

audience about pesticides and

such like. The ‘baddie’, Forester,

is the first real 20th century villain

that the Doctor and his friends have ever come up against. He’s just a man; someone out to make a buck and damn the environment. In a sense, he’s a much more disturbing protagonist than a Dalek or a Voord because he’s closer to home. This element of familiarity is one of Planet of Giants’ greatest strengths, and is something that would become a staple of the series later on, particularly in the mostly-Earthbound Jon Pertwee era and also in the next serial, The Dalek Invasion of Earth. This story takes everyday things like a man in a suit, an insect, a cat, and a plughole and turns them into the stuff of nightmares.

However, Planet of Giants does have one rather major flaw, although it is not one that can

be blamed on the writer, cast or crew. For some reason, Donald Wilson, then Head of the BBC Script Department, decided to cut the serial down from four episodes to three two weeks before it aired. This resulted in the hasty editing of the last two episodes into the aptly named single episode, Crisis, and sadly a lot of the remaining material is a bit nonsensical, especially at the beginning of the third episode. How do the Doctor and Susan escape the water coming down the plughole, hmm?

Nevertheless, regardless of its problems, Planet of Giants remains to this day one of my favourite first Doctor serials. The performances are all top-drawer, to match an inspired production, and its brevity aside I can’t think of a bad word to say about it. Think Honey I Shrunk the Kids, but in black and white…

                                                                       ...and good.

Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2008

E.G. Wolverson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

What’s fascinating about Planet of Giants is how modern it all feels, especially

in its opening episode. The serial throws instant mysteries at the audience, with the scanner exploding suddenly screen and the TARDIS doors terrifyingly opening during materialisation. William Hartnell’s urgent performance suggests that both of these events are potentially cat-aclysmic. However, the big surprise of the story – i.e. that our heroes are only one inch tall – isn’t given away as the TARDIS materialises between crazy paving slabs. Furthermore, how the story cuts between the two sets of regulars explaining the plot gets the idea across in a quickly-cut and interesting way. If a modern episode were to feature any of these elements, I wouldn’t be at all shocked.

What I adore about Planet of Giants is that it brazenly tries to pull off a concept that requires a hundred times the budget and almost - almost - pulls it off. The ambition that Doctor Who’s second season exhibits is rarely matched. Planet of Giants offers the viewer a frightening world of giant earthworms, ants and flies. A world where even the most harmless of insects can turn out to be threat. It’s a joy to see the regulars coming across mundane objects like matchsticks, a briefcase and wheat but blown up to giant proportions. Writer Louis Marks really put some thought into telling his story from one inch high, adding some lovely touches such as a gunshot sounding like an almighty explosion, a corroded drain pipe managing to be a means of escape, and the voices down the other end of a telephone sounding like a dull roar.

More than that, the budget stretching sets make a real effort to sell the crazy idea with a particularly impressive plughole and scientific pad and a not quite so successful, but still visually arresting, blow-up picture of a corpse that Ian walks across in awe. The cliffhanger

to the first episode is delightfully odd; the hungry eyes of a cat licking its lips as it eyes up dinner in the shape of our heroes… We certainly wouldn’t see a cliffhanging moment this surreal again until the TARDIS would blow up in space in The Mind Robber.

The travellers stumble across

all manner of dead insects, all

impressively realised. The wasp

hitting the ground and dying is

a startling moment, and after

experiencing so many dead

creatures it comes as a real

shock as the camera pulls back

from Barbara and a fly twitches

and buzzes behind her. I would

faint too!

The story contains a strong ecological message, years before the lecturing Pertwee era.

The horror of a pesticide that kills every life form it comes into contact with is really driven home when Barbara is infected and almost dies as a result. However, these scenes are the weakest of the story as it is blatantly obvious that Barbara has been in contact with DN6 but it takes her friends an age to catch on. Still, you can rely on Jackie Hill to present the gravity of the situation - her rant at Ian when he almost touches her infected handkerchief is terribly effective. What’s more, you have got to love a story that gives the Doctor the chance to save his companions life by making her grow. It’s such an obvious idea that the insecticide would be practically harmless as soon as Barbara had returned to her normal size, but it’s no less clever for it.

Furthermore, there is a feeling of closeness amongst the regulars here that it’s impossible not to enjoy. Gone is the bossy, violent, thoughtless Doctor who was ready to chuck Ian and Barbara out of the TARDIS at the end of the last season, and in steps a quick-witted and thoughtful old goat who genuinely cares for his companions. It’s very sweet when the Doctor appears hurt that he might have insulted Barbara in the first episode. Whilst she still has a few moments of shrillness, Susan approaches this story as a bit of an adventuress rather than a victim, and for once she actually seems to enjoy the madness of their life. Ian has a few moments of doziness as he wonders why Barbara is so upset, but more than makes up for it by his reaction to her decision to foil the plot even at the risk of her life. We would see the two of them get closer and closer throughout this season before they leave together, and Ian is certainly exhibiting more feeling than a friend would here.

It’s odd to think that this is first story besides the pilot to be set in the show’s present, and

that the first characters we would meet from the 1960s beyond the two schoolteachers are the rather wooden Forrester and Farrow. To be honest, the secondary plot of the production of DN6, Farrow’s murder, and the travellers’ attempts to point the finger and save the wildlife of Britain is secondary to the rather more urgent thrill of the miniscule TARDIS crew. As a thriller, it’s extremely slow-paced with some hilariously dated investigation by the Hilda the telephone operator. Compared to Ian being tossed about in a briefcase, Susan attempting to strike a giant match, the Doctor being drowned in a plug hole, and Barbara coming face to face with a giant fly, it all seems rather humdrum. Fortunately these scenes only intrude a couple of times during each episode so that Marks can concentrate on the fun stuff.

I always thought Planet of Giants was a low-key season opener, but watching it again I found it to be rather attention grabbing and stylish. It’s another intriguing way to tell a Who story in

a time when there was no such thing as a formula, another way of stepping sideways in time, and it certainly makes for a highly unusual and highly entertaining adventure.

Copyright © Joe Ford 2010

Joe Ford has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

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