Season Two@60 - Planet of Giants

Season opener is a glimpse of ambitious things to come.

Where it not for Susan leaving at the end of `Dalek Invasion of Earth`, that epic would surely have opened season two rather than this slight tale. `Planet of Giants` has a reputation for being quite dull though the decision to reduce it from an intended four episodes to three does move it along a bit. It is an unusual story though in that the TARDIS crew’s presence is never detected by the guest characters and though the Doctor and co do affect the outcome, they rely on guesswork to figure out the gist of what is going on.

I don’t suppose programme makers really thought much about what kind of story works best for a season opener back then and its not as if the gap between seasons was that  long in any case. Yet `Planet of Giants` opening episode is wordy and slow to get going. I remember watching this story for the first time on a third-generation video probably late at night and it literally sent me to sleep. A subsequent watch about fifteen years ago felt like a slog. Yet in Season Two mood I was wondering whether the story would not sing to me a little and it does. Its not amazing but neither is it quite as unimpressive as I’d previously thought.

The TARDS doors open during flight which seems to cause the ship and crew to be miniaturised, a conceit that doesn’t bear examination but provides a decent mystery. The title and obvious shape of the dead earthworm and ant they find outside means the audience probably realised what was happening before the crew. It’s a bit like The Borrowers though there may be some issues with scale. For example, is a bee really only marginally larger than an ant? Later the length of a phone receiver seems a lot shorter than it should be. These are trifles though because the large sets and props are very well constructed, the perspective conjures up some impressive visuals. Even a live cat is integrated well into the action thanks to some sharp editing. The only effect that really fails is when the crew are looking up at what are clearly still images. The integration is fine, what was probably needed were more three-dimensional photographs though that simply may not have been possible back then. Overall though the story looks impressive enough.

Louis Marks' plot cleverly has the travellers’ finding a variety of dead garden wildlife leading them to work out the general situation as communication would be impossible. Their tiny size means they can neither hear nor be seen by Forester and co but the dead insects enable them to work out something of what is gong on. Plus, as the Doctor points out, had they been in a normal garden all manner of dangers would have befallen them. It also means the effects team only need to create dead creatures which are much easier though the one live fly we encounter is actually really well rendered. Director Mervyn Pinfield makes the best of the props with some interesting shots accentuating the size differences between the cast and these everyday insects.

The story allows the crew to interact in what are by now established behaviours. The Doctor has changed from his abrasive, mysterious debut a year earlier into a somewhat doddery yet still game character who is more than willing to do his bit. When you think that William Hartnell was only in his mid-fifties, he is giving a very committed, complete performance. William Russell’s Ian is pragmatic and resourceful while the real beneficiary of the story is Jacqueline Hill. Barbara touches an infected seed but keeps this potentially fatal scenario from the others and the actress’ worried looks and behaviour add tension. As Carole Ann Ford has since spoken about and which is obvious here is how poorly the writers treated Susan. She is supposed to be as alien as the Doctor and presumably much more acquainted than Ian and Barbara with time traveling perils yet is written as a hysterical human teenager. It doesn’t especially suit the actress who could do much more but has to constantly panic over the slightest thing! 

Whilst the talky DN6 plot  is rather dry and static and doesn't whip up the same interest as the Doctor and co.’s trek across the lawn and up the drainpipe it is the series’ first real brush with corporate ill doings. Alan Tilvern brings a hard-nosed approach to the role of Forester, who seems like the sort of duplicitous businessman that would become a fulcrum of many a tv drama in the Seventies. He even has a pistol to hand. I enjoyed the wary performance of Reginald Barrat as his aide Smithers who seems unsure what to do. Interestingly more recent attempts to create pesticides that selectively kill show the story was raising an issue that would become more prominent decades later. For viewers watching in 1964 it may have been their first encounter with environmental concerns and something they had never even thought about.

Louis Marks’ quartet of Doctor Who stories appear to have little in common but he did have a handle on making a scenario come to life convincingly and with purpose. `Planet of Giants` works for the most part because of the established bond between the regular cast and some impressive visuals for the time. I’m pleased to say its gone up in my estimation and while I wouldn’t call it vital it is definitely more interesting than I previously thought it was.