Classic Doctor Who - Season 2 - Planet Of Giants (1964) - Review

Starring: William Hartnell, Carole Ann Ford, William Russell & Jacqueline Hill

Written By: Louis Marks

Directed By: Mervyn Pinfield & Douglas Camfield

 

It's a well-known fact that the production schedule for Doctor Who, especially in its early years, was nothing short of gruelling. The first season alone was made up of eight different stories, set across forty-two 25 minute instalments, with filming for each of them beginning in September 1963 and continuing on a weekly basis for almost a year. That's one hell of a workload, and you'd think at the end of it that the cast and crew might be entitled to some time off. But this wasn't really the case, as while the first season concluded in September, Season 2 soon began at the end of October, with just a six week gap in-between. So, fresh off the heels of the first season, what can we make of the Season 2 opener, Planet Of Giants?

 

As the TARDIS is about to materialize back on Earth, the doors suddenly open of their own accord, sending the ship out of control. Stepping out of the TARDIS, the Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara discover that they and the TARDIS have shrunk dramatically in size, reducing them to only about an inch tall. In their miniaturized state, the TARDIS crew discover a criminal organization are planning to launch a new insecticide, DN6, commercially. However, the product is so harmful that it would not only kill pests, but insects vital to agriculture too, and it isn't long before the TARDIS crew begin to feel the effects of the insecticide...

 

You can imagine the headache that the production team must've had when they saw Louis Marks' script for the first time. The premise of these time travellers being shrunk down to an inch and encountering giant insects on their journey is delightfully 60s B movie material. It puts me in mind of one of my favourite episodes of Thunderbirds: Attack Of The Alligators, which came out just a couple of years after Planet Of Giants was first broadcast. Despite the ambitions of the script, and how easily such a production could have fallen flat, especially on Doctor Who's budget … the production is probably the best thing about Planet Of Giants. The model work in particular is brilliant, as the four come across huge insects and objects such as earthworms, ants, ant eggs, bees – at one point Barbara even encounters a fully animated fly and it looks great. There's also the set design, as we follow the Doctor and friends through the cracks in the pavement, scaling up drainpipes, having to light giant matches etc. Even the sink in the lab looks really convincing with nice attention to detail in the giant plughole and the plug on a chain. There are a lot of different sets used throughout Planet Of Giants, and rarely would you be able to tell that the directors were limited for studio space. Admittedly there are still a couple of moments that show it, such as when Susan discovers a lone ant egg, looks up and is shocked to discover lots more of them … even though they were in plain sight all along. Moments like this are few and far between though, and not enough to constitute a serious problem.

 

Planet Of Giants is a fairly atypical Doctor Who story, and especially for a season opener, it plays around with several elements not commonly found in the show. If you take away the sci-fi aspects and remove the Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara being shrunk, the story itself is almost conventional. While underhand schemes and criminal activities have become quite a re-occurrence in the show, it's some of the supporting characters where this difference is felt. For example, despite being a businessman, Forester can often border more on being a gangster – something you don't see too often in Doctor Who.

 

However, it is a shame that while Planet Of Giants tries out something new with its characters, the characterization is pretty flimsy. Not one supporting character here has more than a single layer to them. Forester is completely money-motivated, while others such as Smithers never get anywhere past being a mad scientist (at one point, he even stresses “The experiment must go through – nothing else matters!”). Later on, we're introduced to Hilda, the telephone operator, and her husband PC Rowse, but it isn't an understatement to say that they feel like they've wondered onto the set of Doctor Who when they should've been in a soap drama. This feeling isn't helped by the total disconnect between the TARDIS crew and the rest of the characters. At no point does the Doctor, Ian, Barbara or Susan ever interact with anyone else, and they're honestly incidental to the wider story. They're spectators, and the story would play out just the same if they'd never been there. To their credit though, they are definitely the best characters in Planet Of Giants and that sense of friendship and union they spent the first season developing is still clearly felt here.

 

Something I did quite like from Planet Of Giants were its environmental themes. There was still a lot of research and development to be done on insecticides by the time Planet Of Giants was first broadcast in 1964, and it is if nothing else a very timely story. Over in America at the time, there was a lot of controversy surrounding the lethal insecticide, DDT, which rather like DN6 in this story, was incredibly destructive, killing beneficial insects and wildlife as well as pests. It wasn't until 1972 that DDT was finally outlawed in the US. The incorporation of these environmental themes throughout Planet Of Giants seems to quite nicely fit the early pitch for Doctor Who of it being an educational show.

 

Planet Of Giants is also something of a rarity for early Doctor Who with regards to its format, being only a relatively short three parts long. While originally it was supposed to be a four-part story, the decision was made during production to splice Parts 3 and 4 together for a faster-paced climax. Having seen what a full four-part version of this story would have been like, thanks to the DVD release, I agree it is better suited to being three parts long, to help avoid its slow-burning pace from becoming just slow and plodding. I even understand the urgency of the production team to shorten this story, especially considering the six-part epic The Dalek Invasion Of Earth was just around the corner and would pull in the ratings. However, it noticeably shows that the decision to cut things down was made halfway through, and it results in some inconsistent pacing. While Parts 1 and 2 move at a decent pace, Part 3 feels more removed and it's not hard to see where big chunks of the story have been cut out for time. Really it's a decision that should've been made before shooting began, but instead it just feels like we're rushing towards the finish line.

 

But even though Planet Of Giants has its fair share of problems – weak characterization, a disconnected story and dodgy pacing to be precise, I still have a bit of a soft spot for it. It is a shame that this one gets so overlooked with bigger stories surrounding it, such as the following Dalek Invasion Of Earth, because Planet Of Giants is something different for Doctor Who, and for its time and budget, it's pulled off with remarkable style. It's classic 60s B movie fun, and it's something I really enjoy.

 

 

Planet Of Giants

 

7/10