Planet of Giants
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(Doctor Who Story No. 9, starring William Hartnell)
- written by Louis Marks
- directed by Mervyn Pinfield (episodes 1, 2, and the first half of episode 3: "Crisis")
and Douglas Camfield (the second half of episode 3: "An Urge to Live")
- produced by Verity Lambert
- music by Dudley Simpson
- 3 episodes @ 25 minutes each:
- Planet of Giants
- Dangerous Journey
- Crisis
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Story: The Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Susan find that
they have landed amongst some incredibly large and primitive
animals, most of which appear to have been killed. What deadly
experiments are being carried out here? How far will its instigators
go to keep everything a secret? While Barbara's fate hangs in
the balance, the Doctor and friends realize
that they alone must attempt to thwart their gigantic adversaries...
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Buyers' Guide Review
by Martin Izsak
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(A more in-depth analysis, containing "SPOILERS" and intended
for those who have already seen the program, can be accessed
here.)
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Doctor Who's second season opens with a story with an original premise,
some good story mechanics, and some nifty effects and sequences. It's still
a bit hit and miss, not always nailing the best atmosphere or dialogue in
each scene, and, with two different directors who have very different styles,
and some last minute editing by the producer, the pace goes through some
bizarre shifts before becoming just right near the end.
Episode One - Planet of Giants - directed by Mervyn Pinfield
The TARDIS makes its third materialization in the history
of the show, and does so without the sound effect again. :-(
Apart from that, this episode is quite well done technically.
The drama is fairly well written and satisfactorily directed
and acted out - nothing too spectacular though. The mystery
begins and soon leads our travellers to explore outside with
curiosity and keen observation. This is the right idea, but
somehow it isn't as riveting as in
"The Dead Planet" (first episode of story no. 2).
Still, it's pretty good.
The sets, props, and effects are quite
convincing,
but Ian and Susan react to things a little less than believably.
The first guest character to show up seems a little aimless
at first, until another one
shows up and the two have a dramatic little scene.
Some of their lines have the feel of being contrived to support
the plot, but the ones that work are delivered with good conviction.
One has to ponder the science behind the size differences,
but we'll save this very involved discussion for the
in-depth analysis version
of this review, since there are WAY too many spoilers in it.
This story introduces composer Dudley Simpson to the series,
who will become its most prolific creator of background music.
His debut score is quite a bit different to the very successful
style he will eventually settle into during the
Tom Baker era,
sounding here much closer to 1960's family movie music.
Most cues seem to fit the story well enough, but have been
dubbed in to the studio taping a bit too loudly, causing them
to pop out of the background a bit too much and compete with
the dialogue. A few cues that have the auditory
center-stage to themselves bring a musical mood to the story
that is just a bit too quaint and cute, while the characters'
dialogue and expressions convey worry, fear, apprehension, and
tension.
Not as supportive a combination as I would think is possible.
By the time the cliffhanger comes along, the drama seems
contrived and devoid of true danger or suspense.
Episode Two - Dangerous Journey - directed by Mervyn Pinfield
The TARDIS crew's roles appear that they will favour the Doctor
for once. Not so, as others get things to do that would have been
better suited for him, while he ends up with things that would
have been better suited to others.
Another new character enters the plot, and
appears to be the most contrived character so far in terms of
having believable motives. Again, this episode is okay, but
not spectacular. The cliffhanger works better than the previous
one, though it still lacks a certain immediacy.
Episode Three - Crisis
1st half - the old episode 3: Crisis, directed by Mervyn Pinfield
Compressed into half of its original time-frame by order of
Verity Lambert, the pace is about right during Mervyn Pinfield's
contribution to this episode. What exactly was cut out? It's
not hard to imagine a repeat of the dead air-time problem that
still plagues
"The Sensorites"
(story no. 7, by the same director), or a few scenes of one
particular guest character griping about the same things as he did
last episode, again without any of it leading anywhere. I think
I would have to agree with the producer's call to pare Mervyn
Pinfield's work down.
2nd half - the old episode 4: An Urge to Live,
directed by Douglas Camfield
This story was also fortunate in introducing Douglas Camfield
to the Doctor Who series as a director proper.
(He had previously shot some short film sequences for
Doctor Who's first story.)
Although still a very new director at the
time, his track record would later rank among the very best
of all Doctor Who directors, if not THE best. Was it wise to
pare down HIS work on the original fourth episode of this story?
I believe there was still plenty of unnecessary padding in the
script, but Camfield has a way of filling time with truly
interesting shots and sequences, adding atmosphere, etc.
Somehow, some things do seem to be missing from this half of
the episode. Of course my nitpicking list of omissions
contains too many spoilers to included here. Come back and
read them in the
in-depth analysis
after you've seen the story.
All in all, the compressed episode still works, going where
Doctor Who always should - into the hero department.
The pace allows
our characters to accomplish a great deal in a mere
half-hour episode, and the plot has an amazingly well done
resolution. The master-director is IN!
Planet of Giants is a bit off beat at first, but has one
of the best conclusions of the Hartnell era.
However, its uneven qualities make it hard to judge
when ranking the season's stories.
This story is only available on VHS video so far.
Click on the Amazon symbol for the location nearest you
for pricing and availability:
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VHS Video
NTSC
for North America
PAL
for the U.K.
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