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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In-Depth Analysis Review
by Martin Izsak
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WARNING: This review contains "SPOILERS", and is intended for
those who have already seen the program. To avoid the spoilers,
read the Buyers' Guide version instead.
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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 as the materialization goes awry (in more ways than
one), 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,
making the "Honey, I Shrunk the TARDIS" idea very believable,
but Ian and Susan react to things a little less than believably.
The Farrow character seems a little aimless at first, until
Forester 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
by Farrow.
One has to ponder the method of schrinkage, since chemistry
plays such a strong role in this story. Two popular theories
are that (1) you reduce the amount of space between atomic
particles to reduce the size of a person's molecules, or
(2) you reduce the number of atoms and molecules that a person
is composed of. All things considered, I believe the four time
travellers are walking around with fewer atoms. The "missing"
(and uninfected) atoms are probably scattered across several
phased dimensions along with much of the TARDIS interior. Their
conscious minds and souls have been projected and focused in
their entirety into the tiny bodies that leave the TARDIS for
this adventure. This would allow fairly normal chemical
interaction between the characters and their environment,
which is important for the story.
Although the shrinking concept makes this story unique,
other stories have featured similar shrinkages:
"Carnival of Monsters" (story no. 66),
"The Invisible Enemy" (story no. 93), and
"The Armageddon Factor" (story no 103)
to name a few. Also in later years, the favourite weapon
of the Doctor's arch enemy, the Tissue Compression Eliminator,
involves shrinkage. This device
reportedly reduces the space between atomic particles, which
is usually fatal in the Doctor Who universe. One could also
consider the planet Zanak from
"The Pirate Planet" (story no. 99)
as a similar device - definitely
reducing space between atoms as the shrunken planets retain
their enormous mass/weight. The mass/weight of the four time
travellers appears to be proportionally reduced in this story -
further support of the "missing atom" method.
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. In episode one, this includes the mid-episode reveal
of the location's true nature and the cliffhanger.
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 is soon split up, and it seems at first that
the Doctor and Susan will have the interesting and heroic bits
since Ian and Barbara need rescuing. Not so. Ian and Barbara
have all the best scenes as they investigate the lab and begin
to unravel the environmentally-friendly sci-fi plot concerning
the insecticide DN6. The Doctor and Susan's cameos are basically
transitional. Smithers enters the "large person" 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 Smithers 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. We cut into the middle of an argument amongst the
four characters, where someone insists that Barbara is (W)right.
(W)right about what? The dialogue doesn't say, because it has
already said so in the pieces now on the cutting room floor,
but eventually the point is made. The pair at the switchboard
suddenly mention a blue car, as though it was a clue we should
recognize, but it was never introduced. The novelization by
Terrance Dicks reveals another element - the cat dies of
DN6 in the last episode, and this is the discovery that
finally turns Smithers' loyalty around. Was it shot that way
too? Did the scene get cut?
All in all, the compressed episode still works, going where
Doctor Who
always should - into the hero department. Barbara demonstrates the
most bravery, picking herself up from her low-point and risking her
life for her beliefs, and the Doctor is right behind her, having
learned from her example in the past and beginning to put his
own actions where his true inner beliefs are. The pace allows
the four time travellers to accomplish a great deal in a mere
half-hour episode, and the DN6 plot has an amazingly well done
resolution. The master-director is IN!
Dudley Simpson's music is much less prolific in the final
half-episode, its jolly quaintness being replaced by long, single
moody notes which now fit the ominous feelings our time travellers
have about their grave and dangerous situation. Or is that
"the Tone" from the telephone, slowed down of course, which
our switchboard operater doesn't have a chance to introduce
properly now that one of her scenes has been cut?
Unfortunately, Douglas Camfield still allowed
music to totally replace the TARDIS sound effect
during the visual dematerialization. TARDIS standards were
not yet in force. But is it a proper dematerialization or a
re-phasing of the TARDIS' dimensions?
Note the inactivity of the central column on the console
during and just after the police box fades away.
After the size issue is
solved, the Doctor operates the controls again, and the
sound effect returns. Or is this a premature landing in London,
2164? All the right elements are present, just not done in sync
this time around.
Planet of Giants is a bit off beat at first, but has one
of the best conclusions of the Hartnell era, featuring a heroic
Doctor. 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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