DOCTOR WHO-PLANET OF GIANTS 1-3

 

PLANET OF GIANTS-ep 1-PLANET OF GIANTS

 

In the last story, it must be noted that Susan usually needs very little sleep…a trait of the later Doctors…especially Tom Baker’s.

 

In any case, when I first saw this, I thought the effects were lame. Having grown up on far better “giant” effects with DR. CYCLOPS, THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN, ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE and especially LAND OF THE GIANTS, I saw far better.

 

Seeing it now and taking it on its own right, it’s still a bit sleepy but the effects for its time are quite okay. The scare is in that everything is dying in the crack in the ground the TARDIS lands in. It must have been quite a shock to viewers when they found out where and when the TARDIS landed (again without a sound and only with the mini model version appearing quietly)…with the doors open and giant worms, ants, and a bee, all looking rather good…but unmoving. They’re all dead, which is scary in and of itself but convenient in that we never get to see ANY type of effects of animal or insect alive confronting our foursome.

 

There is a very good process shot of Ian and later the other three and Ian in front of the murdered (and quite a shocking murder, too) Farrow. Killed by Forrester (couldn’t they have picked a name that started with another letter?), the man was investigating a chemical made by Forrester.

 

But the effects are few and far between. I can imagine never having seen LAND OF THE GIANTS, this might have seemed quite good to viewers at the time. The cat attack is okay, I guess but nothing close to that in LAND OF THE GIANTS as nothing is anyway, even now.

 

I like that Susan and the Doctor both, separately, come up with the same conclusion. It shows Susan’s alien-ness, even if not a Time Lord/Lady. The cast performs admirably, even the guest stars, and it is all rather grim but the Doctor and company show their usual warmth. I love earlier on when the Doc tries to explain the severity of the doors opening in mid materialization, something Susan says never happened before and she’s right but something very close to this happened in EDGE OF DESTRUCTION (doors open in flight or in the vortex). The Doc apologizes to Barbara about being rude (something he will never totally shake off even as far as his 12^th self).

 

In any case, there is nothing terrible here and it moves along but made me quite sleepy, at times. I like the idea and I like the idea of not knowing where they were until…the discovery late on. The zoom out of the TARDIS after that revelation is quite effective…showing the TARDIS in a crack in the ground on a sidewalk path to a house. The gunshot being a huge thunder-like sound is interesting, too and Ian’s ride in the briefcase’s matchbook is also unexpected and well handled.

 

All in all, a good start. This story, infamously was cut down from four episodes and having seen the other version, I can say that this version might be better and tighter. It might never be my favorite story but…it’s okay. I’m glad, too, that the cat doesn’t die. I can’t enjoy any animals dying in movies. It is quite disturbing.

 

DOCTOR WHO-DANGEROUS JOURNEY aka PLANET OF GIANTS ep 2

What to notice about this episode is just how grim it all is. The DN6 formula which might save lives by killing insects, is lethal to beneficial insects, so this is timely, even today. But Forrester killed Farrow and the body is on display here with eyes open far too long for a children’s show! There also seems to be lots of talk about his blood all over and Smithers, the scientist helps Farrow move the body and clean up, and they get “muck” all over their hands. Pretty dire and grim.

 

Then, there’s Barbara’s storyline: she makes an almost fatal mistake: she touches the sticky seeds on the table top she and Ian find themselves stranded on inside the lab. Previously a fly landed on them and died. The fly sequence is not very effective, nor is the cat scene but they both work in the way that they get the point across. More effective, because few if any special effects are needed is the Doctor and Susan’s climb UP a sink drain pipe, later leading to both the Doctor’s first sort of unconscious recovery as a companion nurses him AND the cliffhanger as the water is drained down the sink as the pair hide in the pipe just under the sink hole!

 

Grim in that Barbara expects to die from having touched the seed. And she keeps it from Ian in this episode. Unlike LAND OF THE GIANTS which at first did do it, here, the mini foursome cannot be heard but as squeaks to the normal size Earth men and the Earth men, giants to the foursome are only heard as low grumbles. The whole insecticide thing is grim enough but Barbara having to face death with no escape as the cliffhanger rolls in is quite tension inducing.

Not a bad episode and the sets are impressive enough. Oh and Barbara faints. I’d like to think it was because of the formula exposure and not due to just her seeing a giant fly, which sort of moves a bit. We don’t see it fly off but hear it. Ian and Barbara remark on how absurd and ridiculous it all is but honestly, it makes for a real different adventure to one in history or the future or outer space and at one point, I believe, THIS whole adventure, was going to be the FIRST story!

 DOCTOR WHO-Crisis

Forgot to mention that in either ep 1 or 2 of PLANET OF THE GIANTS, Hartnell stumbles as he sits down. In the next episode Jackie will trip coming out of the TARDIS. While we DO hear the TARDIS dematerialization sounds we hear them INSIDE the Ship and not outside. At this time, TARDIS, still called the Ship, vanishes and appears silently. We also see the windows OPEN and half open from the outside!!! In the “cliffhanger” to this episode, I was sure I heard a Dalek sound as the Doctor was fiddling with the scanner screen!

 

Crisis: yes, cut down it is far better. I was expecting this to be clunky in places and for sure, it is a bit but not as much as I expected. One can see the cuts made: Barbara’s impassioned speech for staying in the lab to stop Smithers and Forrester and more of the phone business. Frankly, I think this time, editing helped. Plus we do NOT get the dead cat, thank goodness.

 

It moves along quite well and the Doctor is very Doctorish here and Hartnell is most warm as he cares for Barbara and tells her she was very wrong to keep her illness from them. He also has his cloak throughout most of this story. A nice ending to a grim story. For some reason, maybe the novelization (?) I seem to recall a darker ending to this: a fire, the death of both Smithers and Forrester but none of it happened that way.

 

The phone company room looks very 1950s but it was not that far off from the 50s anyway but a nice touch is that the female phone operator, Hilda, picks up on the fact that Forrester was impersonating Farrell and the reason the police are alerted to the farm and the whole business, it would seem.

 

More about Hartnell’s Doctor. Far from losing his touchiness, grouchiness, and commanding attitude, he retains it all here and throughout only laced with concern, care, wit, and humor. He is, in short, a wonderful character and Doctor.