Saturday, February 9, 2019

Story 009 - Planet of Giants


This story has 4 episodes (One had to be reconstructed and audio redone). It aired between 31st October and 14th November 1964.

Official Synopsis:

The doors of the TARDIS open of their own accord just before it materialises, running out of control. On emerging, the travellers find the ship has been reduced in size and they are now only about an inch tall.

As tiny people, they stumble across a plot by a ruthless businessman, Forester, and his misguided scientist colleague, Smithers, to launch a new insecticide, DN6 — a product so destructive that it would kill not only those insects harmful to agriculture but also those vital to it.

Forester is willing to commit murder to ensure the success of his business, as civil servant, Arnold Farrow discovers to his cost.


The criminals are brought to justice when the Doctor and his friends — hampered by the fact that Barbara is ill from the insecticide — tamper with the telephone in Smithers' laboratory, fuelling the suspicions of the local exchange operator, Hilda Rowse, who sends her police constable husband Bert to investigate.

My Opinion:

The two stories sometimes struggled to go together it felt like two different shows. It is interesting that this was originally going to be the first ever episode and not An Unearthly Child. 

It has a very Honey and strunk the kids vibe to it which I know was copied from a lot of other Science Fiction stories. 

I enjoyed watching the special features on this DVD of them putting the lost episode back together. 

The human “villains” in the story aren’t really given enough screentime to flesh out there characters and this leaves them coming across as kind of stupid and their evil pesticide plan – halfbaked.

Neither – disappointingly, does the minature crew get “discovered” by the villains or get to interact with them. Maybe one of the minature Tardis crew being caught, could have upped the ante and made for a better conclusion. Especially if it had been Barbara, after being poisoned.

My Rating:

A little disappointing as the season opener.
6/10

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