Doctor Who (TV Series) Planet of Giants (1964) User Reviews

A really good start to Series 2.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 25 October 2019]

The TARDIS malfunctions, leaving the travelling quartet with a big problem.

I always thought this was a curious way to kick off the second series, would the big Dalek serial have been better, or did they want to warm viewers up first. This first episode is lots of fun, I really enjoyed it. It shows huge imagination, firstly on the part of the writer, and secondly on the part of the designers, they wouldn't have had much of a budget, but they made it work. Nice touches, including the matchbox and insects.

Some great scenes among the regulars, I particularly liked those between The Doctor and Barbara, he's softened as time has gone on.

A nice cliffhanger. 8/10

Doctor of Ecology

[JamesHitchcock · 8/10 · 26 May 2023]

The Time Lords really ought to charge Doctor Who for not having a valid MOT certificate for his TARDIS. TARDIS malfunctions have become a regular feature of the programme, the first occurring in the third serial, "The Edge of Destruction". Most of these in later seasons involve the TARDIS materialising somewhere other than its intended destination, or in the wrong time period, but the malfunction involved in "Planet of Giants", the first serial of the second season, is of a rather different nature.

The Doctor, together with his granddaughter Susan and their companions Ian and Barbara, end up exactly where they want to be- in England- and at the right time period, 1964. The problem is that they materialise at the wrong scale, meaning that they are only one inch high. They have to struggle to survive in a world full of gigantic creatures such as ants and flies and, worse still, cats.

They also find themselves mixed up in a murder case. The house in whose garden they have landed belongs to an industrialist named Forester whose company are developing a new insecticide named DN6. On the day they land, Forester receives a visit from a scientist called Farrow, who informs him that he has written a report recommending that the British government do not grant a licence for the manufacture of DN6 on the grounds that it is far too deadly to all forms of invertebrate life, including such beneficial creatures as bees and earthworms. Forester, realising that this development will ruin him financially, shoots Farrow dead before he can send his report to the government. The Doctor and his companions therefore have three priorities- to survive as Lilliputian beings in a Brobdingnagian world, to return to the TARDIS and to normal size and to ensure that Forester's crime does not go unpunished.

This was an unusual theme for a "Doctor Who" serial, and I cannot think of another one quite like it like it, although there were to be later serials with an ecological theme, such as "The Green Death" and "Inferno", both Third Doctor adventures. The writer Louis Marks was clearly inspired by Rachel Carson's book "Silent Spring", which had come out two years previously and had started a political debate on the effects of pesticides on the environment and on environmental policy in general. Marks continued the trend, already apparent in the last two serials of Season One, of softening the character of the Doctor, who in the early days could often come across as a grumpy old curmudgeon, and showing him to be capable of courage, resourcefulness and altruism. The programme makers also seem to have spent more than their normal paltry budgets in the creation of the special props needed to create the illusion that the Doctor and his companions were only an inch high. Overall a very enjoyable serial. 8/10.

An Arch Story Opening To An Arch Season

[Theo Robertson · 6/10 · 9 August 2013]

An alarm in the Tardis warns the ship's crew that something is amiss but the fault locator indicates all is well and the Doctor will prove this to everyone by taking them outside . They exit the Tardis and are astounded to find a giant worm that is dead and quickly find a giant ant that is also dead . They come to the conclusion that these creatures aren't giant but they themselves have shrunk in size

Season one of DOCTOR WHO was a massive success but this was mainly down to the Daleks . One suspects the success of the show got to the production teams head a little bit and they started pushing out the boundaries a bit more with mixed results . There's the dramatic gravatis of the first season the convincing performances but the arch feel starts to take precedent and the novelty value and somewhat uneven tone starts to infest the season and becomes slightly more pronounced in patches throughout this season

You get the impression that writer Louis Marks wants to write a straight forward murder mystery involving dangerous insecticide or a story where the Tardis lands on an alternative Earth where all animals are giant deadly predators . The problem with this story is that the crime story miniaturized Tardis crew never really gels with one another . Once the shock of a miniature Doctor , Susan , Ian and Barbara wears off you can't help feeling this is somewhat pointless and it says something that this was a four part story that was edited down to three episodes . That said the regular cast rise above the material especially Jacqueline Hill

Planet of Giants

[ametaphysicalshark · 14 July 2008]

Louis Marks is definitely among my all-time favorite Doctor Who writers. I count "Day of the Daleks", "Planet of Evil" and "The Masque of Mandragora" as three absolute classics and upon watching "Planet of Giants" once again I found that while it doesn't quite reach the sheer excellence of his other stories, it is a wonderfully fun, massively entertaining story with spectacular design and convincing effects (the fly that Barbara suddenly finds in front of her, for instance). It is short, effective, and again, just plain fun.

This story marks the composing debut for Dudley Simpson on Doctor Who and the beginning of what all fans know is a very, very long tenure as composer for him. "Planet of Giants" features many of Simpson's fine points as composer, his ability to enhance drama by tastefully allowing the visuals to tell the story, his ability to add a light touch to scenes of adventure and action, and his wonderful ability to enhance scenes that may otherwise drag. The direction, which is mostly by Mervyn Pinfield is confident and quite good throughout, helping the episode move at a fast pace.

Back to Louis Marks. In short, "Planet of Giants" is as good as it ever wanted to be. Marks clearly had no aspirations of making this a comedy classic, a sweeping epic adventure, an intensely dramatic tale, a scary horror effort, or an action-packed story. "Planet of Giants" in concept and in execution is a cheeky, fun little diversion and nothing more. While some fans may hold this as a criticism I refuse to do so simply because the script is technically very competent- it has an assured sense of pacing, the dialogue and attempts at humor work, and the story almost bizarrely achieves a sense of wonder despite being a contemporary Earth story with a plot device that is not all too original. If I had the opportunity to see this story as a child I am certain it would have been one of, if not my absolute favorite Doctor Who story. It's fun, whimsical, and thoroughly entertaining.

Episode 1: 8/10, Episode 2: 8/10, Episode 3: 8/10.

Average: 8/10

Yeah, err...

[wetmars · 6/10 · 29 August 2020]

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 telephone exchange operator, Hilda Rowse, who sends her police constable husband Bert to investigate.

Review of three parts -

I'm sorry to break it up to you but this was a okay story, just hard to follow when you're fully paying attention, had a great original idea of shrinking, that's all.

6/10

Planet of Giants Part 1: Very interesting first two parts but somewhat disappointing finale

[A_Kind_Of_CineMagic · 9/10 · 5 July 2014]

Review for all 3 episodes:

This story from writer Louis Marks is rather like a 50s sci-fi movie and is fun, interesting and impressive in the first two parts before falling a bit flat in the third episode. It has very good effects for its time especially considering the low budget.

The TARDIS and its crew get miniaturised due to a strange side effect of the TARDIS doors opening before materialisation. It leaves them in a contemporary Earth setting but tiny (about an inch tall) making the normal world into an alien one. There is also a sub plot about the development of a dangerous pesticide and gangster like efforts to bring it to market despite its deadly side effects.

All this is a very interesting idea, the main cast and script are good and the first two episodes are well executed apart from one improbable moment when they stumble upon some giant ant eggs which they clearly would have seen before they fall over them. This was a problem caused by the small size of the set and is pretty forgivable.

These first two episodes are entertaining and impressive overall, it is the last part with its slightly jumbled and unsatisfactory conclusions which rather let it down. However, this final episode is still not bad at all and the overall story is good fun and a good adventure if not top quality for the series.

This really shows the inventive, ambitious ingenuity of early Doctor Who.

My Ratings: Episode 1 - 8.5/10, Episode 2 - 8.5/10, Episode 3 - 7/10.

Overall average rating: 8/10.

Planet of Giants

[guswhovian · 8/10 · 24 June 2020]

When the TARDIS doors open in mid-flight, the travelers are shrunk to the size of insects. Meanwhile, chemical manufacturer Forrester murders a government official to cover-up the harmful side-effects of a new insecticide.

The "being shrunk down to the size of an inch" has been a sci-fi trope for a longtime, and it was inevitable that Doctor Who would do an episode about it.

"Planet of Giants" starts off Season 2 quite well. The regulars are all wonderful, and the scenes with William Hartnell and Jacqueline Hill are together are very enjoyable. The sets are very well done on the shoestring BBC budget.

This was also the first Doctor Who episode to have a music score by Dudley Simpson. Although his work on the show would become rather monotonous in the 70s, his score here is very effective.

Suffering Through Ecological Failure

[timdalton007 · 3/10 · 19 March 2020]

"When did Doctor Who start caring about the environment?"

As I write these words, it's been some weeks since Orphan 55 aired as part of Modern Doctor Who's twelfth series. It was an episode that instantly divided fan opinions over its ecological message and, in particular, how on the nose, it was. Which makes returning to Planet of Giants all the more interesting. For the opening story of Classic Who's second season was next to be reviewed, Planet of Giants shows that the series has been doing this sort of thing for a long time now.

The story opens with the Doctor once more trying to get Ian and Barbara back home to the 1960s. This time, he succeeds, but, of course, there's a catch. Thanks to the TARDIS malfunctioning, they've all been shrunk to roughly an inch in size. Exploring their surroundings, they face giant insects and earthworms. All of which are, every one of them, dead.

Why? Because the house of the garden they've landed in is home to a laboratory experimenting with a new and dangerous pesticide. One that a government scientist is determined to stop, and which a businessman is even more set to make a fortune off of, resulting in murder. It's here that the serial takes on its ecological bent, with a collision between science and business, greed over safety, and the threat of potential disaster if the insecticide gets put to wide-scale use. These are big ideas for what is notionally family viewing on a Saturday afternoon.

Which makes it a shame that Planet of Giants doesn't really work.

Part of that is down to execution. The idea of a shrunk TARDIS crew had been an idea for the very first serial, set around Coal Hill School, only for An Unearthly Child to take its place when it was determined to be impractical to realize. A year on, it clearly still was, with things looking more akin to a stage play than a TV show, even by the standards of the time. Things sink off into black a little too often, grass that's a painted backdrop, and efforts to replicate everyday items at large scale (like the briefcase) reveal they're anything but those items. True, there are effective moments, especially in the opening episode, but it never quite works, even by 1964 standards.

It also doesn't help that writer Louis Marks never gets the two plot lines to gel. True, our characters only get into the lab because of the murderer and cause his eventual exposure, but that doesn't mean they work together. Indeed, they could be separate plotlines until the very end, and even that tying together comes across awkwardly. That's without even mentioning the dialogue which, when it comes to the murder mystery plotline, is functional at best. As for the dialogue around the ecological element: if you thought Orphan 55 was on the nose, you should listen to some of the lines Marks writes here. It's difficult to believe that this script came from the same writer who gave us Day of the Daleks and The Masque of Mandragora in later years.

Just as fatal is the fact that the story has a complete lack of pace. Need proof? What we have today as the third episode isn't the original third episode. Instead, on the order of someone who'd lost patience with the story, it's made up of what should have been episodes three and four. Thanks to Ian Levine and the DVD release, we now have a reconstruction of the missing scenes, which weaves in and around broadcast scenes. And are we missing much? Not particularly, as reinstating the material shows that what we're missing merely existed to get another episode out of a story whose plot was already thin and beyond breaking point.

Ultimately, Planet of Giants tries as a story but never quite works. It's ambitious to a fault, an effort at style over substance where neither one works despite the efforts of all involved. It's a failure, albeit a noble one, and one which set the stage for stories like those of Malcolm Hulke, or The Green Death, and even the recent Orphan 55.

So, when did Doctor Who start caring about the environment? Back in the autumn of 1964. And it's been doing so ever since, often better than it did back then.

Weak 3-part* second season opener from the era of the First Doctor

[jamesrupert2014 · 5/10 · 22 February 2024]

When something goes wrong with the TARDIS' doors during materialisation, the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan arrive on Earth in the 1960s but are only one inch tall. They find themselves in a garden in which all of the insects are dead and soon become involved in a murder. There is not much to the story beyond an excuse to display some 'giant' props (including insects that are not consistent in scale) and presumably BBC budget constraints precluded any interaction between the miniature time travellers and 'normal' sized people (other than a shot of them passing in front of the head of the murder victim). Neither the story nor the 2D secondary characters are very interesting and the conclusion is contrived and rushed. The intrigue leading to the murder revolves around a new and potent insecticide, a topical premise in 1964 just two years after Rachel Carson's 'Silent Spring' was published. *Comments and score refer to the three episode story arc.