| PLANET OF GIANTS by Louis Marks |
| Story 9 Synopsis: Just before materialisation, the TARDIS doors open. When it lands, the scanner shatters, and the travellers find lots of huge, dead insects. They realise they have shrunk to being one inch tall. They hear a man being shot, and are menaced by a cat. The cat runs off. Ian and Barbara are accidentally taken into a laboratory. They find seeds coated in an insecticide - Barbara touches it without realising, and without telling Ian. The Doctor and Susan climb into the lab through a drainpipe, and are nearly washed away when someone comes in to wash their hands. The travellers realise the insecticide would be inimical to all life. They see someone shot dead, and try to get help. The local switchboard operator suspects something is up and sends a policeman around. The murderer decided the scientist behind the insecticide is going soft and is about to kill him, when the travellers manage to ignite gas from a tap to explode a can of insecticide, just as the police arrive. They rush back to the TARDIS, and are restored to full size, reducing the dose of insecticide in Barbara's body so that it isn't fatal. |
| Review:- From the 18th century to the 20th century, but a small problem for the travellers... The idea of a story where the time travellers are reduced to miniscule proportions was one of the earliest ideas on the drawing board for the series. Finally, it got made. Quite unlike any other story, here we have a dual drama, with the reduced circumstances of the travellers, and the life & death intrigue over DN6. The former gives us some excellent sets, and the latter enables great narrative creativity. Together, they produce a story that's admittedly silly at times, but also brilliant. Most of the first episode is spent with the giant props. Unlike, say, Hollywood film Honey, I Shrunk The Kid, this story presents giant insects, but with the cunning to say that they're all dead. Their death is the reason for the story - so the show fulfills a promise of spectacle, without pushing itself beyond its limits. The drama of Forrester shooting Farrow is explained to the audience, but not the travellers, who then spend the rest of the story trying to fathom out a way to bring justice, as well as unravelling the riddle of the insecticide. It's perhaps fortunate that Smithers' conscience will probably cover the resolution to DN6 and Forrester. The props really sell this story, as much as the regulars. The giant seed packet, the giant seeds, the giant sink plug... all in their way convince that the travellers have been shrunk. One might query why Farrow would have dropped his briefcase and matchbox like he had done, but that would be splitting hairs, really. The Doctor and Susan's drain-climbing antics are too engaging to criticise, although again it is a bit convenient that the pipe could be corroded in such a way as to provide hand & footholds (and surely if the corrosion is caused by chemicals, they're in more danger before they even get into the lab?!). But Ian and Barbara excel. The scene in the 2nd episode where Barbara becomes infected, and then has to watch Ian explain the danger and keep her mistake a secret is a real gem, well acted and directed. Her continual fretting about the dangers of the insecticide is amusingly ignored by the others, who don't twig what's her problem all of a sudden. The resolution is quite exciting. Having thought their plan to use the telephone has failed (in fact, it works, just not how they intended), they cause a diversion with a gas explosion. It appears that the insecticide explodes into Forrester's eyes, which would surely be highly dangerous. But he seems to suffer little effect. The infamous aspect to this story is the way the last 2 episodes were squished together to make 1 episode. There is a slow, ponderous aspect to the story, and it's rather of-its-time that a curious switchboard operator saves the day. But despite this, it's a highly watchable story, with the regulars all working together. How many other stories could make a dramatic cliffhanger out of a sink draining away? Even silly moments like the Doctor querying what could have killed all the insects, as if there's never been anything capable of doing that, or his comment to not look into the cat's eyes, whilst doing exactly that. If you get the chance to see it, you should. |
| Disclaimer: I've seen the video, and I think I've read the book. |