Oh yeah, apparently there's more Doctor Who. Who knew?
Planet of Giants (episode 1)
Planet of Giants
The crew are in the TARDIS when Barbara burns herself on an overheating TARDIS console. Suddenly the TARDIS doors begin to open in flight, and everyone rushes to shut them. Susan checks the TARDIS for faults but it all seems to be OK.
We then get an example of how changed the Doctor is when he immediately apologies to Barbara. "I always forget the niceties."
DOCTOR: The space pressure was far too great whilst we were materialising. The strange thing is that we all came out of it unscathed. It's most puzzling. It's a big mystery, my boy.
Says the Doctor, tempting fate...
We then get an example of how changed the Doctor is when he immediately apologies to Barbara. "I always forget the niceties."
DOCTOR: The space pressure was far too great whilst we were materialising. The strange thing is that we all came out of it unscathed. It's most puzzling. It's a big mystery, my boy.
Says the Doctor, tempting fate...
Incredibly slow start to this one. And that's with an episode axed.
Now they walk out of the TARDIS into Cusick Land. The late production designer Raymond Cusick, best known for Daleks, created all of the SFX in this story, including some bits we'll discuss later.
Barbara come across a giant worm, which she calls a snake, but it is dead.
Ian and Susan find a bunch of dead eggs, and then a giant dead ant. Everything seems a bit dead.
"What sort of a world could produce that?" says Ian. I wonder...
I think by this point when the Doctor goes "its an Earth worm but very big" most of the audience has twigged what's happening.
Ian finds a seed bag from Norwich.
The Doctor finds a huge matchstick.
Ian finds a huge matchbox.
The Doctor thinks everyone is very small, but Ian thinks they're in a exhibition.
Now we zoom up to reveal the TARDIS is in the cracks of a paved path. Nice.
Stomp stomp stomp. A man picks up the matchbox, with Ian inside.
BARBARA: Well, look, Doctor, give us some hope. I mean, Ian's inside that matchbox.
DOCTOR: Gently, gently, gently. We've got to find Chesterton.
SUSAN: Grandfather, supposing the man walks off with it?
DOCTOR: Courage, my dear. I know all this is a bit of a nightmare, but we've just got to get Ian back and then we can go back to the ship.
SUSAN: And then can you get us back to normal size?
DOCTOR: Of course, yes, I'll try. There's always a chance. But first things first. We must find Chesterton.
As you can see from the same phrase repeated in the same scene, there's not a lot of inspiring dialogue to quote here.
We see a smoking man sitting down. Another man offers him a light.
FARROW: Oh, hello. Thank you. Mister Forrester, isn't it? We spoke on the telephone.
FORRESTER: Yes, I got here as quickly as I could. I hope you haven't taken any action yet.
FARROW: Not yet, but I have written my report.
FORRESTER: You do realise what's at stake here, Mister Farrow? The early experiments were noted by the Ministry, welcomed in fact. I've already geared factories, advertising and all the rest of it to start pushing DN6.
FARROW: I'm sorry about that, but I can't give you the approval that you want.
FORRESTER: We could of course spend more time on the refining.
FARROW: Oh, there's much more to it than that, as I mentioned to you on the telephone.
FORRESTER: You want to bring in another expert to go over the tests again.
FARROW: You're not a scientist, are you. Well, let me put it this way. On the surface, DN6 appears to have all the characteristics of a major breakthrough in the manufacture of insecticide. I can quite understand why you've pinned all your hopes on it, particularly as my own Minister was so enthusiastic. But the very exhaustive tests I have made show that DN6 is totally destructive.
Ah, its like an episode of Yes Minister, with the government scientist Farrow talking to government non scientist man Forrester. Forrester went ahead with this new insecticide, before getting approval, and will now go bust. Farrow plans to take a canal journey around France.
This plan gets ruined by Forrester taking a gun out and shooting the government man. Bit of an overreaction, that one.
Forrester then steals his canal boa...sorry, made that bit up.
The gunshot sounds like thunder to the Doctor.
Farrow is a bit dead. He was the most interesting thing in the episode while he lasted, all 60 seconds of him.
"We're progressing nicely" says the Doctor, overestimating the plot.
Ian walks in front of a blow up photo of Frank Crawshaw (1899-1984). But then a giant cat appears!
Keep all the vaguely interesting bits to the last 5 minutes, that's a good way to run on the spot.
Planet of Giants (episode 2)
Dangerous Journey
A giant cat threatens the TARDIS crew. Cat gets bored and walks off. Non-cliffhanger.
DOCTOR: Yes, and I would add another and more important factor. The people who live in this house are murderers. Or one of them is. Therefore we can't expect sympathy and understanding from an insane or a criminal mind.
The Doctor wants to escape but Forrester and his assistant Smithers show up so they hide.
SMITHERS: You're sure he's dead?
FORRESTER: Of course I'm sure. You know he had a gun.
SMITHERS: He didn't seem the sort of man who'd need one.
FORRESTER: He pulled it out of his pocket and told me he was stealing the formula. I struggled with him. The gun must have been turned into his body. It went off.
SMITHERS: I wouldn't try telling that story to the police, if I were you.
FORRESTER: Oh? Why not?
SMITHERS: Oh, don't be a fool. He's been shot through the heart from some feet away. Even I can see that and I'm no expert. No powder burns around the bullet hole.
FORRESTER: You're very detached about it.
SMITHERS: What did you expect, hysterics? I've seen more death than you could imagine. People dying of starvation all over the world. What do you think I started on research for? What puzzles me is how cool you are.
FORRESTER: I don't feel guilty if that's what you mean. I'm too busy working out what the implications are.
SMITHERS: Destroying the last year's work. That's what it means. And if that seems callous, well all right, it is. Farrow was pushed onto me and he was a nuisance and a fool. Always checking every minor detail. I've worked fifteen, sometimes sixteen hours a day, every day, on this experiment.
FORRESTER: Yes, I know.
Waylon Smithers is a lot calmer about things than I remembered. The end justifies the means to him, and his only regret is they didn't just bribe Farrow instead.
Smithers is more interested in his work being hurt than in the death of the man.
Ian and Barbara are indoors.
This is a very simple story.
Susan and the Doctor look for Ian and Barbara. They find a drainpipe.
"That chemical smell means its germ free" says the Doctor failing basic covid safety checks.
Barbara is in pain, as she wacked her leg off something. Insecticide btw.
The Doctor and Susan climb up the drainpipe.
Ian realises the seeds are covered in insecticide and tells Barbara not to touch them seconds after he just watched her brush off some dust on those seeds from her hands. He's not being very perceptive today.
Anyhow, never mind all that, a fly appears. And it's absolutely magnificent. As a piece of visual effects, its remarkably effective.
Oh btw, Barbara faints from insecticide, and Ian reacts to the fly flying off like a plane took off. But what a brilliant bit of design work that was.
Smithers and Forrester plot a bit about covering up murder. One dimensional characters gonna talk. Smithers is now upset about things, exactly in the way his character wasn't 10 minutes ago.
The sink set is a particularly good one too. The MVP of Planet of Giants so far has been the production team itself.
The fly landed on those seeds and died instantly. That's not very reassuring for Barbara. Ian talks up the insecticide power of the thing he saw on Barbara. Badly written Ian is a bit of a git!
The Doctor and Susan are still in the sink, when Smithers shows up and goes to use the sink. They survived the Daleks, can they survive the horror of...a man doing the dishes? Snark aside, the sort of WTF cliffhanger that only Doctor Who pulls off so well.
DOCTOR: Yes, and I would add another and more important factor. The people who live in this house are murderers. Or one of them is. Therefore we can't expect sympathy and understanding from an insane or a criminal mind.
The Doctor wants to escape but Forrester and his assistant Smithers show up so they hide.
SMITHERS: You're sure he's dead?
FORRESTER: Of course I'm sure. You know he had a gun.
SMITHERS: He didn't seem the sort of man who'd need one.
FORRESTER: He pulled it out of his pocket and told me he was stealing the formula. I struggled with him. The gun must have been turned into his body. It went off.
SMITHERS: I wouldn't try telling that story to the police, if I were you.
FORRESTER: Oh? Why not?
SMITHERS: Oh, don't be a fool. He's been shot through the heart from some feet away. Even I can see that and I'm no expert. No powder burns around the bullet hole.
FORRESTER: You're very detached about it.
SMITHERS: What did you expect, hysterics? I've seen more death than you could imagine. People dying of starvation all over the world. What do you think I started on research for? What puzzles me is how cool you are.
FORRESTER: I don't feel guilty if that's what you mean. I'm too busy working out what the implications are.
SMITHERS: Destroying the last year's work. That's what it means. And if that seems callous, well all right, it is. Farrow was pushed onto me and he was a nuisance and a fool. Always checking every minor detail. I've worked fifteen, sometimes sixteen hours a day, every day, on this experiment.
FORRESTER: Yes, I know.
Waylon Smithers is a lot calmer about things than I remembered. The end justifies the means to him, and his only regret is they didn't just bribe Farrow instead.
Smithers is more interested in his work being hurt than in the death of the man.
Ian and Barbara are indoors.
This is a very simple story.
Susan and the Doctor look for Ian and Barbara. They find a drainpipe.
"That chemical smell means its germ free" says the Doctor failing basic covid safety checks.
Barbara is in pain, as she wacked her leg off something. Insecticide btw.
The Doctor and Susan climb up the drainpipe.
Ian realises the seeds are covered in insecticide and tells Barbara not to touch them seconds after he just watched her brush off some dust on those seeds from her hands. He's not being very perceptive today.
Anyhow, never mind all that, a fly appears. And it's absolutely magnificent. As a piece of visual effects, its remarkably effective.
Oh btw, Barbara faints from insecticide, and Ian reacts to the fly flying off like a plane took off. But what a brilliant bit of design work that was.
Smithers and Forrester plot a bit about covering up murder. One dimensional characters gonna talk. Smithers is now upset about things, exactly in the way his character wasn't 10 minutes ago.
The sink set is a particularly good one too. The MVP of Planet of Giants so far has been the production team itself.
The fly landed on those seeds and died instantly. That's not very reassuring for Barbara. Ian talks up the insecticide power of the thing he saw on Barbara. Badly written Ian is a bit of a git!
The Doctor and Susan are still in the sink, when Smithers shows up and goes to use the sink. They survived the Daleks, can they survive the horror of...a man doing the dishes? Snark aside, the sort of WTF cliffhanger that only Doctor Who pulls off so well.
Planet of Giants (episode 3)
Crisis
The Doctor and Susan hide from the sink water in the overflow pipe.
Ian and Barbara look for the Doctor and Susan, and find them.
The villains scheme. Smithers panics some more.
Forrester pretends to be Farrow by holding a handkerchief over his mouth. It doesn't work, and so Hilda the Phone Operator gets suspicious.
HILDA: Doesn't sound like Mister Farrow at all.
I think they're taking the piss out of their own weak plot now...
The Doctor tries to use the phone to warn life size humans what is going on.
ALL: (shouting) Can! You! Hear! Us!
(Barbara is listening at the other end, but only hearing a deep growl.
ALL: Put! Us! Through! To! Police!
IAN: Any luck?
BARBARA: No. No, nothing at all.
(Barbara collapses, exhausted)
The plot of Episode 3 in a nutshell.
Everyone is still all "I wonder whats up with Barbara". It's all getting a bit silly.
Hilda tells her husband who just happens to be a policeman. So he goes round and arrests Forrester.
Really not much to say about this episode. Other than if it was Douglas Camfields idea to cut Episodes 3 and 4 into one, he deserved a medal.
The TARDIS crew escaped btw, and Barbara was fine. In case you were worried.
Ian and Barbara look for the Doctor and Susan, and find them.
The villains scheme. Smithers panics some more.
Forrester pretends to be Farrow by holding a handkerchief over his mouth. It doesn't work, and so Hilda the Phone Operator gets suspicious.
HILDA: Doesn't sound like Mister Farrow at all.
I think they're taking the piss out of their own weak plot now...
The Doctor tries to use the phone to warn life size humans what is going on.
ALL: (shouting) Can! You! Hear! Us!
(Barbara is listening at the other end, but only hearing a deep growl.
ALL: Put! Us! Through! To! Police!
IAN: Any luck?
BARBARA: No. No, nothing at all.
(Barbara collapses, exhausted)
The plot of Episode 3 in a nutshell.
Everyone is still all "I wonder whats up with Barbara". It's all getting a bit silly.
Hilda tells her husband who just happens to be a policeman. So he goes round and arrests Forrester.
Really not much to say about this episode. Other than if it was Douglas Camfields idea to cut Episodes 3 and 4 into one, he deserved a medal.
The TARDIS crew escaped btw, and Barbara was fine. In case you were worried.
(All quotes aided by the Doctor Who transcripts team.)
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