Planet of Giants (TV story)

Planet of Giants was the first serial of Season 2 of Doctor Who. Episode one, "Planet of Giants", was the first episode set in contemporary England since An Unearthly Child. Though similar to an idea first proposed by C. E. Webber for the pilot of Doctor Who, writer Louis Marks claimed that the inspiration for the story was the seminal pro-ecology work by Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, which contained strong warnings against the use of insecticides. He reckoned that by shrinking the Doctor, he would have the opportunity to put the TARDIS crew face-to-face with the dangers Carson had warned against in her book. (REF: The First Doctor Handbook) It was therefore the first "environmentalist" Doctor Who story, a kind of gently moralistic tale — like Invasion of the Dinosaurs and The Green Death — later to be particularly favoured by Barry Letts.

Though fully scripted and recorded as a four-parter, parts three and four were merged into a single episode, effectively leaving an episode on the cutting room floor. This edited material was not retained — though some of it made it into the novelisation. In a sense, then, Planet of Giants was the first serial to have a missing episode.

Aside from being Marks' first work on the series, it was also the Doctor Who debut of long-time composer, Dudley Simpson and the first credit for frequent director Douglas Camfield.

Synopsis

The main doors of the TARDIS open of their own accord just before it materialises, running out of control. On emerging, the travellers discover that 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 named 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 eventually brought to justice when the Doctor and his friends - hampered by the fact that Barbara has herself been made ill by 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.

Plot

Planet of Giants (1)

The Doctor is in the process of landing the TARDIS in what he believes to be mid 20th century Earth. As he does so he discovers that the console is burning up and discovers a fault with the TARDIS. However, the fault locator shows nothing is wrong. Despite this, the doors begin to open just as the TARDIS begins its materialisation. The Doctor begins to panic, as due to the space pressure differential between the vortex and other planets, any malfunction during materialisation can be very dangerous. However, the only real damage done seems to be to an overloading of the scanner circuits, causing the TARDIS's screen to implode. The Doctor considers it safe to venture outside.

He leads his companions Ian, Barbara, and Susan to the world beyond. Their curiosity is aroused initially by the odd rock formation by which they have materialised. It seems rough but evenly spaced, and there appears to be residue of concrete at their feet. It is decided that they split up, so the Doctor and Barbara explore around the TARDIS while Ian and Susan go further afield. Within minutes, the Doctor and Barbara find what they believe to be a snake; however, it turns out to be a dead giant earthworm. At the same time, Ian and Susan are shocked by a large deceased ant. Both of the creatures seem to have died immediately. After some confusion as to what could possibly explain why a planet would spawn humongous versions of Earth creatures, Ian and Susan come across a giant pack of cigarettes and a large matchbox. Ian climbs into the matchbox, believing it to be an exhibition piece but then Susan realises that the the environment has not been enlarged; the TARDIS crew has shrunk.

After this revelation, thunderous footsteps are heard. Susan runs for cover but Ian is trapped inside the box which is picked up by someone. The Doctor and Barbara soon find Susan and it is discovered that the Doctor has also made the connection that Susan made. The Doctor climbs a large rock to discover the man who picked up Ian far away in the distance, which in real terms is just the length of a garden.

The man that has unwittingly kidnapped Ian is a government scientist named Arnold Farrow, who has come to the home of a callous businessman named Forester to tell him that his application for DN6, a new pesticide, has been rejected. In reality, DN6 should not be licensed; it is far too deadly to all life. When they fall out over this news, Forester shoots Farrow and leaves him for dead outside his home.

The Doctor, Barbara, and Susan hear the gunshot as an enormous explosion, and head for the house. On their way, a wasp falls from the sky. The trio marvel at the death of all wildlife that they are met with and the Doctor orders the women not to ingest anything until they get on the TARDIS. Meanwhile Ian uses this opportunity to escape from the box. The foursome meet by the dead body and surmise a murder has taken place. Just as they head off to the TARDIS, they turn to see a cat hulking menacingly above them.

Dangerous Journey (2)

So as to avoid the cat the travellers stay still until the cat loses interest in them. They decide that while the cat is abroad they dare not try to make it to the ship. Forester returns to the garden. The panic induced by the man returning sees the travellers split up again: the Doctor and Susan run into the undergrowth of the grass whilst Barbara and Ian hide in Farrow's suitcase.

Forester has brought along with him a scientist by the name of Smithers. Forester tries to pass the murder of Farrow off as self defence, but Smithers deduces that Forester must have murdered him due to the angle of the bullet. Forester eventually admits it but says that Smithers must help him cover up the murder; otherwise DN6, which was devised by Smithers, will never see the light of day. The two men conspire to make it look like Farrow's death happened aboard a boat that he owned and intended to holiday on after his meeting with Forester. The pair begin to clear up the evidence, including taking Farrow's briefcase, complete with Barbara and Ian, inside and placing it on the work surface of the laboratory.

In order to gain access to their friends, the Doctor and Susan scale a drainpipe on the outside of the house which leads directly into the laboratory.

Meanwhile Ian and Barbara examine the laboratory. In their exploration Barbara foolishly touches a seed which she later discovers has been contaminated with DN6. She does not tell Ian this but believes she may have been infected much as the other creatures they have encountered. Ian and Barbara decide the best way to scale the drop to the floor level is by making a ladder of paperclips that they saw in Farrow's briefcase. While Ian is trying to open the briefcase, Barbara encounters a giant fly which provokes her to faint. When Ian rejoins her the fly flies away and lands on the seeds, dying instantly. Once Barbara wakes up she is visibly distressed by the speed with which the fly has died. She is on the verge of telling Ian that she believes herself infected when she is interrupted by Susan's voice. She is using the sink as a sound box in order to amplify her voice. The four travellers are soon reunited and plan to escape down the plughole. Ian and Barbara begin to scale the chain of the plug when the two men return to the lab to wash the blood from their hands. Ian and Barbara return to the work surface but the Doctor and Susan have no option but to go back down the plughole. As they do Smithers puts the plug in, washes his hands, and then begins to let the water out.

Crisis (3)

Thinking quickly, the Doctor and Susan climb into the overflow pipe just as Smithers lets the plug out. Ian and Barbara fear that they have drowned. Once they go down to check the pipe it seems as if their friends are dead, but they crawl back out of the drain much to the humans' joy.

Forester has meanwhile doctored Farrow's report so as to give DN6 the licence he wants and, disguising his voice as Farrow's, makes a supportive phone call to the ministry to the same effect. The ministry give the green light to the scheme much to Forester's delight. This is overheard by the local telephone operator, Hilda Rowse, and her policeman husband Bert, who start to suspect something is wrong.

The Doctor and his companions stumble across a notebook with the equations for DN6. After laboriously copying it out the Doctor discovers just how dangerous it is, not only to insects but to all wildlife. They try to alert the police by hoisting up the phone receiver with corks, but cannot make themselves heard. As they try to do this Barbara begins to feel the effects of her contamination of DN6. When they make the phone call the travellers can't be heard but Hilda notes the engaged signal and she and Bert become even more concerned as to the goings on at the house. Once the phone call is made Barabara collapses. As she is unconscious her friends smell the DN6 on her handkerchief and discover she has become infected. When she regains consciousness the Doctor berates her but says that when they return to their normal size the poison in her bloodstream will lessen and she will be safe.

Hearing the engaged tone on the phone in the office Forester and Smithers return to the lab and correct the engaged handset. Hilda rings moments later to ensure that all is ok at the house. When she asks where Farrow is Forester tries to impersonates him again. Knowing there is something badly wrong, Bert heads off to the house to investigate.

The Doctor and his companions decide the only way to stop the spread of DN6 is to start a fire to attract attention to the house . They do this by using a gas tap to ignite a can of insecticide. As they do this Smithers begins to look through Farrow's files and discovers the true virulence of DN6 and demands Forester stop seeking a licence. Forester pulls a gun on Smithers and threatens him. As they move into the lab, Forester spots the makeshift bomb, which goes off in his face. Smithers retrieves the gun as PC Rowse arrives.

Their work done, the travellers return to the TARDIS and the Doctor reconfigures the machine to return them to normal size. Barbara, who was on the verge of death, recovers. The Doctor encourages his friends to sleep whilst he lands the TARDIS, unsure as to where they are due to the fact that the scanner is still broken.

Cast

Crew

Writer - Louis Marks
Director - Mervyn Pinfield
Director - Douglas Camfield (material for episode 4 which was included in episode 3)
Producer - Verity Lambert
Script Editor - David Whitaker
Designer - Raymond Cusick
Assistant Floor Manager - Dawn Robertson
Assistant Floor Manager - Val McCrimmon
Associate Producer - Mervyn Pinfield
Costumes - Daphne Dare
Incidental Music - Dudley Simpson
Make-Up - Jill Summers
Production Assistant - Norman Stewart
Special Sound - Brian Hodgson
Studio Lighting - Howard King
Studio Sound - Alan Fogg
Theme Arrangement - Delia Derbyshire
Title Music - Ron Grainer

References

The Doctor

The Doctor and Susan were observers at a Zeppelin air raid during World War I.
The Doctor states that he has never been to Africa.

Story notes

All three episodes exist as 16mm telerecordings.
This story had the working titles Miniscule Story and The Miniscules.
Negative film prints of all three episodes were recovered in 1978.
Arabic prints of all three episodes are also held by the BBC.
The request to compress this serial into three parts came from Donald Wilson, BBC Head of Serials, who felt the story simply didn't work in four parts. Episode 3 was entitled, "Crisis" and episode 4 was to be called "The Urge to Live". In the end, the edited episode retained the original title of episode 3, "Crisis", but the end credits for "The Urge to Live", because that required the fewest edits at a time when editing was a very expensive proposition. Thus Douglas Camfield, who was in fact the director of "The Urge to Live", came to be the credited director of the transmitted version of "Crisis".
The story was originally developed under the title The Miniscules. The working title of "Dangerous Journey" was "Death in the Afternoon". (REF: The First Doctor Handbook)
The story was filmed as part of the first bloc of stories but a decision was made to hold it over as the opener for the second series.

Shrinking the Doctor

It is sometimes casually asserted that Planet of Giants was a story that had been proposed by C. E. Webber as the first story of season 1. However, it was merely the general idea of shrinking the Doctor and his companions that linked Marks' script to Webber's idea. All the details were quite different. Indeed the story of how a miniaturised TARDIS eventually made it on screen was relatively complex.

The idea of a story that featured the minaturisation of the TARDIS crew went back to one of the foundational documents of Doctor Who: "Dr. Who: General Ideas on Background and Approach" written by C. E. Webber and heavily amended by Sydney Newman. There, Webber said that the first story "may result from the use of a micro-reducer in the machine which makes our characters all become tiny". The idea was carried forward in a 16 May 1963 document, prepared by Newman, Webber and Donald Wilson, in which the first story, called The Giants, was proposed. Its first episode was to be broadly similar to "An Unearthly Child", but instead of landing in Earth's past, the TARDIS would land in the Coal Hill School laboratory — at a much-reduced size. The travellers would spend the next three episodes avoiding the now-huge students, teachers and classroom objects all around them. By 4 June 1963, Webber had completed his full outline, which now included a scene in which the travellers placed themselves under microscopes so the students could see and communicate with them.

By 10 June, Newman began to sour somewhat on Webber's idea, noting that the storyline didn't seem to allow for much in the way of character development. He also felt that portraying the shrinkage of the TARDIS would be "patently impossible without spending a tremendous amount of money" and asked Webber to reconsider his ideas so they could be achieved practically. Webber only got as far as the draft scripts of the first two episodes before the script was officially rejected by Donald Wilson and Rex Tucker, the interim producer who briefly preceded Verity Lambert. Their objections were quite different to Newman's. They now knew that the first serial of Doctor Who had to be recorded at Lime Grove Studio D, whose cameras couldn't be fitted with wide-angle or zoom lenses. This made the convincing portrayal of miniaturisation impossible. Webber was duly paid for his first two scripts in July 1963 and the idea was temporarily shelved.

Nevertheless, script editor David Whitaker — who, having been appointed in the last week of June, was not party to the decision to reject The Giants — wasn't ready to give up on the idea just yet. He wrote an 8 August memo to Ayton Whitaker saying, "We badly need a serial about our four running characters being reduced in size". His plan of attack to achieving this goal was to eliminate Wilson and Tucker's objection: Lime Grove. He argued that Studio D was simply not up to the production of a variable format show like Doctor Who and that the production could not continue if it was permanently restricted to that antiquated studio.

By 16 September, David Whitaker had placed a "shrunken Doctor" serial back on the season 1 schedule. Never named, it was to be written by Robert Gould and had nothing to do with Coal Hill School. It did, however, posit the notion of returning the TARDIS crew to 1963. The Gould script proceeded slowly, however, and by 4 February 1964, Whitaker released Gould from that idea and requested a replacement story —one that also never even made it to the synopsis stage. Whitaker commissioned Louis Marks to write an outline for a "shrunken Doctor" script, on which Gould had given up. By late May 1964, the idea finally moved to full commission, with four episodes being requested of Marks. More importantly, Whitaker achieved his ambition of ensuring that the story would be recorded at BBC Television Centre, rather than Lime Grove.

Even after Giants went before the cameras at TC4, it still underwent changes. Donald Wilson didn't feel it was a great season opener and would have actually preferred to have begun with The Dalek Invasion of Earth, had not Carole Ann Ford's departure in Invasion made the transposition of the serials impossible. Saying that "by its nature and the resources needed we could not do everything we wanted to do to make it wholly satisfactory", he took the unusual step of editing the already-recorded third and fourth episodes into a single episode. (REF: The First Doctor Handbook)

Ratings

Planet of Giants - 8.4 million viewers
Dangerous Journey - 8.4 million viewers
Crisis - 8.9 million viewers

Filming locations

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

At the end of episode 2 the sink is emptied and the plug is placed upon the bench. At the beginning of episode 3 the plug is back in the sink providing a method of escape.

Continuity

An emergency klaxon is heard in the TARDIS in episode one. This appears to be a forerunner of the Cloister bell (first heard in DW: Logopolis and many stories since).

Timeline

This story occurs after ST: The Duke's Folly
This story occurs before PDA: The Time Travellers

Home video and audio releases

VHS releases

UK Release: January 2002 / US Release: May 2003

PAL - BBC Video BBCV7263

NTSC - Warner Video E1740

UK cover

External links