Doctor Who Reactions: "Planet of Giants" (SPOILERS)

1)The idea to do a "miniature" story had been there from the very beginning, but apparently Louis Marks had read Silent Spring, which is where the whole pesticide angle came from. And thus we get Forester, Doctor Who's first "evil industrialist".

2)This story was originally meant to be a four-parter, but was trimmed down to be a three-parter. Unfortunately, this seems to have led to some odd editing glitches - bits of the plot seem to be missing.

3)The miniature effects are a mixed bag, some quite convincing, some not. Amusingly, the giant fly in this is more convincing than the one they used in "The Green Death", years later.

4)"I don't fancy being part of the cat's diet!" Who does?

5)"CAN...YOU...HEAR...US?"

6)"There's nothing like a good fire, is there?" Wait until you get to Rome...

7)Cliffhangers:

"Planet of Giants": It's a cat!
"Dangerous Journey": Smithers drains the sink!
"Crisis": The scanner's still not working!

Overall:

An OK story with a lightweight villain, it suffers a bit from the abovementioned poor editing. That said, Hartnell is on good form in this - I didn't hear a single flub!

[Part of list of Doctor Who episodes here.]

I feel as if an era has passed. This is the last of the Hartnell stories to be released (the last of the complete ones, anyway; I’m still holding out hope they may animate some of the partially missing ones, especially “The Tenth Planet”). Common knowledge has it that your “first Doctor” remains your favorite, and that is certainly true in my case. Although I didn’t start watching until just a few short years ago, I started at the very beginning. In a 2003 interview (DVD extra) Carole Ann Ford commented that late in the show’s run it became campy and suffered from not taking itself too seriously. Perhaps they didn’t have a choice given the BBC’s shoestring budget, but I think it’s a valid criticism. Those early shows, flawed as some of them might have been, were mostly deadly serious.

This story makes me think about Irwin Allen’s Land of the Giants. I’ve been keeping my eye on that one, and although the price has been coming down, it’s not quite low enough to suit me yet. I have to finish Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea first, anyway. But I digress…

The 15 minutes of restored footage was interesting, but I wish I would have watched the eight minute feature about it first. It also would have been nice if there were an option to watch the episodes(s) with the footage inserted in sequence. (“Hey, what’s this dead cat doing here?”) I really liked the voice actor they hired to mimic the Doctor’s voice. His performance was spot-on, but I wish they would have shown more of him mimicking Hartnell’s voice from the front. All of the shots they used were of the back of his head! If they were to do an animated Doctor Who series starring the cast they used for the reconstructed scenes I would certainly be interested!

Replies

Jeff of Earth-J September 13, 2012 at 9:36am

I feel as if an era has passed. This is the last of the Hartnell stories to be released (the last of the complete ones, anyway; I’m still holding out hope they may animate some of the partially missing ones, especially “The Tenth Planet”). Common knowledge has it that your “first Doctor” remains your favorite, and that is certainly true in my case. Although I didn’t start watching until just a few short years ago, I started at the very beginning. In a 2003 interview (DVD extra) Carole Ann Ford commented that late in the show’s run it became campy and suffered from not taking itself too seriously. Perhaps they didn’t have a choice given the BBC’s shoestring budget, but I think it’s a valid criticism. Those early shows, flawed as some of them might have been, were mostly deadly serious.

This story makes me think about Irwin Allen’s Land of the Giants. I’ve been keeping my eye on that one, and although the price has been coming down, it’s not quite low enough to suit me yet. I have to finish Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea first, anyway. But I digress…

The 15 minutes of restored footage was interesting, but I wish I would have watched the eight minute feature about it first. It also would have been nice if there were an option to watch the episodes(s) with the footage inserted in sequence. (“Hey, what’s this dead cat doing here?”) I really liked the voice actor they hired to mimic the Doctor’s voice. His performance was spot-on, but I wish they would have shown more of him mimicking Hartnell’s voice from the front. All of the shots they used were of the back of his head! If they were to do an animated Doctor Who series starring the cast they used for the reconstructed scenes I would certainly be interested!
The Baron September 13, 2012 at 9:46am

I haven't watched those extras yet - I'll most likely take a look at them tonight, before or after I watch The Invisible Man. Don't know much about Land of the Giants - it's one of those shows that I remember exisitng when I was real little, but which I recall nothing about.

Interestingly, Alan Tilvern who played Forester in this, played R.K. Maroon in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Henry R. Kujawa September 13, 2012 at 10:26am

I find it interesting that certain aspects of LOST IN SPACE, THE TIME TUNNEL, and LAND OF THE GIANTS all seem to have been inspired or influenced by early DOCTOR WHO. I'd find it difficult to believe Irwin Allen had never seen the show, or was unaware of it. The fact that DOCTOR WHO was not seen in the United States until the early 70's would make it ripe for ripping-off. Who in the US would know?
The Baron September 13, 2012 at 10:43am

Funny you would say that, because one of the folks of the commentary track talks about this story being inspired in part by The Incredible Shrinking Man.
Jeff of Earth-J September 13, 2012 at 10:44am

I was also going to say that it would be interesting to see this motif (shrinking to miniature size) revisited in the current show using today’s special effects. Similarly, I wouldn’t mind seeing the Eleventh Doctor revisit “The Web Planet” and encounter CGI-animated Zarbi.
John Moret September 17, 2012 at 12:36pm

I am really looking forward to this DVD being released. With this, I will have all the stories that have been released by the BBC in video or DVD (I have some of the stories on VHS that are incomplete such as Ice Warriors and Tenth Planet which had linking material for the former and pieced together with stills, video clips & captions for the latter). NOW it is just a matter of getting the DVDs as they come out & I pass on the VHS version to a buddy of mine who also still has a VCR. Mind you, there are some I keep in VHS due to additional materials such as the original release of The Chase which includes the Beatles clip and Silver Nemesis which had the making of done by a US PBS crew.
Emerkeith Davyjack September 17, 2012 at 4:15pm

...Hey . let me get this out of the way...It has been mentioned that some , at least - Or , in fact , all ??? - of the Hartnell stories were preserved as " telerecordings " . ( Troughton's , too ? ) Now , just let me get this straight -

Is/was " telerecordings " Brit for what was/is called " kinescopes " in Yank usage ???
Emerkeith Davyjack September 17, 2012 at 4:18pm

...Jeff , please:

Did Carol Ann mean " late in Hartnell's run " , specifically ?

So what exactly is this " restored footage " ? Is the main version the same version that showed on the Beeb in the Sixties , and that I saw a bit of about 11 years back when the San Jose PBS was running all WHOs in sequence ???
PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod September 17, 2012 at 6:50pm

ED, yes, a telerecording would be the same thing as a kinescope.
Henry R. Kujawa September 17, 2012 at 9:26pm

I was reminded of this thread tonight while watching "The Exciting Adventure Of Paul On The Floor".

This reply was deleted.