Day 22 — January 22nd 2021
Planet of Giants and Dangerous Journey
Planet of Giants (Planet of Giants — Episode One)
It’s strange how much this episode feels like the start of a brand new series, given that it wasn’t intended to be one, and was recorded as usual a week after the last episode. The cast all have fresh new costumes (Ian will be wearing a suit more often as we move into the second season), and we open with them in the TARDIS ready to set off on new adventures. It feels like the perfect place to rejoin this team. It’s almost a shame that Doctor Who refers to their having just left the 18th Century, because it feels like there should be loads of unseen adventures since the French Revolution. I suppose there could be, and they just happen to have ended up in the same period once more.
And while we’re inside the TARDIS, I realise I’ve not said it yet in this marathon — the original TARDIS Control Room is beautiful. I don’t reckon it’s aged a day. Even the photo blow-up walls feel like an iconic part of the design and I love them as much as I do the proper walls. It doesn’t often get built as fully as it is today, so it feels like the right time to sing the praises of the set.
And it’s perhaps fitting that it’s all there in this episode, because there’s more than a hint of The Edge of Destruction about the opening minutes of the story. The TARDIS behaving strangely! Panic! The doors opening mid-flight (‘they’ve never done that!’ worries Susan, clearly forgetting their earlier adventure)! It feels like an exciting way to start a new series.
The beauty of the TARDIs continues outside the ship, too, with a lovely close up shot of the TARDIS model last seen in The Aztecs. We’ve never seen it so clearly before, and while it really looks nothing like the full-size prop, it is a beautiful thing. There’s a great shot later on where the camera pulls back to reveal the ship sat in the crazy paving of a garden path, and it’s a really arresting image. I love it.
In a sort of roundabout way, this story has had a huge influence on the way I feature the TARDIS when I’m doing Doctor Who artwork. The VHS tape hadn’t long been released when I discovered the world of Who, and the depiction of the TARDIS on the cover, flying through space, has always stuck in my mind. I rip that off all the time.
Interestingly, Susan in this episode has taken to calling the ship simply ‘TARDIS’ without the definite article. I’m sure she’s done it at least once more since An Unearthly Child and I quite like it. I wish it were more acceptable to say. ‘We must get back to TARDIS!’ It’s got a ring to it.
Anyway. Planet of Giants. This is another often-overlooked story — largely for reasons which I’m sure I’ll discuss tomorrow — but this opening episode is a strong one. As ever, the cast give good performances, and there’s a fair mystery set up. The effects making the regulars look tiny — be that appearing in front of huge photos of larger objects, or against bits of set that have been designed to give the impression work well.
In many ways, this story feels like it exists simply because it’s been kicking around for so long. A similar concept was pitched as the very first story of the entire programme, in which the regulars would be shrunk down inside Ian’s science lab at Coal Hill School. I can’t help but feel that wouldn’t have worked so well for setting out the kind of series this is. It works here, a year in, by being something a bit different.
Oh, and one other thing. I couldn’t help but laugh at Ian’s reaction to discovering the giant ant;
‘I wonder what sort of a world could produce an insect that size?’
You’ll be finding out in a few episodes’ time, Ian, when you land on Vortis.
This opening episode, at least, is worth a solid 7/10.
Dangerous Journey (Planet of Giants — Episode Two)
Everything I said about the first episode still stands with Dangerous Journey. The cast are on top form, the effects look great. We get a new one in this episode — a ‘giant’ fly which moves and watches Barbara. And it looks brilliant! Doctor Who gets a hard time for dodgy effects, but this isn’t one of them. Frankly, I’m amazed that such a good effect is only used once and so briefly — the fly is dead in the next scene.
We also get even more fantastic sets today, including the brilliant sink, which I reckon still holds up well today. All that said, the shine has already started to wear off a bit.
All the scenes featuring the guest cast talking about DN6 and the murder of Farrow feel oddly out of place in Doctor Who. It’s an interesting enough story for another series, and I’m sure you could do something with it, but they feel almost entirely divorced from the story of our regulars trying to survive in their current situation. And I’m also not sure I buy what they’re going through; why are they even caught up in this adventure?
At the very end of Planet of Giants, Doctor Who says ‘we must leave this simple mystery and get back to the ship,’ and right on cue a cat appears and we have our cliffhanger. At the start of this episode, Doctor Who has entirely changed his tune; ‘Well, we can’t get back to the ship just yet…’. After that, Ian and Babs end up inside the briefcase, they’re taken inside, and we have to follow them in. I get that much, but I’m not sure I believe it. If they’d gone back to the TARDIS when they had the chance, very little else would be different!
Jaqueline Hill continues to be brilliant in this episode, and I really buy her panic about touching the seeds covered in DN6. She manages to go through a real range of emotion across the episode, and she properly shines as the best member of a very good cast. The real shame about reaching Season Two is knowing that her days are numbered. I’m not sure I buy Ian being so oblivious to her emotions, though, or somehow missing the fact that she touched the seeds when he was watching her do it!
5/10
