Crisis (Planet of Giants Episode 3)

The one where Forrester's plan blows up in his face...

Planet of Giants is possibly Doctor Who's worst ever season opener. People may think Galaxy 4, The Dominators or Time and the Rani are poor debuts, but at least there's a bit of life in those stories, whether it's Chumblies, Quarks or Bonnie Langford. Here, it's all just so dull and pedestrian and feels like a backward step dramatically from Season 1.

The DVD extras for this story show how little Carole Ann Ford and William Russell remember being involved with it. Indeed, the best Russell can recall is messing about with the oversized matchsticks. The actors don't seem convinced or invested in the serial at all, except perhaps Hartnell with his customary vim. Right from the start we have this sterile exchange between Jacqueline Hill and William Russell, which they deliver as if they're robots devoid of expression or emotion:

Barbara: "Ian - the Doctor and Susan. They must have been drowned."
Ian: "We don't know. We must go and find out."

Dangerous Journey (Planet of Giants Episode 2)

The one where the Doctor and Susan are like rats up a drainpipe...

"Doctor, I think the cat's losing interest," says Ian.
"Don't relax! One swipe of its paw could smash us to pieces!" replies the Doctor.
I can't help thinking this exchange would have been better as part of last week's cliffhanger, just to accentuate the danger they were in.

The thing with Planet of Giants is that it's just so humdrum. There's nothing wrong with the concept (indeed, the idea of the travellers being miniaturised had been mooted as the very first story in 1963) but the loquacious way writer Louis Marks has gone about telling the story makes for rather dull viewing. It's not bad as such, just not very good.

Planet of Giants (Episode 1)

The one where the TARDIS crew is reduced to the size of "roughly an inch"...

Doctor Who is back! After seven long weeks between seasons (how did fans manage to wait that long back in the 1960s?!), the new series kicks off with Planet of Giants, which is something of a spoiler in itself. It takes the Doctor and friends more than 10 minutes to work out what the viewer's known since the beginning!

It seems to be business as usual aboard the TARDIS, with the Doctor busying himself around the console in his new cape (another one!) and ordering Susan to check the fault locator. She notices an amber alert on the instrument, which reads QR18 A14D, which in English means: "Bloody hell, the doors have opened in flight!"