The End of Tomorrow (The Dalek Invasion of Earth Episode 4)

The one where Barbara drives a truck through a squad of Daleks...

These episode titles are all very apocalyptic, aren't they? The End of Tomorrow, Day of Reckoning, World's End (which is actually the location where the TARDIS landed)... But whether they have any connection with events in the story, I'm not so sure. What about the end of tomorrow (Sunday night)? What reckoning? I rather like Terry Nation's comic book sensationalism, and we'd get plenty more where this came from... The Death of Time (although it doesn't die), Flight Through Eternity, (actually just one century), Day of Armageddon, Destruction of Time (although it's not destroyed).

The End of Tomorrow begins with the Daleks' clockwork time bomb which sounds like Colly's mill, Windy Miller's house in Camberwick Green. But what's this? The Doctor's ill! He tries to rise to his feet but collapses with a mildly unconvincing "ohhhhh", and we don't seem him again all episode. David claims it's the effects of the Daleks' drugs, but he seemed to get over that quite quickly in Day of Reckoning. He's obviously on a comedown. Either that, or William Hartnell damaged his back during rehearsals and took a week off to recuperate. I'm not sure which is likelier.

Day of Reckoning (The Dalek Invasion of Earth Episode 3)

The one where the Doctor begins to acknowledge his granddaughter's need for independence...

Director Richard Martin's handling of the rebel assault on the Dalek saucer is much more dynamic here, with prisoners being released and various explosions and flashes. Spencer Chapman's great multi-level set is glimpsed at its best for the first time, but the direction still has a rough-and-ready feel which seems to be Martin's trademark. His roving camera is a clever idea to try and capture various set-pieces, but too often the camera misses, or almost misses, what's going on (a case in point are the gunshots fired off-camera which kill the saucer's lights). It just feels clumsy and under-rehearsed.

The action outside the saucer is better, with rebels attempting to lift and topple the Daleks, good old Barbara chucking grenades, and smoke effects adding to the confusion. The feeling of chaos on set sort of adds to the atmosphere of panic in the story, but there's still that hesitance in execution. One runaway extra stalls his escape to allow a Dalek enough time to catch up with him and kill him, for instance. I acknowledge that 1960s cameras were big, bulky, unwieldy things (as were the Dalek props), but I've seen similar set-pieces in 1960s television executed with much more panache than here.

The Daleks (The Dalek Invasion of Earth Episode 2)

The one where we learn what good invaders the Daleks are...

The Daleks are back! The popularity of the pepperpots from Skaro at this point in Doctor Who's history was immense. The public had been demanding their return ever since they faded from TV screens nine months previously, and the only way to do that was to have an adventure set before their ultimate destruction on Skaro as seen in The Daleks.

The Doctor is wise to them this time though, and William Hartnell plays it with a healthy dollop of outraged, and perhaps over-confident, defiance which will come to typify the traveller's clashes with the Daleks. No longer is he afraid or keen to turn tail and flee. "I think we'd better pit our wits against them and defeat them," he tells Ian. That's the Doctor we know and respect.

World's End (The Dalek Invasion of Earth Episode 1)

The one where a Dalek rises out of the River Thames...

World's End opens with a cracking teaser which would work well as a pre-credits sequence if it was a 21st century episode (I've always wanted to re-edit 20th century Doctor Who episodes to include pre-credits teasers in the style of the new series; there's usually a scene that can be pulled out). It seems to show a deranged man (wearing what appears to be a neck brace) staggering into the river, apparently committing suicide. A less than cheery but intriguing way to open a new story!

And then the TARDIS materialises silently in front of the most chilling bill poster ever to appear in Doctor Who - IT IS FORBIDDEN TO DUMP BODIES INTO THE RIVER. Straight away we're getting a keen idea of what sort of a world this is, and it isn't pleasant. Following a rather shaky TARDIS interior scene in which it seems everything pivots on exactly when William Hartnell is going to deliver his line of hanky-waving exasperation, our heroes scamper outside into their first ever location filming (remember: that wasn't Hartnell on location in Guests of Madame Guillotine).

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!"