Doctor Who: Series 2, Episodes 1-3 – “Planet of Giants” (1964)

This is a Who story type that doesn’t get a lot of play, not even in classic Who, whose early years didn’t require aliens in every episode.  No monsters, no stunning locales, no big fight scenes.  So what is there, and why do I enjoy a story that has so few of Who’s best-known hallmarks? 

The main source of drama in “Planet of Giants” is the TARDIS itself; a mishap during landing messes with the dimensional circuits, causing it to shrink to a fraction of its usual size (a precursor to series 8’s “Flatline?”)  Unlike that Twelve story, however, the First Doctor, Susan, Ian, and Barbara are shrunk as well, a fact that escapes them until they discover that the strange land to which they’ve come is actually a 20^th-century English garden.  Our heroes have been reduced to an inch in stature, and when they notice that all the garden’s other inhabitants (worms, ants, etc.) are dead, they realize there’s a mystery they need to solve before they can be returned to their normal size.

First off, this story is a design hoot.  I love seeing the TARDIS crew interact with normal-sized objects in their shrunken state – Ian hiding in a match box, the Doctor and Susan climbing up the inside of a pipe, Barbara backing away from an enormous fly, and so on.  Obviously, there’s a lot of stuff that’s been constructed to look huge, but there’s also some amusing camera trickery to make the gang look minuscule in a regular world.

Doctor Who has been going on for so many years that virtually every alien plot is a variation on one (or even several) that we’ve seen before.  As such, it becomes about the strength of the characters and dialogue, about using familiar beats in unexpected ways.  This story, though, does very much its own thing.  It’s seldom-trod ground for Who, and that gives it a lot more space to play around in (which I realize sounds odd, given that it takes place in present-day England and doesn’t feature any sci-fi monsters.)

Another thing I like about this story is how much it shows off our characters’ smarts.  In order to get around and get anything done with their small size, the Doctor and his friends need to use the comparatively-enormous everyday objects around them in creative ways.  I love that Susan uses a sink like an amphitheater to increase her volume, that they work together to read an important piece of paper that’s too big to take in all at once, and that they combine a little science knowhow with a lot of elbow grease to make enough of a commotion to draw attention.  That, and the sight of Ian and Susan trying to light a match the size of a battering ram is pure awesome.

It’s not a perfect story, by any means.  It’s not a terrible strong outing for Barbara, who contracts a powerful case of “I’d better not share my vital information” syndrome, and the tradeoff for the more original non-alien plot is less drama – the cliffhangers in episodes 1 and 2 are both pretty pedestrian, and the super-serious music playing over them just makes them sillier.  However, it’s still a lot of fun, and I could watch the Doctor and co. interact with oversized household objects all day.  Very worthwhile in my book.