Doctor Who - Planet of Giants [VHS]
"Planet of  Giants" opened the second season of Doctor Who with William Hartnell's Doctor and companions Susan, Barbara and Ian finding themselves in a mysterious labyrinth filled with dead giant ants. A TARDIS malfunction has left the travellers an inch high and they have landed in the cracks in a garden path, part of a testing ground for an insecticide which could trigger a biological apocalypse. The plot combines the urgent warning of Rachel Carson's 1962 environmental landmarkSilent Spring, with the basic scenario of Richard Matheson'sThe Incredible Shrinking Man(1957), the characters facing similar hazards including being menaced by a domestic cat. The low budget means the huge props necessary to realize the story are limited, but what there are prove surprisingly good. Even the over-size ants and a big fly look fairly impressive. The story maintains an unsettling mood, with an effective cliff-hanger involving the laboratory sink. Continuity problems stem from the original four-episode story being re-edited into three parts prior to transmission, but this is still a superior example of earlyDoctor Who, predating the popular American TV seriesLand of the Giantsby four years. Lindsay Gutteridge's once popular 1973 novelCold War in a Country Gardenowed much to the story.--Gary S Dalkin