Planet of Giants ( TV story ) Planet of Giants was the first serial of season 2 of " Doctor Who " . Episode one , " Planet of Giants " , was the first episode set in contemporary England since " An Unearthly Child " . Though it was similar to an idea proposed by C . E . Webber for the " Doctor Who " pilot , writer Louis Marks claimed the inspiration for the story was the seminal pro - ecology work by Rachel Carson , , which warned strongly against insecticides . He reckoned that by shrinking the First Doctor , he would have the opportunity to put the TARDIS crew face - to - face with the dangers Carson had warned against in her book . ( REF : " The First Doctor Handbook " ) It was therefore the first " environmentalist " " Doctor Who " story , a kind of gently moralistic tale — like " Invasion of the Dinosaurs " and " The Green Death " — later to be particularly favoured by Barry Letts . Though fully scripted and recorded as a four - parter , parts three and four were merged into a single episode , effectively leaving an episode on the cutting room floor . This edited material was not retained — though some of it made it into the novelisation . Aside from being Marks ' first work on the series , it was also the " Doctor Who " debut of long - time composer Dudley Simpson , and the first credit for frequent director Douglas Camfield . Synopsis . The doors of the TARDIS open of their own accord just before it materialises , running out of control . On emerging , the travellers find the ship has been reduced in size and they are now only about an inch tall . As tiny people , they stumble across a plot by a ruthless businessman , Forester , and his misguided scientist colleague , Smithers , to launch a new insecticide , DN6 — a product so destructive that it would kill not only those insects harmful to agriculture but also those vital to it . Forester is willing to commit murder to ensure the success of his business , as civil servant Arnold Farrow discovers to his cost . The criminals are brought to justice when the Doctor and his friends — hampered by the fact that Barbara is ill from the insecticide — tamper with the telephone in Smithers ' laboratory , fuelling the suspicions of the local exchange operator , Hilda Rowse , who sends her police constable husband Bert to investigate . Plot . Planet of Giants ( 1 ) . The Doctor is landing the TARDIS in what he believes to be mid 20th century Earth . He finds the console is burning up and discovers a fault with the TARDIS . However , the fault locator shows nothing is wrong . Despite this , the doors open just as the TARDIS begins its materialisation . The Doctor starts to panic ; due to the space pressure differential between the vortex and other planets , any malfunction during materialisation can be very dangerous . However , the only real damage seems to be to an overloading of the scanner circuits , causing the TARDIS ' s screen to implode . The Doctor decides it is safe to venture outside . He leads his companions , Ian , Barbara , and Susan , to the world beyond . Their curiosity is aroused initially by the odd rock formation by which they have materialised . It seems rough but evenly spaced and there appears to be residue of concrete at their feet . They decide to split up , so the Doctor and Barbara explore around the TARDIS while Ian and Susan go further afield . Within minutes , the Doctor and Barbara find what they believe to be a snake ; however , it turns out to be a dead giant earthworm . At the same time , Ian and Susan are shocked by a large deceased ant . Both of the creatures seem to have died immediately . After some confusion as to what could possibly explain why a planet would spawn humongous versions of Earth creatures , Ian and Susan come across a giant pack of cigarettes and a large matchbox . Ian climbs into the matchbox , believing it an exhibition piece , but then Susan realises that the environment has not been enlarged ; the TARDIS crew has shrunk . After this revelation , thunderous footsteps are heard . Susan runs for cover but Ian is trapped inside the box , which is picked up . The Doctor and Barbara soon find Susan . The Doctor has also made the connection that Susan made . The Doctor climbs a large rock to discover the man who picked up Ian far away in the distance , in real terms the length of a garden . The man that has unwittingly kidnapped Ian is a government scientist named Arnold Farrow . He has come to the home of a callous businessman named Forester to tell him that his application for DN6 , a new pesticide , has been rejected . In reality , DN6 should not be licensed ; it is far too deadly to all life . When they fall out over this news , Forester shoots Farrow and leaves him for dead outside his home . The Doctor , Barbara , and Susan hear the gunshot as an enormous explosion and head for the house . On their way , a bee falls from the sky . The trio marvel at the death of all wildlife that they have met . The Doctor orders the women not to eat anything until they get on the TARDIS . Meanwhile Ian uses this opportunity to escape from the box . The four meet by the dead body and surmise a murder has taken place . As they head off to the TARDIS , they turn to see a cat hulking menacingly above them . Dangerous Journey ( 2 ) . To avoid the cat , the travellers stay still until it loses interest in them . They decide that while the cat is at large , they dare not try to make it to the ship . Forester returns to the garden . The panic induced by the man returning sees the travellers split up again ; the Doctor and Susan run into the undergrowth of the grass whilst Barbara and Ian hide in Farrow ' s briefcase . Forester has brought along with him a scientist by the name of Smithers . Forester tries to pass off the murder of Farrow as self defence , but Smithers deduce s from the angle of the bullet that Forester must have murdered him . Forester eventually admits it but says that Smithers must help him cover up the murder ; otherwise DN6 , which was devised by Smithers , will never see the light of day . The two men conspire to make it look like Farrow ' s death happened aboard a boat that he owned and intended to holiday on after his meeting with Forester . They begin to clear up the evidence , including taking Farrow ' s briefcase , complete with Barbara and Ian , and placing it in the laboratory . To gain access to their friends , the Doctor and Susan scale a drainpipe on the outside of the house which leads directly into the laboratory . Meanwhile Ian and Barbara examine the laboratory . Barbara touches a seed which she later finds has been contaminated with DN6 . She does not tell Ian but believes she may have been infected , much as the other creatures they have encountered . Ian and Barbara decide the best way to scale the drop to the floor level is by making a ladder of paperclips from Farrow ' s briefcase . While Ian is trying to open the briefcase , Barbara encounters a giant fly and faints . When Ian rejoins her , the fly flies away and lands on the seeds , dying instantly . Barbara wakes , visibly distressed by the speed with which the fly has died . She is on the verge of telling Ian that she believes herself infected when she is interrupted by Susan ' s voice . She is using the sink as a sound box to amplify her voice . The four travellers are soon reunited and plan to escape down the plughole . Ian and Barbara begin to scale the chain of the plug when the two men return to the lab to wash the blood from their hands . Ian and Barbara return to the work surface , but the Doctor and Susan have no option but to go back down the plughole . As they do , Smithers puts the plug in , washes his hands , and then begins to let the water out . Crisis ( 3 ) . The Doctor and Susan climb into the overflow pipe just as Smithers lets the plug out . Ian and Barbara fear they have drowned . Once they go down to check the pipe it seems as if their friends are dead , but they crawl back out of the drain to their joy . Forester has doctored Farrow ' s report to give DN6 the licence he wants . Disguising his voice as Farrow ' s , he makes a supportive phone call to the ministry to the same effect . The ministry give the green light to the scheme . This is overheard by the local telephone switchboard operator , Hilda Rowse , and her policeman husband Bert , who start to suspect something is wrong . The Doctor and his companions stumble across a notebook with the equations for DN6 . After laboriously copying it out , the Doctor realises just how dangerous it is , not only to insects but to all wildlife . They try to alert the police by hoisting up the phone receiver with corks , but cannot make themselves heard . Barbara begins to feel the effects of her exposure to DN6 . When they make the phone call , the travellers can ' t be heard but Hilda notes the engaged signal . Bert and she grow more concerned as to the goings on at the house . Once the phone call is made , Barbara collapses . Her friends smell the DN6 on her handkerchief and conclude she has been infected . When she regains consciousness , the Doctor berates her for not telling them sooner , but he says that when they return to their normal size the poison in her bloodstream will lessen and she will be safe . Hearing the engaged tone on the phone in the office , Forester and Smithers return to the lab and correct the engaged handset . Hilda rings moments later to ensure that all is OK at the house . When she asks where Farrow is , Forester tries to impersonate him again . Knowing there is something badly wrong , Bert heads off to the house to investigate . The Doctor and his companions decide the only way to stop the spread of DN6 is to start a fire to attract attention to the house . They use a gas tap to ignite a can of insecticide . Smithers begins to look through Farrow ' s files and discovers the true virulence of DN6 . He demands Forester stop seeking a licence . Forester pulls a gun on Smithers . As they move into the lab , Forester spots the makeshift bomb , which goes off in his face . Smithers retrieves the gun as PC Rowse arrives . Their work done , the travellers return to the TARDIS . The Doctor reconfigures the machine to return them to normal size . Barbara , who was on the verge of death , recovers as a result . The Doctor encourages his friends to have a good scrub whilst he lands the TARDIS , unsure where they are ; the scanner is still broken . Story notes . Shrinking the Doctor . It is sometimes casually asserted that " Planet of Giants " was a story that had been proposed by C . E . Webber as the first story of season 1 . However , it was merely the general " idea " of shrinking the Doctor and his companions that linked Marks ' script to Webber ' s idea . All the details were quite different . Indeed the story of how a miniaturised TARDIS eventually made it on screen was relatively complex . The idea of a story that featured the minaturisation of the TARDIS crew went back to one of the foundational documents of " Doctor Who " : " Dr . Who : General Ideas on Background and Approach " written by C . E . Webber and heavily amended by Sydney Newman . There , Webber said that the first story " may result from the use of a micro - reducer in the machine which makes our characters all become tiny " . The idea was carried forward in a 16 May 1963 , prepared by Newman , Webber and Donald Wilson , in which the first story , called " The Giants " , was proposed . Its first episode was to be broadly similar to " An Unearthly Child " , but instead of landing in Earth ' s past , the TARDIS would land in the Coal Hill School laboratory — at a much - reduced size . The travellers would spend the next three episodes avoiding the now - huge students , teachers and classroom objects all around them . By 4 June 1963 , Webber had completed his full outline , which now included a scene in which the travellers placed themselves under microscopes so the students could see and communicate with them . By 10 June , Newman began to sour somewhat on Webber ' s idea , noting that the storyline didn ' t seem to allow for much in the way of character development . He also felt that portraying the shrinkage of the TARDIS would be " patently impossible without spending a tremendous amount of money " and asked Webber to reconsider his ideas so they could be achieved practically . Webber only got as far as the draft scripts of the first two episodes before the script was officially rejected by Wilson and Rex Tucker , the interim producer who briefly preceded Verity Lambert . Their objections were quite different to Newman ' s . They now knew that the first serial of " Doctor Who " had to be recorded at Lime Grove Studio D , whose cameras couldn ' t be fitted with wide - angle or zoom lenses . This made the convincing portrayal of miniaturisation impossible . Webber was duly paid for his first two scripts in July 1963 and the idea was temporarily shelved . Nevertheless , script editor David Whitaker — who , having been appointed in the last week of June , was not party to the decision to reject " The Giants " — wasn ' t ready to give up on the idea just yet . He wrote an 8 August memo to Ayton Whitaker saying , " We badly need a serial about our four running characters being reduced in size " . His plan of attack to achieving this goal was to eliminate Wilson and Tucker ' s objection : Lime Grove . He argued that Studio D was simply not up to the production of a variable format show like " Doctor Who " and that the production could not continue if it was permanently restricted to that antiquated studio . By 16 September , David Whitaker had placed a " shrunken Doctor " serial back on the season 1 schedule . Never named , it was to be written by Robert Gould and had nothing to do with Coal Hill School . It did , however , posit the notion of returning the TARDIS crew to 1963 . The Gould script proceeded slowly , however , and by 4 February 1964 , Whitaker released Gould from that idea and requested a replacement story — one that also never even made it to the synopsis stage . Whitaker commissioned Louis Marks to write an outline for a " shrunken Doctor " script , on which Gould had given up . By late May 1964 , the idea finally moved to full commission , with four episodes being requested of Marks . More importantly , Whitaker achieved his ambition of ensuring that the story would be recorded at BBC Television Centre , rather than Lime Grove . Even after " Planet of Giants " went before the cameras at TC4 , it still underwent changes . Donald Wilson didn ' t feel it was a great season opener and would have actually preferred to have begun with " The Dalek Invasion of Earth " , had not Carole Ann Ford ' s departure in that story made the transposition of the serials impossible . Saying that " by its nature and the resources needed we could not do everything we wanted to do to make it wholly satisfactory " , he took the unusual step of editing the already - recorded third and fourth episodes into a single episode . ( REF : " The First Doctor Handbook " ) Home video and audio releases . DVD releases . The serial was released on DVD on 20 August 2012 . Alongside the existing serial , the DVD includes an animated reconstruction of the original third and fourth episodes , " Crisis " and The Urge to Live " , with original cast members reprising their roles for the recorded dialogue where possible . The role of the Doctor in these recordings was provided by John Guilor who , a year later , would act as a voice double for William Hartnell in the 50th anniversary special " The Day of the Doctor " . Special features : Digital releases . This story is available :