Written by Louis Marks | Directed by Mervyn Pinfield | Produced by Verity Lambert | Original air date 11/07/64
The Doctor suggests they not look into the cats eyes, and it won't bother them. I... don't think that's how it works, Doctor. Luckily for them, the cat wanders off, sparing them from a terrifying death (though that cat would have had a ton of fun with them, I'm sure).
As before, the sets and props are gorgeous. The briefcase Ian and Barbara hide in a few times this episode looks great, and the sink, drain pipe, and sink plug all look amazing as well, considering the budget they were working with.
I quite like the regular-sized characters in this serial, by the way. Forester is very menacing, just dripping with evil with everything he says and does (but not over the top - the actor underplays it just enough so it's believable). Smithers, introduced in this episode, is interesting because of how driven he is to to complete DN6, enough to become an accessory to murder with Forester. That he knows this - and upbraids Forester for it - makes him three-dimensional in a way Doctor Who excels at for it's secondary characters. Sure, he's a cliche - egotist scientist with a lack of morals - but shows to this day don't often give this much characterization to a guest star.
Jacqueline Hill does very well in this episode - she's given some weird stuff to do, namely act Barbara as frightened that she touched the poisoned seeds, but for whatever reason not tell Ian about it. Meanwhile, Ian is thick as hell throughout - he gives Barbara a handkerchief right after turning his back on her while she looks at the seeds and says they're all sticky, and doesn't realize she's touched them even as he says they'd likely kill her.
It's weird, seeing the Doctor so exhausted after climbing the drain pipe, considering how active he becomes starting with his second incarnation and on. Though, thinking about it, the Eleventh Doctor at the end of his life is frail and old, so maybe the First Doctor here has lived for a long time, hard to say (and who knows if the Doctor has ever told the truth about his age at any point in his life, so you can't go with what he says).
Things get weird in the next episode. There's some continuity errors, which I'll cover tomorrow, but suffice it to say, I really enjoy Planet of Giants. I think it's very overlooked and is one of the better produced and written stories in the Hartnell era, and I highly recommend it for someone who hasn't seen a First Doctor serial and would like a taste.
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "Crisis"
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