Planet of Giants

The first serial of season two is 'Planet of the Giants'. For this story, I only read the scripts and from what I read, it was an interesting story. The TARDIS crew have pretty much nothing to do with the main plot or villains for a change, and they never meet each other. Basically, the Doctor, Ian, Susan and Barbara have all shrunk and have landed in a garden, which belongs to the developer of a new kind of insecticide. Our heroes want nothing more than returning to safety, but when Ian and Barbara are lifted up in a briefcase accidentally, it's up to the Doctor and Susan to find and rescue them.

Compared to earlier season one serials, this serial is rather light-hearted. The TARDIS crew never really being threatened by the villains means that the story is more humourous and contains a lot of interesting little moments, like when they meet an oversized cat, and get stuck under a sink plug. Also, Planet of Giants has an important theme which doesn't fit the nature of the story. All throughout, I felt nothing but pity for all the insects that have done no wrong but have been killed needlessly, and this dampened my joy from this story.

The villains myself aren't that threatening. The most important baddie doesn't have much screentime, and his (and most of everyone else's) dialogue is shoddy. Overall, it's got a mixture of great and terrible moments, but it's certainly a unique serial, and was probably more interesting before 'Honey, I Shrunk the Kids' was released.