Last updated 09 September 2015

Doctor Who: Planet of Giants

Planet of Giants

Story Number: 9 (J)
No of Episodes: 3




Writer: Louis Marks
Director: Mervyn Pinfield, Douglas Camfield
Producer: Verity Lambert

Starring: William Hartnell, William Russell, Jacqueline Hill, Carole Ann Ford, Alan Tilvern, Reginald Barratt, Frank Crawshaw


BBC One (United Kingdom):
First Broadcast: Saturday 31st October 1964 - Saturday 14th November 1964
Running Time: 1 hour, 13 minutes, 30 seconds

Average Audience: 8.57 Million   Average AI: 58




A malfunction of the TARDIS systems reduces the Doctor and his companions to just an inch in height. In their miniaturised state, they arrive in contemporary England and stumble across a plot by a ruthless businessman, Forester (Alan Tilvern), and his misguided scientist colleague, Smithers (Reginald Barratt), 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 even willing to commit murder to ensure the success of his business, as civil servant Arnold Farrow (Frank Crawshaw) discovers to his cost.

The criminals are eventually brought to justice when the Doctor and his friends - hampered by the fact that Barbara has herself been made ill by the insecticide - tamper with the telephone in Smithers's laboratory, thus fuelling the suspicions of the local exchange operator, Hilda Rowse (Rosemary Johnson), who sends her police constable husband, Bert (Fred Ferris), to investigate.

Synopsis from Doctor Who: The First Doctor Handbook by David J. Howe, Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker, reprinted with permission; further reproduction is not permitted. Available from Telos

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