Episode 44: Dangerous Journey

Synopsis:

The Doctor and his companions freeze as they see the giant form of a cat staring down at them...

He urges everyone to remain still and not look into its eyes. The animal soon grows bored and moves away.

They hear someone approach and split up to hide. Ian and Barbara take refuge in Farrow's briefcase, with the Doctor and Susan hiding in the garden. 

Forester tells Smithers that Farrow had been trying to steal their work and he had killed the civil servant in self-defence after being attacked by him. Smithers can see that the man was shot at point blank range and it is unlikely his story will be believed. They decide to move the body and take the briefcase into the laboratory - carrying Ian and Barbara with it.

The Doctor and Susan must find a way of being reunited with their friends. He spots that the drainpipe has a strong chemical smell, and deduces that it must lead into the lab. He and Susan then set about climbing up the pipe.

Ian and Barbara emerge from the briefcase to find themselves on a workbench. They find a pile of seeds and Barbara picks one up to examine it, unnoticed by her colleague. A massive fly swoops down and lands right in front of Barbara. After a pause it flies away and lands on the seed pile. Within seconds the creature dies. Ian points out the smell from the seeds, which they can associate with the other dead insects they found outside, and he deduces that the seeds must have been coated with an insecticide. 

Barbara realises her mistake in handling one, but decides not to worry Ian with this information.

In the garden, Forester and Smithers discuss their plan to dispose of the body. As Farrow was going abroad on holiday, Forester will take the corpse to his boat and take it out to sea where he will abandon it, returning to shore in an outboard. He will then adjust the report to make it favourable towards DN6 so that it can go into production.

The Doctor and Susan manage to clamber up the drainpipe and find themselves in the laboratory sink. They call out for Ian and Barbara, and the sink acts as a sound chamber to project their voices. The teachers hear them and approach. They decide to climb down the chain of the plug, and then they can all descend the drainpipe back to the garden and so return to the TARDIS.

Smithers needs to wash blood from his hands and so he and Forester return to the lab. He is pleased to see the dead fly - proof that his insecticide is effective.

The TARDIS crew hear their approach, so Ian and Barbara hurriedly clamber back up the chain to hide on the workbench, whilst the Doctor and Susan climb back down the plug-hole. Smithers fills the sink with water as he talks with Forester, washing his hands as he does so.

The Doctor and Susan are trapped in the drainpipe as the scientist pulls out the plug to empty the water away...

Next episode: Crisis

Data:

Written by: Louis Marks

Recorded: Friday 28th August 1964

First broadcast: 5:15pm, Saturday 7th November 1964

Ratings: 8.4 million / AI 58

Designer: Raymond P Cusick

Director: Mervyn Pinfield

Critique:

This is the first - and, to date, only - Doctor Who story in which the TARDIS travellers have no interaction with any of the story's guest characters. The story ends with Forester and Smithers never being aware of the presence of the miniaturised TARDIS crew.

Leading the guest artists is Alan Tilvern as Forester, who was a well known face in Britain in the 1950's and into the '70's.

Born in the East End of London in 1918, he became a barrow boy in Brick Lane before joining the army at the outbreak of World War II. He took up acting in 1946 - a career that would last until 1993.

He appeared in some 36 movies, with his role as R.K. Maroon in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) one of his best known - his penultimate film prior to retiring. On television he appeared in nearly all of the numerous crime series (Danger Man, Interpol Calling, The Saint etc.) - usually portraying the villain. Surprisingly, he never appeared in The Avengers, however.

Tilvern passed away in 2003, at the age of 85.

His co-star Reginald Barratt, who plays Smithers, was born in the Midlands in 1920. His acting career lasted from 1951 to 1977, and was mostly confined to television. One film role of note is the vicar in Hammer's Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970). This instalment of the Vampire Count franchise is a real who's who of Doctor Who guest artists. Unlike Tilvern, he did get to feature in an episode of The Avengers (1969's Pandora).

He was only 57 when he died in June 1977.

Yorkshire-born Frank Crawshaw (1899 - 1984) played the first husband of Elsie Tanner in Coronation Street prior to his appearance in Planet of Giants, briefly returning to the series as the same character in 1966.

Like Barratt his career was mainly confined to television, though he did feature in two British movie musicals - Oliver! and Half A Sixpence. He also featured alongside Frazer Hines in a 1972 episode of Emmerdale Farm.

There is a breakdown in logic when it comes to Farrow's actions. He has decided to bring his report with him, when he is supposed to be going on a boating holiday abroad for a couple of weeks. He has also neglected to inform his Ministry of the report's findings, when he could have just telephoned it through to them before setting off.

Forester's scheme also seems rather ill thought out, as he appears to be planning to make it look like a drowning, when the body will have a bullet wound.

Interestingly, the draft scripts had Farrow and Forester in cahoots over DN6, knowing full well that it was deadly to all insect life but determined to produce it anyway for the money. Dialogue even had them warning that the cat (named Sammy) should be kept indoors to stop it poisoning itself. Smithers only appeared in the second half of the story.

 

A new giant insect prop this week is the fly which menaces Barbara (but see below). The episode also moves the action into the laboratory, and we get to see a lot of Ray Cusick's excellent design work.

The briefcase was designed to be filmed from two angles - depending on whether it was in the garden or on the lab workbench. Economies were made with the drainpipe, which was simply black drapes.

If there's a fault with the sets and props, it is that sometimes there is an issue with scale. Not everything seems to be at the same scale in relation to other props, or to the actual studio fixtures and fittings. The sink is an impressive set, built on a raised stage to allow the Doctor and Susan to climb down the plug-hole - but looks to be a lot shallower than the real thing.

We see the teachers standing in front of a rack of test tubes, and the tubes themselves are clearly not to scale, being far too big. This is one of those photographic effects. Compare with the size of the book of litmus papers they find, which is a physical prop, which is properly to scale with the actors.

Some dialogue was cut from this episode at the rehearsal stage. Barbara was to have suggested looking in the briefcase for a clue as to what was going on, and there was also a discussion between the two teachers about why the people would not be able to hear them shouting, and why they in turn couldn't make out what the "giants" were saying.

Trivia:

• The working title for this episode was "Death in the Afternoon". This derives from the 1932 Ernest Hemingway non-fiction work about bullfighting.
• The ratings remain as they were for the first episode, and there is even a small increase in the AI figure.
• The fly was not made for this story - being a prop left over from another production, like last week's ant.
• You'll notice that the fly's shadow can still be seen in front of Barbara after it is supposed to have flown away (achieved by sound effects only).
• The Doctor urges his companions not to look into the cat's eyes - whilst staring intently into the cat's eyes...
• The cat had the name "Sammy" in the draft scripts.
• Ordinarily, the bodies of dead characters were not seen in subsequent episodes to save money on having to rehire the actor. If it did have to be seen then a still photograph or an extra might take its place. However, despite having been shot dead in the previous instalment, Frank Crawshaw was required to feature in this episode as the body of Farrow had to be examined and moved.