Over the top ambition on a DW budget. This looks like an obvious idea.... and the execution is not great, either then or 54 years later.
This had a troubled production history. Originally conceived as a series 1 opener then made as a 4 parter for the start of series 2, the interfering executives forced the DW Office to cut down ep 3 and 4 to a single episode. This lead to a spare episode in the budget which appeared at the start of series 3 (even though it was made at the end of series 2). We now know that as Mission to the Unknown.
The surviving episode 3 is Douglas Camfield's first director credit. That guy will be back...
The acting from the main characters is somewhat stilted I think.
The script has a weird dual tracked structure. And both strands are talkie-talkie-talkie.
Forester, Farrow and Smithers conduct the dumbest, slowest murder ever (and get caught by the village telephonist and her boyfriend the country bumpkin PC). Fascinating.
The Tardis crew walk around a garden, up a water pipe and amongst several items scattered on a lab bench and achieve rather little except escaping a few giant insects and a cat, and then setting fire to the place before getting a dose of the pesticide and escaping. Rivetting.
Notably the themes and the SF are obviously inspired by Silent Spring by Rachel Carson https://tinyurl.com/hwt6d2g which was an important early work in environmental science, regularly cited by Carl Sagan, David Suzuki and Paul Erlich among many others.
It's worth remembering that all that "deadly pesticides killing everything shock/horror" idea was actually radical in 1964. In the 50's and 60's chemicals that you would be shocked to hear about were used in quantities that would stun you, casually and for purposes you wouldn't dream of. And most people would have neither known nor cared.
These days the themes of Planet of Giants including commercial/corporate denialism just seem at once both tame and naive, even cliched. And still too many people neither know or care.
ABM Rating 2.50/4.00
LJM Rating 3.00/5.00
SPJ Rating 6.50/10.00
Peak Ranking No. 4 (out of 9)
Link to Cumulative Rankings
Link to Rankings Scoreboard
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