Previously on Next Episode… Planet of Giants | Dangerous Journey | Crisis

‘It’s our duty to stop the destruction of a whole planet.’ I can see why the story, rather than The Dalek Invasion of Earth, was held back to open the second season. It provides some great character moments and a chance for all four regulars to work together to save the planet in a rather more intimate way than in Nation’s War of the Worlds epic.

Plus, returning Ian and Barbara to their own time is a good hook (and means both Season One and Two begin in contemporary England). Making them an inch tall becomes a neat twist, and by linking Barbara’s survival directly to their ability to get back to the TARDIS and leave for – who knows where? – it removes any possibility that this is journey’s end.

I enjoy the Doctor saving present-day Earth for the first time – without the help of UNIT, just a local bobby, a nosey phone operator, and some creative laboratory work. Hartnell is magnificent in this (perhaps responding to Douglas Camfield’s direction), both utterly determined to win against the odds, and delighted in his own ingenuity. ‘There’s nothing like a good fire,’ he cackles – first a Kentish cottage, tomorrow Nero’s Rome. Indomitable in shirt sleeves, waistcoat and cravat, he looks like a flash forward to Season 14 Tom Baker.

But I can see why this episode and Crisis were merged – largely, I think, to remove some of the more tiresome scenes from the third episode (a choice several later serials would have benefited from). The reconstructed four-episode version restores a handful of great lines (mostly the Doctor and Barbara’s focus on the bigger picture, while Ian and Susan are more focused on the pressing personal problems), and it’s lovely to hear Ford and Russell joined by voice artists John Guilor and Katherine Mount (putting some of Big Finish’s recasts to shame).

However, it also reintroduces some unnecessary faff rather than cutting to the chase, and way too much squabbling between Forester and Smithers – not helped by a lack of useful footage meaning any time Forester talks we’re treated to the same close-up.

So, in the end I think it was the right decision to cut this down to three episodes – the story doesn’t suffer for it, and the broadcast version provides a much punchier introduction to Season Two. Clever, as well, to finish a story that has, for the first time, contemplated the destruction of all life on Earth with the ominous caption:

Next Episode: World’s End