The Ambassadors of Death

""The man's a fool. How can I possibly tell who the message is from until I know what it says? Let me explain this to you in simple terms!"

In another series The Ambassadors of Death (one of those stories I'm sure I've seen, but have no memory of doing so) would have been a stand out. But with Spearhead from Space and Doctor Who and the Silurians on one side and Inferno on the other, it's the weakest story of season seven. But that doesn't mean it's a dud; far from it. I know I'm critical of the Pertwee era in general but I always like the gritty approach the series took up to The Mind of Evil. So to my mind this is one of the better Pertwee stories.

There is a lot to like about The Ambassadors of Death. Production wise there's a lot going for it with some of the best action sequences seen up to that point. But I was let down when I saw the Ambassadors themselves. After many years of seeing the aliens in all their glory it was somewhat disappointing that all you see of them outside their spacesuits is a brief glimpse of their captain behind what looks like a Venetian blind. It's other problem is that it's about three episodes too long and the story does show signs of perhaps having too many cooks? (despite on-screen credit going to David Whittaker at least three other writers that I'm aware of had a go of knocking this into shape). But it also has one of the best series climax's with the Doctor stating he understands General Carrington's (such as he was as the story's villain) motives and allowing him to keep his dignity.

One interesting bit of trivia in the documentary that accompanies this story: director Michael Ferguson taking claim for being the first person to use the "scream" leading into the closing title music to punctuate the cliffhanger. Unless someone can prove otherwise, we now know who to thank for this tradition.

Planet of Giants

Do you know why I'm a success Mr Farrow? It's because I've never allowed the word "can't" to exist.

Planet of Giants was a story I'd heard much about but had never seen. I left with mixed views about it. The effects used to depict the TARDIS crew in their miniaturised state were very effective. And William Hartnell and company are as good as ever. But the plot itself didn't strike me as being a Doctor Who story. I can also understand why it was edited down from a four part story to a three part one as the plot moves at snails pace. Episode three is probably the strongest of the three for that, being an amalgamation of both the original episodes three and four. It also marked the first time Douglas Camfield directed Doctor Who and you can see his hand at work. But other than that it's a pretty bland story.