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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Planet of the Giant Ants?, March 25, 2004
"What have we got? Echoes, interference, gold, and now acid. Yes, similar properties to formic acid. It's strange, isn't it?" says the Doctor on the planet Vortis, on which the TARDIS has been forced to land. It's a dark and forbidding place, dotted with mesas and plateaus.The Zarbi, gigantic ants, with larvae guns, sowbug-looking creatures with a long snout that shoot lethal bolts of electricity, terrorize the Doctor and his friends. Trying to regain their planet are the Menoptera, gentle butterfly-like creatures. Controlling the Zarbi is the Animus, whose deep, malevolent female voice, is one of the well-realized aspects of the show. The Doctor is forced to discover the plans of the Menopteran invasion force so the Zarbi can defeat them. Young Vicki helps him and her actions here, unintended or not, shows her to be more resourceful compared to his wimpy granddaughter Susan. One piece of dialogue that'll make one either cringe or laugh is the Doctor's demand to the Animus re its ceiling-built tube-like communication unit: "Drop down this hairdryer or whatever it is." The reason why some may consider this story to be one of the worst is the realization of the Zarbi, but these steel and fibreglass-constructed insects are great, unless you have to be one. The rearmost legs, closest to the tail, are the actors, and John Scott Martin, who played one of them, said that one couldn't stand upright because the tail was longer than the actor. The only way to stand upright was to get on a one-foot riser block and place the tail over the block's end. The subterranean grub-like Optera are clearly laughable, the actors jumping up and down and grunting away, but their pale makeup indicate their time spent underground, and the hopping showing their evolutionary regression. But the Menoptera costumes are simply wonderful, black bodysuits with strips of yellow fur, and wings with the veins painted black that could flap a full five feet from wingtip to wingtip with a hidden mechanism. The actors playing the Menoptera adapt mime-like hand gestures hinting at a more feeling aspect of the race. In looking at the name of the giant insectoids, it's clear the storywriting team looked to entomology. There are the Zarbi, who are giant ants, the Menoptera, who look like butterflies, but have bee-like stripes, and then their subterranean evolutionary offshoot, the Optera. Well, ants and bees are all under the insect order Hymenoptera. Another interesting aspect is the name of the enemy. It's called the Animus, which means bitter hostility or hatred. However, the Menoptera see it more medical terms, by calling its headquarters the Carcinome. Vrestin tells Ian that the Animus appeared and grew like a fungus. In other words, they see it as a malignant cancer on the world of Vortis. And the Living Cell Destructor, or Isop Tope, is analogous to an isotope that kills cancer. For people raised on Star Wars or Jurassic Park, the visuals may seem lame, but as an experimental story, it works wonders. One of the most imaginative stories, and an attempt to see how weird Dr. Who could get. Ratings for this story averaged 12.5 million viewers, and Episode 1 charted at #7, the lowest-rating one at #14, so not bad at all!
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