With Marvel’s Ant-Man currently in cinemas, we present our rundown of the situations where the Doctor and his friends have encountered that shrinking feeling…
‘Planet of Giants’
After an accident on materialisation, the original TARDIS crew find themselves shrunken to an inch tall. It does not stop them getting involved in stopping an ecological crisis as they manage to prevent the launch of a deadly new insecticide.
One of the show’s first ideas, it was first mooted in planning stages and finally made it to the screen at the start of its second season, albeit truncated from the originally planned four to three episodes.
‘Night Terrors’
Subject to the emergent powers of a frightened child, first Amy and Rory and then the Doctor himself were reduced in size and trapped in a dolls house.
Thankfully the Doctor was able to calm the fears of George the Tenza, with the assurance of his father’s love, and save his companions from becoming peg dolls.
Honourable mention: The Master’s Tissue Compression Eliminator
While the modern version of the Master showed no predilection for shrinking things, preferring to use his Laser Screwdriver to age the Doctor instead, it was a staple of the show in the 1970’s and 80’s. The dastardly Time Lord often used his deadly Tissue Compression Eliminator to make shrunken corpses of his victims.
In his first appearance, the Master’s gruesome calling card was used to hide the body of a scientist in a lunchbox, and by the time he assumed his Anthony Ainley form, he was at it all the time. Horrifically, he murdered Tegan’s Aunt Vanessa in this fashion.
Of course, the device was not perfect. In ‘Planet of Fire’ an accident when attempting to improve the device caused the Master to shrink himself and he was forced to seek the healing powers of Sarn’s Numismaton Gas to restore his full size.
What’s your favourite miniaturisation story? Let us know below…