"I had no idea water could taste that good."
This one is an oddity.
This was originally a four part story. I've read that they actually filmed four episodes and then decided that the pace was too slow in the final two episodes. They ended up editing the two together into one. From what I understand they threw out the parts that they didn't use.
It does go quickly.
The Doctor and Susan survive by hiding in the overflow pipe. This is a cheat cliffhanger. Last episode we saw Smithers wash his hands, filling the sink and then drain the water presumably right down onto the two aliens. The situation was resolved this episode by showing what the Doctor and Susan did a few seconds before the cliffhanger. They certainly had time to do it, but it feels wrong to me somehow. It's a problem that goes back to the original video cliffhangers, the movie serials. It won't be the last time that Doctor Who is guilty of this.
Two new characters are introduced, the Grange telephone operator and her husband (I presume) the local constable. The operator gets suspicious when Forrester calls Whitehall pretending to be the deceased ministry man. She knows the ministry man's voice and while Forrester covering the receiver with a towel is enough to fool Whitehall it is not enough to fool a simple country busybody.
The travelers discover the notebook of the ministry man and manage to map it out. What they find is shocking; DN6 is capable of destroying all animal life in time.
Barbara passes out again, but this time it is explicitly stated that it's due to the poison working it's way through her system.
To Barbara's credit she realizes that she is dieing, but still wants to stop DN6 from being released. Instead of heading back to the ship the travelers try to sabotage the lab and hopefully bring attention to it.
They manage to get a phone off it's hook, but can't communicate once they do so. They also make an aerosol can explode.
It doesn't seem as thought the travelers are really needed in this one though. Maybe the phone coming off the hook was the straw that broke the camel's back and made the operator pretend to be routing an incoming call to the ministry man so that she and the constable could compare the voices of the ministry man and Forrester.
Or maybe she would have done it anyway.
For all the trouble blowing up the aerosol can, the only effect was to blind Forrester long enough for Smithers to take his gun. The constable was just a few feet ahead of them though.
The Doctor shows a positive streak for vandalism in this one. His desire to start a fire can't help but make me think ahead to his time with Nero later in the season.
Lighting the gas jet to blow up the insecticide can was well done. Ian and Susan with their battering ram sized matchstick made a sight.
Bringing a seed with them was an excellent way to signify that they the travelers had returned to normal size. Otherwise the episode would have had to have ended with the travelers guessing that they had returned to normal (after all Barbara is feeling much better) or leaving the TARDIS to compare and contrast. The seed seemingly shrinking as the TARDIS and her crew return to normal is the best option in my opinion.
The supporting cast never rose above cliche in this one. It's not the kind of story that NEEDS it, but something more could have been done with the five guest characters,
On the whole I wish that they had kept this story as four parts. This was definitely the weakest of the three episodes. Then again, maybe we would have just had two weak episodes.
Next up: World's End
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