 | Doctor Who and the Sensorites |
Story 007
20 June -1 August 1 1964
Sandwiched between two fantastic historical adventures (The Aztecs and Reign of Terror), the Sensorites has a reputation for being dull and uninteresting. However, there are a number of remarkable aspects to this six-parter that are worth noting. Written by Peter R. Newman, this story reads like a proto-Star Trek script more than Doctor Who with cardboard astronauts and aliens to match. Expositionary dialog is all over the place as characters are more than happy to act as walking encyclopedias, giving whole swathes of data with a smile.
Nevertheless, this story does feature an unusual opening sequence in which the TARDIS crew recount their previous adventures (as if bringing the audience up to speed), a strange decision given that only script editor David Whitaker would have thought to have included this little touch. It also acknowledges that all four characters have changed somewhat from the people they were in the opening episode. Ian and Barbara are no longer whinging prisoners and are now willing companions on the Doctor's craft while the Doctor himself has warmed to his new passengers and softened from his crotchety and shifty persona into a more heroic figure. The only character who has remained more or less static is Susan, whom neither the writers nor actress Carol Anne Ford can seem to get a handle on.
Following this opening dialog, the Doctor and his companions exit the TARDIS, but rather than simple cutting to the other side of the Police Box prop, this time the cameras follow the actors through the interior doors. It's a little thing, but it makes a big impact as a visual shift.
Outside the TARDIS, the Doctor is stunned to find that they are not only in a space craft but that the crew are dead. After a thorough examination, the travelers decide to depart from the grim scene but are startled when the astronauts suddenly come back to life. They soon discover that the craft is an expeditionary mission to investigate a planet called 'the Sense-Sphere' which is populated by a xenophobic race of telepaths. Once in orbit, the Earth craft has been frozen in its path, trapped by the Sensorites on the planet below. The two crew members, Maitlaind and Carol have been living a nightmarish existence, dropping in and out of consciousness while the Sensortites hold them in a powerful mental trap. But their biggest problem is a third member of the crew, John, who has been driven insane by the Sensorites' attacks and sealed in the aft of the ship. Barbara and Susan make contact with him and make a kind of peace with him, but it's clear that John is lost.
The Doctor soon becomes involved in a very complicated affair between the humans and the Senorites. It appears that after John discovered that the Sense Sphere contained a valuable mineral molybdenum, his greed was like a wild yell to the telepathic race who, in seeking to quiet him, drove him insane. Perfectly understandable... I guess. When a pair of Sensorites arrive to perform a periodical check-up of the astronauts, they find the TARDIS and remove its lock to prevent it from being a threat. This has to be the weirdest plot contrivance to keep the Doctor and his companions in the story and it also flies in the face of previous and forthcoming stories that present the Doctor's ship as impenetrable. But this is still the early days of the program and analysis of the stories 40 years on was certainly not a possibility that the production team had anticipated.
The Sensorites establish a psychic rapport with Susan, who promptly rebels against her grandfather and attempts to offer herself up as a trade so that the others can be free from harm. Ian and Barbara stand by the Doctor who is furious at Susan's behavior. Given that Hartnell had a unique perspective of Carol Anne Ford as being a young child, the performance is very strong and convincing! After discussing the matter further, a compromise is made. One of the Sensorites will remain on the spaceship with Barbara and Maitlaind while the rest go down to the planet. It's not an arbitrary decision that leads to the Doctor travelling to the Sense-Sphere. The Sensorites have been dying off by a mysterious illness that they hope the Doctor can cure. The stolen lock hints at a technology and intelligence far beyond what the alien race can fathom.
The Sensorites are eager to gloss over their mistakes and make peace with the humans so that they can benefit from the Doctor's superior intellect, but there a lot of internal politics that make this very difficult. The Elders of the Sensorite race are very philosophical, but the City Administrator is driven by what appears to be a strong sense of duty to defend his people. It's up to the Doctor to make a case for the humans as being misunderstood and harmless and cure their illness while one of the aliens plots a violent revolution during all of the confusion.
When Ian comes down with the mysterious illness that has been killing off the Sensorites, the drama is heightened. The Doctor has to not only find out what is causing the illness, but also avoid the City Administrator's steadily increasing moves toward power. Beset by problems at every side, it takes all of the Doctor's wits to solve this problem without ending up as a casualty in a violent coup for power.
The Doctor and Ian confront the Sensorites
The Sensorites themselves are quite impressive costumes for the 60's and the mouths are cleverly hidden by strange 'old man hair' that seems to grow in all the wrong places. The race is very soft spoken and terribly sensitive to light, a weakness that Ian seizes early on to keep them from taking Susan captive. One of the many plot points involves the fact that all of the Sensorites look alike aside from sashes or collars on their uniforms. Quite why a telepathic race would rely on their eyes to recognize each other is a mystery to me, but it allows the wily revolutionary Sensorite administrator the perfect opportunity to strike.
Trailer
As a six part adventure, it's far too long. In fact, there is a lot of time spent on the spacecraft orbiting the planet that could have easily been cut. The first cliffhanger of a Sensorite creepily hovering by the main view screen must have sent many a child scurrying to his/her bedroom in fear but aside from that there isn't all that much of visual interest. The character of John the mineralogist is interesting and all, but the poor actor is plagued by endless scenes demanding that he froth at the mouth and stare off to convey madness. I quite like the explanation that his extreme emotion left his mind open and overly susceptible to influence, but it goes on for far too long and gets a bit silly in the end.
The Doctor is depicted as a very heroic and brilliant character in this story which I like. Depicting both otherworldly knowledge and common wisdom, this is exactly the kind of Doctor that I like to see; just as likely to rewire alien technology as he is to use a cricket ball to escape a tight spot. Hartnell is in rare form and while he does fluff a few lines, he still exhibits a commanding air of authority that cannot be denied.
He also looks quite dashing in that long black robe, doesn't he?
Strangely, the Sensorites are closely related to the Ood of the new Doctor Who series. Writer Russell T Davies stated that he wanted to evoke the classic monsters with the Ood (something lost on me though I enjoyed the creatures in their first appearance).
The Sensorites has not been released on DVD as yet, but as 2 Entertain is nearing the end of their license, I expect that we will be hearing something soon. It will no doubt be a shame to see the Sensorite masks in a cleaned up image as every tiny flaw will be made all the more clear (a complaint made by Peter Purves regarding the Ark DVD). It's strange to remember that these stories were initially seen on very tiny grainy black and white televisions, without commentary, documentaries or the like.
Hardly one of the best stories from the 60's, the Sensorites was the first step toward what would later develop into the 'hard sci fi' approach in Doctor Who. There are problems involving the acting, costumes and effects but the inspiration to take what was still considered a children's program into the realm of a more sophisticated story is worth recognizing.
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