The Sensorites [Doctor Who, Story 7]

The Sensorites by Peter R. Newman

20 June - 1 August 1964

Well, I don’t see what all the fuss was about.

Before even getting into the story proper, the writer’s credit made me curious, since I didn’t recognize the name. I was equal parts amused, impressed, and a little terrified that Doctor Who fans had not only tracked down biographical details of Newman, apparently known as one of the program’s most obscure writers, but had made a documentary about him. Who fans will really go to the ends of the earth to chronicle its production history, won’t they? I’m glad Mr. Newman got some recognition for his work on the program, brief though it might have been.

All in all, I fail to see this as a marathon sinker; true, it dragged in some of the later half, but it’s hardly the worst offender so far in that regard (Daleks…). The first two episodes were quite good, and the rest weren’t bad either. I see shades of things to come in The Sensorites, and not just because of their obvious influence on the Ood. The TARDIS crew turning up on a human spaceship in the far future and getting drawn into the politics of a misunderstood race of alien beings sounds quite a bit like The Frontier in Space to me. All of these story conceits will prove to be common in the program going forward, but they’re all novel here. This proves to be another bizarre case of backwards deja vu where I’m seeing things for the millionth time when they’re actually brand new. This must be how River Song feels.

Like some other six-parters, this one seems to broadly be split between one subplot in the first two episodes, and another in the last four. The first, on Maitland’s spaceship, is by far the better half of the serial, with the creepy, claustrophobic atmosphere setting the alien tone of the story in a way which the back four episodes fail to deliver upon in some respects. My only real complaint about the spacebound portion of the story is that the sound mix is occasionally a little overpowering and the high-pitched noise the Sensorite ships made was annoying. Special mention goes to Stephen Dartnell as John, who frankly acts circles around Maitland and Carol throughout the serial but especially in the first two episodes. Also interesting is the fact that Maitland seems to take Barbara and Ian’s status as time travelers totally in stride. I’m not sure if there’s meant to be an implication that time travel is more or less normal in the 28th century (hey, it is in Star Trek), or if I’m reading too much into it. Susan also gets some far better moments here than before, and frankly this is the first time since An Unearthly Child that she’s shown serious promise as a character. The exploration of her psychic abilities is very neat. I can’t help but to notice the Doctor’s line where he claims to be able to read some of Ian’s thoughts. It comes across as a joke, but it’s interesting when you consider that he turns out to be actually telepathic some time later. Her row with the Doctor picks up on some threads left hanging by the first episode, way back when; his proclamation that he and Susan have “never had an argument” is frankly kind of ridiculous, but I think we’re meant to realize as much. The only drawback to this plot thread is that Susan seems to be depressingly quick to back down and acquiesce to her grandfather’s point of view.

Anyway, the Sense-Sphere is cool, albeit a downgrade after the cool spaceship scenes earlier on. The sets look nice, and the Sensorite costumes do too, even if they look a little less convincing on a brightly-lit set than they did on the spaceship. The revelation in the last episode that human holdouts skulking around in the sewer was a very good twist, all told; I certainly didn’t see it coming. Evidently Newman based this story in part on his experiences as a POW in a Japanese camp in Burma during the Second World War, but the only parallel that comes to mind in this story are the three humans in the aqueduct and their tragically prolonged “war” against the Sensorites. The main storyline about the Administrator’s plot to overthrow the First Elder is a little tough to follow. My chief complaint would be that despite having all the time in the world to wrap things up neatly, its resolution gets crammed into the last five minutes of the serial and we don’t even get to see him get his comeuppance aside as the subject of a brief line from the First Elder. If this had been paced a little better and wrapped up in a more satisfactory way, I feel this would have been a stronger serial overall. Decent story though it is, its most noteworthy point remains the fact that it signals things to come.

The Reign of Terror is behead of us!

Memorable Dialogue

“Yes, it all started out as a mild curiosity in a junkyard, and now it's turned out to be quite a great spirit of adventure, don't you think?”

“I don't make threats. But I do keep promises. And I promise you I shall cause you more trouble than you bargained for!”

“At night the sky is a burned orange, and the leaves on the trees are bright silver...”

“All they had left was the game they played. The game of war.”

Miserable Dialogue

None!

(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 20 January 2018.)