The Sensorites

They All Look Alike To Me

The Sensorites* (6 X 25mins B&W)

Written by Peter R. Newman

Doctor Who Series one Serial seven

Strangers in Space transmitted BBC1 20 June 1964

The Unwilling Warriors transmitted BBC1 27 June 1964

Hidden Danger transmitted BBC1 11 July 1964**

A Race Against Death transmitted BBC1 18 July 1964

Kidnap transmitted BBC1 25 July 1964

A Desperate Venture transmitted BBC1 1 August 1964

* Note: until 1966 Doctor Who serials had no overall title, instead each episode had its own title.

** Postponed from the previous week due to Wimbledon.

Synopsis

The TARDIS lands but is still in motion. They discover they've landed on a spaceship in orbit of a planet. They find the two crewmembers catatonic near death. Reviving them, they're informed that they've been under psychic attack, inducing fear and paranoia, from the Sensorites, they who live on the Sense-Sphere planet, then reduced to a near death state. One member has been reduced to a dangerous psychotic state so they've locked him away. Yet they also remember the Sensorites coming aboard to water and feed them. Such curious behaviour seems inexplicable, but when the Doctor discovers the Sensorites have stolen the TARDIS lock mechanism, they must brave the perils of the Sense-Sphere.

Review

This is the first adventure where the TARDIS lands on a spaceship, and for the first two episodes has a nice sense of psychological unease and inexplicable bizarreness, like an episode of The Twilight Zone. It's then all ruined once we see the Sensorites themselves, and go down to the planet. They're just not scary, and since we get no visual representation of the fear and terror they can telepathically conjure, mainly due to budget and technical constraints, we instead get a lot of talking. Moreover, as Carol points out, without their sashes of office they all look alike, especially from the back, a point I must concur with, even vocally they all merge into one, not helped by the actors doubling up parts.

The themes of the story are interesting, the fear of outsiders (and of exploitation by them) from the Sensorites, and the perils of a caste system where individuals are only distinguished by tokens of rank. But Peter Newman's script (and it's interesting to note its his sole Doctor Who story) doesn't realise these very well. The Sensorites are described as gentle and pacifistic (they're overcome by darkness or loud noises) yet capable of telepathic violence. Also, the chief villain of the piece conveniently ignores this cultural trait. Secondly, even though the humans might not be able to physically differentiate the Sensorites, all cultural anthropology shows that the members of a culture and racial group can always do so. Okay the plebs might not know who the City Administrator might be by sight, but all the action on the Sense-Sphere apart from the aqueduct scenes take place in the Palace, so everyone who works there would know. This script should have been about the dangers of imperial colonialism, all the themes are there, but instead it wastes four episodes on a dull story.

Another interesting feature is Susan's newfound telepathic powers that so quickly and conveniently disappear at the end. At least in this story she's proactive and mature, and not the impetuous scream teen she too often was reduced to. She even notices at the beginning of the story how Ian and Barbara have changed since their first adventure, getting into the spirit of things, and then, conveniently for new viewers, gives a brief breakdown of the previous adventures. 

Another deficit of Newman's script (and here script editor David Whitaker must share some of the blame) is that the denouement is rushed, it doesn't start until halfway through the last episode, when it should have been set up in the previous episode and used as that week's cliff-hanger (and the cliff-hangers here are pretty forgettable). Oh, and this time its Jacqueline's turn for a two weeks holiday as Barbara is conveniently left on the orbiting spaceship for two episodes. 

All in all, an interesting premise is abandoned for a bog-standard evil villain plot. The show ran late once and was even cancelled by Wimbledon, so it's no wonder the viewing figures dropped to their lowest. After this failure of a story, Doctor Who needed a fresh serve.

TARDIS rating: 2/5

Credits

Dr. Who .................................................................................... WILLIAM HARTNELL

Ian Chesterton .......................................................................... WILLIAM RUSSELL

Barbara Wright ......................................................................... JACQUELINE HILL

Susan Foreman .......................................................................  CAROLE ANN FORD

John .......................................................................................... STEPHEN DARTNELL

Carol ......................................................................................... ILONA RODGERS

Maitland .................................................................................... LORNE COSSETTE

1st Sensorite ............................................................................ KEN TYLLSEN 

2nd Sensorite ........................................................................... PETER GLAZE

3rd Sensorite ............................................................................ ARTHUR NEWALL

4th Sensorite ............................................................................ DAVID ANDERSON

First Elder ................................................................................. ERIC FRANCIS

Second Elder ............................................................................ BATRLETT MULLINS

Commander .............................................................................. JOHN BAILEY

First Human .............................................................................. MARTYN HUNTLEY

Second Human ......................................................................... GILES PHIBBS

Title Music ........................... by RON GRAINER with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop

Incidental Music Composed and Conducted by ................. NORMAN KAY

Story Editor ......................................................................... DAVID WHITAKER

Designer ............................................................................. RAYMOND P. CUSICK

Costumes Supervised ........................................................ by DAPHNE DARE

Make-up Supervised .......................................................... by JILL SUMMERS

Associate Producer ............................................................ MERVYN PINFIELD

Producer ............................................................................. VERITY LAMBERT

Directed (episodes 1-4) ...................................................... by MERVYN PINFIELD

Directed (episodes 5-6) ...................................................... by FRANK COX

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