1.7: The Sensorites

In which we learn the colonialism is bad, and exasperated aliens resort to accessorising to help us tell them apart.

Broadcast: June-August 1964

Watched: May-June 2019

1. Strangers In Space

...is really good. I did not expect that. 

I don’t remember this one at all – honestly, I have only the vaguest idea of where it’s going – so that was a nice surprise. It’s tense and strange and totally different to anything we’ve seen yet.

Which brought home the fact that… this is the first trip to the future isn’t it? The sci-fi ones until now have been alien worlds: this is the first time we meet future humans. Maitland seems not only un-phased by time travel, he works it out for himself. First bit of future world-building too – good to know from the reference to Central City that my campaign against the green belt will one day win out.

The Sensorite looks like Uncle Albert. John looks like the bastard lovechild of David Tennant and Thom Yorke. Also, my image of the Voord is actually of the Sensorites and I am completely unable to shift this misconception. 

Banging through it like this gives you a real sense of the range of early Doctor Who, and you know what? It is good. I can see why people watched it.

2. The Unwilling Warriors

Not a lot to say. The plot moves on quite a lot – we meet the Sensorites, find out what they’re after, etc. – but it doesn’t feel like enough, and the tense spooky stuff isn’t enough to sustain it. Maybe it would work better if I hadn’t watched it straight after the last one.

The Sensorites really were a huge influence on the Ood though weren’t they? No wonder RTD decided they were related.

3. Hidden Danger

Actually watched this without writing anything down, but now I’ve got this f***ing completism thing going on, so dammit, let’s see if I can remember what I thought or, indeed, anything else.

The title is quite nice because you sort of think it refers to the city administrator – is this the only Doctor Who story with an evil mayor in it? – when actually it’s Ian’s cough. Which is hilarious.

The sashes to show which Sensorite are which are silly but a practical solution to a problem, that is, the fact they all look identical. The scene in which the boss Sensorite explains the sashes is just ridiculous.

Susan arguing with the Doctor is interesting. Barbara says “She’s growing up”, so it’s tempting to read this as a point on the journey to her deciding to leave the TARDIS – but that’s reading history backwards, isn’t it? They didn’t have character development then, they hadn’t decided Susan was leaving, Susan doesn’t really decide to leave. It’s just a way of creating some drama.

Anyway, the most interesting thing here, for a certain value of interesting, is the imperial subtext. Humans arrived seeking to exploit natural resources and accidentally wipe out half the population with a disease, and now they’re a bit baffled that the Sensorites don’t much like them. In 1964 this was still almost contemporary, wasn’t it? Was “imperialism is actually bad” a mainstream view at this point, or a radical one?

4. A Race Against Death

When I told Jim I couldn’t remember much about The Sensorites, so “Anything could happen”, he replied, “Whatever happens, it’ll happen extremely slowly” and bloody hell. After an intriguing opening this one gets really dreary doesn’t it?

Anyway. The fact the boring sash stuff turns into an actual plot point is ridiculous. The search for the cure doesn’t take very long at all, which makes me wonder whether Sensorites are actually a bit rubbish at science. Also, the fact they can’t cope with darkness or noise, and won’t go to large parts of their own city, is very silly indeed.

First use of a montage in Doctor Who?

That’s it, I’ve run out of thoughts, it was boring.

5. Kidnap

Spent the whole of this one wondering who had been kidnapped. Bit odd to name it after something that happens in the last shot of the episode.

I like the business with the Doctor’s cloak, and his name-dropping Beau Brummell. Nice that they gave Barbara the week off.

Again, though, it’s sort of frustrating that the creepy strangeness of the first couple of episodes is forgotten and you just get men in identical rubber costumes plotting against each other.

Actually though – I think this is the first time Doctor Who gets meta, isn’t it? All the stuff about how you can’t tell the costumes apart. Susan laughing at the idea of a Sensorite running. It’s the first time we’re seeing the show mocking its own limitations.

Still not much fun to watch, mind. Only one episode left but I just can’t bring myself to do it right now.

[It is at roughly this point in my journey that I start thinking of, say, really good Jon Pertwee stories I'm really looking forward to, and then despairing at quite how many months away they currently are.]

6. Desperate Venture

The fact the ploy of making Carol write a letter works for precisely *no seconds* is hilarious. So is Barbara’s “I’m back now, I’ve got no time for your bullshit” attitude. So is the way when Ian sees something moving in the dark and the sinister music starts playing, the Doctor’s response is to roll up a map as a weapon. AND the scene where they’re surrounded and each of them thinks there’s only one guy there. This episode is really funny isn’t it?

The first elder sooo fancies Barbara.

It’s the speech from Gridlock!!! Is this the first time the Doctor and Susan are explicitly aliens?

It’s also sort of interesting that the humans get used in a local power struggle. Can’t decide if this is another satire of imperialism, or an inversion of it. The contrast between the civilised Sensorites and the savage humans in the tunnel is quite interesting, too. Oh wait these guys are talking like it’s 1889 and they’re scrambling for Africa, it’s definitely a satire on imperialism. The way they give up the *literal second* the Sensorites appear is hilarious, too.

The Doctor’s decision to throw Ian and Barbara off the TARDIS for being mean about his driving is totally unconvincing. It comes out of nowhere over nothing, it’s just fake peril to create a cliffhanger.

Anyway. Fairly mixed story, that one. Some bits were really good. Some were so dull I barely got through it. Thematically ambitious though, even if the beginning and the ending aren’t really talking to each other.