Doctor Who retro review: The Sensorites (First Doctor story)

On Thursday, we looked at the Tenth Doctor’s adventure on the Ood-Sphere in Planet of the Ood. Today, we look at First Doctor’s adventure on the Sense-Sphere in The Sensorites.

In Planet of the Ood, the Tenth Doctor commented that he hadn’t been in that star system for a long time. How long? Well, when he visited the Sense-Sphere in The Sensorites, he was still in his First incarnation. In fact, he was still travelling with the first TARDIS team seen in Doctor Who!

The Sensorites is a little bit different from other Doctor Who stories featuring aliens. The titular race of the story aren’t aggressive invaders as a whole. But they’re not altogether peaceful, either.

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They want to protect their world, and will use any means they have to do so. But they will avoid killing as much as possible. On the whole, the race feels more fleshed out and three-dimensional than others in Doctor Who.

Some of the humans, on the other hand, don’t feel quite so realistic. When they meet the TARDIS team, they’re not remotely surprised that they come from a different century. At all. Their reaction is a very surprising one, really. It could be explained as them being under mental attack so much.

Then again, it’s more easily explained that it’s just the way some stories were told in that era. In the earliest days of Doctor Who, the series was more focused on exploration. The Doctor didn’t have all the answers at this point. After all, he’s still seeing much of the universe for the first time. So The Sensorites fits that, even if it presents humans of the future as more used to the idea of time travel than later in the series.

The original team

It’s also interesting seeing how close the TARDIS team are, at this point in the series. When the First Doctor originally met Ian and Barbara, there was complete distrust between all three of them.

The Doctor was very selfish and stubborn in his younger (or should that be older?) years. He also had his granddaughter Susan to look after and protect. So it took a long time for the crew to bond and like each other.

But by the time of The Sensorites, they’ve become a very close group of people. It even gets acknowledged at the start at how much they’ve all enjoyed both the journey and each other’s company. Sometimes, Doctor Who was ahead of its time, and this sense of continuity and development showed that.

However, in other ways, it’s of course quite dated. For example, like many six-part stories, The Sensorites is very slow paced. Particularly in its first two episodes, when the crew are stuck on a human spaceship. There’s an intriguing mystery at first, but the portion on the spaceship does tend to drag later on.

Things pick up in the third episode when the crew arrive on the Sense-Sphere, at least. Especially as they crew face two entirely separate threats. One from a disease spread across the city. The other from a Sensorite eager for more power. Having this dual threat to face makes the longer length pass by easier.

The alien creatures known as the Sensorites.

Photo credit: Doctor Who/BBC

Image obtained from: www.radiotimes.com

So many fluffs

But the biggest way it’s dated? Editing. Specifically, how there’s not enough of it to cover up the little mistakes.

Back in the Sixties, editing was much more difficult at the BBC. Especially as everyone was on a very tight schedule of filming one episode a week. Considering there were over forty episodes in just the first season of Doctor Who, that’s a lot of work!

As a result, tiny mistakes would get ignored. And, in The Sensorites, there are many. Not just by Hartnell, who was infamous for misreading his lines. But by many other actors too. Most of the guest cast makes a tiny mistake with their line before correcting it.

While mistakes were common during this period, The Sensorites has to have one of the highest number of fluffs in a Doctor Who story!

However, despite all of the little mistakes and fluffed lines, The Sensorites is still a decent story overall. If you enjoy it one episode at a time, and want to see a story where the aliens aren’t the villains of the piece (well, not overall, anyway), then The Sensorites is not a bad story to watch. Not the best from the iconic first season, but still a good serial.

Next: Should the Ood come back in future series?

Have you watched The Sensorites? What did you make of it? Are there other First Doctor stories that you prefer? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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