Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start...

Day Thirty-Six: A Desperate Venture (The Sensorites, Episode Six)

Dear diary;

It's nice to have Barbara back, but this is the first time that one of the regular cast's absences hasn't really worked. In The Keys of Marinus, it didn't feel strange that the Doctor was missing, because the rest of the characters were busy moving from place-to-place anyway. In The Aztecs, Susan gets a few brief scenes in every episode anyway, even if she is separated from the rest of the group.

Here, we see Babs returned as a part of the plot - she's reading the letter Carol was forced to write - and it just feels wrong. The rest of the cast have been down on the Sense Sphere for two-and-a-half episodes, so Barbara feels out of place here. It's even more jarring to have her taking part in the story, which has shifted considerably since we last saw her.

As for the rest of the story; it's been rather good. The story changes route again, as much of the action is set down in the aqueduct, moving us away from the Sensorite city, where things have started getting desperate. When the (former) City Administrator starts making people write letters to explain their absences, it all starts to get a bit too much.

It's a shame, having seen him plotting and scheming for so long, that the entire subplot about his character is swatted away so simply at the end with a very basic 'The map proves his treachery. We'll sort him out'. I was hoping for a grander denouement.

It's something which has become something of a theme with these longer stories - both The Daleks and Marco Polo stretched on for a long time, but the final episode had me wanting more. It always feels as though five episodes are sent setting things up, and then 25 minutes at the end isn't enough to pay it all off. A shame.

Meanwhile, with the Doctor and Ian, I really enjoyed the stuff about the survivors of the previous visit to the Sphere. I'd (sort of) pieced together what was happening in the Aqueduct, so it's nice to see that coming to fruition. What did surprise me, considering my complaints earlier in the story about how obvious the script was (the whole water instance, for example…) is how well it all ties together.

We're told early on that the previous spaceship had blown up when it tried to take off and that they suspected the other humans had stowed away on board. Here, we find that they'd been hiding down in the Aqueduct, and the destruction of the ship was their doing.

The warfare angle is an interesting one, and again, it all ties in to the way we've seen the Sensorite's mind-reading powers affecting John early on in the story. The captain of the little group is particularly fun, and it's a bit of a shame that we only get him for the one episode.

On the whole… The Sensorites is nowhere near as bad as people make it out to be.

There are times - Episode Four, to be precise! - where I thought the reputation this story has gathered over the years was going to turn out to be entirely accurate, but then it manages to swing itself round quite well during the second half.

There's enough variation in the story to keep things interesting. The first two episodes are heavily focussed on the spaceship, before shifting to the city for episodes three, four, and five, and then to the Aqueduct for the final part. The dialogue is possibly the story's biggest failing, but even that improves as time goes on.

One thing, though… What was the 'monster'? Was it just the rebel group of humans trying to keep the Sensorites out of the Aqueduct? Why did they batter up the Doctor's coat if they'd been waiting for a 'human' as a sign that the war was over? That was a bit of a letdown…

Next Episode: A Land of Fear

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start...

Day Thirty-Five: Kidnap (The Sensorites, Episode Five)

Dear diary,

It's strange, really. We're back to a situation where not much happens in this episode, and yet it's held my attention throughout. It looks like the third episode really was just a blip - The Sensorites isn't half bad.

There's quite a lot to love in this episode, too. I enjoyed the continuing schemes of the City Administrator, and the way he turns the death of the Second Elder to his advantage, trying to frame the Doctor was rather good work. As soon as the jacket defence came up, I thought it would be a case of drawing it out a bit to fill some time, so I was glad to see it dealt with immediately.

The whole situation with the jacket is something to praise, actually. In so many episodes (and this isn't something that Doctor Who is uniquely guilty of), our heroes go through all manner of things, and then return to the TARDIS looking as pristine as the moment they stepped out of it. It's quite odd to see the Doctor's jacket torn to shreds, but it's effective.

The only other story to use this to such a good effect is right back in An Unearthly Child - the regulars are all much worse for wear by the end.

It's nice, too, to see them making plans for the return of Jackie Hill in the next episode - I'd worried that she'd either just appear from nowhere, or that she wouldn't turn up until somewhere near the end, when the rest of the cast make it back up to the space ship. I wonder what she's been doing up there all this time?

Something I've been meaning to talk about for a few days (but keep forgetting!) is the TARDIS' role in the stories to this point. In every story (with the obvious exemption of The Edge of Destruction), the Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Susan all have to be forcefully separated from the ship in some way - the story is usually about them trying to get back to the TARDIS.

In An Unearthly Child, they're banged up in the Cave of Skulls. In The Daleks, they can't leave until they get the fluid link back from the Dalek City. Marco Polo has the TARDIS physically taken away from them, and the same is true of The Keys of Marinus, when Arbitan puts it inside a force field until they do his bidding. The Aztecs sees the ship shut away inside the locked tomb, and here the Sensorites steal the lock.

I've mentioned (lots!) how the Doctor has changed over the last month or so, but it's interesting to note how the others have, too. Ian and Barbara are a part of the adventure, now, not just looking to get home (though they do still have that ambition). Susan gives the impression that she's always quite enjoyed the adventures.

The point is; following the Doctor's announcement yesterday that he wasn't content just curing a problem if he could stop it at the source, the idea of having to take the TARDIS away from him is growing less important. We're at a stage, now, where the crew will get involved in the adventures because they want to, not because they're forced to. That's going to be interesting to keep an eye on as we move forward…

Next Episode: A Desperate Venture

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start...

Day Thirty-Four: Race Against Death (The Sensorites, Episode Four)

Dear diary,

It's not something you often see said, but actually, I quite like the design of the Sensorites. No, genuinely! I've been meaning to mention it for a few days now. There's one or two obvious flaws (those feet are very impractical. You'd better hope they never have to run anywhere…), but on the whole it's a good design.

It's quite well realised, too. There's one or two instances where the joins are perfectly visible, but as I've said before, I'm watching a VidFIREd version of this story on a 21.5" iMac screen. This isn't the natural format for this show. On the whole, I really like them.

Shortly before watching this story, I stumbled across a redesign of the creatures on the blog 'Mels Art Stuff'. I really liked it, and I've had it in mind while watching… but it's not a million miles away from what we've got here! It's this exact design with a bit more freedom of budget.

Now then, if that opening has sounded pretty positive, it's because I've enjoyed today's episode! I know! I resolved to go into it with a positive outlook, as assuming it would be like yesterday's installment was going to get me nowhere. It's a good thing, though, because this one's been rather good.

The Doctor very quickly deduces that it's the water infecting the planet, which is good. I'd worried that even after it was so spelt out in the last episode, they'd leave it running as a mystery for a while. The main complaint that I hear about The Sensorites is that it's dull, and I feared that would be because the solution was clear to us long before the characters arrived at it.

And once that deduction is out of the way, the story rattles on at quite a pace! There's even chance for a montage, with the Doctor working on an antidote, Susan caring for Ian, and the Sensorites testing water for the poisons. Part of the fun of watching the montage is seeing everyone get into position ready for the shot to return to them, as cutting was out of the question due to time and budget. Plus, Hartnell pulls some wonderful faces while trying to look as though he's concentrating.

Alongside this, we've got the thoroughly evil City Administrator trying to get rid of 'The Humans' as best he can. There's some interesting parallels to The Aztecs, here, but with the morality angle almost completely removed. There, Tlotoxl was desperate to show up the TARDIS crew as false (when they actually were being), while here, the City Administrator is trying to prove that Ian's 'illness' is false (though it's not).

And then there's the Doctor. His transformation into the character we know and love is pretty much complete, now. He's found the solution for curing Ian, and it can be scaled and applied to the rest of the planet, but that's not enough for him. To quote the Doctor himself; 'Why cure something when we can stamp it out?'. It's great to see him at this stage, finally.

Oh, and then there's even room for a cliffhanger involving a monster! Brilliant!

Next Episode: Kidnap

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start...

Day Thirty-Three: Hidden Danger (The Sensorites, Episode Three)

Dear diary,

Oh, all right, then. This one was a bit of a slog. I'm starting to worry that my desperate attempt to find good in a story usually considered to be terribly dull may be a tougher task than I'd anticipated.

I'm not even completely sure what the problem is. Plenty happens in the episode; they have another encounter with the Sensorites, they leave Barbara on the ship so that Jackie Hill can take a couple of weeks in Spain, we meet another group of Sensorites, and Ian falls victim to the disease that's been wiping them out, as we discover by the filling on of a lot of back story.

Actually, that's it. That's the problem. The 'filling in'. It's not the greatest writing of all, is it? There's a very real attempt to make the Sensorites seem like a three-dimensional race, but it's not done very subtly. Perhaps the worst offender is the scene where two of them set up a disintegrator machine to use against our heroes.

The dialogue between the two is along the lines of 'Is their hurt on the left, or the right? Or is it in the centre, like ours [because we're aliens! See? Aliens! Our hearts are in a strange position! Because we're aliens!]'. As if that wasn't clunky enough, they then decide to set it to the centre anyway. If they have no reason to assume that their hearts wouldn't be in the centre, then why bring it up? Poorly done.

And the disease is none-too-subtle, either. It's actually quite a nice set up, and a good way of shifting the focus of the story slightly for the remaining episodes; the first two were about encountering the Seonsorites, the other four are about curing their ills. Except…

When the Doctor, Ian and Susan are given glasses of water, a big point is made that they've been served the 'basic' water, which is filtered down through an aqueduct from the hills. The Elders don't drink this water, but Ian takes a sip. A few minutes later, a point is made that the disease affects all of the Sensorites. Except the Elders. Who don't drink that water. And then Ian suddenly starts to show symptoms of the illness. Shortly after drinking the water.

I know that Doctor Who is aimed at a family audience with a large number of children watching, but after we've sat through four episodes of The Aztecs, which is rich in history and very deep, this just feels… well. patronising.

The dialogue, aside from being so clunky, continues to be functional as in the last episode. There's even one exchange which goes along the lines of 'But how?' / 'I will explain…'. I think this is the main thing making The Sensorites a bit of a chore now.

Still, we're at the half-way point. Maybe things get better from here as Peter R Newman gets used to writing for the series? Once the world of the Sensorites is set up, he may be able to tell a decent story to keep me hooked…

Next Episode: A Race Against Death

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start...

Day Thirty-Two: The Unwilling Warriors (The Sensorites, Episode Two)

Dear diary,

It's January 2008. I've recently moved out of home for the first time, and I'm living with a fellow Doctor Who fan called Alex. I don't know if Alex reads the 50 Year Diary, but I hope he does. Hi Alex.

Anyway, around the same time, I'd gained a new girlfriend, who when she was back from university on one occasion told me she wanted to watch Doctor Who. Hooray! Good times! What was even better is that she wanted to watch it from the start. Apparently, I was raving about the classic stuff so much, she wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

So the deal was made, we'd watch one story a week, during her couple of days back from uni. We started, of course, with An Unearthly Child, followed by The Daleks (Though I seem to recall skipping most of this one because it was boring!) and then The Edge of Destruction. We skipped Marco Polo, as a description of a recon had met with a stoney stare. For some reason, we ended up skipping The Keys of Marinus and The Aztecs, too. If I had to guess, I'd say that by this stage, she'd given up on wanting to watch them all, and decided to just go for ones she liked the sound of, instead.

So, The Sensorites was the next on the list. I was excited, I'd never seen it before! What's more, living with Alex meant that I suddenly had access to all the Doctor Who stories that I'd never owned on VHS or DVD. The whole library! In the same house as me! I remember setting up The Sensorites in the VHS player (having to take the plastic wrapper off first. Evidently, Alex hadn't ever watched it, either…), watching Episode One, thinking it was quite good, starting Episode Two…

And the tape cut out. The tracking went all weird, then the screen went to static. Fast forwarding back and forth brought some brief images of men in a sewer (I'm guessing that's still to come) and not a whole lot else. We more-or-less gave up on trying to watch the classic ones after that.

The one thing I did get to think at the time, thanks to seeing the first few minutes of this second episode before the tape cut out, has still held true today, though. Basically; 'How does the cliffhanger look so good at the end of Episode One and so stupid at the start of Episode Two?!'. The cliffhanger works so well because of the eerie way that the Sensorite is pawing at the window. Here, he just stands there like an over-familiar neighbour watching you eat dinner through the window.

Thankfully, standing around staring is still very effective when used in the right way - and John is pretty unnerving while he's in contact with the Sensorites. There's something about the way he stares right down the camera lens at us that really jars with what we're used to in the series, so it leaves you feeling a bit on edge. It's one of the things that's saving the story for me.

I can't say I've yet seen why it's got such a reputation among fandom. Sure, it's not the most action-packed of stories, but it's not bad (at least so far). If anything, I found that this episode held my attention even more than the last had. There's some unusual things in here, such as a full two minutes in which only two lines of dialogue are shared, while Ian and Barbara explore the ship looking for the Sensorites.

What does strike me as odd, though, it the way Ian reacts to them. He finds something to use as a weapon, and scares them with it if they try to move. Doesn't he even think to try talking to them? It seems a bit strange, especially given that they're perfectly willing to have a chat just a few minutes later…

So far: not as bad as reputation suggests. It's just bog-standard Doctor Who …

Next Episode: Hidden Danger

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start...

Day Thirty-One: Strangers in Space (The Sensorites, Episode One)

Dear diary,

The Sensorites has a bit of a reputation, doesn't it? It's the 'boring' story of Season One, and one of the most boring ever, supposedly. I've seen it said that many people give up trying to do a Doctor Who marathon while trying to get past these six episodes. A shame, really, because this first episode offers up a lot of promise.

Oh, now, don't get me wrong. Even in this first episode there were a couple of minutes when I noticed my attention wandering (Still, nowhere near as badly as during The Screaming Jungle*…). It's very much a *talking episode, isn't it? But although we've got all these characters talking to each other, none of them are actually saying anything. Whereas The Aztecs was full of lovely dialogue between the cast, this feels much more functional. It's all very much descriptive dialogue.

It's a good thing, then, that this episode sports some of the best direction that we've had in the series to date. Over Christmas recently, BBC Wales was singing praises to the heavens for the shot of Clara entering the TARDIS for the first time, in a camera move that takes us from outside the small box to the inside in one sweeping motion.

Here, though, we've got the opposite - a shot that follows the TARDIS crew from a discussion inside the ship, out through the doors and directly onto the spaceship. As if that wasn't a grand enough moment, Susan then turns back around… to face the police box exterior. It's very well done, so much so that I actively had to skip back on the DVD to watch it again and make sure that my mind hadn't just filled in some gaps itself.

The direction continues to be great throughout, as we see closeups of hands, with the Sensorite removing the TARDIS lock, and then John cutting out the door opening system so that he can stalk Susan and Babs around the corridors. It has to be said, John is one of the most disturbing things we've had in the series. Forget the Daleks, here we've a man staring solely down the camera lens in silence before clutching his head and breaking down. It's genuinely un-nerving, and the direction only serves to help.

And then we've that stunning cliffhanger, as a creepy figure paws at the window of the ship. I've seen that cliffhanger before, and it's still a bit off-putting now. The sheer weirdness of the creature helps to make it one of the best we've had…

…Which is certainly more than can be said for the cliffhanger to the last episode. The whole thing hinges on the fact that the TARDIS says that it has stopped, but is also still moving. The Doctor is stumped. Susan hasn't ever seen anything like it. It's Barbara who hypothesises that they've landed inside something, and then they're all surprised to find that it's a spaceship.

Coming at the same time as a scene in which our regulars reminisce over recent events, and the Doctor even talks of adventures he's had 'quite some time' before Ian and Barbara joined them, are we really supposed to believe that this is the first time the TARDIS has ever landed on a moving spaceship? Really? The Doctor even helps to fly it later on in the episode!

Still, it's a strong start to the story. Now fingers crossed that this is one which might surprise me. You see, I've seen this first episode before, but I've never made it to the end. But not because I was bored! That's a story for tomorrow… (how's that for a cliffhanger!)

Next Episode: The Unwilling Warriors

2|Entertain have sent DWO the cover and details for the Doctor Who DVD release of The Sensorites.

The Sensorites

Featuring: William Hartnell as The 1st Doctor

The Doctor and his companions land on a spaceship orbiting a distant and mysterious world, where a human crew lie frozen somewhere between life and death. 

The planet is the Sense-Sphere, home of the Sensorites, beings of immense intelligence and power. Unable to leave, the Doctor and his companions must deduce the Sensorites’ intentions: are they friendly, hostile, or frightened? And what is the deadly secret at the heart of the Sense-Sphere? 

Special Features:

•  Commentary 

•  Looking for Peter – Toby Hadoke goes in search of the enigmatic Peter R Newman. 

•  Vision On – What exactly does a Vision Mixer do? 

•  Secret Voices of the Sense-Sphere – Clive Doig reveals the origins of the eerie Sensorite voices. 

•  Photo Gallery 

•  Coming Soon Trailer

•  Radio Times Listings

•  Production Subtitles

•  Programme Subtitles

•  Digitally Remastered Picture and Sound Quality

+  The Sensorites is released on 23rd January 2012, priced £20.42.

+  Compare Prices for this product on CompareTheDalek.com.

[Source: 2|Entertain]