“The Sensorites” is an adventure of the first season of “Doctor Who” classic series, which aired between June and August 1964. It follows “The Aztecs” and it’s a six parts adventure written by Peter R. Newman and directed by Mervyn Pinfield (parts 1 – 4) and Frank Cox (parts 5, 6).

The story

The Tardis materializes on a starship whose crew members appear dead. When Captain Maitland suddenly gives signs of life, the First Doctor (William Hartnell), Ian (William Russell), Barbara (Jacqueline Hill), and Susan (Carole Ann Ford) try to rescue him, using the instruments available, fully revive him and his colleague.

Captain Maitland explains to the travelers that Sensorites, the inhabitants of the Sense-Sphere, the planet the starship is orbiting, are preventing them from leaving and urges them to go away before they get stopped too. An alien manages to remove the locking mechanism of the Tardis, preventing the Doctor and his companions from entering it. The only hope is to try to communicate with them using Susan’s telepathic skills.

At that time the various episodes of each adventure had individual titles, in this case:

• Strangers in Space
• The Unwilling Warriors
• Hidden Danger
• A Race Against Death
• Kidnap
• A Desperate Venture

Extras

This DVD contains a decent amount of extras. There are typical contents such as production subtitles, the Radio Times Listings, a promo of the “Doctor Who” DVDs to be published soon and a gallery of pictures from this adventure.

There are various comments in the adventure alternative audio track by protagonists William Russell and Carol Ann Ford, actors Joe Greig, Martyn Huntley, and Giles Phibbs, director Frank Cox, special effects designer Ray Cusick, and make-up designer Sonia Markham moderated by Toby Hadoke.

Looking for Peter. The author of this adventure, Peter R. Newman, is virtually unknown, in part because of his premature death. Toby Hadoke tries to discover who he was also looking for his family.

Vision On. Video mixer Clive Doig explains how to put together a show filmed almost live.

Secret Voices of the Sense-Sphere. Clive Doig reveals the truth about some voices you can hear in the background in some moments of this adventure.

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Peter R. Newman wrote the screenplay for “Yesterday’s Enemy”, which was first adapted into a teleplay from the BBC and later into a movie. Newman reused some of the same themes when he wrote the screenplay for “The Sensorites” placing them in a science fiction story set on an alien planet instead of during World War II.

“The Sensorites” shows a clash between human beings and Sensorites after on the aliens’ planet vast deposits of molybdenum were discovered. Humans would like to get the valuable mineral and the aliens don’t want their planet to be plundered and react.

However, that’s made ​​it clear in the second episode while at the beginning the Doctor and his companions are faced with what appears to be a hostile action by the Sensorites against the crew of a starship from Earth. This impression is strengthened when one of the aliens is able to remove the locking mechanism of the Tardis.

The first episode in particular is really good for the tension that is created due to the growing sense of threat. The sets that reproduce part of the starship from Earth are well made by the standards of the ’60s “Doctor Who” and the second episode is set entirely in them as well.

Gradually, the situation starts being explained and becomes more ambiguous because the attitude of the Sensorites becomes more understandable. Another interesting element is the use of Susan’s telepathic skills. For once, a character used all too often in a trivial way can be developed and is important in the plot.

In later episodes, set on the Sense-Sphere, show the company of Sensorites with their social and cultural differences compared to humans. Being telepathic deeply influenced their society, which eventually turns out to be neither better nor worse than that of humans. Even Sensorites have strengths and weaknesses, sometimes similar and sometimes different from those of humans.

The problem of xenophobia and the possibility of trusting each other between humans and Sensorites is developed in the course of this adventure. On both sides, there are individuals ready to try to understand the other side but there are also those who don’t want to trust just because the others are aliens and just want to get rid of them, even resorting to violence.

Despite the impression gained at the beginning of “The Sensorites”, the story isn’t about good humans against evil aliens and this is definitely one of its basic elements. The Doctor and Susan consider humans and Sensorites in the same manner and are able to create a bridge for the individuals of goodwill on both sides.

The sets that reproduce places of the Sense-Sphere are of good quality by the standards of ’60s “Doctor Who”, a little less the Sensorites’ costumes, which were made with few resources so they weren’t exactly realistic. Nevertheless, in the new series Russell T Davies created the Ood, who are explicitly inspired by the Sensorites, obviously having a much higher budget available for the creation of their costumes.

Considering all those positive elements, “The Sensorites” would seem a “Doctor Who” classic, why does it have a rather negative reputation? The fundamental problem is its slow pace, sometimes remarkable even by the standards of the time. This is an adventure that would flow well in four episodes but it was necessary to divide the budget over six episodes and this is the result.

In the second episode of “The Sensorites” you can already notice some padding with minutes when nothing really happens and in that case, the problem was partially compensated by the tension built in the first episode. Subsequently, the pace tends to be really slow and there aren’t enough elements that can compensate for that problem.

I understand that for many people “The Sensorites” may be boring but I think that its reputation is unfair. True, the overall pace is too slow but I think that the positive elements are more than the negative ones, therefore I consider this adventure all in all good.

The DVD doesn’t contain many extras although it’s nice that the author of “The Sensorites” was saved from oblivion in what is the main extra feature. However, this is a product targeted mainly to “Doctor Who” fans so I would recommend it especially to those among them who appreciate even stories with a very slow pace. It’s available on Amazon USA, UK, and Canada.