KOOL TV REVIEW: "DOCTOR WHO: THE SENSORITES" DVD

DOCTOR WHO: THE SENSORITES

Available on DVD from 2ENTERTAIN

Reviewed by Scott Weller

A spaceship trapped in orbit around a mysterious planet, with its human command crew under telepathic control from an unusual alien species: this is the intriguing and atmospheric situation the TARDIS crew, headed by the late, great William Hartnell as the Time Lord DOCTOR WHO, lands in during the start of The Sensorites, the latest black and white classic DOCTOR WHO adventure newly released from the BBC and 2ENTERTAIN.

With the lock to their ship stolen by the aliens soon after their arrival, the time team have no choice but to find out why their human colleagues are so resented, and unravel a plot that endangers the Sensorites on the planet Sense Sphere: not only from an outside force yet to be fully ascertained, but also from a bitter and xenophobic Sensorite working from within the city’s elite…

BBC DVD trailer: DOCTOR WHO - THE SENSORITES TRAILER - COMING SOON DVD TRAILER (COPYRIGHT BBC AND 2 ENTERTAIN) - YouTube

A talented writer with sadly few film and TV credits, Peter R. Newman’s script has a good science fiction concept that comfortably sustains itself across six episodes, with a basic but interestingly developed alien society rare for early sixties British sci-fi. It’s a story for intelligent children and families that’s firmly of the era, but has held up decently nearly fifty years on.

The alien Sensorites make their first appearance. Images: BBC.

With their large heads and fluffy half Santa beards, the Sensorites of the title are a unique race of aliens to be seen in the shows early but rapid production development. Peaceful, mostly timid creatures, fearful of loud noise and darkness, whose planet has been inflicted with a deadly plague, the aliens are resentful of the humans whom they once trusted, but deep down retain their values as a kind and benefactory lot. Though their writer/creator voiced his disappointment at the time with their ultimate on-screen appearance, I think they’ve held up pretty well as an alternative side to nasty’s like the iconic Daleks and the Cybermen. (As a nice later tribute, modern WHO’s scripting Svengali Russell T. Davis would refer to the race as planetary cousins of his own creations, the popular multi-appearing Ood.)

In the shows realisation, he may not be in the esteemed caliber of WHO stalwarts of the period like Douglas Camfield and Derek Martinus, but series Associate Producer Mervyn Pinfield’s direction is workmanlike and functional, whilst Frank Cox’s handling of later episodes proves better and tighter reined. There’s also some inventive set design from Dalek visualist Raymond P. Cusick, who makes the best available use that he can of the then Riverside’s Studio’s small production confines.

The Doctor (William Hartnell) and Susan (Carole Ann Ford) confer with the creatures.

Of the shows main stars, William Hartnell, all clasping lapels and mixing bumbling grandfather qualities with stern authoritarianism, has a bit of fumbly start during the early episodes with regards to remembering dialogue (and he has a helluva lot to remember, too!) but comes into his stride and impresses greatly from the second episode onwards. WHO fans owe Hartnell so much for the series enduring appeal, alongside a superb original TARDIS companion trio accompanying him for that 1963-64 year.

Stranded in the TARDIS with Doctor Who and his grandchild Susan from the pilot episode onwards, but now firmly along for the ride of their lives in the space/time continuum, the excellent and audience friendly Earth school teachers Ian Chesterton (William Russell) and Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill-who doesn’t appear in the middle episodes of this story, having been given a well-deserved holiday at the time by the producers!) resonate with viewers as a brave and resourceful pair, and as likable as ever.

For this one time, Carole Ann Ford as Susan also manages to get out of her teenage screamer persona (which the actress would frustratingly carry since the second story), with this adventure giving her a bit more to do and presenting us with a welcome return to the more alien side of her character and her abilities: there’s an intriguing moment where she talks about her home world (not yet named Gallifrey) of whom she’s been exiled from, and she gets to show off her telepathic abilities with the Sensorites.

There’s a decent supporting cast including Stephen Dartnell, Ilona Rodgers and Lorne Cossette as the trapped human astronauts, whilst later to be CRACKERJACK star Peter Glaze gives a good performance as the lead Sensorite City Administrator villain.

The Doctor's in danger as he explores the alien city's aqueducts.

It may be nearly fifty years old and a little slow in places to the Nintendo and iPod generation (and probably best watched in 2 episode batches for the younger modern fans of today), but The Sensorites is an intelligent, competent production that’s also a fine addition to the almost near completed releases of Classic WHO.

On the extras side, there’s a short but charming documentary called Looking for Peter, where presenter/comedian Toby Hadoke goes on a quest, with the help of some of his WHO buddies, to find out more about the shows elusive writer, Peter R. Newman, a fun cast and crew commentary with surviving cast and crew members, two nice featurette interviews with then vision mixer Clive Doig about the pride and perils of working on old style early sixties WHO, a basis stills gallery, covering images mostly from the first two episodes of the story, and the show many realised set designs, plus the usual info texts, PDF material (some lovely original Radio Times material and behind the scenes bits from designer Cusick) and a fun COMING SOON trailer for the ambitious three-story release from the REVISITATION series (this time comprising the classic The Robots of Death, Tomb of the Cybermen and The Three Doctors).

Regarded as the forgotten story of William Hartnell’s mostly excellent first season of DOCTOR WHO, The Sensorites arrival on DVD, as usual with a first rate B/W vidfire transfer and sound restoration, will hopefully lend itself to some deserved re-appraisal by fans. It’s another solid edition to the BBC 2ENTERTAIN line of classic WHO stories, and a fine entry for the Hartnell era. 

KOOL TV RATING: Story 3.5 out of 5. Extras 4 out of 5 


With thanks to the BBC/2ENTERTAIN