The Sensorites

Strangers in Space [Episode 1]

The story begins with a conversation in the TARDIS, in which our heroes handily summarise all their adventures to date. Hannah likes the idea that they're acknowledging the impact of their experiences, but finds the whole scene rather strange.

Hannah: They're self-referencing, it's weird. We're two minutes into the episode and they haven't done anything yet except stand around talking about how awesome the previous episodes have been.
Me: It's character development, they're talking about much they've all changed since they first met.
Hannah: But they're just listing all the places they've been. They're saying that they've all changed, but they're not going into specifics and saying "Doctor, you're a lot less of a dick" or "Barbara, you're a much stronger character now." It's a bit vague, and it feels very odd that the episode suddenly starts with them just reminiscing. They should be worried that they don't know where they are, and that the TARDIS is somehow moving while not moving. They're just having a natter instead of trying to work it out.

Hannah is pleased that the time travellers have landed inside another spaceship for the first time, but when Ian and Barbara make anachronistic references to 1960s London the captain immediately jumps to the conclusion that they must have come from another century.

Hannah: He seems absolutely fine with the fact that they've travelled in time. And it's the first thing that occurred to him. Is it that common? Do they get a lot of visitors from other centuries?

The crew are being terrorised by the Sensorites, and our first glimpse of them comes as a bit of a shock to Hannah when the face of an alien with a large bulbous head and and white whiskers around its mouth suddenly appears in close-up at the window.

Hannah: Oh! Hello! That's not what I was expecting. An ugly face covered in fronds, popping up at the window.
Me: Why is he ugly?
Hannah: He's probably not. I'm just very shallow.

The Unwilling Warriors [Episode 2]

As usual, we begin with a reprise of the cliffhanger from the previous episode.

Hannah: That's not the same. They've re-filmed that. He hasn't got his hand up, and he's a lot less frondy.
Me: Maybe.
Hannah: Definitely. He doesn't look frondy at all there.
Me: It'll be the same mask, though.
Hannah: At a slightly different angle.

Once the Sensorites are inside the ship we get a much better look at these space oddities, starting with their flat circular feet..

Hannah: Oh! My my, what flat feet you have.

...followed by their bodies...

Hannah: Portly men in their long johns.

...and finally a clearer view of their faces.

Hannah: They're not frondy at all. I don't know why that first one was so frondy.

The Sensorites have grounded our heroes by removing the lock of the TARDIS and effectively shutting them out.

Hannah: I just thought of the TARDIS having hair. "Lock of the TARDIS."

I decide to ignore her.

When the Sensorites slowly pursue Ian through the ship, the tension is palpable. Sort of.

Me: Are you scared?
Hannah: No. Not of the aliens with the socks over their heads.

It turns out the astronauts have accidentally discovered valuable molybdenum on the home planet of the Sensorites. The Sensorites, for their part, have been deceived by human greed in the past and are understandably distrustful.

Hannah: The Sensorites are telepaths. Why didn't they remove the knowledge of the molybdenum from their minds? Although I always like aliens defending themselves against human actions, because humans are usually dicks.

The Doctor's claim that cats can see better than humans in the dark because the iris of their eyes dilates at night doesn't go down too well, either.

Hannah: Bollocks. The iris can't do anything, the iris is the muscle around the pupil which pulls the pupil to contract or dilate. Cats can see better because they have reflective retinas which increase the amount of light that can get to their optic nerves so that they can see in lower light levels. Cats still can't see in pitch dark, and their irises certainly don't move.

When he surmises that the Sensorites' eyes work in the opposite way, being dilated in light and contracting in the darkness, Hannah finds this reasoning to be a bit of a leap of faith. (Quite apart from the fact that this would cut out even more light, and therefore have no evolutionary advantage whatsoever.)

Hannah: That's not necessarily true. It could just be that they have really bad eyesight and have to have them fully dilated at all times.

The episode ends as Susan agrees to go with the Sensorites down to their home planet.

Hannah: Well, that took a sudden turn.
Me: Do the Sensorites remind you of anything from the modern series?
Hannah: (after some thought) I think so. The Ood. They've both got a little thingy on a string that they use to help communicate, and they've got a weird kind of face but otherwise seem mostly humanoid.
Me: They're also both telepathic, their heads look similar, and their respective planets are called the Sense Sphere and the Ood Sphere. In the David Tennant story "Planet of the Ood" he explicitly states that both planets are in the same solar system.
Hannah: That means there must be convergent evolution in that solar system. It's like birds and bats both developed the ability to fly but completely differently, but in this case they've both developed telepathy on completely separate planets.

Hidden Danger [Episode 3]

Hannah: The display on the computer screen looks like the crack in reality from the Matt Smith era.
Me: You're so nerdy.

The Doctor, Ian and Susan, along with astronauts Carol and John, are escorted down to the surface of the planet Sense Sphere on the condition that Barbara stays behind with Captain Maitland.

Hannah: I'd be pissed off that I didn't get to go to an alien planet.
Me: She's already been to Skaro and Marinus.
Hannah: Yeah, but I'd want to go to all of them!

Down on the Sense Sphere, the senior Sensorites are preparing to receive their visitors.

Me: Crackerjack!
Hannah: What?
Me: The City Administrator in the middle is Peter Glaze from Crackerjack.
Hannah: I don't know who he is.
Me: Do you know what Crackerjack is?
Hannah: Not really. It's a children's programme, right?
Me: Yes.
Hannah: That's all I need to know.

In her defense it stopped airing a good six years before she was born, so I decide to leave it there. Besides, she's more interested in the Sensorites' caste system.

Hannah: They have warriors? Why didn't they send warriors to destroy the ship? Why did they just send some thinkers up to go and deal with it?

When Ian succumbs to a disease that's been gradually wiping out the lower castes of the Sensorite population for some time, Inspector Hannah is immediately on the case.

Hannah: It's in the water! He drank the aqueduct water. The lower castes drink the aqueduct water and the higher castes don't. I've solved the plot already.
Me: What do you think of the design of the Sensorites?
Hannah: (laughing) Erm... it's weird they've got that giant moustache growing on their chin. I know that's a beard, but it opens out like a moustache does and grows up their chins and faces. It must get in the way. And their mouths don't open and shut, they're talking inside their mask. I know they're telepathic but you can see the mouth hole.

A Race Against Death [Episode 4]

Unfortunately there are still some Sensorites who don't trust the human visitors,

Hannah: All they have to do is read Susan's mind to know they can trust them.

The Doctor is hard at work creating the antidote ("Hard work montage!") and sends some to Ian, only for the treacherous City Administrator to intercept the vial and destroy it. This brilliant scheme lasts only until Susan realises something must have gone wrong with the delivery and goes to the laboratory to get some more.

Hannah: That's thwarted the evil mastermind plan of "I shall throw this bottle on the floor."

With Ian on the mend, the Doctor goes to the aqueduct to tackle the root of the problem.

Me: Do you notice anything significant about the Doctor's characterisation here?
Hannah: He's caring about the aliens and wants to actually help them. He doesn't want to just leave, even though Ian's better now.
Me: Yep, for the first time there's no immediate threat towards himself or his companions but he's still gone looking for trouble because it's the right thing to do, not because he wants to explore or get away.

And then three minutes before the end of the episode...

Hannah: Is Barbara on holiday? I've just noticed she's not in this.
Me: She's still up in the spaceship with Captain Maitland.
Hannah: So that's why they wrote in a reason for her having to stay up there. Sneaky. I know how this works now.

Kidnap [Episode 5]

Hannah: I love the fact that Carol needs to explain to them what an eyelid is. I'd assumed that the Sensorites probably do have eyelids but that they hadn't been made because the masks are rubbish, but no, their eyes are constantly open. It's weird.

Speaking of their alien anatomy...

Hannah: I forgot about their stupid feet.
Me: Do you not think that's a nice touch? You were complaining that all the Thals looked human when we watched The Daleks.
Hannah: I know, I'm happy that they don't look entirely human, but they look like they've been bred for swimming and they clearly don't swim. They look clumsy.

When the villainous City Administrator accidentally kills the Second Elder, Hannah takes a moment to reflect on the tragic event.

Hannah: So they were having a little struggle over a piece of plastic and then one of them hits the other one and now he's dead. How easy are these guys to kill? You can just hit him on the shoulder and he dies straight away. Seems a bit shit.

But it's genuinely upsetting when the First Elder denounces the late Second Elder, believing him to be responsible for the crimes of the City Administrator.

Hannah: Aww. They're smirching the name of his friend, and he's unable to defend himself.

Ian is planning to ask the First Elder if Barbara can join them, but realises this isn't the right time and decides to wait until later.

Hannah: Ah. She's still on holiday.

The episode ends with Carol being kidnapped, as the episode finally lives up to its title.

Hannah: So that entire episode was called "Kidnap", and it happens in the last thirty seconds?
Me: Yep.
Hannah: Well that's silly.

A Desperate Venture [Episode 6]

After a two-week break, Barbara is back for the final episode. As usual, Hannah can tell when I'm expecting her to pass comment on something.

Hannah: What? You want me to make some kind of comment like "oh, she looks well-rested"?
Me: No, I just think it's interesting how much of a tan you can get in a spaceship.

She's more interested in the Doctor's new cloak, presented to him by the First Elder in the previous episode after his coat was destroyed in the aqueduct by an unseen creature.

Hannah: Does he keep that cloak?
Me: You'll have to see.
Hannah: Well, considering I've seen so many drawings of him wearing it...
Me: What drawings?
Hannah: Fan art.
Me: Where on earth have you been looking at fan art of William Hartnell?

Susan describes her as-yet-unnamed home planet to the First Elder.

Hannah: Is that the first description?
Me: Yep. That's where the orange sky comes from when you see it in the modern series.

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Ian have returned to the aqueduct and are confronted with some insane feral humans who have been poisoning the water supply.

Hannah: When the Doctor was down in the aqueduct before, it was all dark and mysterious and we didn't actually see any creature, and there's no explanation for why his coat gets torn up except to be a plot point later. Now we find out that it was actually people down there. So why did they tear his coat up? Why did random savage madmen find another human in the aqueduct, attack him, rip his coat up and run away? Not capture him or take him anywhere, or kill him or anything. They just hit him, knocked him out, tore his coat up and left him. Was there a beast down there as well? Why would a wild beast have done that? It makes no sense.

The mad humans take the Doctor and Ian to meet their commander.

Hannah: Please be something like a teddy bear on a stool.

Barbara goes out to the aqueduct to find them, communicating with Susan using one of the Sensorite transmitter devices.

Hannah: It's like a monocle for the mind's eye.
Me: Very poetic.

Once everything is resolved the First Elder seems happy to let the Doctor and friends leave the planet, in spite of the mistrust that got them involved in the first place.

Hannah: Well it seems like they've suddenly decided humans aren't that bad, even though they've just found out that it was humans trying to kill them the whole time. Did the astronauts tell them "we're not going to come and steal your molybdenum, you can trust us"? What happens if other people discover it?

The story concludes as a bad-tempered Doctor tells Ian and Barbara that they can get off at the next stop.

Hannah: Well, that was very unexpected sudden anger.
Me: It's obviously just been forced into the script so that they can have a cliffhanger lead-in into the next story.
Hannah: Well, my first observation for this story: lots of fluffs.
Me: What, like the fluff on the Sensorites' faces?
Hannah: No. The cast just seemed to be making a lot more stumbles than usual. I know that they were only really allowed to re-film if there was a technical problem, and if the actors messed up they would only re-shoot if they had time. So I don't know if there was no possibility of re-doing any scenes this time, or the actors were making more mistakes than usual, but almost everybody had a line at some point where they just stumbled.

The Score

Hannah: It's a good concept; I always like mind-reading aliens and things like that. They're not as humanoid as usual and we learn about their world and society and things, and I like it when they go to alien planets. I prefer these stories to the historical ones. But when there's the odd bit of action it seems to be badly executed, and there's lots of things that don't make sense to me, which is really disappointing because it's a wonderful story.
Me: Is it?!
Hannah: I really like it but I'm disappointed with the amazing potential they had; they didn't quite do with it what I would have liked, and there's a lot missing from what could have been an awesome story.

6/10

Hannah: There's room for improvement, but I would watch it again.