The Sensorites (TV story): Difference between revisions

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Meanwhile, investigating the aqueduct, the Doctor finds strange noises and darkness. He finds [[deadly nightshade]] (the cause of the poisoning), but on going back, meets an unseen monster. Susan and Ian find him unconscious with a ripped coat, but otherwise unharmed. The scheming Sensorites kill the Second Elder and The City Administrator ascends to his position.
Meanwhile, investigating the aqueduct, the Doctor finds strange noises and darkness. He finds [[deadly nightshade]] (the cause of the poisoning), but on going back, meets an unseen monster. Susan and Ian find him unconscious with a ripped coat, but otherwise unharmed. The scheming Sensorites kill the Second Elder and The City Administrator ascends to his position.


The City Administrator had revealed his evil plans to John while John was still unbalanced, and after his recovery he cannot remember who it was who was plotting. Susan helps him to eventually remember and identify the Administrator. The Doctor and Carol go down to the aqueduct to find the poisoners. Their weapons and map have been tampered with, leaving them lost and defenseless.
The City Administrator had revealed his evil plans to John while John was still unbalanced, and after his recovery he cannot remember who it was who was plotting. Susan helps him to eventually remember and identify the Administrator. The Doctor and Ian go down to the aqueduct to find the poisoners. Their weapons and map have been tampered with, leaving them lost and defenseless.


Elsewhere, Carol is abducted by the schemers and is forced to write saying she has returned to the ship. Neither Susan, John nor Barbara (who has been allowed down from the ship) believe this, so they go to investigate and find her imprisoned. Susan, John and Barbara overpower the guard and release Carol. On finding out about the tampered tools, they go into the aqueduct to rescue the Doctor and Ian. The First Elder discovers the plotters and moves to arrest and imprison them.
Elsewhere, Carol is abducted by the schemers and is forced to write saying she has returned to the ship. Neither Susan, John nor Barbara (who has been allowed down from the ship) believe this, so they go to investigate and find her imprisoned. Susan, John and Barbara overpower the guard and release Carol. On finding out about the tampered tools, they go into the aqueduct to rescue the Doctor and Ian. The First Elder discovers the plotters and moves to arrest and imprison them.

Revision as of 19:33, 24 November 2010


The Sensorites was the seventh story of Season 1 of Doctor Who. While the dialogue of "The Daleks" and "The Keys of Marinus" never made it clear if these stories were set in the past, present, or future, this was the first story to be categorically set in the future, specifically the future of Earth.

Summary

The Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan arrive in the TARDIS on board a spaceship. Their initial concern is for the ship's human crew who are suffering from telepathic interference from the Sensorites, but Susan communicates with the Sensorites and finds that the aliens are fearful of an attack from the humans and are just defending themselves. Travelling to the Sense Sphere (the Sensorites' planet) the Doctor then seeks to cure an illness the Sensorites and Ian have succumbed to, but finds that this has been caused by deliberate poisoning. The political maneuvering of the Sensorite City Administrator adds an additional threat to the TARDIS crew as he seeks to discredit and implicate them.

Plot

The TARDIS travellers land on a drifting spaceship and find the crew apparently dead. As the travellers go to leave, one of the crew members, Captain Maitland, regains consciousness and Ian Chesterton helps revive him and a crewmember, Carol Richmond. These two tell the travellers that they are on an exploration mission from Earth and are orbiting Sense-Sphere. However, its inhabitants, the Sensorites, refuse to let them leave the orbit. The Sensorites infiltrate and remove the lock of the TARDIS, while sending the Earth ship on a collision course, which the Doctor diverts. The travellers then meet John (whose mind has been broken by the Sensorites) and find out that he is Carol's fiancé.

Returning to plague the crew, the Sensorites hypnotize Carol and Maitland once more. The Doctor breaks Maitland's mental conditioning, but cannot help John. Susan's telepathic mind is flooded with the many voices of the Sensorites who remain scared of the humans and are trying to communicate with her. Meanwhile, the Doctor works out that the Sensorites attacked the human craft because John, a mineralogist, had discovered a vast supply of molybdenum on Sense-Sphere. Susan reports that the Sensorites want to make contact with travellers, asking the crew to go down to the planet with them. The Doctor refuses but Susan telepathically agrees, and departs.

The Doctor deduces that the Sensorites need plenty of light, so Ian cuts the lighting on the ship, allowing Susan to be (somewhat reluctantly) rescued. The Doctor is invited to go to Sense-Sphere to speak with their leaders, The Elders. Susan, Ian, Carol and John join him while Barbara and Maitland stay behind. John is promised that his condition will be reversed. On their journey to Sense-Sphere, the party learn that the previous Earth visitors planned to exploit Sense-Sphere for its wealth, then argued. Half of them stole the spacecraft, which exploded on take-off. The Sensorites believe that none of this party survived.

The Elders are divided over the issue of allowing these visitors to Sense-Sphere: some of them plot to kill them on arrival, but some believe that the humans can help with the disease that is currently killing many Sensorites. Led by the City Administrator, the schemers' first plot is foiled, but they continue to plot in secret. In the main conference room, Ian starts coughing violently and collapses. Suffering from the disease that has blighted the Sensorites, he is told that he will soon die.

Discovering that Ian was poisoned by drinking water from the general aqueduct, the Doctor undertakes discovery of the source and creating a cure, working with the Sensorite scientists. The City Administrator, having kidnapped the Second Elder, impersonates him and steals the new cure before it can be given to Ian, but a new one is quickly produced and Ian is cured.

Meanwhile, investigating the aqueduct, the Doctor finds strange noises and darkness. He finds deadly nightshade (the cause of the poisoning), but on going back, meets an unseen monster. Susan and Ian find him unconscious with a ripped coat, but otherwise unharmed. The scheming Sensorites kill the Second Elder and The City Administrator ascends to his position.

The City Administrator had revealed his evil plans to John while John was still unbalanced, and after his recovery he cannot remember who it was who was plotting. Susan helps him to eventually remember and identify the Administrator. The Doctor and Ian go down to the aqueduct to find the poisoners. Their weapons and map have been tampered with, leaving them lost and defenseless.

Elsewhere, Carol is abducted by the schemers and is forced to write saying she has returned to the ship. Neither Susan, John nor Barbara (who has been allowed down from the ship) believe this, so they go to investigate and find her imprisoned. Susan, John and Barbara overpower the guard and release Carol. On finding out about the tampered tools, they go into the aqueduct to rescue the Doctor and Ian. The First Elder discovers the plotters and moves to arrest and imprison them.

Ian and the Doctor discover that the monsters were actually the survivors of the previous Earth mission, and they had been poisoning the Sensorites. Their deranged Commander leads them to the surface, where they are arrested by the Sensorites. The Doctor and his party return to the city, pleading clemency for the poisoners. The leader of the Sensorites agrees and sends them back with Maitland, John and Carol to Earth, for treatment for madness.

Cast

Crew

References

  • Dialogue suggests the Doctor has only one heart at this stage of his life. Ian only checks one side of the Doctor's chest, nor has any medical training, it's possible he didn't notice the second heart, or that unlike later in the Doctor's life both hearts beat at the same time.
  • Despite travelling together for years, the Doctor and Susan have never argued. The Doctor may be exaggerating.
  • Dialogue seems to confirm Susan and the Doctor are from the same planet.
  • Susan has telepathic abilities which the Doctor is not aware of. However, it is suggested that many of those on their home planet have such abilities as the Doctor suggests her skills could be perfected if she gets home.
  • The Doctor and Susan's home planet is similar to Earth but the sky at night is burnt orange and the tree leaves are bright silver.
  • The Doctor once argued with Henry VIII as he wanted to be sentenced to the Tower of London where the TARDIS was located.
  • The Doctor and Susan encountered telepathic plants on the planet Esto.
  • The Doctor mentions 19th century fashion designer Beau Brummel, claiming that he always told him he looked better in a cloak.

Story notes

Ratings

  • Strangers in Space - 7.9 million viewers
  • The Unwilling Warriors - 6.9 million viewers
  • Hidden Danger - 7.4 million viewers
  • A Race Against Death - 5.5 million viewers
  • Kidnap - 6.9 million viewers
  • A Desperate Venture - 6.9 million viewers

Myths

  • The Humans responsible for poisoning the water supplies were part of a group called INEER. (The initials INEER were meant to be the end of the word Engineer.).
  • Arthur Newall appeared in Doctor Who as a Dalek. (He in fact appeared in this story as a Sensorite.)

Filming locations

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.
  • During episode 1 while the Doctor is delivering his lines the camera hits the table in front of him.
  • The drill marks are visible before Maitland starts to use the drill.
  • In some scenes, the walls are visibly unstable.
  • The Doctor calls Maitland, John in episode 1

Continuity

Timeline

Carol Richmond states that the story takes place in the 28th century.

Timeline

Novelisation and its audiobook

Main article: The Sensorites (novelisation)
Sensorites target118.jpg

DVD, video and audio releases

Sensorites bbcvideo-1068-us.jpg
  • Video Release - Released as Doctor Who: The Sensorites
UK Release: June 2000 / US Release: October 2003
PAL - BBC Video BBCV7276
NTSC - Warner Video E1852
Released as part of The First Doctor Collection boxset in the UK - BBCV7278.
Released as part of The End of the Universe Collection in the US.
The Sensorites was released by BBC Audio in July 2008, with linking narration by William Russell.


  • No DVD Release has been anounced since 2010

External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Howe, David J., Stammers, Mark, Walker, Stephen James, 1992, Doctor Who: The Sixties, Doctor Who Books, an imprint of Virgin Publishing Ltd, London, p.34

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