The Sensorites (TV story)

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

Cast & Characters

Crew

Notes

All episodes exist in 16mm telerecordings
Negative film prints of all epsisodes where recovered from BBC Enterprises in 1978
Jacqueline Hill does not appear in episodes 5 and 6 as she was on holiday while they were filmed
This story was nearly cancelled as a result of a studio dispute
Hidden Danger was postponed for one week due to a sporting event
Stephen Dartnell appears as John. He had previously appeared as Yartek in The Keys of Marinus
John Bailey, later to feature as Edward Waterfield in 1967's The Evil of the Daleks has a role here as the Commander
Designer Raymond Cusick used almost all curves in his sets for the Sense Sphere, feeling that this would give a more alien look
Russell T. Davies has acknowledged the Sensorites as an influence on the basic concept of the Ood in "The Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit."

Ratings

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

Location filming

This story was filmed at BBC Television Centre Studio TC3, and Lime Grove Studio D

Continuity

The Doctor has only 1 heart at this stage of his life
Despite travelling together for years the Doctor and Susan have never argued
Susan was born on Gallifrey as it is confirmed she 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 Gallifrey have such abilities as the Doctor suggests her skills could be perfected if she gets home
Many of the novels deal with the idea that the Time Lords have telepathic abilities
Gallifrey 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

Discontinuity

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
It is stretching credibility to the extreme to suggest that the Sensorites can only recognise each other by the sashes they wear
Despite this story being set in the 28th Century the astronauts wore contemporary looking space suits. Not a trend which is seen in other stories set in this time period

Quotes

The Doctor - "It all started out as a mild curiosity in the junkyard and now it's turned out to be quite a great spirit of adventure."

City Administrator - 'Weakling! Betrayer of our people! Coward! I should imprison you in some room wherein no light can shine and fill that room with noise!'