Rate and Discuss: The Sensorites

[SiHart]

Strangers in Space- Captain Maitland, the woman Carol, the man John.

Quiet shuffling aliens, The Sensorites.

A subsituted sash! A poisoning! Jackie Hill's weeks off! It's all go as we look back at The Sensorites!

[Terry Leptil]

The first two episodes of this story could have been edited into one. When I first saw this story, I found it slow going but it was slightly better the second time I saw it.

Not bad but not great either. 6/10

[Rob McCow]

I'm torn between giving this a '1' and a '10'.

The tone of the story is utterly 1950's, 'Golden Age' sci-fi exploration. It owes more to Flash Gordon than the limits of human imagination.

But in a way it does subvert that. The astronauts are a rather pathetic, middle aged bunch and the aliens are so phenomenonally weird that they defy belief. They go from being a sinister, unknowable threat to friendly pompous dignatries, sending Doctor Who out on a special mission.

It's all these contradictions and surreal drops in quality that make it such an intriguing and entertaining watch. A totally forgotten adventure and bloody hard to get hold of (I believe it came out in a limited release box set only) so I'm really looking forward to it being re-appraised on DVD.

[J.R. Southall]

The least successful story of Season One, without a shadow of a doubt (even Marinus made for more fun than this). There's a truly historic moment in Episode One (the tracking shot as the camera follows the crew out of the TARDIS), and a nice cliffhanger, and as Rob says, a strange and almost enchanting mixture of influences. But there are also some truly, diabolically stupid ideas (the sashes for one), and it's hard to care about it from around the halfway mark. An episode at a time, it's slightly above passable for a 1960s Doctor Who; regarded in its entirety, it's a bit of a shambles. 5/10 (because even the black and white ones I hate I still love)

[Rob McCow]

Out of interest - who hasn't actually seen The Sensorites?

And also - of those who have seen The Sensorites, who can remember a thing about it?

[Andrew Curnow]

I far prefer it to Keys of Marinus, because at least it's not bad in that awfully lame, amateur sense. Sensorites only real problem, for me anyway, is that it seems pitched far more at kids than the rest of the series, so comes across as a bit simplistic. But there's a lot to enjoy, even if it's rather slow moving. Some great cliffhangers, though, part 1 in particular being a real favourite.

Of course, it's not as good as the spin-off but there you go...

[Stuart Wallis]

A bit of harmless fun. The first cliffhanger's splendid, and the first episode-and-a-half are very atmospheric. Admittedly, it does seem a little drawn out after that, but there's some good ideas there. The Sensorites' feet though - their not related to the mandrells, are they?

7/10

[wombatskidude]

Out of interest - who hasn't actually seen The Sensorites?

And also - of those who have seen The Sensorites, who can remember a thing about it?

Guilty as charged. I watched it during a Hartnell-o-thon, years ago, but dozed off at some point, and never quite had the impetus to watch it in full.

I really ought to give it another go. It is Hartnell, after all.

[duncan]

I've seen far worse Hartnell stories and I read the target novelisation before I saw the episode on VHS when it was realeased so I was already familiar with it. Albeit slow, it's still rather enjoyable.

7/10 from me.

[Paul Monk]

The very first episode I always find very creepy. The performances are (I'm quite sure how to describe this) odd. Not quite right and I always find that unsettling. After that it settles down into a very average story that was probably far too many episodes long. The Sensorites themselves are quite good though.

[Lissa]

The first time I saw it I thought it was dreadful - slow, stupid, boring and pointless. I soon learned to love it though - it's cute, it's fun, it's silly but in a nice way. It's one of a small group of Dr Who stories that I adore because they're hugely flawed but those flaws just add to the charm. Planet of the Daleks is another.

But Andrew's right - it's not as good as the spinoff. It's really just a pilot but the seeds of greatness are there.