Doctor Who - The Sensorites [DVD]

1964's The Sensorites is a strange story, its certainly one of my favourite stories from the 1960's and now that it is being released on to DVD in a fully remastered state, I could not be happier, 2012 for Doctor Who was looking grimm, series 7 is at this point 8 months away at least and there is no special planned for Easter after all. However, the first bit of good news came on 11th December 2011, when 2 missing episodes were safely returned to the archives after being missing for several decades, then, having my usual Christmas browse on Amazon, I noticed that the DVD line up for 2012 was going to be quite special. The Sensorites is just one of the many DVD's planned to be released in this great year. The story has never been high up in any fans estimations, it not like its a Tomb of the Cybermen or The Tenth Planet, but in my opinion its just below them in quality.

Peter R. Newmans script for The Sensorites is interesting to say the least, its basically 2 stories in one, part 1, 2-3 episodes on the marooned space ship set the story's chilling setting up well and even I was shocked at how chilling they really are, John frightened the hell out of me the first time I watched this and that infamous scene of the Sensorite walking up the outer hull of the craft and peering in through the window was effective to the bone. Then it all changes at the mid point to episode 3, the Doctor, Ian, Susan, Maitland, Carol and John are taken to the Elders on the Planet "Sense-Sphere" and there over the course of the remaining episodes have to deal with mass-murder, political intrique and a bunch of half-crazed earth men living underground for a decade. This serial deals with the problems of race hate and the mistrust of different peoples. To this end the story works rather well and is a good lesson in these issues to teach to the younger 1960's television audience.

Overall, I know its not the most loved 60's serial to fall out the archives but I really have always enjoyed watching it, if I had one critisism it would be that at 6 episodes, its too long, 4 episodes, and this story I'm sure would rocket up in peoples opinion polls.

Its great to finally have The Sensorites on DVD and as always its lovely to see that the stories that created Doctor Who over 48 years ago are being treated with as much respect by the BBC and 2/Entertain as the latest series.

Many thanks for your time.

M.B.

The seventh story from the very first season of Doctor Who comes to DVD. All six black and white episodes are presented on one disc. With a pretty good picture quality.

The story [referenced once in a Tenth Doctor episode] sees the First Doctor, plus companions Susan, Ian and Barbara, arrive in the middle of a disastrous first contact between humans and aliens. The latter are a race called the Sensorites. The Doctor and friends have to work to bring the two sides together, to get past all their mutual fear and distrust, and to find the secret at the heart of the sense-sphere...

Early Doctor Who did have a mandate to educate as well as entertain. It tried to do the former via the historical stories. And it tries to do the same here with a few moral lessons for younger viewers. Done in a fine and never very heavy handed manner.

These early Doctor Who's also never wanted for ambition, and thus this is a credible attempt to create a very alien world and it's inhabitants. But on the limited budget of early 1960's tv, with a story that had to fit a six episode slot, this does mean it's not the greatest looking one ever. Nor is it very fast paced. It really does try very hard to create a sense of mystery, though, and you have to admire it for that.

The usual demands of these early episodes to give the cast the occasional break means that Barbara is written out in a rather cursory manner for two parts in the middle.

So it's not fast paced exciting action drama, and it's not the most memorable story ever made, but it's an interesting curio. And worth a look.

The DVD has the following language and subtitle options:

Languages: English.

Subtitles: English.

It's also English audio captioned.

Extras:

The usual: Trailer for the next release in this dvd range.

Photo gallery of stills from the story and it's production.

Radio times listings for the story as a PDF File.

Production information subtitles.

A commentary from some of the cast and crew.

Plus: Looking for Peter. A twenty minute long feature that goes in search of Peter R. Newman. Who wrote this story. But about whom very little seems to be known. This is quite an interesting and ultimately rather affecting piece, and it might just make you look at the story in a whole new light. It's highly recommended viewing. [And the answer to the question it might make you ask is: yes it is available on dvd. You'll see what I mean...]

There's also two short features, which are part of an interview with veteran bbc employee and producer Clive Doig, in which he explains what a vision mixer does and why strange voices can be heard in the background of one episode. These run for six and two minutes respectively, and thanks to him being a very good interviewee with a clear wealth of experience to draw on, are both very interesting and worth a watch.

I'm aware that many fans overlook this story - to me I don't see why! After the Aztecs the Sensorites returns to series to the future, the story takes place partly on a space ship and then three episodes on the Sense Sphere (the aliens homeworld). The plot is a morality based one where the misunderstood alien threat are the ones we should be rooting for with the big bad corporation being the true source of all the stories woes.

The plot flows and the story goes from a tense base under siege story into espionage and intrigue. Set design is impressive, the sensorites are lovely deep(ish) characters and every aspect of the episode works very well. The main cast impresses as ever with Carole Anne Ford stealing the show thanks to her telekinetic abilities making her far more alien and interesting.

Special features are good too, the commentary has Toby Hadoke providing direction and makes the commentary all the more fun, Hadoke also stars in a documentary where he hunts down the episodes writer. It's a very different special feature and makes a pleasant change from the mandatory interviews in which various members of production winge about their budget.

In short it's a great DVD to add to your collection, I'd place it smugly in the middle of series 1 - it didn't appeal to me as much as Terry Nation's stories but I found the pace to make it more enjoyable than the Aztecs. I paid around £13 which I'd call a little too steep, if you need this for your collection then the purchase is fine but if you're a newcomer then far better stories and box sets can be bought far cheaper.