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.

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.

I find the best way to watch old, B & W Dr Who is 1 episode per day. They are only 22-24 minutes long and its hard to get bored in that time. The first 2 episodes are a master class in suspense (for classic who anyway) and the last 4 episodes never reach their heights but overall this is a solid piece of 60's TV. I have no idea what 'new' who fans would make of this after the frenetic pace of the new series.