Doctor Who/The Sensorites

The Sensorites
007
Airdate	June 20, 1964
Production Number	G
Written by	Peter R. Newman
Directed by	Mervyn Pinfield and Frank Cox
← 006 The Aztecs	008 → The Reign of Terror
Doctor Who — Season One

The Sensorites is the seventh serial of the first season of Doctor Who, and the seventh serial overall.

Guest Stars: John Bailey (Commander), Lorne Cossette (Captain Maitland), Ilona Rodgers (Carol), Stephen Dartnell (John), Ken Tyllsen (First Sensorite Scientist), Ken Tyllsen (First Sensorite), Peter Glaze (Third Sensorite), Joe Greig (Second Sensorite), Eric Francis (First Elder), Bartlett Mullins (Second Elder), Joe Greig (Second Sensortie Scientist), Joe Greig (Sensorite Warrior)

Plot Overview

Strangers in Space

The TARDIS lands on a ship in space. The crew appear dead, and judging from the fact that their self-winding wristwatches have stopped, they have been dead for at least a day. The weird thing is that their bodies are still warm. The Doctor suggests that they return to the TARDIS, but when a crewmember unexpectedly stirs, his curiosity is piqued.

The crewmember, Captain Maitland, is weak from his ordeal and asks for help; he needs a heart resuscitator. Guided by his instructions, Ian finds the small 2 by 3 inch device on a shelf and brings it to him. He treats himself first, and then asks Barbara to treat Carol, the woman sitting beside him, even though she too appears dead. Soon vitality is restored to both crewmembers.

Captain Maitland explains that aliens, called Sensorites, are using mind-control powers to keep them in a death-like state; to keep their ship from leaving this region of space. As they speak, the Sensorites remove the lock to the TARDIS, preventing even the Doctor from getting back in.

At the Doctor's urging they attempt to make their escape and pilot the ship away; but the ship careens out of control, directly toward the alien's planet, missing it by a hairsbreadth. During the near collision, the two crewmembers are paralyzed with fear, instilled into their minds by the Sensorites. Despite this degree of control, the Sensorites have not tried to kill them.

Meanwhile Barbara and Susan have been separated from the others and have been trapped in an area of the ship where a deranged crewmember is confined. Carol and the deranged man, John, were planning to get married; but that was before they were trapped by the Sensorites. His mind was affected adversely by the Sensorite's mind-control, much more so than the others. Now he rants and raves like a mad man, carrying on about plotters, evil doers, and the like.

Barbara and Susan are able to gain his trust. He warns them that Sensorite ships have arrived; and soon enough we see that he was right: just outside a viewport a Sensorite floats unprotected in the vacuum of space.

The Unwilling Warriors

When Maitland and Carol awaken from the trance brought on by the arrival of the Sensorites, they resume cutting through a metal hatchway to get to Susan and Barbara.

Meanwhile Susan and Barbara try to calm John, reasoning that a calm mind is less susceptible to mind control. They also discover that thinking the same defiant thought in tandem inflicts pain on the Sensorites. However it also weakens Susan.

Finally, the others get the hatchway open, reuniting everyone. What John discovered that the Sensorites want kept secret is that their planet, Sensesphere, has rich deposits of the valuable metal molybdenum.

Barbara and Ian go looking for the Sensorites who have boarded the ship, locking the doors against them. But the Sensorites simply use a hand-held device to quickly unlock each door.

Intrigued by her extraordinary mind, the Sensorites make contact through Susan -- earlier she projected a defiant thought all the way to the Sensorite homeworld. In order to save the others she agrees to go with them, down to their planet.

Hidden Danger

To save the others, Susan is willing to go with the Sensorites, but on a hunch Ian turns out the lights. The Sensorites are confused and frightened in the dark, and their hand stunners are easily confiscated.

They tell of a time, ten years earlier, when a human ship came to Sensesphere. Upon discovering the Molybdenum deposits, the visiting humans planned to bring back a fleet of ships to take the ore by force. They exploded a "bio-mine" in the atmosphere, and ever since then, Sensorites have been dying mysteriously; but only ordinary Sensorites, not the Elders.

The Doctor insists on talking with their leader face-to-face, so everyone except Barbara go with the Sensorites down to Sensesphere, where they meet the First Elder, the Second Elder, and the City Administrator.

The City Administrator orders a (lower caste) scientist to track their movements with heat sensors. He intends to use their disintegrator weapon on them. He has the key for the device: obtained under false pretenses from the Second Elder. When the Second Elder comes to see what his key is being used for, he stops them, taking back the key.

Meanwhile in the palace at a meeting with the First Elder, Ian is mistakenly given ordinary water, the kind that most Sensorites drink. The First Elder tells him that Sensorite elders only drink water from a special spring -- ordinary Sensorites drink water from the aqueduct system. Not wanting to be elitist, Ian drinks the water anyway and becomes ill, collapsing to the floor. The others (Susan and the Doctor) drank the special spring water reserved for elders, and show no symptoms.

A Race Against Death

As Ian lies on the floor, unconscious, the First Elder tells the Doctor that the disease is not contagious. Based on the symptoms, the Doctor believes that the water may have atropine contamination. So working with Sensorite scientists, he devises a cure.

The City Administrator kidnaps the Second Elder's family. He also kidnaps the Second Elder himself, taking his sash of office so that he can impersonate him. Then posing as the Second Elder, he intercepts and destroys the antidote that the Doctor's dispatched for Ian.

Having devised a cure, the Doctor now hopes to discover the cause. He descends into the Sensorite's aqueduct system and finds deadly nightshade growing there. The scientist he is with calims there are monsters in the dark recesses of the system and will go no further.

Back in the palace Susan personally retrieves a Ian's antidote and makes him well. When they learn that the Doctor went into the aqueduct system alone and is presumed lost, they hurry to his aid.

Kidnap

With the Doctor in the aqueduct system, monsters approaching, Ian and Susan hear his shouts and hurry to him. Together they return to palace to speak with the First Elder.

The City Administrator realizes that he will be found out soon and is worried. Paranoid that the humans are plotting to take over, he forces the captive Second Elder to summon the Senior Warrior, to bring his firing key for the disintegrator. At the arranged meeting place in the palace courtyard the Senior Warrior gives the faux Second Elder the firing key, not suspecting that he is an imposter.

In the disintegrator room, the Second Elder suddenly snatches the firing key without warning and breaks it. In the scuffle that follows, the City Administrator kills the Second Elder. He quickly devises a scheme to frame the Doctor for the murder.

In a meeting with the First Elder, the City Administrator brings a witness who accuses the Doctor of killing the Second Elder. Under questioning by Ian, he even describes the Doctor's cloak that he was wearing when he committed the crime. This helps the First Elder see through his lies: the Doctor's coat is in the aqueduct; he only just presented the Doctor with the cloak a moment before. Discredited, the witness is taken away for questioning by the Senior Warrior. The City Administrator is then promoted to Second Elder, ironically with accolades from the Doctor himself.

John's treatments are now complete. With Susan's help he is able to remember which Sensorite he was trying to warn them about: it was the (former) City Administrator.

The Doctor tells the First Elder that he believes their water is being deliberately poisoned, and proposes to reenter the aqueducts, find their enemies, and put a stop to it. The First Elder agrees, promising to outfit them with weapons and lights. However, plotting behind the scenes, the newly promoted Second Elder sees to it that the Doctor gets disabled weapons and a faulty map instead.

At the Doctor's request the First Elder agrees not to tell Susan and the others where they have gone. The Doctor also asks him to allow Barbara to come down from the ship, and he agrees to see to it.

A Desperate Venture

Carol is kidnapped and taken to the disintegrator room by the Second Elder, where he forces her to write a letter to the others, hoping to divide them; but the obviously false content of the letter leads Barbara and John to conclude that she was forced to write it.

Barbara asks the First Elder where Ian and the Doctor are. He reluctantly tells them that they have gone back into the aqueduct, but not to worry because they have weapons, lights, and a map. They are prefectly safe.

John finds Carol in the disintegrator room, guarded only by the Second Elder's accomplice. The Senior Warrior takes the accomplice into custody. Under interrogation the accomplice tells them that the Doctor's map and weapons are useless. The First Elder confides to his new Second Elder that he now believes the kidnapper has an accomplice: a Sensorite accomplice.

Barbara asks the First Elder for help in rescuing the Doctor, and she gets it. Susan, who is somewhat telepathic here in the Sensesphere environment, will remain in the palace with a map. Barbara and John will go into the aqueducts, where she will use a Sensorite thought transmitter to get directions from Susan.

Meanwhile down in the aqueduct system, the Doctor and Ian already know that their map and weapons are useless . They are lost, and soon they are ambushed by two men and taken to their leader. The three men (a captain, his first officer, and another), are poisoning the water supply, believing that they are fighting as part of a larger war for control of Sensesphere. They ask Ian and the Doctor if all the Sensorites are dead.

When Barbara and John arrive, the men are suspicious, but the Doctor makes up a story: she is part of a welcoming party to bring them out to a victory celebration; the war is over. The men have been hermits, fighting an imaginary war for ten years. They gladly leave the aqueducts with Barbara, who leads them into an ambush, where the Senior Warrior takes them into custody.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

When Susan asks her grandfather about going home. He responds that the TARDIS seems to be an aimless thing.

Characters

• The Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara marvel at how they have each changed since they came together. They have come to enjoy each other's companionship.
• The Doctor and Susan have a parental conflict (their first ever) about whether she can go to Sensesphere alone or not.
• Susan discovers that given the right circumstances (such as the "high frequency" envrionment on Sensesphere) she has telepathic abilities.
• Back aboard the TARDIS at the end of the final installment, as they watch the spaceship carrying Maitland, Carol, and John leaving for Earth, Ian says, "Well at least they know where they're going." This remark seems to touch a nerve with the Doctor. Whether he is genuinely insulted or not is difficult to say. However, he says he plans to put Ian off the ship at the very next stop!

Referbacks

As the Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara marvel at how they have each changed since they came together, they refer to their adventures in prehistoric times, their visit to Marinus, and their encounters with Marco Polo, the Aztecs, and the Daleks. The Doctor also mentions a memorable quarrel that he had with Henry VIII.

Later Susan tells Barbara that she and the Doctor visited a planet (Estow?) where the plants used telepathy.

Trivia

The Show

• The crewmember John is the mission's mineralologist. He is 30 years old.
• The Sensorites:
  • Are terrified of the dark.
  • Extreme sounds stun their brains and paralyze their nerves.
  • Wince as though harmed when a forceful thought is directed at them.
  • They use a coin-like device (at the end of a wire) to commincate their thoughts over long distances, in much the same way as humans might use a radio.
  • Sensorite elders wear adornments to indicate their status.
    • First Elder: two dark sashes diagonaly from the shoulders across the chest.
    • Second Elder: a single, dark sash diagonaly from the shoulder across the chest.
    • City Administrator: a dark collar.
    • Senior Warrior: three dark bands evenly spaced on each forearm.
  • Sensorite society is caste-based (with scientists being a lower caste).
• The Disintegrator Room is in the palace below the courtyard.
• In the note she was forced to write, Carol said, "I have gone to the spaceship".

Allusions and References

• When Ian asks Maitland and Carol, "Is Big Ben still on time," Carol responds earnestly, "What's Big Ben?"
• Maitland, Carol, and John are from the 28th century.
• In the 28th century, the entire lower half of England is called Central City -- there has been no London for 400 years.

Quotes

• The Doctor reponds to Ian, "Now, now, now, don't be absurd. There's not an ounce of curiosity in me my dear boy." Then without hesitation he turns to Maitland and says, "Tell me, why are you in danger."
• "I learned not to meddle in other people's affairs years ago." ... The Doctor

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