I went into The Sensorites with a bit of trepidation. I'd heard it was rather bad and very boring, really boring. It's like the opposite of of the Aztecs before it. I went into that having heard many a good word and hoping I would enjoy it as much as others seemed to have, with the Sensorites I was going in with as much positivity as I could, hoping it wouldn't be as bad as everyone said. So were the people right? Yes and no. It wasn't half as bad as people seemed to make it, but it did get quite boring at parts and by the end I was glad to be finished with it.
The first episode I actually really enjoyed. It was tense and mysterious with the seemingly dead bodies at the start with more information slowly being revealed. Possessed (or similar) John was quite scary and a bit discomforting and then you got the cliffhanger with the Sensorite outside the ship. The next episode was quite good, continuing the idea of the Sensorites being quite timid and not an aggressive race. Then episode 3 got rather boring. And from there it slightly picked up but only slightly, before going back down again.
One of the big let downs was that the Sensorites all looked too similar and they didn't have proper names to help, they were all just titles. The scientists were all just referred to as that, Scientist! The thing about them looking the same was used in the plot which I suppose is a good way to get round the design flaws but the audience has to keep track of multiple characters so it helps if we get some distinguishing features. At first the City Administrator was different because he was quite chubby (shows how similar they did look if I had to use weight for reference points) but then so was his side kick and it got a little confusing which was which at a few points. Luckily he had a voice that I could distinguish from the rest so I was never really lost, but there were a few times where I was in trouble of getting them mixed up.
I also feel that the City Administrator needed to be fleshed out a bit. We never really get a reason why he is so against the Humans. I get that their were humans there before (and some still there it turned out) and ever since then Sensorites had been infected by a disease (or so they thought) but none of the others were so opposed to the Humans. I suppose he was just racist (says the guy who just said they all look alike...) towards them and people can be like that, but it just seemed he was like that as there needed to be a bad guy in the story. It didn't help that he was just waved off at the end "oh the tampering with the maps proves he was guilty, we'll deal with him" after all the time we had spent watching him scheme.
Also the way the story handled Jacqueline Hill being on holiday wasn't great. At first it seemed quite well done, she was being left on the ship to look after things there, but then it became a matter of what was she doing up there? This was then made worse by the fact they kept mentioning bringing her back before doing so. I get that they were reminding us of her and introducing that she would be back again but it served to remind us of her absence. And then when she was back it was no big thing, one minute she wasn't there, the next she was and seemed to understand everything that was going on. I was barely keeping track of it all, never mind Barbara who hadn't been involved. They could have at lest tried to make her a fresh perspective on things, tell them that they were maybe judging events too harshly, as would have seemed in character. But she just blindly accepted what they told her and accepted that there was a bad guy, which lessens her character really.
The story started with the travelers reminiscing over all they've been through in this short time and them talking about how much they've changed. Susan seems surprised and asks "have I?" I was inclined to say no at first, that she hasn't really changed. But then we did get a touch of her becoming a better character in the Aztecs and in this story she really comes into her own. For the most part. She becomes the mid point between the Doctor and co and the Sensorites at the beginning, and we get a nice scene where she rebels against her Grandfather. She tells him that she's not just a little girl anymore and it really seems it. Earlier in the story when confronted by Possessed John she didn't even scream. Now that's got to be a big step up. I imagine this pleased Carole Ann Ford as (according to An Adventure in Time and Space, I think, as well as other sources) she was unhappy with Susan' character and wanted ore for her. Just a shame that it comes rather late. Still we get three more stories with her before she leaves, it's better now than in her last story.
I mentioned in my write up of The Aztecs that the Doctor has almost finished his transformation, and in this story I think we get to see the last parts of it. The Doctor not only comes up with an antidote but wants to stop what is causing the infection to the water supply. And he ventures into the sewers after his first escapade there to make sure everything gets properly sorted out. He is no longer the man who is eager to get back to the TARDIS and leave the caveman injured, or the Thals to their fight with the Daleks. He actively wants to help.
But then the we see him snap at Ian at the end of the story after a little joke. He may have changed a lot but it seems he can still snap back to he used to be.
Episode scores:
1. Strangers in Space: 8/10
2. The Unwilling Warriors: 7/10
3. Hidden Danger: 4.5/10
4. A Race Against Death: 6.5/10
5. Kidnap: 5/10
6. A Desperate Venture: 4/10
Average score is 6/10
Next up is my second viewing of The Reign of Terror.
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