Now that the William Hartnell years are cool again...

There's so much to enjoy about "The Sensorites", and not just the obvious stuff, either. Obviously, we have to deal with the fluffs first. Hartnell had this great habit, in scenes requiring great technical dialogue, of grabbing his lapels, "Hmm!"ing a lot, wandering up to the camera, and squinting his eyes into the distance, in the direction of the Mary Tamm Memorial Cue-Card Boy. Do you think he would have tried, had he known that this story would be sold to the masses 40 years later, to learn his dialogue? But then we would have been denied such great non-sequiturs as "I rather fancy that's settled that little bit of solution." And, of course, the 28th century watches that he finds in "The Sensorites" are of "the non-winding time." They sure are, Bill, they sure are.

Anyway, "The Sensorites" is an astonishingly radical bit of pacifism. Part One concludes with the first-ever "monster face" cliffhanger in "Doctor Who": we'd already seen a Sensorite hand (in an ill-fitting wool glove) and heard how evil they are, but then we see a misshapen face, floating around in Spain, er, space, and the credits roll. But, by the end of Part Six, it's the Sensorites who are the heroes of the day. The villainy is traced back to three Earth soldiers, minds inadvertently warped by Sensorite telepathy, waging a war against an enemy that didn't exist. And yet, the Doctor lures him out into the open not with weapons, but with sympathy -- and with that wicked bit of psychological byplay that helped later Doctors defuse so many villains. The Doctor then carries the story's moral centerpiece when he says, after the Sensorite warrior refuses to kill that insane Earthman who has killed so many : "The fact is, you didn't kill him, shows great promise for the future of your people."

The Doctor's companion, Ian, again shows his natural aggression, which saved the Thal people in "The Daleks". On the Sense-Sphere, however, he's helpless. The Doctor admonishes: "Now let our own intelligence be our own offense, and attack!" Radical, too, is the fact that Earth Captain Maitland -- the first human we meet in the story -- is completely impotent. He can't even cut through a locked door in less than two episodes! Whereas in other stories, Maitland would have been the human hero, in "The Sensorites" it is Barbara and Susan and Carol (and the Doctor, the unpredictable alien) who are the actors, the voices of reason.

Obviously this story has whopping production flaws. Parts One and especially Two are dragged to a near standstill by a script that under-runs: seven whole minutes in Part Two are consumed by a few characters slowly creeping down a dark hallway. Think about that. Seven minutes of nothing. You could watch the Ali-Liston 1965 heavyweight title fight four times in those seven minutes! And, even though it's radical and progressive, "The Sensorites" still has the Doctor being overly protective of his granddaughter, and Carol tells the Sensorites that they all look alike. Actually, that last bit is clever -- on a planet of telepaths, wouldn't facial features be less important? -- but that bit has been laughed at for so long that it's too late to redeem it. And when Part Two ends with a door closing ominously, Part Three begins with Barbara opening the door. Wow. Now that, Peter R. Newman, is top-tier suspense.

In the end, the Sensorites are philosophical monsters who are scared of the dark. In the same year of "Doctor Who" that gave us the Daleks, maybe, just maybe, the Sensorites are the more representative alien species.

The penultimate story of Doctor Who's first season finds them in the 28th century. After their adventure with the Aztecs, they find themselves aboard an Earth ship whose crewmembers, Captain Maitland, Carole Richmond, and John, a mineralogist and Carol's fiancee and are under mental attack by a telepathic alien race called the Sensorites. However, the nature of the attack is bizarre. The aliens are keeping them around orbit of their world, the Sensesphere, yet they choose not to kill the crew, and at times come aboard to feed them. John is the worst of them, as he is under constant mental attack, as if his fear centers are reacting far above normal. The Sensorites render the TARDIS immobile so the travellers are stuck with the crew.

The reason the Sensorites are keeping the crew in orbit is the fear of mineral exploitation of their world by Earthmen. They had a terrible experience in their first contact with Earthmen ten years before, and now, their race is dying from a plague.

The concept of friendship between races is key, and is embodied in the wise First Elder, who seems a true philosopher/sage ruler. "It is the failure of all beings that they judge through their own eyes. What we must create between us is trust." Of political participation and responsibility, he says, "No opinion can be worse sometimes than a dogmatic one." However, there is always a xenophobic element in any society, and the Sensorites are not exempt. There is also a caste system oriented around "what each man is best fitted to do. The Elders think and rule. Warriors fight. Sensorites work and play. All are happy."

The Sensorites on first glance may seem lame, but their simplistic design of bulbous head, shaggy white beard and eyebrows, and flipper like feet make them unique.

Ian and Barbara's characters are really developed to that they've really become comfortable in their time travels. In the beginning, they tell the Doctor that "we're different from when we first started with you." The Doctor is delighted with his new companions and after a brief summary of where they've been, he remarks that "what started as a mild curiosity in the junkyard ...turned out to be a great spirit of adventure."

The best cliffhanger comes at the end of Episode 1, when Ian points at the window of the spaceship, and finds a Sensorite looking inside.

More character development comes from Susan when the Doctor and she argue about her taking action without his permission. She frustratedly responds that she's not a child anymore and is just growing up. The Doctor sagely replies that "the one purpose in growing old is to accumulate knowledge and wisdom and to help people." We also learn her telepathic abilities are advanced. She loves the travel but now has yearnings to find some roots. This growth in Susan comes to its fruition in the second story of the following season, when Susan leaves the TARDIS crew to find those roots.

Part alien-human relations, part medical drama-mystery, and part allegory on colonialism, The Sensorites succeeds admirably.

While this is definaly one of the better 1st doctor adventures with a compelling storyline full of mystery and intrigue; like many dr. who adventures longer than 4 episodes is gets wearing and tends to drag around episode 3.

I like the political dynamic in this story, with everyone being born into a certain rank in society, and the realization by the villian that without their sashes of rank, they couldn't tell the difference between them, a sublte political staement.

I'm enjoying the end of the universe collection...this is a good one.