The Best Companion Departures...that weren't!

In a few hours, Amy and Rory will leave Doctor Who, apparently forever. Many blogs have taken to listing "Top 10 companion departures", that sort of thing. Mine is a bit different - ten moments which SEEM to see a companion leave...only for the opportunity to be missed as the companion survives to fight another day. It's up to you to decide, in each case, whether that was a good thing!

10. DOOMSDAY (Rose Tyler)

One of the finest departures ever and I was crying with everyone else as Rose was trapped in a parallel universe forever, never to be reunited with her beloved Doctor. Well, until she popped up again 16 episodes later, making fully-fledged appearances in three more episodes and earning herself another big farewell scene. And then a cameo in The End of Time to boot.
See also: Journey's End, which sees off Donna Noble in a similarly effective way only to bring her back four episodes later (although not as blatantly as Rose).

9. THE MIND ROBBER (Jamie)

Did anyone seriously think that when Jamie's face was removed in this story and he transformed into another actor that Fraser Hines was never going to return? Probably not - but what a daring way to get rid of a companion that would be! After so long in the series, Jamie wasn't the best character to treat this was - but imagine if they'd done this to Liz, or Nyssa, or Dodo!

8. LAST OF THE TIME LORDS (Martha Jones)

Another effective farewell, another series over. This time, it only takes 6 episodes before Martha actually rings the Doctor up and blags herself another 3 episodes. Plus two more at the end of the season. And a couple of Torchwoods too. To be honest, the most mystifying thing about this is The Doctor's Daughter. Why was she in this?

7. THE AGE OF STEEL (Mickey Smith)

Well, I was convinced. I thought they'd written him out in about the most permanent possible way save killing him off. When he then returned in Army of Ghosts, I was actually quite pleased to see him: but there's a limit to how many times you can do this before no farewells have credence any more.

6. PARTING OF THE WAYS (Captain Jack Harkness)

And this time, they actually killed him off. We'd known him for 5 episodes, so it was perfectly believable that he'd die. After all, Lynda with a Y did. So did, well, everyone else we'd met. But right at the end, Super-Rose brings him back to life. In retrospect, this gave us more than it took from us - Torchwood, Utopia, The Stolen Earth - but at the time, it seemed unnecessary and pointless.

5. THE INVASION OF TIME (K9)

Leela chooses to stay on Gallifrey - inexplicably. K9 chooses to stay with her - rather more explicably. Oh well, the robot dog was just a season 15 thing - fair enough. But inside the TARDIS, the Doctor has a new version in a box. An identical version. Why? Why did a K9 have to stay with Leela? What was the thought process here?

4. TERROR OF THE ZYGONS (Harry Sullivan)

After one extended trip in the TARDIS, Harry reveals he hasn't got the right stuff after all and elects to stay behind with UNIT. No problem here, except then he pops up again for a minor role in The Android Invasion and seems destined to be a semi-regular character like Benton from then on. Except that neither of them ever turn up again, denying both a proper final scene.

3. TIME-FLIGHT (Tegan)

Tegan gets back to Heathrow at last...but changes her mind! She comes back - and the TARDIS has left. "I thought you were going with the Doctor." "So did I." Best moment in Time-Flight, right? Oh, but two episodes later she spontaneously visits Amsterdam and guess what? Omega's there! Cue another 11 stories as a companion. Her final scene in Resurrection of the Daleks is equally good, but Time-Flight suited the character better.

2. THE MASSACRE (Steven)

This one really is a car crash. Firstly, Anne Chaplette, who we've all expected to become the next companion, is left behind in france. Then Steven, after six stories, has had enough of the Doctor (he's essentially Rory's antecedent) and storms out. The Doctor gives a soliloquy then prepares to leave.
BAM! Steven runs back into the TARDIS on a rubbish pretext bringing with him the new companion, Dodo. They all leave together. the scene is forgotten about. Steven leaves four stories later to rule a planet. Huh?

But the winner is...

1. THE GOD COMPLEX (Amy and Rory)

They already left! I'm totally serious about this. When the "Ponds" unexpectedly left the TARDIS at the end of this otherwise ordinary episode 11, I thought it was a great move - back to the days when you never knew if the TARDIS crew in episode 1 of a season would make it to the end. They only cameoed in the next episode and although they returned in the finale, this was, as we've seen, par for the course. People always return in the finale.
So, when the big announcement came that Amy and Rory would be leaving in tonight's episode (and this news came before The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe was screened), I was genuinely perplexed. They'd left already! They'd had 27 episodes, the same as Rose (before her return). (When they finally bow out tonight, Amy will have appeared in 33, more than any other companion in the 21st century.) I was expecting a new companion and, to be honest, I haven't felt that these last few episodes have added much to my appreciation of the Ponds.

Of course, later tonight, I may decide it was all worth it. It kinda depends what he's done with/to them. Maybe it's genius. Or maybe - maybe - they'll be back again a year from now, to take on the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Ood and the Silence alongside River Song, Captain Jack, Donna, Wilf, Steven, K9, Katarina and John & Gillian.

The Exciting Guide to Planet of Giants

Pleasingly, this is actually topical. The first story of season 2 is now being released on DVD and has been reviewed in Doctor Who Magazine this week. So here's what I made of it in 1999.


Quick reminder:
For previous posts, you can scroll around this site, or go to my Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/ExcitingGuide) which will link only to those parts of my blog devoted to the Exciting Guide. If you need to understand what I'm doing, there's a link to my intro here: http://chapwithwings.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/watching-every-tv-adventure-of-doctor.html

Story Nine

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Story Code

J

Title

Planet Of Giants

“Friends” Title

The One With The Giant Earthworm

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Episode Titles

Planet of Giants

Dangerous Journey

Crisis

Current availability

All three episodes exist.

Source

UK Gold omnibus repeat transmission.

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Date

1964.

None is given, but the telephone system etc are very much of the era when the story was produced.

Genre

Action Adventure.

Plot synopsis

1.         The TARDIS doors open when still in flight.  The Ship lands in a maze of stone, and they explore, coming across oversized dead insects of all kinds, as well as a giant matchbox.  They realise they are on Earth, but have been “reduced roughly to the size of an inch” - the maze is a crazy paving path.  Ian falls into the matchbox, which is picked up by a health minister called Farrow.  He has written a report condemning a new insecticide - DN6 - as it is too dangerous and kills indiscriminately.  Forester, whose money is sunk into the DN6 project, shoots Farrow.  Ian is reunited with the others, and they examine the dead man.  Suddenly, they notice a large black cat eyeing them up.

2.         The cat loses interest and goes away.  Smithers, the scientist who invented DN6, agrees to help Forester cover up the murder for the sake of the project - he believes the new, powerful insecticide will save millions from starvation.  The travellers have inexplicably split up, and Ian and Barbara are carried into the laboratory in Farrow’s briefcase.  There, they find a pile of seeds.  Ian guesses they are coated in the poison that has killed everything in the garden, but Barbara has already touched one of them.  She keeps this to herself.  The Doctor and Susan climb up a corroded drainpipe and come out in the lab sink.  Before the travellers can rejoin each other, Forester and Smithers enter the lab and wash the blood off their hands in the sink...with the Doctor and Susan still inside.

3.         The Doctor and Susan avoid the water in the overflow pipe.  Forester calls Farrow’s ministry with a false report, arousing the suspicions of the local telephone operator and her policeman husband Bert.  The Doctor finds the formula for DN6 and realises that if it enters the eco-system in sufficient quantities it could be disastrous for mankind.  After a lot of messing about with the telephone, Barbara collapses, and the others realise her condition.  In an effort to attract outside attention and thus hinder Forester, they use a match and a gas tap to explode a canister.  Smithers, meanwhile, has discovered the truth about DN6, and the explosion allows him to grab Forester’s gun, as Bert arrives to ask questions.  The travellers make it back to the Ship:  as they return to normal size, Barbara recovers.  The Ship materialises somewhere new.

Pitch

Honey, I Shrunk The Time Travellers.

The Money Shot

The camera zooms up from the TARDIS to reveal it is parked in one of the gaps in a crazy paving path leading to a little house. (Episode 1)

The TARDIS log

• Extreme pressure on the Ship has apparently caused it and its occupants to shrink to an inch in size.  Okay, but what about when they were heading into the Big Bang in The Edge Of Destruction?  Did they shrink then, and just didn’t realise it?

• The scanner has blown (Ian jokes it needs a new tube) and remains broken when the Ship lands at the end of episode 3.  Thing is, it seemed to shatter in episode 1, but is physically intact in episode 3...

• The TARDIS has a warning siren, but possibly it only comes into operation in the specific instance of the doors opening before materialisation.

• The console seems capable of overheating, as Barbara discovers.

• Two readings on the fault locator read “QR18” and “A14D”.  No idea what this means, though.

• Once again (as in The Keys Of Marinus), there is no sound as the TARDIS materialises and dematerialises.  Why?

Past Journies

• The Doctor and Susan refer to an air raid by Zeppelins they were in.

The Doctor’s Achievement

• He appears to have prevented DN6 from being produced.  Of course, he doesn’t know this as such.  And nor do we, really - Forester might have talked his way out of it.

Things I learned from Doctor Who

• The worker ant will give his life rather than abandon eggs.

Body Count

Only Farrow.  Unless you count a garden full of insects.  Therefore:

1.

EffectsWatch

Uniformly marvellous effects here, with everything from seeds to bees to sink plugs to matchboxes to briefcases blown up to giant size very convincingly.

Dudley!

Nothing special to report, just that this is the first story where incidental music is provided by the great Dudley “Blake’s Seven” Simpson, after whom this category is named.

Notes

• I’m asking for the last time...can Carole Ann Ford please stop acting so pathetic?  Only one fit of hysterics this time - when Ian is carried off in the matchbox - but it really is getting beyond a joke.

Queries

• How does Forester hope to get away with it?  The moment DN6 went into mass production, the effects would be noted and he’d be ruined.

• Come to that, why has Smithers taken so long to catch on?  Didn’t he create it?  What tests has he done up to now that have been less revealing than those carried out by Farrow?

• Why does Ian think at first that being shrunk is ridiculous?  Hasn’t he seen enough marvels by now?

• Why is it that Ian - a science teacher - can’t understand the formula for DN6?

• What was Bert going to say when he reached the house?  “My wife was just eavesdropping on your phone calls, sir...”

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On-screen Credits

Taken from The Television Companion.

CAST

Dr. Who - William Hartnell, Ian Chesterton - William Russell, Barbara Wright - Jacqueline Hill, Susan Foreman - Carole Ann Ford, Forester - Alan Tilvern, Farrow - Frank Crawshaw (1-2), Smithers - Reginald Barratt (2-3), Hilda Rowse - Rosemary Johnson (3), Bert Rowse - Fred Ferris (3).

CREW

Written by Louis Marks.  Title Music by Ron Grainer with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.  Incidental Music by Dudley Simpson.  Costumes - Daphne Dare.  Make-up - Jill Summers (1); Sonia Markham (2-3).  Studio Lighting - Howard King.  Studio Sound - Alan Fogg.  Special Sounds - Brian Hodgson.  Production Assistant - Norman Stewart.  Assistant Floor Manager - Valerie McCrimmon; Dawn Robertson.  Story Editor - David Whitaker.  Designer - Raymond P Cusick.  Associate Producer - Mervyn Pinfield.  Producer - Verity Lambert.  Directed by Mervyn Pinfield (1-2); Douglas Camfield (3).

Review

A somewhat offbeat way to start the new season, Planet Of Giants is nonetheless very well executed, with plenty to keep the eyes entertained enough that it doesn’t matter that the plot is virtually non-existent.  In fact, one can’t help but wonder why the DN6 plotline between the “big people” was dreamed up at all.  Clearly someone wanted to get environmental issues into the show, which is laudable, but was this really the best vehicle for them?  Not that it matters - the success of this story is down to the effects, the first truly great ones in the show’s history.  The time travellers clamber over enormous telephones and briefcases, climb down plug chains and stare up into enormous faces.  It could so easily have gone horribly wrong, but someone put just the right amount of money into it.  It’s nice and brief, it’s action-oriented, the moving creatures are kept to a sensible minimum and large and small actors alike acquit themselves decently.  Doctor Who had to do a story like this sooner or later, so thank goodness it did it well.  It doesn’t matter that the explanation for it all, while falling short of being technobabble, makes no sense at all, along with several other elements of the plot.  The show has presumably got this out of its system now, and we can look forward to monsters next week.

Rating

7 / 10

 

The Exciting Guide to The Reign of Terror

So, back in 1999, I made it to the end of Season 1, which means that if you scroll down to the bottom of this post, you'll see my summary of the whole season. Meanwhile, there's "The Reign of Terror". It would be nice to draw parallels with last night's showing of "A Town Called Mercy"...well, they both take place in the past. Will that do?

Quick reminder:
For previous posts, you can scroll around this site, or go to my Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/ExcitingGuide) which will link only to those parts of my blog devoted to the Exciting Guide. If you need to understand what I'm doing here, there's a link to my intro here: http://chapwithwings.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/watching-every-tv-adventure-of-doctor.html

Story Eight

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Story Code

H

Title

The Reign Of Terror

“Friends” Title

The One With The French Revolution

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Episode Titles

A Land Of Fear

Guests Of Madame Guillotine

A Change Of Identity

The Tyrant Of France

A Bargain Of Necessity

Prisoners Of Conciergerie

Current availability

Episodes 1-3 and episode 6 exist, but there is no sign of episodes 4-5.

Sources

Doctor Who Magazine Archive, Issue 204.  As with Marco Polo, certain elements have also been taken from the novelisation The Reign Of Terror by Ian Marter.

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Date

1794.

The downfall of Robespierre occurred on 27th July 1794 (the Ninth Thermidor).  This story therefore begins on 24th July and takes place in the days up to that event (which happens in episode 6).

Genre

Historical

Plot synopsis

1.         The Doctor tries to put his human companions out of the ship on what he believes to be twentieth century Earth, but they persuade him to come for a farewell drink.  Evidence soon reveals they are near Paris during the “Reign of Terror” that followed the French Revolution.  They reach an abandoned farmhouse, and encounter first two escaping royalists - Rouvray and d’Argenson - then a group of revolutionary soldiers come to get them.  The royalists are killed, and Ian, Barbara and Susan taken away to Paris.  The Doctor has been knocked unconscious by the royalists, and remains in the farmhouse as the soldiers set light to it.

2.         The Doctor is rescued from the farmhouse by Jean-Pierre, the ragged boy they met.  He makes for Paris, interrupted en route by a road works overseer, whom he soon outwits with a shovel.  His three companions, meanwhile, are imprisoned at the Conciergerie prison where Ian meets a dying man called Webster, who gives him a message to pass on to English spy James Stirling.  The encounter causes Ian’s name to be struck off the execution list by the fearsome Citizen Lemaitre for further questioning, but the two women are taken off to the guillotine.

3.         Ian escapes from the Conciergerie, not realising he has been helped on his way by Lemaitre.  Barbara and Susan are rescued by a counter-revolutionary named Jules.  He is dismayed that the farmhouse - vital to their escape route - has been discovered, and his comrade Leon says there is a stranger at the inn Le Chien Gris asking for him.  The Doctor, in Paris, disguises himself as a Provincial Officer with the aid of a shopkeeper, and visits the Conciergerie with a mind to freeing his companions, but instead meets Lemaitre, who forces him to accompany him to see Robespierre.  The shopkeeper, however, comes to the Conciergerie jailer with evidence of the Doctor’s deception.

4.         The Doctor bluffs his way through his meeting with Robespierre, but Lemaitre forces him to stay a night in the Conciergerie.  He hears the shopkeeper’s evidence, but instructs him to keep quiet about it.  Jules kidnaps the stranger at the inn, but it is Ian, following Webster’s instructions.  He is reunited with Barbara and Susan, but Susan is now feeling unwell, and the two women go to a physician, who promptly turns them in.  They wind up back at the prison, where Barbara is to be questioned...by the Doctor!  Hoping to find James Stirling, Ian meets Leon in a deserted crypt, only to find soldiers there - Leon is a traitor and has led him into a trap.

5.         Jules arrives in the nick of time, Ian is rescued and Leon killed.  The Doctor arranges for Barbara to escape, but is unable to perform the same trick for Susan.  He attacks the jailer, but is interrupted by the return of Lemaitre, who reveals he knows the Doctor is an impostor, and demands to be taken to Jules Renan.  That evening, the Doctor and Lemaitre turn up at Jules’ house, and Jules labels the Doctor a traitor.

6.         Lemaitre reveals himself as James Stirling, and Ian delivers his message.  The various parties agree to help each other, and Ian and Barbara spy on a meeting between Robespierre’s deputy, Paul Barrass, and Napoleon Bonaparte, where they plan Robespierre’s downfall the following day.  As the tyrant is shot in the mouth and dragged to the Conciergerie, the Doctor manages to free Susan, and the travellers return to the TARDIS.

Pitch

Like Danton, but bloodier.

The Money Shot

Impossible to say, really.  But perhaps the allegedly spectacular starscape that accompanied the closing lines.  Or if the guillotine actually makes an appearance on screen.  Or something.

The Doctor and his kind

• It is claimed that the French Revolution is the Doctor’s favourite period of history.  (This possibly being why Susan borrowed a book on the subject from Barbara in An Unearthly Child).  Seems odd.  Why?  Rather a violent and nasty period, after all.

• Then again, the Doctor himself is more violent here than we’ve seen him since prehistoric times.  He hits one man with a shovel, and another with a cognac bottle.

The history of Earth

• In 1789, a Revolution sprang up in France, the King was executed, and a man named Robespierre became First Deputy of the new revolutionary government.  Thus began a five-year Reign of Terror, with counter-revolutionaries and royalists executed by the thousand - in one scene, Robespierre claims that 342 executions have taken place in nine days in Paris alone.  In 1794, his deputy, Paul Barrass, led a revolt against Robespierre, and the tyrant was sent to his own Conciergerie prison to await execution.  Barrass intended to amend the constitution to allow for rule by three Consuls, one of whom would be Corsican General Napoleon Bonaparte.  We do not see the outcome of these plans, although they are well known to Barbara - she suggests to Jules that Bonaparte will one day rule France alone.

• It is not thought that (in our world) Bonaparte could possibly have met Barrass as depicted here.  So what?  He does in this world!

Script Heaven

• Barbara “But think of all the times we’ve been in danger before.  We’ve always found a way out in the end.” Susan “Oh yes, we’ve had our share of luck.  But you can’t go on and on being lucky.  One day things are bound to catch up with you.”  Is this foreshadowing something?  Or not?

• Foreman “I suppose you think you’re very clever.” The Doctor “Well, without any undue modesty, yes!”

• The Doctor “Now do stop arguing, Barbara.  You know perfectly well that my schemes always work.”

• The Doctor “Our destiny is in the stars, so let’s go and search for it!” (Note:  According to the novelisation, the Doctor’s final words are “Where to?  Who knows, Chesterton?  Who knows?  Because I certainly don’t!”  Which is also a good line.)

Catchphrase

• Jailer “Who are you?” The Doctor “Exactly.”

The Doctor’s Achievement

• Once again, in a historical, not much can be achieved.  Ian warned Stirling to flee:  he was going to anyway.  Ian and Barbara learn of Barrass’ and Bonaparte’s plans:  but no-one does anything about them.  Susan gets captured a lot, and the Doctor’s marching about is all in aid of rescuing his companions.  Perhaps the only concrete achievement is that the Doctor rescues some “tax dodgers” from a rather unpleasant and greedy road works overseer!

Things I learned from Doctor Who

• Much of the history of the latter stages of the French Revolution, of course.

Body Count

Rouvray and d’Argenson.  Leon and his two soldiers.  Webster.  That’s all the definites, but of course, death was going on all the time off screen:

6.

Screams / Twists Ankle

• One bit of the novelisation I can quite easily believe is Ian Marter’s depiction of Susan.  “Susan broke away from her escort and ran across to peer through the small window in the door of Ian’s cell.  ‘Ian...Oh, Ian...’ she cried, tugging uselessly at the lock with her frail fingers.”  Yep, sounds about annoying enough.

• Oh, I’ve Been Captured Tally:  2.  People keep getting locked up in this one.  Principally, however, we have the classic moment where Barbara and Susan go to the doctor and are promptly captured, only to find the Doctor ready to release (one of) them!

Checkov’s Plot Device

Checkov’s James Stirling (no he isn’t).  But we’re really stretching it now.

The TARDIS wardrobe

• The Doctor’s usual costume remains in Paris, though he retrieves his ring from James Stirling.  He now gains the uniform of a French Provincial Officer, which I’m sure will come in useful.  Still, as we know, he’s got lots of outfits similar to his regular one, hasn’t he?  He said so in The Sensorites.  Funny, you’d think his taste in clothes might be a little more varied.  Still, at least now we know why he doesn’t smell.

Whoops

• Locked up in the Conciergerie, Barbara says it reminds her of “the last time we were imprisoned...in prehistoric times.”  So, does the Dalek cell not count, then?  (This may just be a feature of the novelisation).

• Ian gives Jules a message all about Paul Barrass and The Sinking Ship.  Er, when exactly did Webster mention all that?  I don’t notice it in the novel.

Notes

• Presumably, half the cast are speaking French in this story.  I would dearly like to see the surviving episodes to find out how they got around this one without turning into an episode of ‘Allo ‘Allo.  At any rate, it can’t have been done the way it was in the book, with the travellers breaking into O Level French whenever they had to.  Besides which, if the Doctor and his companions can understand Dalek, Mongol and Sensorite, surely they can cope with French?

• It was a violent time, but even so, Ian Marter’s novelisation gives us some rather gruesome scenes, notably the multiple bayonetting of d’Argenson in the first episode.  Surely it can’t quite have been like this on TV?

• Scenes of the Doctor approaching Paris in Guests Of Madame Guillotine are the series’ first pieces of location filming.  Of course, it isn’t really William Hartnell at all...it’s actor Brian Proudfoot in a wig.

• The final regular castmember goes on holiday - William Russell gets very little to do in episodes 2 and 3 as a result.

Queries

• What’s the attraction of the French Revolution for the Doctor?

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On-screen Credits

Taken from DWM.

CAST

Dr. Who - William Hartnell, Ian Chesterton - William Russell, Barbara Wright - Jacqueline Hill, Susan Foreman - Carole Ann Ford, Lemaitre - James Cairncross (2-6), Jailer - Jack Cunningham (2-6), Jules - Donald Morley (2-6), Small Boy - Peter Walker (1-2), Rouvray - Laidlaw Dalling (1), D’Argenson - Neville Smith (1), Sergeant - Robert Hunter (1), Lieutenant - Ken Lawrence (1), Soldier - James Hall (1), Judge - Howard Charlton (2), Webster - Jeffry Wickham (2), Road Works Overseer - Dallas Cavell (2), Peasant - Denis Cleary (2), Jean - Roy Herrick (3-4), Shopkeeper - John Barrard (3-4), Danielle - Caroline Hunt (3-4), Leon - Edward Brayshaw (3-5), Robespierre - Keith Anderson (4-6), Physician - Ronald Pickup (4), Soldier - Terry Bale (5), Paul Barrass - John Law (6), Napoleon - Tony Wall (6), Soldier - Patrick Marley (6).

CREW

Written by Dennis Spooner.  Title Music by Ron Grainer with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.  Incidental Music composed and conducted by Stanley Myers.  Costume Supervised by Daphne Dare (6).  Make-up Supervised by Sonia Markham (6).  Film Cameraman - Peter Hamilton (2-3).  Film Editor - Caroline Shields (2-3).  Lighting by Howard King (6).  Story Editor - David Whitaker.  Designer - Roderick Laing.  Associate Producer - Mervyn Pinfield.  Producer - Verity Lambert.  Directed by Henric Hirsch (1-2,4-6).

Familiar Faces

Ronald Pickup, who played the Physician, was later to become quite a well-known actor.  More impressively, Edward Brayshaw (Leon Colbert) was to become Mr Meeker in Rentaghost!

Review

Well, from what I can see, it looks like a pretty classy historical adventure to me.  All right, there’s a bit of a reliance on capture/rescue scenarios, but you’ve got to admit the show has guts, shoving an alleged children’s serial into the middle of the Reign of Terror.  It’s interesting that we more or less remain around the edges of the action, the Doctor’s encounter with Robespierre notwithstanding.  And the scene at the Sinking Ship is just there because Dennis Spooner couldn’t resist the temptation to stick Napoleon in.  Otherwise, though, we are mainly concerned with restoring the TARDIS crew to freedom (a perennial theme in the show so far) and with Lemaitre, who is clearly an excellent character, and I can only hope that James Cairncross was an excellent actor.  The revelations about him in episode six are a shock, and merely make the character better.  Other interesting aspects of this story include the increased amount of comedy, especially in the character of the jailer...although, in the novelisation at any rate, these come across as comedy in the same way as, for instance, the porter in Macbeth - it’s not funny as such, but you can see how it’s supposed to be comedy.  Also, take a look at Script Heaven.  This early on, the show’s really getting self-referential, mocking its own barely established conventions - e.g. they always get out of tight spots.  The only real problem with these historicals, though, is that while there’s plenty to look at, the plot is largely limited to people dashing in and out and getting shot every other episode so that we don’t notice that all the travellers are doing is being captured and escaping.  They can’t affect history, so there’s no real plot.  Not to worry, though.  It’s enjoyable enough on paper, now can someone show me a real version please?

 Rating

 7 / 10

Season One in Review

            The series has set out its stall and it hasn’t done it by halves.  These eight stories provide an impressive intro, and you have to keep watching to see if they can maintain this high standard.  The series’ strengths and weaknesses are plain - historicals such as Marco Polo, The Aztecs, The Reign Of Terror and even An Unearthly Child (and OK, I haven’t seen all of these) shine amongst slightly dodgier outer space-set stories (The Sensorites, The Keys Of Marinus).  Perhaps least memorable in the season (though by far not the worst story) is the two-parter The Edge Of Destruction, but the season’s apogee must be The Daleks - whatever its shortcomings as a story, you can’t deny that it and its villains stick in the mind.  And someone at the BBC has a tidy mind - the elaborate societies created for Skaro and the Sense-Sphere are remarkable, and it’s a lot of effort to put into a group of aliens that (at least in the case of the Sensorites) we’re unlikely to encounter again.  Someone cares, which is good.  The central cast are mostly strong, especially when given good material - let’s face it, no-one could do much with the middle episodes of The Keys Of Marinus, but get a load of Jacqueline Hill in The Aztecs.  For the next season, I can only hope that some of the writing talent poured into the historicals gets allocated to the more SF stories, as there’s surely more mileage in these.

 

The Exciting Guide to The Sensorites

Really, I ought to be covering a story involving Dinosaurs to tie in with the screening of "Dinosaurs On A Spaceship" yesterday - but at least this one has a mysterious spaceship under threat from the nearby planet. The Sensorites doesn't exactly have the best reputation in the world. But, interestingly, I reacted to it more positively than one might have expected. Remember, this was 1999 and I haven't re-read the entry since, so the final review and rating came as a surprise to me in 2012. Let's keep an open mind.

Quick reminder:
For previous posts, you can scroll around this site, or go to my Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/ExcitingGuide) which will link only to those parts of my blog devoted to the Exciting Guide. If you need to understand what I'm doing here, there's a link to my intro here: http://chapwithwings.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/watching-every-tv-adventure-of-doctor.html

Story Seven

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Story Code

G

Title

The Sensorites

“Friends” Title

The One With The Round Feet

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Episode Titles

Strangers In Space

The Unwilling Warriors

Hidden Danger

A Race Against Death

Kidnap

A Desperate Venture

Current availability

All six episodes exist.

Source

UK Gold omnibus repeat transmission.

End credits seem to have been created especially for this transmission.  This is another of UK Gold’s occasional quirks which I shall not mention again.

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Date

2750.

Carol, John and Maitland come from the twenty-eighth century, which must set this story somewhere between about 2700 and 2800.

Genre

Alien culture.

Plot synopsis

1.         The Ship has landed on a spaceship in orbit around a planet called the Sense-Sphere.  Its pilots - Maitland and Carol Richmond - are unable to leave, as the Sensorites who inhabit the world are controlling their ship and their minds.  The TARDIS crew save them when the ship is put into freefall, but a Sensorite steals the lock from the TARDIS, trapping them on the ship.  Barbara and Susan bump into John, the third crewmember and Carol’s fiancé, whose mind has been disturbed by his experiences.  A high-pitched whine signals the approach of a Sensorite travel machine, and one of the aliens is spied outside the viewing port.

2.         The intruding Sensorites try to make John attack Barbara and Susan, but the women return their telepathic attack by concentrating on the words “we defy you.”  The travellers are reunited, and deduce that mineralogist John discovered that the Sense-Sphere is rich in the valuable mineral molybdenum, hence his attack being much worse than those on Maitland and Carol.  The Sensorites arrange a parley via Susan, and explain that they won’t let any of them leave because Earthmen have betrayed them in the past.  They start to take Susan away to the planet, threatening to kill the others if she doesn’t co-operate.

3.         The crew turn the lights off, which renders the Sensorites powerless.  After much further discussion, it is agreed that Barbara and Maitland will remain on the ship, while the others will go down to the Sense-Sphere:  John will be cured, and they will negotiate for the release of the ships.  It is explained that ten years ago, an Earth expedition discovered the molybdenum, but since their ship exploded, the Sensorites have been dying in their thousands.  The planetary Elders argue over the decision to allow the humans to land:  the City Administrator attempts to kill the aliens with the Disintegrator, but is prevent just in time by the Second Elder.  Whilst talking to the First Elder, Ian suddenly collapses with the disease - the Elder says he will die.

4.         The Doctor deduces the water is to blame - the Elders drink a different water, which is why they are unaffected.  He creates an antidote, but this is intercepted on its way to Ian by the Administrator, whose paranoid fear of the outsiders has led him to capture the Second Elder and use his sash to impersonate him.  Susan fetches more, and Ian begins to recover.  Meanwhile, the Doctor goes to investigate the aqueduct, despite the Sensorites’ belief that monsters live there.  He finds the cause of the poisoning - Deadly Nightshade - but hears a roar nearby.

5.         Ian and Susan rescue the Doctor, whose coat has been torn by something.  Realising that one of the Sensorites bears them ill will, they go back to the city to find out who.  The Administrator blackmails the Second Elder into supplying him with the Disintegrator key once more, but the Elder destroys it, and the Administrator’s accomplice kills him.  This Sensorite claims to the First Elder that the Doctor killed him, but his story is seen through thanks to the Doctor’s enforced change of apparel.  Suspicion falls on the late Second Elder as the travellers’ enemy, and ironically they suggest the City Administrator as his replacement.  Too late, John (now fully cured) tells them he overheard the Administrator plotting against them.  The Doctor and Ian return to the aqueduct:  however, the new Second Elder tampers with their weapons and map.  Meanwhile, in the city, Carol is kidnapped.

6.         Carol is forced to write a note claiming she has returned to the ship, but Barbara has just come down, so this is seen through.  John and the Sensorite Senior Warrior rescue her.  Barbara and John go to look for the Doctor and Ian, keeping in touch with Susan using a Sensorite mind transmitter.  The Doctor and Ian, meanwhile, have discovered survivors from the old Earth expedition, who have been poisoning the water for ten years, quite insane, believing themselves to be at war.  They are captured.  The villainous Sensorite is discovered thanks to his alterations to the map, and is banished to the outer wastes.  The TARDIS lock is returned, and Maitland and his crew take the insane humans back to Earth.  Ian annoys the Doctor, who threatens to put him off the Ship at the next stop.

Pitch

A story proving you should never drink the water when abroad.

The Money Shot

A Sensorite appears at the viewing port.  (Episode 1)

The Doctor and his kind

• Susan waxes lyrical about her home planet:  “Grandfather and I don’t come from Earth.  It’s ages since we’ve seen our planet.  It’s quite like Earth, but at night the sky is a burnt orange, the leaves on the trees are bright silver.”

• Once again, as in An Unearthly Child, the Doctor and Susan’s comments suggest they’d like to return home.

• Susan appears to have a gift for telepathy, and the Doctor claims he sometimes knows what his companions are thinking.  Susan’s abilities seem more proficient than his, but probably only when aided by the extraordinarily high Ultra High Frequencies on the Sense-Sphere.

• Does the above suggest that possible the Doctor and Susan’s home planet also has extraordinarily high Ultra High Frequencies?  Do people there communicate by telepathy too?

• The Doctor speaks out against weapons, but ambivalently.  “I have never liked weapons of any kind, but they’re handy little things.”

The TARDIS log

• Ian notes that the static on the scanners could have been caused by an unsupressed motor.  The Doctor suggests a magnetic field.  Cam we take it the scanner is nothing more than a telly?

• Despite how complex it is constantly made out to be, the TARDIS lock can be cut off, producing a burning smell!  In fact, the entire opening mechanism is removed, permanently locking the door.  At least the Sensorites do acknowledge that the lock is “an electronic miracle.”

• The Doctor’s comments suggest the door could be broken down, but to do so would discharge the dimensions within the Ship (i.e. bad.)

Past Journies

• The Doctor and Susan have presumably visited the planet Esto (see Alien Worlds.)

The history of Earth

• In the twenty eighth century, the whole lower half of England is now Central City - there has not been a London for four hundred years (or a Big Ben!)  And Earth still has too much air traffic.

• The people of Earth clearly still get engaged and married.

Alien Worlds

• The Sense-Sphere is a planet rich in the mineral molybdenum, a fact which the indigenous Sensorites wish to keep to themselves.  It also has extraordinarily high levels of Ultra High Frequencies (or did I already mention that?)

• The Sensorites are virtually identical semi-humanoids.  They look a bit like caricatures of wise old men...but have circular, flat feet.  They all wear nondescript tunics.

• They speak much as we do, but have also developed a method of telepathy using small transmitter discs which they place against their foreheads.  Even Barbara is able to use one of these, so their own abilities are probably limited to being able to hear what other Sensorites are transmitting.

• Their irises contract in the dark, making them very vulnerable to lack of light.

• They also cannot stand loud noises of any kind.

• Sensorites’ hearts are in the centre of their chests.

• The planet is ruled by two Elders.  The First Elder wears two sashes to mark him out, the Second only one.

• The Elders are at the head of a strict caste system:  “The Elders think and rule, the Warriors fight, and the Sensorites work and play.”  An example of the distinctions made is that the Elders drink the Crystal Water, while everyone else makes do with the everyday water from the aqueduct.

• The Sensorites claim their society is based on trust, making treason and plotting impossible.  The Senior Scientist describes it as the perfect society, with all contented.  This, of course, is easily shown to be a trifle naive.

• Their space travel ability is limited to being able to nip back and forth to the spaceship in orbit.

• Somehow, as seen in the cliffhanger to Strangers In Space, the Sensorites seem able to survive in the vacuum of space.

• According to Susan, the planets on the planet Esto use thought transference.  If you stand in between two of them, they let off a screeching noise.

Script Heaven

• The Doctor “Yes, it all started off as a mild curiosity in the junkyard, and now it’s turned out to be quite a...quite a great spirit of adventure, don’t you think?”

• The Doctor “No, Barbara.  I learned not to meddle in other people’s affairs years ago.  Now, now, now, don’t be absurd.  There’s not an ounce of curiosity in me, my dear boy.  Tell me, why are you in danger?”

• Carol “You’re very strange people.” Susan “Are we?” Carol “Well, you come from nowhere, and you seem to be going nowhere.”

• Carol “Do you know who I am?” John “You’re good.”

• Carol “It’s rather like an eyelid.  These shutters over my eyes.” Scientist “Yes.  To see all the time is...not a good thing.”

• Administrator “Weakling!  Betrayer of our people!  Coward!  I should imprison you in some room wherein no light can shine and fill that room with noise!”

• Ian “Oh, and...congratulations.” New Second Elder “When you address one of the Elders, you call him sir.”

Script Hell

• Ian “There’s one thing about it, Doctor, we’re certainly different from when we started out with you.” Susan “That’s funny, grandfather and I were talking about that just before you came in.  How you’ve both changed.” Barbara “Oh, we’ve all changed.” Susan “Have I?” Barbara “Yes!”  And so on, and so on...honestly, this belongs at the end of an episode of He-Man.

• The Doctor “You know, I think these Sensorites have found the way to take control of your mind.”  No shit, Sherlock.  You don’t have to spell everything out for us.

• Susan “That must have looked funny!  Flip-flap, flip-flap...”  Someone shoot this child, please.

• The Doctor “Yes, but the fact is that you didn’t kill him.  Shows great promise for the future of your people.”  Patronising arse!

Name-dropping

• The Doctor claims to have met Henry VIII.  He threw a parson’s nose at the King and was sent to the Tower - where the TARDIS was parked!

• He also claims to have met Beau Brummel, who said he looked better in a cloak.

The Doctor’s Achievement

The cause of the Sensorites’ ten-year affliction has been discovered and nullified.  All the humans are allowed to go home, and John is cured.

Things I learned from Doctor Who

• What a spectrograph is.

• Iron melts at 1,539˚C.  Molybdenum melts at 2,622˚C.

• Cats can see better in the dark than humans because their irises dilate at night.

• The symptoms of atropine poisoning.

Body Count

Only the Second Elder buys it in this story.

1.

Screams / Twists Ankle

• This is Ian and Barbara’s first foray into their own planet’s future.  True to form, they act like the worst kind of tourists - “Is Big Ben still on time” indeed!

Checkov’s Plot Device

Checkov’s Previous Earth Expedition.

EffectsWatch

• The model shot of Maitland’s ship flying off is pretty good, considering.

The TARDIS wardrobe

• The Doctor’s jacket is ruined in the tunnels, but he says he has more in the Ship.

Dudley!

• Classic stuff here.  Ian feels Maitland’s pulse and proclaims him “Dead.”  DA-DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!

• “Will he let me into my ship, I wonder?”  DA-DA-DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!!

Whoops

• There is a plethora of line fluffing on display here.  The Administrator’s accomplice is heard to say “I heard them over, over...t-t-talking.”  But honours go to William Hartnell, not only for “The First Elder...Scientist, I mean...” but also for reading “-INEER” as “I-N-N-E-R.”

Notes

• There is a bizarre scene near the beginning when the crew all pat themselves on the backs for being in such an interesting series and patronise the audience silly before re-capping on the story so far.  What was the writer thinking?  See first entries in Script Hell and Script Heaven.

• The travellers do seem to be getting along very well by this stage (the final scene notwithstanding).

• Putting the travellers’ exact relationship down on paper quite startlingly, Barbara states that they depend on the Doctor:  he leads, and they follow.  Quite a contrast from the power-jockeying of An Unearthly Child.

• Again, one of the leads (Jacqueline Hill, this time) goes on holiday for a couple of episodes.

• For the first time, we pass through the TARDIS doors along with the travellers.

• Maitland’s ship, espied on the scanner at the end, is the series’ first “real” spaceship.

• I love the bit where Susan stands up to the Doctor.  “Dictated to by petty thieves and my own granddaughter!”  Beautiful.  She appears to be growing up and out of his shadow (“I’m not a child any more.”)  The Doctor claims this is their first argument in all their years of travel.  Maybe all this is going to make her less annoying.  Maybe.

• I don’t like John’s ability (according to Susan) to tell good and evil people apart.  It’s altogether too convenient.

• There’s a lovely scene between Susan (again!  Good grief!) and the First Elder in which her wanderlust and homesickness are both highlighted.  It concludes with her speculating that they’ll all go home one day.

• Whatever Barbara says, it seems to me that the Administrator’s ambition is secondary to a desire to save his planet from the outsiders fuelled by irrational hatred.

• Men in the future wear Seiko kinetic watches.  You see?  Some day, all watches will be made this way!

• After the Doctor defended Ian in The Keys Of Marinus, the positions are here reversed when the Doctor is accused of murdering the Second Elder.

• Once again, the crew are willing to just leave the people they meet to their fate, and only stop when they are cut off from their Ship.

Queries

• Why are Carol and Maitland not surprised to meet twentieth century citizens?

• How did the Sensorites know how to deal with the TARDIS lock?

• And how did they get to it in the first place without that high-pitched whine being heard? (Unless we are to presume that one of the two Sensorites was already on board before the TARDIS landed, and only the second one arrived at the end of Strangers In Space.)

• Why does the Sensorite at the Disintegrator have to explain about the heat sensors to the City Administrator?  What sort of an administrator is he?

• The Warriors fight.  Who do they fight, if all Sensorites trust each other and they don’t yet have space travel?  Who is the Disintegrator gun generally used against?  What is the point of the heat sensors?

• Where, precisely, does the Deadly Nightshade come from?  Or is it just parallel evolution?

• Are the humans very convincing roarers, or do they have a cassette player handy?

• Where, exactly, are the TARDIS crew when they watch Maitland’s ship go off?  Have they made the Ship just hop off into space for the sake of waving goodbye, or what?

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On-screen Credits

Taken from The Television Companion.

CAST

Dr. Who - William Hartnell, Ian Chesterton - William Russell, Barbara Wright - Jacqueline Hill, Susan Foreman - Carole Ann Ford, John - Stephen Dartnell, Carol - Ilona Rodgers, Maitland - Lorne Cossette (1-3), First Sensorite - Ken Tyllsen (2-3), Second Sensorite - Joe Greig (2-3), First Elder - Eric Francis (3-6), Second Elder - Bartlett Mullins (3-5), City Administrator - Peter Glaze (3-6), First Scientist - Ken Tyllsen (4-5), Second Scientist  - Joe Greig (4), Warrior - Joe Greig (5-6), Sensorites - Arthur Newall (3-6), Anthony Rogers (3-6), Gerry Martin (3-5).

CREW

Written by Peter R Newman.  Title Music by Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.  Incidental Music by Norman Kay.  Costumes - Daphne Dare.  Make-up - Jill Summers; Sonia Markham (6).  Studio Lighting - Peter Murray.  Studio Sound - Les Wilkins; Jack Brummitt.  Production Assistant - David Conroy.  Assistant Floor Manager - Val McCrimmon; Dawn Robertson.  Story Editor - David Whitaker.  Designer - Raymond P Cusick.  Associate Producer - Mervyn Pinfield.  Producer - Verity Lambert.  Directed by Mervyn Pinfield (1-4); Frank Cox (5-6).

Familiar Faces

Peter Glaze was later to be better known being less villainous on the children’s programme Crackerjack (Crackerjack!)

Stephen Dartnell (John)                   Yartek in The Keys Of Marinus.

Review

There is an awful lot to praise in this six-parter.  It’s really an impressive attempt to present an alien society (if a little simplistic - the caste system, near-identical appearances and minimal locations are a bit of a cop-out).  Giving the line “To them, we may appear ugly” to a Sensorite is a nice touch, and on the whole it is a wonderful balance, if a little let down by the Doctor’s patronising “Yes, well done, you’re almost as good as normal people now” attitude in the final episode, an attitude from much pulp science fiction suffers.  The aliens are, by and large, well-written, especially the First Elder - Eric Francis gives an excellent performance, understated yet refusing to be outclassed by Peter Glaze, having a whale of a time as the baddy.  The two groups of humans are less convincing, although mention must go to Stephen Dartnell, whose broken-minded spaceman steals the honours in the first three episodes.  The leads, however, after a fairly absurd start (I must repeat, what the hell was going on there?) are more than serviceable - Ian and Barbara are incapacitated for about half of the action, leaving William Hartnell to take centre stage, and despite fluffing his lines a little too often, he rises to the occasion, with a well-scripted and more than usually well-delivered set of episodes.  Of course, much attention is paid over the course of the story to Susan, against whom I have been slowly taking a dislike to date.  But to be fair, she spends almost the entire story not being annoying, and as is noted above, has a number of actually rather good scenes - unfortunately, this is all scuppered by the hideous “flip-flap” moment.  Ouch.  Anyway, on the whole the story overcomes plot holes, restrictive face masks, obvious lack of rehearsal time and occasionally rather intrusive incidental music to present a pleasingly ambitious take on an entirely alien culture, in a far more sensible and less action-oriented way than The Daleks tried to do, and one scarcely notices that sod all really happens until the third episode.  Oddly, however, it’s not a story I feel myself particularly tempted to return to, and despite its ambitions, the whole thing seems a little... pedestrian.  And they really should have given Peter Glaze a final scene.

Rating: 6 / 10