Story #7 - The Sensorites (1964)

Sarah -
It all begins with such promise as our group of traveling chums share a moment of reflection on their many adventures. Barbara assures us she's "got over all that" kerfuffle with the Aztecs, The Doctor tells a mildly amusing anecdote about Henry VIII (I'm telling you, The Doctor and his Royals obsession -- will it never end?), and we're on to the next adventure!


Harry -
The First Doctor and Susan met Henry VIII: this makes me want to take up fan fiction just to write that adventure!

Susan also mentions an adventure with some telepathic plants on the planet Esto or something like that. This leads to revelations that she and the Doctor both possess telepathic abilities, as we will see demonstrated as the story goes on. An interesting new characteristic, though one that didn't get much play after this story.


Sarah -
Our Travelers find themselves on a space ship littered with what seem to be dead bodies and overly dramatic music. When Barbara said she "can sense something," I assumed it was the heavy hand of composer Norman Kay. When Ian pronounces Maitland dead, the Bahm-Bahm of the music nearly knocked me off my sofa.


Harry -
The musical stings in this story were a bit overdone. BAHM-BAHM!


Sarah -
But wait, they're not dead after all, and Our Heroes spring into action, lending support where they can -- and decided to bugger off when they conclude that, oh well, there's really not much they can do. If only someone hadn't absconded with the TARDIS lock.

OK, I'm being a bit glib. In retrospect, so much happens in this first episode that I'd almost remembered it as two parts.


Harry -
A lot happens, but the best moment of the first episode is when nothing happens at all. There's that long silence as everyone anticipates the first appearance of the aliens. And there's one now! Peeping into the ship! BAHM-BAHM!

I'm struggling to imagine how I might have reacted to the Sensorites if I was seeing them for the first time, in 1964. Men in bodysuits with awkward circular feet, with furry faces beneath egg-head craniums. Creepy? Goofy? Somewhere in between?


Sarah -
I kept thinking that the they looked like the Whos-down-in-Whoville, but that's my jaded modern sensibility. There were so many references to them looking exactly the same, except that the didn't really, did they?


Harry -
After the reveal, the action moves down to the Sense-Sphere, which appears to be the set of a 1960s game show -- huge drapes and arches, big polka dotted panels, and a kiddie pool fountain. I love how everyone acts around the pool, glancing at it, but never saying anything about it. They all do their own silent take: "Oh, here's a random kiddie pool fountain, nice."

The story. Is there much to it, beyond the obvious themes? By that I mean... xenophobia and racism, BAHM-BAHM!

Are we both being glib with this one? I've focused more on the kiddie pool than anything else.

One other point I wanted to make was that The Sensorites is the first story that really felt stale. We've seen myriad alien races on DW and other shows, and the Sensorites look terribly dated even if they might have been new and weird for 1964.

Same goes for the story. It is really of its time, lacking in nuance, and, like the images themselves, very black and white. By the time we got to the bonkers Earth crew living in the aqueducts, I'd kind of switched off.


Sarah -
That was odd, wasn't it? I have to give props to John Bailey for his wonderful turn as the Commander. That, and the return of the lovely Barbara and her stunning outfit gave the story a bit of a lift at the end.


Harry -
The roaring standoff between Susan and the Doctor was pretty wild, though.


Sarah -
This was perhaps the most interesting development. Our Little Susan is growing up and Grandfather is not ready for it so she turns to Barbra as her natural ally. It was a nice scene.


Harry -
Nice foreshadowing too.  We found the one bit of depth in this story!


Sarah -
And now I'm ready to move on!

Lasting image - The Sensorite at the window in episode one.

Favorite moment – The superior officer twit commander in the aqueducts.

Best line - "I learned not to meddle in other people's affairs years ago."
Of course you did, Doctor, of course you did!

Rating: 5/10


Harry -
Lasting image - I want to say the kiddie pool, but let's go with John's constant face of trauma.  That was hella trauma.

Favourite moment - the 30 seconds of silence before we first see a Sensorite

Best line - "Your story is a tissue of lies."
Haven't heard that term before.  Must be an old Sensorite saying.

Rating: 5/10

 


Our marathon continues with Story #8 - The Reign of Terror...

Story #6 - The Aztecs (1964)

Harry -
Let’s get right to it, there’s a blizzard about to hit and I need to move some canned goods down to the cellar.


Sarah -
The Upper Midwest is gripped by Stormageddon 2011 and I'm already missing the balmy setting of "The Aztecs."


Harry -
To borrow a sporting parlance, “The Aztecs” is a tale of two halves.

I found the first two episodes slow-moving with surprisingly little going on after the main and secondary plotlines are first introduced. The camera work was shoddy at times.


Sarah -
Wait, isn't that part of the charm?


Harry -
True, but it can still be jarring at times. The final two episodes more than make up for it. Riveting stuff, interestingly shot, and the story brought to a brilliant conclusion. It felt like they switched not just directors but the entire production company in mid-story, the contrast was so striking.


Sarah -
Sorry, but how have we gotten this far without the mention of Tlotoxl? John Ringham just may have turned in the best Doctor Who performance ever. Oh, I was skeptical at first – convinced that he was merely a frustrated thespian who never had the opportunity to show the world his Richard III – but he soon won me over with the depth and consistency of his most excellent performance.


Harry -
Speaking of mean old Uncle Dicky... in keeping with the varied and experimental nature of Season 1’s stories, “The Aztecs” offers us Doctor Who as a BBC Shakespeare teleplay. It had that feel to it. Tight sets, a small cast always in each other’s faces, and a great moral quandary at the heart of it.

The story revolves around Barbara and her attempt to alter history on a grand scale by overturning the fundamental religious beliefs of the Aztecs. Her intentions are met with disapproval from all sides, with only Susan and Ian offering (somewhat passive) support.

The Doctor is adamant – history cannot be rewritten, despite Barbara’s good intentions.

Sarah -
Barbara, Barbara, Barbara, what were you thinking? History cannot be rewritten … except when the viewers don’t know the history. (Take the Thals, for example.) Still, has Barbara rewritten their history, or just confirmed it? Might the Aztec empire still exist today if it weren’t for a meddling English history teacher?


Harry -
Autloc is respectful but puzzled, trying to understand why the reincarnated High Priest Yetaxa would return to refute their age-old beliefs and rites.

Tlotoxl is utterly contemptuous of this newcomer, who dares to challenge the ways of the gods, as well as his own standing as the High Priest of Sacrifice.


Sarah -
But, as Ian points out, Autloc is the outlier. Tlotoxl’s behavior is entirely appropriate for his culture. And, have I mentioned he’s utterly fabulous?


Harry -
It is a dangerous game that Barbara plays and it would have been fascinating to watch the story progress. Only, it didn’t. Once the players were introduced, the story seemed to drag. Scenes were overly long, and often marred by poor camerawork. During the first human sacrifice – a critical moment – there is one whopping great camera wobble that pulled me right out of the story, back to the BBC set, wondering how in hell they wouldn’t have re-shot such a pivotal scene.

Another pulled-me-out-of-the-story moment was Ixta donning what appears to be a cheetah mask. Were there cheetahs in ancient Mexico? Maybe some similarly spotted jungle cat? I have to do some Googling.


Sarah -
It is a dangerous game and she plays it so boldly. I loved the moment when she tells Tlotoxl that she’s not a god and there’s not a damn thing he can do about it. The way she plays everyone off against each other is quite cunning, coming from Our Barbara.

The first episode was a little too similar to the Velvet Web – Barbara showing up before everyone else and settling into the moment with nary a blink. Still, she looks great in the costume. The Aztecs had some awesome headgear. Even Ian got in on the action.

On a technical note, I’m sure the black and white helped, but I found the sets quite excellent. The backdrops were clearly backdrops, but they looks fabulous and sold me on the story.


Harry -
The third and fourth episodes of this story are something else. Each of the one-on-one moments feature some crackling lines. There’s even a moment of humour to break the tension, played perfectly by Hartnell and Russell:

“Where did you get hold of this?”
“My fiancé.”
“I see. [beat] Your WHAT?”

Sarah -
That old heartbreaker and his wicked charm! As much as he’s clearly manipulating Cameca for information about the temple, I don’t doubt that there’s something there. I love that he was constantly being shuttled back to the garden with all the other plus-52s. Talk about being put out to pasture!

Ian, meanwhile, gets to put his fighting skills, which one assumes he picked up while doing his National Service, to the test.


Harry -
Indiana Chesterton!


Sarah -
His fight scenes with Ixta have to be among the least interesting in television history. That said, I appreciated when he stood his ground in the final episode, knowing that he must face Ixta before leaving in the TARDIS.

Susan has the strangest storyline of all. Wisked away to the seminary, she once again excels as the excellent student. Then she almost gets married off to Ixta and inadvertently slags off the entire Aztec empire. Oops.


Harry -
Yes, Susan’s seminary plotline was weird. I mean seriously, her entire adventure consisted of being kept in a small room by herself, with the occasional spot quiz from Autloc. Weird!


Sarah -
Apparently, it was Carole Ann Ford’s turn to be on holiday and her scenes in the second and third episodes were pre-filmed.


Harry -
You are Toby to my Rob!


Sarah -

I'm clearly the Toby in this relationship!


Harry -
As the various conflicts in the story race to their resolution, this story surprises with an ending where the goodies end up suffering the most, and the baddies come out on top.

Cameca, having been used and mislead by the Doctor, suffers a broken heart.

The Doctor, realizing what he has done to her, is saddened and guilty.

Barbara is depressed, her optimistic efforts having been crushed. (I loved how, after she was repeatedly berated by the Doctor, Ian put it to her more gently: “You can’t fight a whole way of life, Barbara.”)

Most tragic of all is Autloc, a gentle soul who ends up losing his faith, left to wander the wilderness.

Tlotoxl wins the day! The hunched, sneering antagonist, who – like Tegana before him – was merely playing out his role in that culture at that time. As the Doctor concludes, Tlotoxl had to win in order to preserve history (which is the one bit of hypocritical rubbish throughout Doctor Who – the most important rule, yet the one that is most often broken).


Sarah -
There wouldn’t be a show if that rule weren’t broken!


Harry -
Do you wonder if the Doctor ever thinks about Cameca?


Sarah -
Of course. Perhaps he went back for a visit…


Harry -
I’m sure there’s a fanfic for that.

Do you think this is the story where Barbara starts thinking about going home again?


Sarah -
It would be hard not to after all that, don’t you think?


Harry -
I could write on and on about this story, but let’s wrap things up before the power cuts out.


Sarah -
Lasting image - The Doctor’s face when he discovers he’s engaged!

Favorite moment – Every moment Tlotoxl is on screen.

Best line - "Yes, I made some cocoa and got engaged..."

Rating: 8/10


Harry -
Lasting image: Barbara resplendent as Yetaxa.

Favourite moment: the Doctor and Cameca’s sweet courtship in the garden.

Best line: “Was ever such a potion brewed? In bliss is quenched my thirsty heart.” Cameca, sipping cocoa with the Doctor, delivers a line right out of Shakespeare.

After a slow and wobbly start (6/10), “The Aztecs” comes to life at the midway point and gives us a great finish (8/10).

Rating: 7/10

 

 


Our marathon continues with Story #7 - The Sensorites...