1.7: The Sensorites

• Doctor: William Hartnell
• Companions: Susan Foreman, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright
• Creators: Verity Lambert (Producer), Peter R. Newman (Writer)
• Season 1

What's the rating?

Must See.

What's interesting about it?

"You're very strange people. You come from nowhere, and you seem to be going nowhere." 

This is the succinct analysis of our time and space travelers from a woman they encounter in this story. It spawns a philosophical debate in which Susan responds:

"Isn't it a better thing to travel hopefully than to arrive?" 

The producers and writers seem to be doing a bit of introspection in this story, teasing out the meaning of the show now that they know it has a future. In the first moments, before the start of the story proper, the companions muse about how they've changed over the course of the series, and The Doctor does an out-of-character and slightly nostalgic little summary of the adventures they've had together so far, saying:

"Yes, and it all started out as a mild curiosity in a junk yard..." 

It almost feels like this setup is going to launch into a clip show to end the first series, but after the interlude they instead launch into a science fiction story set in the 28th century, in which there's been no London for 400 years (London clearly being the bellwether for how things are going back on Earth!)

Humans are circling the planet of the telepathic and rather sympathetic Sensorites. Their planet is known as the Sense Sphere. The Sensorites have enslaved the minds of the humans, yet curiously don't seem to physically interfere with them and actually keep them alive by providing food.  The humans, thanks to mind control, are strangely passive in accepting the status quo.

The story presents themes of submission vs. free will. The aliens  have no particular ill will toward humans but are willing to subjugate them for their own good, leaving them stuck in orbit around the planet. It becomes quickly apparent that the fight between humans and their more-or-less benevolent alien dictators are a stand-in for the fight between the companions and The Doctor. While it's made clear the humans must not submit to the Sensorites, the companions voluntarily give up their free will to The Doctor. As Barbara says, showing just how much things have changed since the first story:

"We're very dependent on The Doctor. He leads and we follow."

Susan, The Doctor's grand-daughter, decides to go down to the planet with the Sensorites to save the humans; in a psychological showdown between parent and child, the Doctor insists she returns to his side. After an awkward pause where the power relationship between the Doctor, the aliens, and Susan's free will as a maturing young woman is in question, she obeys the Doctor and returns to him.

"The one purpose in growing old is to accumulate knowledge and wisdom, and to help other people," the Doctor says, explaining why as the elder he should be obeyed in all things.

"So I'm to be treated like a silly little child," says Susan. 

These exchanges set up an interesting question for current and future companions of the Doctor: Are they adults following their own course in life, or are they silly children being directed by the Doctor for their own good (or at times, simply for his own purposes whether good or not?)

More tragically, this exchange could be considered to be between the actress Carole Ann Ford and the producers. She signed on to this show to be a strong, independent woman kicking ass through time and space. Instead she was quickly infantilized, leading to her premature departure from the series not long from now.

The Doctor, as in the last story, continues to claim he follows a form of Prime Directive non-interference. But this time even his companions crack up in disbelief when he ludicrously says, "I learned not to meddle in other people's affairs years ago."

The Sensorites are an intriguing and unusually fleshed out alien species for the time, and the ending to the story is an interesting surprise. With the Sensorites, the show has found its legs and the Doctor Who we know truly begins.

What are other people saying?

Not what I am, that's for sure! I went into this story cold, not knowing a thing about it or being aware of how other fans thought of the story. This turned out to be a good thing, as the reaction recorded above is purely my own and I managed to avoid any temptation to tone down my enthusiasm to be in line with the crowd.

For most of Who fandom, this is a forgotten story that never gets mentioned. Those that know of it often make fun of it as iconically bad. Yet, as shown in the "making of" special on the DVD, people who actually bother to go back and watch it often end up realizing it's much better than they recalled.

At least the first episode. Admittedly there's some dragging in the middle of the story, and if it hadn't been for a nice ending I might have given a lesser rating.

But my rating and review are my honest untainted reaction and I stand by them, fandom be damned!

• Wife in Space (score: 5/10)
• Tin Dog podcast #228 (he agrees with me!)
• Doctor Who: The Writer's Room podcast #18 (they start out pretty negative, but by the time their done I found I pretty much completely agreed, both good and bad)
• The Memory Cheats podcast #132

How can I see it?

• Netflix
• Amazon

1.6: The Aztecs

• Doctor: William Hartnell
• Companions: Susan Foreman, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright
• Creators: Verity Lambert (Producer), John Lucarotti (Writer)
• Season 1

What's the rating?

Must See. Or so I think now. See below for how my rating has changed over time.

What's interesting about it?

Our travelers materialize among the Aztecs, and the story takes off quickly. Barbara continues to grow -- that is, she becomes a god. Or so the locals believe. And a do-gooder god at that, like a politician believing that she can drop into a complicated socio-political situation and make a couple of decrees and fix everything. In particular, she believes she can wave a hand and do away with human sacrifice in the Aztec culture. But, to the story's credit and as politicians throughout history have discovered, it turns out reality is more complicated.

Similarly, we see The Doctor being uncharacteristically naïve. Following the (admittedly not-yet-existent) Star Trek concept of the Prime Directive, he is willing to support human sacrifice in the name of non-interference.  "But you can't rewrite history, not one line! What you are trying to do is utterly impossible!" is certainly a sentiment that won't stand up to the next 50 years of hopping around time…it also defies the concept of the series itself, since clearly history is not written in stone if time is just another traveler's dimension and if The Doctor is forever (thankfully!) foiling the plans of the Daleks to destroy humanity.

We also see something else rare (certainly in the classic series): The Doctor forges a relationship. He meets a mature widowed woman and they establish a mutual bond, to the point where she maneuvers him into unwittingly proposing marriage. While marriage is probably outside the bounds of The Doctor's interest, it's easy to see that he'd like the association to continue.

In an interesting twist, the main villain of the story is the one who perceives that these strangers are not what they claim and who acts to protect his society from their hidden agenda; the most sympathetic and supposedly enlightened character is the one who believes their lies and is manipulated by them, resulting in his banishment and the ruining of his previously successful life.

The story is marred by often-poor visuals, such as the attempt to display breathtaking visuals that are clearly cloth vistas that occasionally wave and get bumped into. Fight scenes are somewhat silly, and it's often simply hard to suspend disbelief.

But our heroes undergo character development and there are interesting characters among the Aztecs, so it qualifies as worth watching, if not required viewing. 

How has your opinion changed?

The previous sentence was my original ending to this review. When I first watched this story I thought it was Crap. When I watched it a second time, I elevated my rating to Worth Watching. And on third watching, it has moved to Must See.

Why? I had to get past the cloth vistas and the silly fights before I could see the qualities of the story.

First, it's a very tight story with not a wasted moment. No extended "running through corridors" scenes here to stretch the story out for an extra couple of episodes. The story starts immediately after the TARDIS lands and doesn't let up until they leave. (If only more classic Who stories were four episodes or less!)

Perhaps more importantly, the story touches on the Prime Directive, and more relevant to modern society, the critical question of whether well-meaning intellectual elites can "fix" society by taking over and simply ruling as they wish without subjecting themselves to the inconveniences of the democratic process.

The acting is strong, and the actors playing the Aztec roles are much better than I originally gave them credit for.

So I'm more impressed each time I see the story, and I now declare it to be required viewing for the Doctor Who fan.

What are others saying?

• Hoo on Who podcast #42

How can I see it?

• Netflix
• Amazon 
• BBC America Shop

1.5: The Keys of Marinus

• Doctor: William Hartnell
• Companions: Susan Foreman, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright
• Creators: Verity Lambert (Producer), Terry Nation (Writer)
• Season 1

What's the rating?

Endless crap.

What's interesting about it?

A sprawling mess of a story crammed with ideas and themes bumping against each other: Acid sea; glass submarines; priests protecting an omniscient computer that provides the perfect society through mind control; The Doctor as Perry Mason.

Evil brains-with-eyestalks in jars.

No, really.

Some interesting visuals, swamped by cheap sets and sloppy filming and directing. The actors don't seem to be trying very hard either, especially in the first episode; their amateurish mime routine while pretending there's an invisible force field around the TARDIS is particularly embarrassing.

 

William Hartnell, wanting a vacation, disappears for two of the six episodes. 

The plot -- requiring the obtaining of a batch of keys, one at a time -- would come back later in the Tom Baker series of episodes known asThe Key  to Time.

The first episode is pure alien planet science fiction, while the second inexplicably veers into being a historical, and by the third we're in a jungle setting. Then, already exhausted with changes of setting, we're off to a snowy forest and ice caves, and finally to a fascistic society and courtroom. There are so many sets that they had about 50 cents for each, and it shows. The man in charge of the sets, who called it "the most unloved" story, on being asked if he was proud of anything they accomplished: "Am I proud of anything in The Keys of Marinus ? I can really say…no."

Susan -- Carole Ann Ford having been originally hired on the promise of having an exciting intelligent female role a la The Avengers -- completes her transformation into a simpering wimp in this story, screaming about some little thing ever few minutes until someone comes to take care of things for her. Each time Carole Ann Ford has to scream in a story, I cringe, knowing what's it's doing to her inside, and how it will drive this fine actress from the series prematurely.

Nothing to see here. Move on.

How can I see it anyway?

• Netflix
• Amazon 
• BBC America Shop

1.4: Marco Polo

• Doctor:  William Hartnell
• Companions: Susan Foreman, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright
• Creators: Verity Lambert (Producer), John Lucarotti (Writer)
• Season 1

What's the rating?

Wiped.

What's interesting about it?

This well-regarded story was wiped, unfortunately, meaning it no longer exists. You can get a taste from the Special Features on the last Doctor Who: The Beginning DVD, which contains an abridged audio version of the story with "telesnaps" -- photos taken of a TV screen during broadcast.

Personally I found this version hard to follow, so I don't have much to say about the story. It was part of the initial pattern designed for the series, in which they'd alternate between a more science fictiony future episode and a historical intended as a healthy educational device for children.

What are others saying?

• The Memory Cheats podcast #12

How can I see it?

• Netflix
• Amazon 
• BBC America Shop

1.3: The Edge of Destruction

• Doctor:  William Hartnell
• Companions: Susan Foreman, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright
• Creators: Verity Lambert (Producer), David Whitaker (Writer)
• Season 1

What's the rating?

Intriguing Crap.

What's interesting about it?

A strange story indeed. Created as a two-episode filler to complete the contracted season before likely cancellation, this "kid's show" is like a cross between Waiting for Godot  and Six Characters in Search of an Author . No silly monsters here; instead we get an existential exploration of the mind of the TARDIS, through vignettes ranging from opaque dialogue while the actors wander around blank-faced to Susan trying to kill her fellow travelers with scissors (producer Verity Lambert later regretted going that far).

While it definitely provides intellectual fodder far above the typical Who fare, I can't truly recommend it as it doesn't really fit into the Who universe and doesn't provide a cohesive, satisfying story. It's more of a writing and acting exercise, of the kind best left to rehearsals.

The most redeeming aspect, and the one factor that is relevant to Doctor Who continuity, is that Barbara is the one who figures out what is going on, and the Doctor comes to respect her and thereby to start the process of his softening toward Barbara and Ian. While I prefer the crustier version of this Doctor, this is an important step in his evolution. 

What are others saying?

Nobody likes this one much.

• Wife in Space (score: 2/10)
• The Memory Cheats podcast #1

How can I see it?

• Netflix
• Amazon 
• BBC America Shop