Day 36: A Desperate Venture

One of the plot threads that has driven this story has been the poisoning of the water of the Sensorites, and this story features the realisation of it. It has in fact been done by a group of humans, who were driven mad and went to war with the Sensorites, without the Sensorites actually realising that they were at war with them, and thus they kept on being poisoned without any idea why. The thing that is most noticeable when we first meet these men is that their leader has a very strong upper-class accent, bringing to mind the days of Empire, when we went out and taught the natives a thing or two, had a few minor wars, and at the end of it all, gained a country for the commonwealth. And that is one of the most interesting things about this story, that at the end of the day, we're the bad guys. There is an attempt at hand-waving away the reasoning for this by saying that their minds were warped, but there is no denying that the intention is still there. There exists a concept known as 'race memory' where subconsciously you are able to remember key memories, ideas and thoughts from your ancestors, as part of some hypothetical 'collective unconscious'. And so these concepts of Empire are still, according to this thinking, a part of us, and there is still the concept that it may cone back. It's a horrible thought and one of the reasons why interstellar travel and meeting other races may be a bad idea, because how long will it be before The Empire Strikes Back?

Day 35: Kidnap

One of the lovely things about Doctor Who is its tendency to reuse actors that they got on with at the time. Such is the case (presumably, I'm not familiar with the making of the story), with Stephen Dartnell, who plays John, the terrified spaceman, in this story, but only a couple of weeks ago, played Yartek, leader of the alien Voord. It's nice to see his range, he is instantly believable in both roles and is actually quite powerful as John, a man who has had the mental capacity to stop being afraid turned off, thus he wanders around in a constant state of fear, always untrustworthy, and looking for support, but finding none. If there's one thing to recommend 'The Sensorites' for, it's his performance.

Fear is indeed a prevalent theme in this story, featuring mostly as a fear of outsiders, something that is instantly recognisable, even today, almost 50 years after this was first broadcast, with our fears of migrants coming over here, taking over the country and removing all sense of the way things used to be. And acting out of this sort of fear is seen to be a bad thing, especially when considering the City Administrator of the Sensorite race, who is so untrusting and afraid of the outsiders that he conspires to be rid of them and kills one of the Sensorites who is perhaps more open to them, half by accident, but also it turns into a way to get more power. And all of this is due to fear, death has now occurred and is a possibility to occur at any moment. We have no idea who will survive come the end of the story (indeed after the last adventure, we're not even guaranteed a happy ending), and so we're drawn to watch the programme again. Out of fear, mostly.

Day 34: A Race Against Death

The 'monsters' for this serial are the Sensorites, and they're a curious beast. On the one hand, they represent the first time that we see proper 'aliens' in Doctor Who, all of the other villains have just been presumably people who look extremely like humans who are for the purposes of this story inhabiting a suit. Their design is quite nice, and whilst with our 21st century high quality decices where we can see every tiny little join in their costumes, to someone in the 1960s, they must have looked quite impressive. They're telepathic as well, which is a nice concept to have, however they are all quite stupid. Some of them are quick to jump to conclusions and shun outsiders like the plague, others when faced with an actual plague, have no idea how it came about, and no idea how to solve it. It should be noted that when the Doctor does find the cure for the plague, it's not with the sonic screwdriver, it's with the scientific method. It's a shame that they are so flawed, and we'll have a look at some more of their flaws later, because they, much like the Daleks, are unlike anything we have seen before.

Day 33: Hidden Danger

One of the remarkable things about this episode is how well written Susan is. The cliff-hanger to the last instalment is Susan agreeing to go down to the alien planet with the Sensorites, this week's menace, essentially as a willing hostage, her doing this as a sign of trust. The major problem with this is that no-one actually likes this idea, and so they fight to go against it. It's interesting that this is done, because previously Susan has done not much more besides scream and wait for Ian, Barbara or the Doctor to sort things out. Thus, when she actually does do things by herself, I find myself on her side, as she moves towards peace with these creatures. The Doctor disagrees, claiming that her actions are rash, and that she should not do such a thing without knowing that they are to be trusted, however she does not think this and believes that in order to gain trust, you must have a degree of faith in the other party. It'd the first time that Susan and the Doctor, her grandfather, have had an argument but it's commented that this is probably just her growing up. Not just physically as the character gets older, but mentally as well, as her character develops before our very eyes.

Day 32: The Unwilling Warriors

The original aim of the programme Doctor Who was to educate and entertain. This was held up for about two minutes until it was realised that entertainment is far more interesting for kids than education. It's a fact that's gleefully mentioned in one of this episode's laugh out loud moments when Ian goes to explain spectroscopy to Susan, who offhandedly remarks that she actually does know this already, and so the lesson is stopped. It's funny because it shows the inner silliness in having the educational aspect, in that the child who should be taught things is actually smarter than her teachers, and her teachers already know the things that would be relevant for school curriculums so there is often no need to explain things, except for the other-worldly business that they often come across. And yet, the episode also is able to throw in little facts here and there, to keep you learning, such as the uses for Molybdenum, and how cats can see better in the dark than we humans. This is most likely due to Peter R Newman, the writer, sticking to the original concepts of the programme, showing us that the ideas that went into at first still can work, it's just that the show moved on from its original remit to move towards entertain and terrify.

Day 31: Strangers In Space

One of the first things to be noticed about this story is how atmospheric it is, an effect which is largely created through the lighting. Unlike other stories, which have been brightened to within an inch of their lives, this one feels dark, as shadows cover the sets, props and cast, allowing for us as an audience to feel the character's fears as they face this new alien menace, the Sensorites. The old adage of 'Tell, not Show' works incredibly well here, as we only get glimpses of these creatures, and hear of their powers. We can see the effect that they have on these people, and that is far better than just showing them appearing and relying on their design to do the work for us, which makes this serial one to look forward to the rest of, as we come to deal with these all powerful creatures who can probably kill you with just a single thought.