Customer Reviews

Doctor Who: The Sensorites

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First, the bad. The writer had some limits by the script that was being adapted. Second, the idea of aliens that are so identical that the can only be differentiated (even by their own species) by their clothes, is pretty far fetched.

The good... Splendid story that provides good characterisation that makes the book readable even by non-Who fans. The author, although not in the original televised episode, attempts to explain the confusion between the aliens (who can not recognise each other) by them being seen at a distance. Good villians and mysteries involving them with enough questions that a reader needs to read the entire novel to get the gist of the whole thing. The use of aliens that attack your very mind makes for a good story too. Although somewhat predictable, most mysteries are as you near the end of the story. Also, the Doctor is written quite likeable with all the qualities that made him a sci-fi star for over a quarter of a century in England.

Highly reccomended even as an introduction to Doctor Who.

When the TARDIS lands on a spaceship, the (first) Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara are shocked to find the bridge crew dead. But, before long the two crewmembers come out of their extreme comatose state, and tell the travelers that they have been taken prisoner by telepathic aliens called the Sensorites. The Sensorites then immobilize the TARDIS, drawing the Doctor and his companions into a pot of intrigue and murder that brewing on the Sensorites home planet. There is something very strange going on on Sense-Sphere, and only the Doctor can get to the bottom of it!

The Sensorites was first aired in 1964, when the show was still basically a Saturday morning kids show. As such, the depth of the story was not great. But, the story is nonetheless a very good Doctor Who episode, and this novelization makes it even better. This is a very good novelization of the episode, and is sure to please any Whoite!

[By the way, if you get a chance to listen to the 2008 BBC Audio version of the show, take it! The original audio of the episode is narrated by William Russell (who played Ian Chesterton), and is well worth listening to.]

This story had the questionable privilege of introducing some of the least threatening aliens in the history of Doctor Who! However, their civilisation doesn't make a lot of sense.

The TARDIS arrives on a human spaceship orbiting the planet Sense-Sphere. The crew of the ship appear to be dead, but turned out to be paralysed by the Sensorites, who are the natives of the planet. Given the unthreatening and occasionally comical appearance of these aliens, the big build up to their arrival is somewhat amusing.

All is not well on Sense-Sphere. The Sensorites are dying from a mysterious plague that only started after a previous human expedition. The Doctor is obliged to assist them in curing the plague in order to regain the TARDIS lock, which the Sensorites have removed (at this early point in the program's history, the crew were depicted as travellers who end up having adventures rather than actually seeking them out, so there is always a reason why they can't leave). The seeking of a cure becomes even more desperate when Ian succumbs to the plague...

One advantage that Nigel Robinson has in novelising this story is that the reader's imagination will establish better sets and props than were present in the televised story. However, in writing a straightforward novelisation, he is inevitably tied to the political intrigue plot line, which all hangs off the ludicrous proposition that the Sensorites are so physically identical that even they themselves can't tell each other apart except for variations in clothing.

I say: a good attempt given the original material he had to work with.