Sorry, this item is not available in
Image not available for
Color:
Image not available

To view this video download Flash Player

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
Sell Us Your Item
For up to a $4.95 Gift Card
Trade in
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here

Doctor Who: The Sensorites, Story No. 7 (2012)

William Hartnell , Jacqueline Hill , Mervyn Pinfield , Frank Cox  |  NR |  DVD
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)

List Price: $24.98
Price: $19.99 & FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $4.99 (20%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
Only 13 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Shop and save on other great BBC titles, including "Doctor Who," "Merlin," and "Africa."

Frequently Bought Together

Doctor Who: The Sensorites, Story No. 7 + Doctor Who: The Reign of Terror (Story 8) + Doctor Who: The Keys of Marinus (Story 5)
Price for all three: $59.11

Some of these items ship sooner than the others.

Buy the selected items together


Product Details

  • Actors: William Hartnell, Jacqueline Hill, William Russell, Carole Ann Ford
  • Directors: Mervyn Pinfield, Frank Cox
  • Writers: Peter R. Newman
  • Producers: Verity Lambert
  • Format: Black & White, NTSC
  • Language: English
  • Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Rated: NR (Not Rated)
  • Studio: BBC Home Entertainment
  • DVD Release Date: February 14, 2012
  • Run Time: 148 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B005SH65GI
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,350 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Special Features

None.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

For a series aimed at children, Doctor Who can take some tantalizingly eerie turns, and The Sensorites is a prime example. The Doctor (the very first Time Lord, William Hartnell) and his companions land inside of a spaceship where the crew, still seated at the controls, are dead--and then suddenly come back to life. An alien being with black eyes, a blank face, and a wispy, silken beard appears in a window that looks out into space. Stumbling around in a dark tunnel, the Doctor is attacked by an unseen roaring monster. This is the substance of childhood nightmares. Furthermore, as the Doctor investigates the planet of the Sensorites and uncovers a conspiracy to overthrow the government, the unveiling of the opposing sides leads to some surprising moral complexity. On the other hand, the pace of this six-episode serial drags at points, narrative logic is a bit hit-or-miss, and the quotient of scientific babble is pretty high ("Where's the power come from?" "Electromagnetics!"). It's best to approach The Sensorites not as a coherent story but as an unsettling dream. William Hartnell launched the Doctor with a grandfatherly air (one of his companions is his granddaughter, Susan, played by Carole Ann Ford), but the Doctor's high-handed intelligence, insatiable curiosity, and stern scruples are already there, as are hints of the capriciousness that would later become a more significant character trait. Extras include audio commentary, some behind-the-scenes stories from a "vision mixer," and an oddly intriguing investigation into the obscure writer of The Sensorites. --Bret Fetzer

Product Description

The Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan land on a spaceship orbiting a distant and mysterious world, where a human crew lies frozen somewhere between life and death. The planet is the Sense-Sphere, home of the Sensorites, beings of immense intelligence and power. Unable to leave, the Doctor and his companions must deduce the Sensorites’ intentions: are they friendly, hostile, or frightened? And what is the deadly secret at the heart of the Sense-Sphere?

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars "The Sensorites... they're near us now!" January 3, 2012
Format:DVD
This six-part adventure is a great oldie and classic. I first got this one on VHS in the "End of the Universe" collection and I found it quite enjoyable. I'm surprised that it took this long to be released on DVD.

Let me get the bad stuff out of the way first. Episode 3 was kind of boring, but it picks up again in episode 4. There are many stuttered lines in this story. The Sensorites feet look ridiculous. And at one point, you even see a wall in the spaceship start to fall down before it is quickly put back up again. But other than that, this is a great story.

The acting was pretty good - some of it was actually brilliant. The sets look great. The dark spaceship was very spooky as well as the aqueduct on the Sense-Sphere. The Sensorites were very creepy in the first two episodes. Episode 1's cliffhanger was, in my opinion, one of the best in the series. The plot and the story are great. It has a lot of mystery and adventure in it. It has a great surprise ending, and I really enjoyed Susan's character a lot more in this story than in others. Her character should have been like this from the beginning. This is also the very first story that has the Doctor himself taking on the heroic role instead of Ian, and he uses his mind and wits to defeat the enemy instead of brute force. I really enjoyed this one and I'm sure you will as well. Highly recommended!
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars The Doctor Meddles Again! February 16, 2012
Format:DVD
In The Sensorites, the first Doctor trips over a race of beings who are hypersensitive and they all look alike. Even to each other.
The six chapter serial may seem to drag a bit, but there's enough political intrigue to keep this early adventure watchable.
Barbara is missing for most of the story, but that doesn't matter as the Sensorites are the focus of it.
Misunderstanding leads to fear and treachery and ignorance gets put in its place in this unexpectedly well acted show.
It's not perfect. Early BBC allowed many mistakes and goofs. There's missed cues and at one point late in the story you can see the microphone as if it was meant to be part of the cast of characters.
Those bits aside, William Hartnell is great as ever and Carol Ann Ford is not annoying at all.
There are enough special features, including a documentary about the writer of the episode, Peter R. Newman, to justify the expense.
I'd give it five stars, but the clunky sets are hard to get over.
The writing is fantastic, though.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Underrated story, slightly blah DVD January 16, 2013
Format:DVD
This is definitely a minority opinion, but I think the first season of Doctor Who was the best. William Hartnell's sinister characterization of the Doctor is very underrated, and he was well-supported by excellent companions - particularly Ian and Barbara, who are the most convincing representations of "normal" people in the show's history. Sure, the Doctor's granddaughter Susan was a criminally under-used character; but here in The Sensorites, she gets to shine a little by defying the Doctor's wishes and using some cool telepathic powers.

I'm also a fan of season one because of the (generally) great scripts. And while The Sensorites is far from the best-written story of the season, I do think that Peter R. Newman's script features some compelling ideas. In defiance of Doctor Who conventions, Newman depicted the Sensorite race as mostly benign and sympathetic creatures (an interesting contrast to the show's usual "evil monster" aliens); indeed, the Sensorites only do "bad things" in this story in order to protect their planet from exploitation by humans who want to strip-mine the place. In a sense, then, this is the sort of left-wing (or at least politically aware) story that didn't become commonplace for Doctor Who until the Pertwee era.

The story's production design, meanwhile, is pretty good (given the era and budget). The Sensorites may look a little fake, but to me they're perfectly respectable aliens by 1960s TV standards; certainly, Doctor Who produced much stupider-looking aliens even in the 1980s (like the Ergon, to name one of many). Also, the set design for the human spaceship is effective, and enhances the tense and claustrophobic atmosphere of the opening episodes.
... Read more ›
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars The Sensorites So Old It's New September 28, 2012
By mary
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
It was very nice to finally get to see a fresh doctor who story from the old days, one i'd had yet to see before. It was a good story and reminded me why i've been so attracted to doctor who, the show for somany years now...besides i love to catch the old black and white episodes any chance i get anyway...and there where some nice extras along with this too!
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
The Sensorites commits the biggest sin that any Doctor Who story can commit: it's dull. Stretched out over 6 episodes with very little actually happening, it seems to last forever. However, it's not without a few good points.

In brief, the TARDIS lands on a spaceship where the human crew is kept in a state of suspended animation. The Sensorites, or native population of the planet the ship is orbiting, are keeping the crew in a state of suspended animation so that the humans won't let anyone know about the valuable mineral to be found on the Sense-sphere. The TARDIS crew, sans Barbara, and most of the human spaceship crew are taken down to the Sense-sphere where political intrigue, plotting, racism and misunderstandings flow.

On the positive side: This is a terrific story for the character of Susan. She isn't merely a hysterical teenager, and she seems to have telepathic powers that her grandfather doesn't have. I also thought it was interesting to have a species where individualism is so devalued that the only way they can tell each other apart is from details of their clothing. A couple of the guest actors do a nice job, and there are some nice set designs that unfortunately don't always make it to the screen.

On the bad side: Did I mention that the story is dull? It's too long, but even if it had only been 3 or 4 episodes it probably would have dragged a bit. There's also a lot of holes in the plot: If the Sensorites are so sensitive to darkness, why are they o.k. traveling through space in a bubble? If the Sensorites have the ability to keep the human crew basically comatose, why couldn't they have wiped the human's memories of the rare mineral? Etc., Etc.
... Read more ›
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Nothing Beats A Classic
The best Doctor Who stories are in the classic series and nothing better to start of your journey with the Doctor than with the original man himself.
Published 7 days ago by D. Haworth
5.0 out of 5 stars Sensorites is a 4.5 Story
I wanted to take half a star off, but Amazon doesn't allow that. In the end I decided to round up because of my extreme fondness for the William Hartnell era of Doctor Who. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mark Vanderlinde-Abernathy
5.0 out of 5 stars IT'S THE DOCTOR! WHAT COULD BE BETTER!
IT'S THE DOCTOR! WHAT COULD BE BETTER!
Another great addition to my Doctor Who collection!

A must have for any Whovian!
Published 3 months ago by hondo101
5.0 out of 5 stars Way better than The Daleks
I am a new fan. When I got caught up on the current series, I decided to go through the classic series in order. It has been fun, but this is my favorite so far. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Steve
5.0 out of 5 stars Woo Hoo
Love Dr Who (William Hartnell) and getting some of the older stories that have gone or only have some of the episodes and we can watch them.
Published 4 months ago by Bob Robson
3.0 out of 5 stars Doctor One
So glad more Doctor 1 episodes are being restored. This one is made up of episodes 1.31-1.36 (story 7). Read more
Published 9 months ago by S. Molina
4.0 out of 5 stars We are slowly filling in the gaps.
They are doing great work in recovering these episodes. This series captures all the things we love about Doctor Who. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Donald F Laliberte
5.0 out of 5 stars Great insight
Very interesting and gives great insight to the Doctor and Susan. I would recommend this one to any Doctor Who fan new and old alike.
Published 15 months ago by Kristen Hair
2.0 out of 5 stars A minor story from Doctor Who's first season, trust me
This long, tedious adventure from the tail end of Doctor Who's first season displays a cast beginning to show signs of fatigue; William Hartnell fluffs his lines so badly that if... Read more
Published 15 months ago by buckbooks
5.0 out of 5 stars 1960's doctor who is awesome!
This is a must have DVD. If you are a true Doctor Who fan and have most of the other releases then you should buy this DVD. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Eric Walker
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews


Forums

There are no discussions about this product yet.
Be the first to discuss this product with the community.
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 



Look for Similar Items by Category