Doctor Who: The Sensorites

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The Sensorites is the seventh serial of the classic Doctor Who television series It was first broadcast on BBC1 in six weekly parts from 20 June to 1 August 1964. It was written by Peter R. Newman and directed by Mervyn Pinfield and Frank Cox. It stars William Hartnell as the Doctor, Carole Ann Ford as Susan Foreman, William Russell as Ian Chesterton, and Jacqueline Hill as Barbara Wright.

This serial returns to quiet, thoughtful science fiction after the tight moral drama of The Aztecs. The TARDIS lands on a spaceship trapped in orbit around the Sense-Sphere, homeworld of the Sensorites.

Episode 1: Strangers in Space

The TARDIS lands inside a silent Earth spaceship. The Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Susan find two people on the floor (Captain Maitland and Carol) who wake and beg them to leave at once. The ship is trapped in orbit around a planet called the Sense-Sphere.

Unseen beings, the Sensorites, are holding the vessel by mental control and blocking every attempt to fly away. A third crewman, John, is alive but his mind is damaged; he hears voices and warns that the Sensorites will never let them go.

Strange things happen around the ship. Doors lock by themselves, lights dip, and the controls refuse orders. The Doctor studies the instruments and decides the Sensorites do not want to kill, only to keep the ship near their world. Susan feels thoughts pressing into her mind and senses a warning to stay away.

The travellers choose to help the crew and try to make contact rather than run. As they prepare, Ian looks through the viewing port and freezes. A pale, round face with staring eyes is outside, clinging to the hull in the vacuum of space. The figure reaches for the hatch controls. The Sensorites are no longer just voices: they have come to the ship.

Episode 2: The Unwilling Warriors

The Sensorites climb aboard the silent spaceship. They move carefully, shining eyes fixed on the humans. With small devices they stun Captain Maitland and Carol, then glide through the corridors, testing doors and controls.

The Doctor and Ian try to block them, but learn the creatures are not trying to kill: only to hold the ship. Strange calm spreads like a fog as the Sensorites press their minds against everyone on board.

John, whose thoughts are broken, whispers about the planet below and a secret he cannot say. The Doctor guesses the Sensorites damaged his mind to stop him speaking. Barbara and Ian revive the crew and secure the doors, but the locks slide open by themselves. Susan hears words inside her head more clearly than before. She answers without speaking and makes a link with the visitors.

Through Susan, the Sensorites explain their fear. Other Earthmen once came and brought greed and sickness. They will not let this ship leave until their leaders are sure it is safe. They want to take an envoy to the Sense-Sphere to talk. The Doctor refuses. Then Susan, guided by the voice in her mind, says she will go down with them, whether the Doctor agrees or not.

Episode 3: Hidden Danger

The Sensorites allow talks. Susan agrees to go to the Sense-Sphere, and the Doctor insists on going with her. Ian accompanies them, while Barbara stays on the ship to help the crew and watch over John. In the great city, the travellers meet the First Elder, a gentle leader who wants peace, and the Second Elder, who keeps order. A strict official called the City Administrator distrusts the humans and plots to ruin the talks.

The Doctor learns the Sensorites fear loud noises and darkness, and that an earlier Earth crew brought greed and disease. The First Elder promises to try to heal John’s damaged mind and to return the TARDIS lock when trust is won. Food and water are brought to the guests in marked crystal dishes. The Doctor studies everything closely and notices small differences between the cups and their sources.

Meanwhile, the City Administrator schemes to frame the humans for the illness killing Sensorites. He manipulates subordinates and seeks control of a disintegrator weapon. The First Elder asks the Doctor to help find the cause of the sickness spreading from the aqueduct. As they speak, Ian drinks from his cup, staggers, and collapses. The Doctor smells the water and understands: the hidden danger is poison.

Episode 4: A Race Against Death

Ian lies weak and feverish after drinking the poisoned water. The Doctor rushes to the Sensorite laboratory with Susan and demands equipment. He tests samples from different districts and proves that only water from the aqueduct supply is tainted. The First Elder grants him full access. The strict City Administrator, still hostile to humans, tries to block the work and whispers that the strangers are the cause of the sickness.

Time is short. The Doctor mixes a cure and gives Ian a measured dose. Slowly, Ian’s breathing steadies and the fever falls. The First Elder orders the remedy shared with the city. Grateful Sensorites bring maps of the aqueduct and speak of noises in the dark and creatures that snatch guards. They fear sound and night and will not go there.

The Doctor says the poisoners must be hiding in the tunnels and vows to find them. He asks for bright lamps and a strong escort. While smiling in public, the City Administrator schemes in secret. He tampers with gear, plots to seize a leader’s sash of office, and prepares to turn the city against the visitors.

As Ian begins to recover, the Doctor readies to enter the aqueduct. The real enemy waits below, and the next move could decide everyone’s fate.

Episode 5: Kidnap

Ian is still weak but recovering after the poisoning. The Doctor asks for bright lamps, a clear map, and strong guides so he can search the aqueduct where the poisoners hide. The strict City Administrator schemes to stop him. He steals the Second Elder’s sash of office, bullies subordinates, and secretly orders the Doctor’s gear sabotaged: dim lamps and a false map that leads into danger.

On the spaceship, a Sensorite agent tries to seize Carol to keep her quiet. John, slowly healing, fights to protect her. Barbara, returning to the story from the ship, helps foil the attempt and decides to go down to the city with Carol to warn the First Elder about the plot.

Impatient to end the mystery, the Doctor enters the aqueduct alone. The tunnels are wet and echoing, the air filled with strange smells: smoke, chemicals, something animal. Water drums through black channels. He marks turns and tests the flow, then hears heavy footsteps and harsh voices that are not Sensorite. His lamp flickers and dies. Shapes close in.

Above, Susan and Ian learn of the sabotage and rush to help with a true map and fresh lamps. They reach the entrance, call his name, and hear only a distant clash and a cry from the darkness.

Episode 6: A Desperate Venture

In the dark aqueduct, the Doctor follows the false map and is seized by shadowy figures. Ian and Susan hurry after him with new lamps and the true map. They find marks the Doctor left and hear rough voices. The captors are not Sensorites at all, but surviving Earthmen from the first expedition.

Sick, starving, and half-mad, they have been poisoning the water to keep the Sensorites weak and afraid. The Doctor keeps them talking and learns where the poison is stored. Ian bursts in, and together they disarm the men and lead them back toward the surface.

In the city, Barbara returns and helps expose the City Administrator. He has stolen a leader’s sash, lied to the council, and tried to murder the visitors with the disintegrator. His plot is uncovered by his own frightened aide, and he is removed from power. The First Elder thanks the travellers, promises treatment for the ill Earthmen, and orders the aqueduct guarded and repaired.

John’s mind, slowly healed by Sensorite science, clears enough for a gentle reunion with Carol. With trust restored, the Sensorites return the TARDIS lock. The Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Susan say their farewells and leave orbit, ready for whatever comes next.

Themes

As drama, The Sensorites is measured rather than flashy. It is not as iconic as The Daleks or as tightly argued as The Aztecs, yet it builds a distinctive mood: hushed corridors, whispered thoughts, and political scheming behind calm faces. Many viewers rate it as a thoughtful mid-season tale: uneven in pace, but rich in world-building, with memorable designs and a quietly humane ending.

It threads the series’ past and future. Coming after a story about the limits of changing history, it shifts the question to culture and fear: how do you repair trust after harm? The answer, listening, science, and patience, will echo in later peace-making stories across many Doctors.

Susan’s mind-to-mind contact points toward future explorations of the Doctor’s people and telepathic links, while the Doctor’s role as adviser foreshadows countless times he will stand between rulers and the ruled. With the Sense-Sphere behind them, the team steps into the age of Robespierre in The Reign of Terror, ready to test their courage again as the wheeze-groan fades and the doors open to the unknown.

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This is a chapter from Craig Hill’s book “Doctor Who – The First Doctor”, chronicling every episode featuring the First Doctor. It is available on Amazon.

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To view the list of other Doctor Who serials, please click this link

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