Sport has always been the ultimate "event TV". The more prestigious the event, the less chance any other program has of keeping it's scheduled slot. Wimbledon dominates the summer, football the winter. There's still one episode of Torchwood I've never seen because I was away for a fortnight and it got shifted for the second week, then was never repeated on free TV. Someday I'll get the series 2 DVDs, but the parent show takes priority.
Meanwhile, back to the Sense-Sphere. And this time we really are going down to the planet - but not for a paragraph or two yet. Let's get the bad bit out of the way first: no matter how scared they are, the Sensorites' reaction to being plunged into darkness was ridiculous. Their slow falling about in the dark, dropping the weapons they had already trained on the humans, just didn't feel realistic at all.
On the other hand I really like the characterisation in this section. Central, of course, is the Doctor and Susan's confrontation over the fact that she's growing up, which is deftly done. My only problem with it is that Susan's stance seems to come out of the blue; we've always seen the Doctor being over-protective, but she's shown very few signs of chafing up until now. Still, these things do often come to a head suddenly, and I'm hardly going to complain about too much character development for the most-sidelined regular!
Ian's comment before they leave - "I don't like this splitting up, it always leads to trouble" - also made me smile. Now there's a perceptive companion!
Moving down to the planet, we have a definite mix of good and bad. Looking at the negative aspects first, the sets are clean and bland, quite a contrast to the textured Earth spaceship; the similar appearance of the Sensorites means there's less visual variety; and it's all very talky. Even the threat of the disintegrator is slow-building, with the engineer and City Administrator explaining what they are doing rather than showing us. It never quite reaches the point when we feel there is an imminent threat, so the whole sequence feels wasted.
On the other hand, the picture of life on the Sense-Sphere that we get from all the talking is actually interesting. It's a textured society rather than a one-note caricature like the Daleks or Thals (and even they have more going on than the Voord, or the various peoples of Marinus). There's dissent between people that can still hold a polite conversation; there's apparent contradictions like the meritocratic aspects within a firmly class-based society. I reckon a decent science fiction author could write a good novel about the place.
We also find out in more detail why the Earth ship is being held captive, and it's a motive we can all relate to: preserving a way of life. Again this is a classic postwar theme for the "plucky Brits who stood up to the German war machine", but it also has an anti-Imperialist note as well: the Sensorites are protecting themselves from the greedy, resource-hungry humans.
There's something about this episode that reminds me of Peter Davison's era. Partly it's handling of the crowded TARDIS, with a companion being shuffled unceremoniously off-screen; partly it's the bland, brightly-lit sets once they get down to the planet; partly it's something else that I haven't managed to dredge up into my conscious mind. Perhaps it's because I've recently watched Kinda for the first time, which is another story that takes an interest in alien society. This has certainly been an unusual and thoughtful episode.
And yet, there's only so much exposition I can take: I'll be looking for more action next time. My hopes are raised as we once again go out on a great cliffhanger.
Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 11th July 1964
Viewers: 7.4 million
Chart Position: 22
Appreciation Index: 56
Rating:
5.5/10.
Next Time:
A Race Against Death.
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