Written by Peter R. Newman | Directed by Frank Cox | Produced by Verity Lambert | Original air date 08/01/64
I do not understand why the City Administrator, posed as the Second Elder, kidnaps Carol and makes her write that letter to Susan. What is his end goal? Did he really think the TARDIS crew would believe this? Also, how do Barbara and Susan recognize Carol's handwriting (Barbara hasn't even been around since the third episode, she barely even knows Carol)? It's all used as a pretense to get Susan to guide Barbara through the aqueducts, anyway, which gives us more of an opportunity to see her psychic powers at work. Ultimately, I'm not sure why it's needed - why didn't Barbara just take the map with her, rather than leave Susan alone? Are torches not available?
The Doctor's suspicions are confirmed when he and Ian run into humans in the aqueducts, proving they were poisoning the Sense-sphere's water. I wish this was telegraphed throughout the episodes a little better - though it makes sense that the humans from the old ship that have been referenced a few times in the story are the culprits, it seems a bit arbitrary at this point. The episode also never explains the strange roaring sound the Doctor heard when he was under attack - presumably it's the humans being loud to scare what they thought were the Sensorites away? But then why was the back of the Doctor's jacket in tatters the last time he was in the aqueducts? It's strange that the humans would go out of their way to rip up his jacket and then leave him there...
The good lighting I praised in the last episode is gone from this one. Where the aqueducts were a dark space that the Doctor need a torch to see in before, here their lit up quite nicely for our regulars. The director is the same between these episodes, so I'm not sure why this was done (I suppose because the way they were lighting it before was a giant pain, and considering Hartnell is already struggling to get his lines right, asking him to say them while also holding a torch exactly right is probably too great an ask).
We get our first description of what we'll later find out to be Gallifrey in this episode. More importantly for the era we're in, though, we learn the Doctor and Susan don't come from Earth! Susan, speaking to the First Elder, after dropping that tidbit, describes her home planet, which has burnt orange skies at night and bright silver leaves on trees. Almost fifty years later, in Gridlock, the Tenth Doctor describes his planet in a similar way, and I remember loving this scene the first time I saw it (I watched the new series before going back and watching the classic episodes). It makes me happy that Russell T. Davies called back to the Sensorites in many ways - apparently the Ood-sphere is near the Sense-sphere, and they are both races who look ugly but end up being largely good in the end. The Ood are used for the same purpose as the Sensorites, to show that judging a person on their looks is unwise. I'm impressed with Davies' kisses to the past - they're remarkably subtle, but very clever (that same episode has the Macra in it, a monster we haven't encountered yet, but they're also brilliantly written in). I can only imagine being a classic Who fan and hearing the Doctor describe his planet when that episode first aired.
But back in 1964 - what a shock it must have been to find out the Doctor is not from Earth! It's true he hasn't been confirmed as a different species, yet - he won't be for a long time. But right here, near the end of the first season, Doctor Who is sewing seeds that will allow it to continue forever. The First Elder says to Susan, "Part of you calls for adventure. A wanderlust!" It must be a small part, though, because Susan says she wants to "belong somewhere" at the end of the episode (I wonder if Carole Ann Ford had decided by this point that she was going to leave soon?). Anyway, the City Administrator is banished to the wastes when it's discovered he altered the map and weapons given to the Doctor, once they return with the humans in the aqueduct. I wish we could have seen the City Administrator receive his sentence, but we don't. I rather liked the actor playing him, it would have been nice to see him react to being caught out. The episode ends with the Doctor flipping out when Ian casually jokes that the Doctor doesn't know what he's doing. He says he'll throw him and Barbara off the ship at their next stop (what did she do to deserve that punishment?!).
Reflecting on this serial now that I've finished it, I am still fond of it. It has dull points - this story will be done better and faster later on, so it's a bit of a slog now. But like I said before, I'd have liked to see Peter R. Newman back, particularly to write a nice four-parter, where he can pack all his good ideas in and cut the bad. The Sensorites looms over Doctor Who in many ways, which is odd to say about such an unassuming little adventure, but a lot of little things happen. We see our first "monsters" that turn out to be good. The Doctor seems to want to help just to help, rather than help entirely to save himself and run off at the earliest possible convenience. We get our first description of Gallifrey, and we find out Susan and the Doctor aren't from Earth. So many tiny bits of the show's DNA first surface here, and I find it charming, for all its faults.
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "A Land of Fear"
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