The Sensorites

Peter R. Newman developed the concept for The Sensorites in January 1964 and was officially commissioned to write the serial on 25 February by script editor David Whitaker. Newman's story was inspired by 1950s films set during World War II, exploring the notion of soldiers who continued to fight after the war.[4] Mervyn Pinfield was chosen to direct the first four episodes, as it was felt that he could evoke great visual atmosphere despite a small budget, while Frank Cox directed the final two episodes.[5]

Designer Raymond Cusick was inspired by Antoni Gaudí's design of the Sagrada Família church (pictured in 1950) in Barcelona, which has no right angles.[6]

Stephen Dartnell, who had previously appeared in The Keys of Marinus, was chosen to portray John, while Ilona Rodgers played his fiancée Carol.[7] Canadian actor Lorne Cossette played Maitland, and John Bailey portrayed the Commander; Cox envisioned the Commander akin to Ben Gunn, a character from Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, and cast Bailey after seeing him in the play Pygmalion in April 1962.[8] The other human survivors were played by Martyn Huntley and Giles Phibbs, friends from drama school who knew the director's secretary and were scheduled an interview.[9]

Designer Raymond Cusick avoided the use of straight lines and right angles in his sets for the Sense Sphere, in deliberate contrast to the "alien" buildings of other stories.[10] He recalled the work of architect Antoni Gaudí, who designed the Sagrada Família without using right angles.[6] Cusick designed the spaceships sets to resemble the 1940s Dakota military aircraft.[11] The Sensorite masks, created by costume designer Daphne Dare and make-up artist Jill Summers, were designed for short actors; Dare designed them to look like wise old men. Mouth flaps were concealed beneath the creatures' beards to allow the actors to speak. The Sensorites' feet were created by stretching out pieces of circular card at the end of the costume, making it difficult for the actors to walk.[12] The hand tools used by the creatures were designed by Shawcraft Models.[13]

Model filming for The Sensorites took place in May 1964 at Ealing Studios.[14] Rehearsals for the first episode took place from 25 to 28 March,[14] and weekly recording for the serial began on 29 March at the BBC Television Centre in Studio 3.[11] To achieve the effect of the spaceship rolling on its axis, the camera was rocked erratically.[15] The third and sixth episodes were recorded at Lime Grove Studios in Studio D[16] and the fifth in Studio G,[17] while the fourth was recorded at the Television Centre in Studio 4. Jacqueline Hill was absent from the recording of the fourth and fifth episodes as she was on holiday.[6] A final insert shot of the spaceship was recorded at Lime Grove Studio D on 10 July 1964 by Henric Hirsch, director of the following episode.[18]

The first episode was broadcast on BBC1 on 20 June 1964 and was watched by 7.9 million viewers.[19] The second episode aired 25 minutes late on 27 June due to an overrun of the previous programme Summer Grandstand,[20] achieving 6.9 million viewers.[19] While the third episode was provisionally scheduled to run two hours late on 4 July, due to extended coverage of the Wimbledon tennis championships and Ashes Test match,[21] it was replaced by Juke Box Jury and postponed to the following week,[20] receiving 7.4 million viewers. The fourth and fifth episodes dropped to 5.5 and 6.9 million viewers, respectively,[19] but were nonetheless the highest-rated BBC show in the BBC North region for their respective weeks.[20] The final episode aired on 1 August to 6.9 million viewers. The Appreciation Index was an average of 58 for the six episodes, ranging from 56 to 60. Episodes 3–5 were erased by the BBC on 17 August 1967, while the remaining three were erased on 31 January 1969. BBC Enterprises retained negatives of the original 16 mm film with soundtracks made in 1967; these were returned to the BBC Archives in 1978.[19]

Retrospective reviews of the serial were positive. In The Discontinuity Guide (1995), Paul Cornell, Martin Day, and Keith Topping wrote that "it veers from sinister to unintentionally hilarious, with everyone fluffing their lines".[22] In The Television Companion (1998), David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker enjoyed the set-up of the first two episodes and the escalation of the threat, though noted that it contained a "classic piece of sixties sexism" in the traditional roles of Susan and Barbara; they praised the "bravura performance" of Dartnell, and felt that the characters of Maitland and Carol are "well defined".[23] In A Critical History of Doctor Who (1999), John Kenneth Muir considered the Sensorites justified in their hatred of humans, appreciating that they "are not merely evil because the story demands it of them".[1]

In 2008, Mark Braxton of Radio Times described the Sensorites as "a triumph of realisation, in their appearance ... and in their hierarchy, culture and customs" but felt they were developed to the detriment of the humans; Braxton praised the performance of Dartnell, Hartnell and Ford, noting the serial's importance to the relationship between the Doctor and Susan.[2] In 2012, IGN's Arnold T. Blumburg wrote that "the story builds some nice suspense in the first two episodes and features some great set design and lighting", and commended the "shades of gray" used for the Sensorites' design, instead of the black and white creatures such as the Daleks.[3] Nick Setchfield of SFX felt that the story was "ambitious" and the slow pace "actually works in episode one's favour", though the Sensorites' "chill-factor" was gone after the first episode.[24] DVD Talk's John Sinnott considered the story "well constructed" with impressive set design and an expanded role for Susan, but felt that there was "nothing special" about the serial.[25]