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The blatant bait and switch
at the end of episode one where a scary Nosferatu-esque Sensorite
appears but is replaced by a cuddly version for part two.
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The Earth astronauts have
little cartoon rockets on their uniforms.
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The hilarious light beam
operated doors onboard the space ship. Not only is the beam placed near
the top of the door to make it hard to open but it is impossible – even
for a trained thespian – to bring drama to a scene where you’re waving
at a light bulb in an effort to make your heroic entrance.
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Molybdenum was a courageous
name for a mineral in Hartnell’s tenure as Doctor Who. Such courage must
be admired.
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It being the 1960s, the
first time you see William Russell’s coughing fit, it is entirely
possible to believe it is genuine and they didn’t think it was serious
enough to order a retake.
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With the Daleks Masterplan
burnt to ashes, this is our best chance to see Billy as a dynamic space
pilot. And doesn’t he do well?
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The cutting tool is perhaps
the most pathetic device in the show’s history. Maitland sweetly says
they’ll be through in a moment when it is obvious that a hamster with a
blunt pen… wrong era.
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The beautiful moment when
Susan asks what Ian’s holding and when he tries to explain what a
spectrograph is, she tells him “Oh yes – so it is” and walks off.
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Susan’s philosophical speech
which she forgets half way through “Isn’t it better to travel hopefully
than…………….arrive?”
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The Sensorites themselves –
essentially just pot-bellied men with bags over their heads. Eyeholes
torn out more or less where the eyes should be, the masks couldn’t have
cost more than a quid each and that includes the shopping that came in
them.
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Caves of Androzani? Pah! The
Invasion of Time? Pah! The device of talking straight to camera started
here. The City Administrator turns to camera and tells the audience “I
had never thought of that” when Carol has made her reprehensibly racist
remark that all Sensorites look the same to her.
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The awful bit of “we’re
aliens, remember” dialogue about where the human heart is. “Is it on the
left or right side, or in the centre as with ours?”
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The utterly plain and drab
nature of the Sensorites’ sashes of office. Their entire constitutional
system seems to rest on the ownership of three pieces of felt.
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The Sense Sphere may be the
worst name for a planet in the show’s entire forty-year history.
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The Sensorites are proud of
their aqueduct despite the fact that it’s dark (they hate the dark),
it’s noisy (they hate noise) and it has monsters living inside it.
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And how did they manage to
build such a dark and noisy thing anyway given their limitations?
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When John is hooked up to
the machine that fixes his brain, he looks like he’s having his hair
permed.
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The camera lingers on a
cupboard that has the word “WATER” on in big letters while Barbara and
Susan wander past and into danger. It’s nice to be subtle.
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Billy’s lovely comedy moment
where he says “nothing wrong with that” after Maitland has said John has
white hair.
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The plans laid are all so
feeble that they’re rumbled within minutes. The note which says Carol
has gone up to the space ship still has wet ink on it, the guns are so
badly sabotaged that Ian the 1960s school teacher can see it, the map
has been altered so amateurishly that even in poor light the Doctor can
see the changes that have been made. The City Administrator’s fall guy
accusing the Doctor of murder is so unbelievably bad as he blunders into
Ian’s verbal trap.
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Why does nothing have a name
on the Sense Sphere? The planet, the people, the language – it is all
stripped of any kind of personality. The second elder’s “family group”
is threatened rather than his “wife” or “Janet” or “Snuggums” (which
implies at least that these strange little creatures actually have sex)
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Ian’s appalling arrogance
when he talks about the City Administrator’s promotion saying “We gave
him that power.”
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The series recap at the
beginning which makes the main characters seem more real as their past
adventures together are at least referenced. Of course, they blow it
with Barbara saying she is over the events of the Aztecs despite it
following directly on from that story and seemingly is only separated by
the time it takes to change their clothes. She only witnessed death and
despair and the disillusionment of a good man – nothing a clean pair of
knickers won’t cure.
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And as if the above wasn’t
good enough, some prototype Monty Python men appear at the end!!
