Series 1 Episode 32: The Unwilling Warriors

Serial: The Sensorites
Episode: 2 (The Unwilling Warriors)
Doctor: William Hartnell
Companions: Barbara, Ian, and Susan

Writer: Peter R. Newman
Director: Mervyn Pinfield
Producer: Verity Lambert
Original Air Date: 27/06/1964

TOXIC MASCULINITY...IN SPAAAAAAAAAAAAACE! (and other stories)

In which Susan gets telepathic, Babs is a cool customer, Ian gets to be scared, and most of the action can be boiled down to this crackvid.

So there’s Klingons Sensorites on the starboard bow, but they’re not getting handsy with the glass in this take. The Doctor tells Ian to stay chill: ‘the calmer you are, the stronger’. I’m not sure Ian has a ‘calm’ setting. Maitland and Carol are both mesmerised; the Doctor says fear has loosened their minds and given the Sensorites the chance to control them. Pausing only to be magnificent in telling Ian to ‘ignore it’ (the Sensorite that’s taking a space walk), he proceeds to shake Maitland until he comes round. He reminds Maitland he’s got a door to open. Nothing like chivalry to clear the head. But also the Doctor would quite like Susan not be in danger and that.

On the other side of the door, Babs is trying to persuade John to open said door. John, however, is having his mind mangled by the Sensorites; he tells the fourth wall he won’t be forced to frighten Barbara and Susan, who are somewhat concerned that someone is ordering him to harm them.

Outside, Maitland has to use the cutter on the door. An exasperated Ian yells ‘Oh not again!’ and has to be gently manhandled by the Doctor when he admits he’s ‘just [. . .] so worried about Barbara and Susan’:

DOCTOR: Now-now-now, try and contain your emotions; use self-control. Otherwise it confuses the brain and leaves it wide open to an attack by the Sensorites. Look at Maitland here - fear and inertia has left him vulnerable!
IAN: Yes that's true enough Doctor.

It’s interesting that it’s Ian who has to be calmed down at this point, but even more interesting that the Doctor is essentially enforcing the idea that emotion ‘confuses the brain’. Toxic masculinity much. I mean yes, being able to control your emotions to the extent that they don’t control you is important, but it’s interesting that the men who are overtly afraid in this situation are portrayed as vulnerable, i.e. weak. Also I swear Carol’s changed her hair, as it’s now in a magnificent beehive whereas it used to be in an enormous donut. She tells them the Sensorites are now on the ship, and that even though they’re not in the same bit Barbara and Susan are in, they need to get through a.s.a.p. because of John; Ian’s not arguing. She goes on to tell them that the Sensorites can take over John’s mind…at which point Ian loses his shit. He goes over to the door and starts hammering on it, yelling for Barbara and Susan.

This. This is Ian. 

And Barbara and Susan can hear him. John asks Babs to give him his hand, which she does; he tells her the Sensorites want him to frighten them, but he mustn’t give way. Susan want to ease the tension, so Babs tells John they’re not afraid so long as he’s there to protect them. You bolster that psyche with paternalistic bullshit, Babs. (I mock, but they’re doing a pretty good job of keeping John calm, actually.) They tell him they’re his friends, and John repeats this fact for the fourth wall in case they hadn’t heard.

Meanwhile, Ian is still pacing. The Doctor catches him and gives him a good glare, but it’s no good, apparently.

But OH WHAT’S THIS? Elsewhere in the ship, two pairs of Muppet Feet are flooping along the corridor. I am amazed nobody tripped up in this serial. Or maybe they did and I don’t remember. I’ll keep my eyes peeled. Anyway, it’s the Sensorites! Who, as I’ve said, look like Zombie Lincoln minus the hat plus a onesie. They also have stripy arm bands and what looks a bit like an electrode on a string around their necks. How Ood.

The Sensorites literally have two left feet. Or right feet.

Meanwhile, Susan’s had an idea, and it’s a corker: if the Sensorites can use their brains as weapons, what’s stopping the two of them using their brains to defend John and indeed themselves? I LIKE WHERE THIS IS GOING:

SUSAN: Look, Grandfather and I landed on a planet once called Esto; the plants there used thought transference. If you stood in between two of the plants they set up a sort of screeching noise; Grandfather said it was because they were aware of another mind.
BARBARA: Breaking in on their communications.
SUSAN: Yes exactly! I thought if we both tried together...
BARBARA: Well anything's better than just sitting here.

Well this is exciting, if only because it answers some queries I had from The Keys of Marinus where Susan said she’d heard the sound of screaming plants from the also screaming jungle before. And YES SUSAN! Finally she gets to show some initiative, and now the two of them are going to get proactive using the power of their brains. Also I love how quick Barbara is on the uptake and how willing she is to go along with Susan’s plan on the basis that Susan clearly knows what she’s talking about:

SUSAN: You see, if we both think of the same thing at the same time.
BARBARA: Well what do you mean? "We defy you", something like that?
SUSAN: Yes, yes "We defy you".
BARBARA: Alright.
SUSAN: Now we must both picture the words very clearly in our minds. We must both concentrate very hard. Ready?
BARBARA: Yes. When I count to five.

WHOVIAN WOMEN BEING BADASSES WITH THEIR MINDS. GIVE ME ALL OF THIS ALL THE TIME. Also Barbara is so very game. I love that the first thing she thinks of for them to think simultaneously is ‘WE DEFY YOU’. Because why the hell not.

As Barbara and Susan prepare to be their best defiant selves, the Sensorites start…fiddling about with a desk lamp? I dunno.

Anyway, Barbara gets to five, and the Sensorites crumple in agony, clutching their heads. But OH NO! As they stand there concentrating Very Hard, suddenly Susan collapses and has to be caught by Babs. What’s happening? Has a Sensorite thought the word ‘PATRIARCHY’ very hard in her direction? We may never know.

Outside, Maitland says the door is jammed and he’ll have to cut the whole section out. Ian has had just about enough of this fuckery, tells Maitland they can’t wait, and immediately starts trying to open the now partially-open door using brute force. They succeed!

Later, the Doctor and Carol are discussing recent events; it’s possible Susan managed to reach out to the Sensorites, so Carol reckons it’s possible for them to resist. And oh look, it seems they’ve been talking about Susan as though she’s not there, because she’s now revealed to be sitting in the background. She tells them she heard hundreds of voices in her head, and the Doctor immediately starts scolding her. Apparently she escaped harm because she was ‘strong-willed and without fear’. Damn right. You should be applauding her.

Barbara and Susan sum up my feelings at this juncture.

Anyway, enter Ian, who’s been with John. The latter has been muttering something like ‘the dreams of avarice’, which Ian reckons is part of the Earth saying ‘rich beyond the dreams of avarice’. Clearly John has discovered something in his capacity as the ship’s mineralogist that has made the Sensorites silence him and keep the rest of the crew prisoner. The Doctor asks Maitland if he’s tried talking to the Sensorites. Silly question.

Meanwhile, the Sensorites are using their little stethoscope electrode proto-Ood thingies to communicate with the First Elder on their planet, who is interested in the human voice that said ‘we defy you’. Though Babs is the human in this situation, I’m guessing he means Susan. Also the new humans (i.e. Team Tardis) are smarter than the others and less afraid, so if they try to attack then warriors must be summoned. Yikes.

Elsewhere, the astronauts have got their spectroscope out. The Doctor hands a spectrograph to Ian, who reckons it’s pretty normal-looking. He then proceeds to explain what a spectrograph is to Susan the super-advanced space-child; her response is fucking glorious:

Susan has no time for your Baby Science.

Ian at least has the grace to laugh at himself.

Then the episode makes doubly sure it’s comprehensively hurdled the Bechdel test:

RICHMOND: You're very strange people.
SUSAN: Are we?
RICHMOND: Well you come from nowhere and you seem to be going nowhere.
BARBARA: Oh we're very dependent on the Doctor - he leads and we follow.
RICHMOND: Travel without a purpose?
BARBARA: Oh no, there's a purpose in it. He's trying to get us back to our own time on Earth.
RICHMOND: Oh I see.
SUSAN: Isn't it better to travel hopefully than arrive?
RICHMOND: Oh anything's better than circling around a planet forever and being kept alive. Alive... It's been more like a living-death.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSS finally we get a conversation more in the vein of Barbara and Susan in the Gobi desert but with added Carol. Also Susan talking about travelling hopefully being better than arriving breaks my heart in all kinds of different places. They all have such different experiences of space(-time) travel: Barbara and Susan are both travelling with their separate hopes but in their own way beginning to enjoy hopeful travel, while Carol travels only in the sense that she’s constantly in motion but never getting anywhere new; however, all three are momentarily united in their desire to be able to set off on their travels once more.

Anyway, the Doctor has gone off the scrutinise the spectrograph a bit more with the aid of a monocle. Because why not. Susan, Babs, and Carol continue to theorise about what must have happened; Susan starts with the fact that the Sensorites have discovered thought transference, while Barbara reckons John got so excited when he made his discovery that his mind opened up and broadcast it to the Sensorites. Dead on.

They’re interrupted by the Doctor, however, who has figured out what John found: Molybdenum! Which, unlike Dalekanium, is real, because I just looked it up on Wikipedia. And it was in demand during both World Wars because unlike steel it doesn’t melt at the temperatures produced by the propellant used in a fuck-off artillery gun. It also melts at 2623 °C, which is actually only one degree out from what the Doctor claims. (He’s also one degree out when it comes to the melting point of iron. Oh Billy.) Anyway, it’s dead useful.

Just as the Doctor yells that the planet is a veritable goldmine, however, Carol and Maitland both grab their heads in agony: the Sensorites are here! On the ship! So of course this happens:

If I had the skills to give Ian a flower crown here, I would.

I fucking love this. Everyone freaking out? Potentially hostile aliens on the ship? Grab the bestie and go looking for them purely for teh lolz. This may also be the first time Ian hasn’t run off to be action man whilst insisting Barbara stays behind. Then again, they were separated for most of The Aztecs, so this is probably the first opportunity they’ve had in a while to spend some quality human time together; it’s the closest thing they’ve had to a date since they decided to stalk one of their pupils together after school. (I also like to think Ian’s glee has something to do with being very glad indeed that his Space Bae, unlike Carol’s, is as yet unmangled in mind or spirit, and is enjoying the moment.)

So the BFFs run off to look for aliens together and it’s the most endearing thing I’ve ever seen. Which I shall again convey through the use of glittery, pastel-coloured bubble writing:

I will stop using these fonts when they stop
being offensively cute.

I’m deaded. The two of them don’t have a fucking Scooby what’s going on or what they’re doing; they’re just in it for the Spirit of Adventure...which shows a fair bit of character development for Barbara at least, who once memorably described herself as 'a very unwilling adventurer'. Indeed, the point at which Ian tells Barbara she needn’t come along if she doesn’t want to, with a massive grin on his face, knowing full well that she’d rather stick pins in her eyes than not go any further, is second only to Barbara tutting and quipping back ‘nonsense’. It’s their relationship in a nutshell. You don't have to ship it to appreciate that it’s a thing of gorgeousness. And it’s good to see Ian’s sort of left his paternalism at the door…at least for the moment.

Ahem. Sorry. I've been enormously sidetracked by the ridiculous antics of the Space Baes. Anyway, they wander around a bit more until suddenly – GASP! It’s the Sensorites! So what was your plan, darlings? I’m curious. Because Barbara and Ian now start backing away the way they came as the Sensorites advance. Ian, who seems to be nervous these days if he doesn’t have a weapon to hand, grabs a spanner while Babs opens the door behind him and steers him through it backwards. He tells her to go find Maitland and ask him how to lock the doors; she protests a bit and there’s another alarming moment when it looks like she isn’t going to go (remember when she looked like she was about to stay with Ian when he was stuck in that Dalek casing on Skaro?), but she eventually scarpers as the Sensorites come through the door and advance on Ian once more. One of the Sensorites raises its telepathic whatsit to its head, and Ian raises his spanner threateningly, causing the Sensorite to drop it. Unwilling warriors indeed.

Outside, Babs is trying to get Maitland to tell her how to lock the doors, but he’s too busy grabbing his head and looking pained. The Doctor tells Babs to try John; when she protests, he snaps ‘do as I say’. Christ the Doctor’s bossy this episode. Anyway, she does indeed go to find John, who is a trooper and allows himself to be steered towards the action by Babs.

They encounter Ian at the door with Sensorites, about to bash them with a spanner. Then this happens:

BARBARA: Ian, no!
IAN: Why not? How else am I supposed to keep these creatures off?
BARBARA: Well do you need to keep them off? Have they actually attacked you? Come on John, lock the door.

Well, it looks like Babs is making a habit of being magnificent. While Ian seems to be a lot more willing to embrace violence since his Aztec adventure, Babs has actually toned it down. And I think it might be because, while he’s getting more afraid as their adventures continue, she’s getting less afraid. Which is Interesting Character Development. And probably down to the fact that, though they’ve both had their lives threatened on a regular basis, while Ian’s had to embrace his action man role and is starting to fall back on that role more and more, Barbara’s been given a far wider range of experiences, from utter powerlessness to absolute power, and is learning to cope in a variety of different situations using a variety of different approaches; she’s getting a lot better at taking things in her stride.

Anyway, John locks the door, and Ian’s a mess after almost having succumbed to textbook Yoda anadiplosis. Barbara, who has her hands full (literally) propping up John, has more than a touch of the indulgent teacher explaining something to a wayward pupil:

Seriously, though, I’m impressed with the extent to which she has her shit together after all that Aztec business. I’m also impressed that we do get to see a lot of Ian being afraid in this serial, which is only healthy. But it’s also interesting how this episode keeps hammering home the relationship between fear and aggression.

Speaking of which – DRAMA! The Sensorites can get through the other door! MUCH RUSHING! As John bolts the door, Ian tempts fate: ‘Now we’ll see what the Sensorites can do.’

And indeed we shall. And that something is fry the locks with their catapult thingummies. They advance! But before one of them can open the main door, the other stays his hand. What are they up to?

Outside, the Doctor still wants to contact the Sensorites, while the astronauts are feeling a little better. Then – WHEEEEEEEE SPACE NOISES – the Sensorites are using their telepathy discs, and Susan suddenly starts talking apparently to herself, much to the confusion of her companions. She tells them she’s made contact, and the Doctor agrees to talk…but if the Sensorites try to harm them, he shall…*lame pause*…fight them. That’s some convincing smack-talk there, Doctor.

Well this is exciting! Susan has a skill nobody else has, and it looks like she’s going to be vital to this serial! Telepathic powers will certainly be a welcome addition to her skillset, which currently comprises ‘being really smart but not getting to show it very often’, ‘opening the Tardis doors’, ‘being morbid’, and ‘occasionally fucking the patriarchy’.

Anyway, Susan unlocks the doors and lets the Sensorites in. It turns out Earth people visited the Sense Sphere once before and caused them ‘a fearful affliction’. Which I’m assuming means ‘they were colonial-style bellends’. Anyway, the plan is that Team Tardis and the astronauts can’t go home but will be taken to live on a reservation on the Sense Sphere. The Doctor isn’t happy about that, and though both parties claim not to want to harm one another, it’s pretty tense. The Sensorites also have a sideline in sass:

FIRST-SENSORITE: The other Earth people will not be able to help you.
BARBARA: Surely we've proved that we don't need help.
SECOND-SENSORITE: You have only proved that you can lock doors. We can unlock them!

Burn.

But now the Doctor’s stepped in, and it becomes apparent that if push comes to shove he will not fuck about. When the Sensorites ask if he’s threatening them, he tells them he doesn’t make threats…but he does keep promises. Cripes. In short, he promises to cause them a fuckton of trouble in they don’t return his property, and yells for good measure; the Sensorites reel and put their hands over their ears, then depart. Never mess with the Tardis if you don’t want the Doctor for an enemy seems to be the first rule of Who.

Gif by cleowho

And now we’re finding out why you don’t mess with One, because it seems all this time he’s been sizing up their weaknesses: he’s spotted that their pupils are fully dilated in daylight, which means either that they’re in a constant state of arousal or that they’re the exact opposite of cat’s eyes and contract in the dark. I don’t even want to consider the science. Anyway, the upshot is they’ll be afraid of the dark. Then this happens:

DOCTOR: Thank you for your admiration my dear boy, thank you.
IAN: Well I never said a word!
DOCTOR: Ha-ha, telepathy! You know telepathy isn't only a prerequisite of the Sensorites. I know sometimes what you're thinking! Hm-hm! Hm-hm!

I can’t decide whether this is adorable or disconcerting. Certainly Babs and Ian don’t seem too bothered about the fact that the Doctor can eavesdrop on their thoughts. Either way, telepathic Doctor is very early canon.

But ooh, the Sensorites’ telepathic dog whistle is going off again, and Susan’s saying ‘I don’t want to go’ (oh foreshadowing!), before agreeing to something on condition that the others not be harmed. Oh crumbs. And now Susan’s walking over to the door and telling the others not to move. It transpires she’s agreed to go down to the planet…otherwise they’ll all be killed! She steps through the door and the Sensorites close it behind her. SUSAN OUT.

OH MY GOODNESS WHAT DO THE SENSORITES WANT WITH SUSAN? WILL THE DOCTOR ACTUALLY BURST A BLOOD VESSEL WITH ANGER? WILL IAN HAVE TIME TO SIT DOWN AND TALK ABOUT HIS FEELINGS AT SOME POINT WITHOUT BEING TOLD HIS EMOTIONS ARE MAKING HIM WEAK? WILL BARBARA CONTINUE TO GET TO BE AMAZINGLY TOGETHER ABOUT EVERYTHING? WILL SUSAN’S TELEPATHIC ABILITIES DEVELOP AND WILL SHE NOW HAVE LOTS TO DO IN EVERY EPISODE? HOW LONG HAS THE DOCTOR BEEN EAVESDROPPING ON HIS HUMANS’ BRAINS?

Summary (as applicable to this episode)

Does it pass the Bechdel test? Yup!

Is the gaze problematic? Nope.

Is/are the woman companion(s) dressed 'for the Dads'? No.

Does a woman fall over/twist her ankle (whilst running from peril)? No.

Does a woman wander off alone for the sole dramatic purpose of getting into trouble so she can be rescued later? Nope.

Is/are the woman companion(s) captured? No.

Does the Doctor/a man companion/any other man have to rescue the woman companion(s) from peril? Though Ian and the Doctor appear to be under the impression that Barbara and Susan need rescuing from peril, it becomes apparent that they are fine handling the situation by themselves.

Is a woman placed under threat of actual bodily harm? Implied but the threat turns out not to be serious.

Is/are the woman companion's/s' first/only reaction(s) to peril gratuitous screaming? No.

Does a woman companion go into hysterics over something reasonably minor? No.

Is a woman 'spared' the ordeal of having to do/witness something unpleasant by a man who makes a decision on her behalf/keeps her deliberately ignorant? No.

Does a man automatically disbelieve or belittle something a woman (companion) says happened to her? No.

Does a man talk over a woman or talk about a woman as though she isn't there? Yes.

Does the woman companion have to be calmed/comforted by the Doctor/a man companion/a man? No. It's Ian who needs to chill out this week.

Is a woman the first/only person to be (most gratuitously) menaced by the episode's antagonist(s)? Everyone's menacing everyone else this week. Even the Sensorites aren't proper antagonists.

Is a man shamed into doing/not doing something because the alternative is a woman doing/not doing something? No, but Babs does call Ian out on his 'bludgeon to death with a spanner first ask questions later' attitude.

Does the woman companion come up with a plan? AND HOW.

Does the woman companion do something stupid/banal/weird which inspires a man to be a Man with a Plan? No.

Does a woman come up with a theory and is it ridiculed by the Doctor/a man? No, but the Doctor does stamp all over Susan's independence and indeed chides her for carrying out her thought defiance plan.

Does a woman call the Doctor out on his bullshit? Not as such but Susan goes against his wishes pretty strongly.

Does a woman get to be a badass? Yup!

Is the young, strong, straight, white male lead the person most often in control of the situation? Everyone in Team Tardis has their moments this week.

Is there past/future/alien sexism? A bit.

Does a 'present'-day character call anybody out on past/future/alien sexism? No.

Does an past/future/alien person have the hots for a woman companion and is it reciprocated? No.

Did a woman write/direct/produce this episode? No/No/Yes.

Verdict

MORE OF THIS CHARACTERISATION OF SUSAN AND BARBARA PLEASE. Susan gets to be a telepathic badass and Babs is up for anything. It's irritating to see the Doctor stifling Susan, but at least it's deliberate in this episode and part of her character development arc in this serial. I also enjoy that Barbara is the one keeping a cool head when Ian is ready to bludgeon the Sensorites to death with a spanner; maybe it's because she remembers the Doctor's little 'fear makes companions of all of us' speech and recognises that literally everyone on this ship, human and Sensorite alike, is afraid and therefore prone to acts of violence; she helps Ian break that cycle of fear with her cool teacher moves. Having said that, it's good that we get to see Ian afraid, because it would be unhealthy if he didn't show a little fear now and then. However, it's interesting that, whereas Babs got the 'fear is good' speech way back when, Ian gets the 'fear makes you vulnerable' speech. Also it's only the men who are portrayed as having been made weak as a result of their fear. I do appreciate that the point of this episode is that fear basically starts wars, but there's certainly a gender dimension involved. Let's see how this develops!