Series 1 Episode 34: A Race Against Death

Serial: The Sensorites
Episode: 4 (A Race Against Death)
Doctor: William Hartnell
Companions: Barbara, Ian, and Susan

Writer: Peter R. Newman
Director: Mervyn Pinfield
Producer: Verity Lambert
Original Air Date: 18/07/1964

OOH MATRON (and other stories)

In which Ian is dying, the Doctor is a terrible scientist, Susan tries her hand at diplomacy and brow-mopping, and Classic Who does MONTAGE.

So Ian is dying of Space Cholera or whatever it is ails him and everyone is freaking out. Susan reckons it’s not a disease seeing as how a) the First Elder says it’s not contagious and b) they’ve done everything together since arriving on the Sense Sphere; the Doctor concurs; it takes them an embarrassingly long time to figure out it’s the water. The First Elder asks why everyone’s not dying if everyone’s drinking the water; the Doctor reckons it’s to do with varying levels of resistance.

Ian comes round, and Susan fusses over him a bit; the Doctor tells him to lie there and shut up oh and also it’s not a disease it’s probably poison. In which case, bring on the sodium chloride! Wait, Doctor, what do you want with salt? Oh hang on, I can probably guess. The First Elder is distraught; the Doctor tells him everyone has to drink the Crystal Water from now on (a small victory for socialism) and also he wants to work with the local scientists; the First Elder agrees.

Susan asks how long Ian’s got to live and doesn’t have time for the First Elder’s telepathic sympathy; the Doctor is delighted to discover he has as much as three days to save the Space Bro. Confidence is key. Furthermore, the Doctor asks whether he can have the Tardis lock back so he can cure Ian and the Sensorites; the First Elder goes off to confer with the Second Elder. At this point, the salt arrives, and yes, he is indeed fixing up an oldschool emetic by mixing it with water (Susan’s pretty on the ball about it) and making Ian drink it. Susan is adorkable and crosses her fingers for Science:

Having given his Space Bro some tough love, the Doctor leaves Susan to deal with her now-retching Science Teacher while he has a dramatic close-up aside to camera:

I know he’s genuinely concerned about Ian, but I get the feeling One’s top priority after Susan is his Tardis, and that will never change.

Elsewhere, the Second Elder reckons Ian might only be faking so the Doctor can get into his ship…AND RETURN WITH AN ARMY OF HUMANS IN A FLEET OF SHIPS. The first part isn’t beyond the realms of possibility, to be fair. The First Elder is troubled. I have to say, though, it’s nice that after the last non-xenophobic alien leader in a time of conflict we met (in the form of Temmosus the Thal leader on Skaro…or as I like to think of him, ‘Space Corbyn’) who turned out to be naïvely mistaken in his willingness to give the Daleks the benefit of the doubt, this time we’ve got one who turns out to be justified in his non-xenophobic ways.

Meanwhile, John is having his brain seen to by a Space Hairdresser. The City Administrator shows up and yells at the Scientist, saying it would be better to kill the human than to cure him. Enter the Second Elder, who is again disturbed at the CA’s questioning of authority (as opposed to his raging xenophobia). They argue a bit, and when the Second Elder mentions Ian is also in need of a cure, the CA has a rant about how the humans have stupid names and don’t wear any badges of authority so that they can’t be told apart; basically, he thinks they all look the same. Racist. When the SE tells the CA that Ian is dying, however, and that the Doctor thinks it’s to do with the water supply, the super-paranoid CA proclaims it an ‘evil, but undoubtedly brilliant’ scheme:

ADMINISTRATOR: To attack our confidence in one of the necessities! There is nothing wrong with the water supply, nothing at all. This is a trick to get us at their mercy!

I’m a little troubled by the fact that this serial can’t seem to make up its mind whether it’s a story about colonialism or a story about immigration. Though maybe the point of the conflicts arising from this serial is that it’s not clear-cut and that Othering and differences in communication are the main problems. The first humans and John clearly have colonial attitudes, seeing a planet as a resource to be exploited first and someone’s home second; however, the fact that the Sensorites are telepathic basically make this quite literally a Thought Crime (shamefully I’m only just starting to read Nineteen Eighty-Four but the book’s been around since 1949), and there’s no evidence any of the humans have actually acted on their materialistic instincts, despite the ambiguous tale of said humans quarrelling amongst themselves and leaving (to get reinforcements and a digger?) in a subsequently-exploding spaceship and the fact that the Sensorites are now dying of an apparently human disease. Some of the Sensorites are out-and-out xenophobes, some of them don’t trust a non-telepathic species whose thoughts they can only read at times when their ugliest impulses flash to the surface, some are reasonably cautious, and some of them are trusting to the point where, if the humans’ intentions were indeed malign, they would be guilty of being incautious at best and recklessly foolish at worst. And the CA isn’t a million miles from the truth when it comes to (SPOILER ALERT) the humans who, as we later learn, have been poisoning the water supply by way of waging a covert war against the Sensorites. I suppose if there is a moral to this story, it’s ‘don’t tar everyone with the same brush’.

Anyway, at this point, John decides to be super helpful and murmur ‘EEEEEEEEVIL’ in a disconcerting manner, which the CA takes as an admission of guilt. As the Second Elder goes off to warn the First Elder, John attempts to clarify his statement, specifying that ‘evil is here’; the CA gloats and tells John ‘your voice is not believed’. Which is frightening. The CA goes on to proclaim himself the enemy of all Earth creatures.

At this point, Carol enters, with another change of hairdo. Then this happens:

CAROL: Oh I am sorry, I thought you were one of the Scientists.
ADMINISTRATOR: You can see my collar of office! I am the city Administrator!
CAROL: Yes I'm sorry, but when your backs are turned it's very difficult to see. I don't know what we'd all do if you changed your badges and sashes. We wouldn't be able to tell you apart.
ADMINISTRATOR: I have never thought of that.

Racist.

Back in the reception room, the Doctor is yelling at the First Elder, which is particularly unpleasant for the latter because Sensorites don’t like loud noises. Do we know that, yet, by the way? It seems the Doctor can’t be doing with the First Elder umming and ahing over life-and-death decisions when ‘that young man’, by which he means his Space Bro, is ‘coughing his heart out’. Bless.

Enter the Second Elder, who proceeds to have a telepathic chat with the First Elder. Susan eavesdrops but can’t hear very clearly seeing as their mind’s aren’t open to her; the Doctor seems surprised and impressed that Susan can hear their voices.

Anyway, it seems the Second Elder has relayed his fears as to the Doctor’s motives. because the First Elder is now forbidding the Doctor access to the Tardis. The Doctor decides it’s time to up the smack talk and is actually quite intimidating in a ‘getting my coat tails out of the way so I can kick your ass’ sort of way:

The First Elder tells the Doctor he can prove his poison water theory in one of their own labs, at which point the Doctor positively howls ‘YOU FOOL’ at an ear-splitting pitch/volume, which makes the Sensorites clutch their heads in agony. And OH HURRAH FOR SUSAN who immediately starts mediating between the two parties; after telling the Doctor to pipe down because the Sensorites think he’s attacking them, she proceeds to be a model of diplomacy while the Doctor splutters with apoplectic rage in the background:

SUSAN: We're sorry, there's so much about your planet we don't understand.
DOCTOR: That's inhuman!
SUSAN: Grandfather!
DOCTOR: That's monstrous!
SUSAN: We didn't mean to use sound as a weapon. We didn't even know sound hurt you.
FIRST-ELDER: Very well; but please be careful in future. I wish to see regular reports on the progress of this theory.

It’s interesting that the Doctor uses the word ‘inhuman’ to describe the Sensorites’ behaviour; I know it’s probably not intentional, but the fact is that he’s Gallifreyan and in my head it’s not just the writers being lazy, it’s the Doctor beginning to align himself with human morality as espoused by Barbara and Ian. Also Susan is definitely the more mature of the pair: as the First Elder leaves, the Doctor shrieks ‘THEORY?!?!’ after him, making the Second Elder clutch his head in pain, and when he catches the look on her face as she performs…well, not a facepalm but certainly a face-backhand, he eventually drops the matter. Hurrah for Susan getting to show off her diplomatic skills.

But OH well, that was short-lived. Moving over to the bedside of the prostrate Ian, the Doctor instructs Susan to ‘act as nurse’ and keep an eye on his pulse. They are both terrible medics and mostly just touch his face a lot. For a horrible moment (thanks to a pause that was probably Billy forgetting his lines) I thought the Doctor was advising Susan to give Ian mouth-to-mouth if his breathing got feeble, but fortunately he’s just advising artificial respiration. So the Doctor goes off to play in the lab while Susan wastes her abilities mopping Ian’s brow. She’d be a lot more use liaising with the Elders and working on human-Sensorite diplomacy, but there we go; if Babs were in this episode to take on this ladyfunction, Susan would probably just be relegated to Second Nurse anyway.

Soft Kitty

#notadoctorofmedicine

Elsewhere, the City Administrator is moaning to the Engineer about how they can’t access the firing key on their death ray or whatever it is, when the Second Elder shows up to tell them the Doctor will be using the lab and to give him their cooperation. Second Elder out. The CA is raging and it all gets very Caliban:

ADMINISTRATOR: More weakness. These creatures are defeating us with smiles and gentle words; our leaders listen and agree. Soon we shall all be slaves.

Blimey.

Anyway, he’s got a plan based on Carol being a racist (I say that but tbh I can’t tell the Sensorites apart either because they’re all wearing the same mask and I can’t be bothered to try to distinguish them by their body shape). Looks like they’re going to switch their sashes up.

In the lab, the Doctor is telling the Scientists he thinks the water is laced with atropine. Which is apparently used in eye-drops, or so Wikipedia tells me. Also it’s in Deadly Nightshade. The Scientists point out that not everyone dies and the water only comes from one source, so the Doctor makes them test the water from each district.

There follows a tense and hilarious montage in which Susan dabs Ian’s head with a towel while the Doctor holds up test-tubes and looks at them intensely. Amongst other things. It’s supposed to be racking up the peril, but I’m mostly amused by the sheet of paper on which a Sensorite is writing ‘NEGATIVE’ next to a printed list of districts in a curly font. And Ian and Susan doing a rather disturbing horizontal fever dance.

What the fuck is happening?

And hurrah! The Doctor has found evidence of atropine in District 8 (which is…textiles?). And his Scientific methods are…unimpeachable?

SCIENTIST: But why were some of the districts negative?
DOCTOR: Because it varies from place to place, and when you made your tests you didn't discover it.

THAT’S NOT AN ANSWER, DOCTOR.

Anyway, the Second Elder reports to the First Elder on the Doctor’s progress and tells him that caffeine citrate is the antidote. Which is…lemon coffee? Coke with lemon? I dunno. It’s real and presumably it works. Susan gets to tell Ian he’s going to be ok and is waaaaaaaaaay too up in his grill for my liking.

Elsewhere, the Second Elder has wandered into a trap set by the City Administrator, who steals his sash (so everyone will think he’s the Second Elder…because Sensorites can’t tell one another apart either!?) and proceeds to go off on a paranoid rant about how Ian is faking and the cure is fake; he determines to stop the antidote because it’s really poison with which the Doctor plans to kill them all. Apparently the news that Sensorite scientists worked with the Doctor isn’t enough to stop the CA frothing at the mouth with paranoia. The Second Elder is detained (and so is his family…harsh).

Back in the salon, John is still getting his brain highlights done. A scientist walks in with a boiling flask (?) full of antidote which is to be sent to Susan to give to Ian; the Doctor recommends immediate mass-production. He tells Carol (also present) he’s now going off on an expedition ‘which isn’t dangerous, of course’ (HA!) with the First Scientist to see why the poison is only appearing in one reservoir at a time: ‘why cure something when we can stamp it out, hmm?’ Carol mentions that John thinks he’s surrounded by enemies; the Doctor thinks he might be more lucid than she imagines and asks her to keep a note of what he says; John babbles about plotting.

Out and about, the Engineer is asking the CA what happens if someone sees through his ‘disguise’ (A SASH); the CA points out that only people in positions of power are familiar with the appearance of the Elders whereas the ordinary people recognise them by their signs of office. Which seems fair enough, I suppose. To prove his point, the Scientist rocks up and greets him as the Second Elder. Success! The CA tells the Scientist he’ll take the antidote to Ian…lol. And OH how grim! It seems the CA has a scientific hypothesis of his own, which is more sound but far less ethical than the Doctor’s method:

ADMINISTRATOR: They say without the antidote the young man will die - I say he will live because he is pretending. (Smashes antidote.) This will prove it one way or the other.

Crikey cripes, Ian is DOOMED!

Ian is also doing lots of Brave Little Soldier Acting as Susan continues to be a bit too close. She’s getting antsy that the antidote hasn’t arrived yet, and though Ian manages to be winningly pathetic and croaks about how the Doctor must have ‘run into a snag’ and that ‘it’s not always possible to do these things at the snap of a finger’ (Moffaaaaaaaaaaaaatttttttt!!), Susan’s off to find some more antidote anyway. It’s good someone’s got their wits about them.

Meanwhile, the Doctor is off in the water supply with the First Scientist, who notes that their attempts to light the place always end in failure. Which, as the Doctor points out, must be tricky for them seeing as they don’t like the dark; the First Scientist says they don’t get down here much; the Doctor reckons the neglect of the water system might have something to do with the poison. Because neglect is poisonous? Anyway, the First Scientist thinks they should go back because a) the Doctor won’t be able to see and b) there are monsters (or rather monster-like noises) in there. To the first objection, the Doctor counters his torch ownership (I do love that it keeps reappearing—it was there in An Unearthly Child, was a prop in The Edge of Destruction, Ian borrowed it for a tunnel in The Aztecs, and now it’s back again, like the sonic screwdriver only it’s a torch and it’s not sonic); to the second, the Doctor merely looks…sort of eager. Anyway, the Doctor says he’ll go on alone and seems rather intrigued that the two things the Sensorites fear most (noise and darkness) just happen to be lurking ahead:

Back at Ian’s bedside (and you can decide for yourselves whether this is a ‘poor William Russell has fuck-all to do this week and may as well be on holiday’ episode or a ‘jammy William Russell gets to nap through the whole thing’ episode), Susan has been injecting him with the antidote. He is bracing himself on Susan’s leg in a manner that would probably get you fired as a teacher nowadays and calls her ‘matron’; OOH MATRON. Still, good to know that Susan is competent at this sort of thing. Ooh and according to the info-text, William Russell’s relaxed part in this episode gave him time off rehearsals to film inserts for The Reign of Terror so that he, too, could go off on his hols. Well done, info-text. Also, Ian feels as though someone’s ‘given me a good going over with a hammer’. Blimey.

Anyway, Ian’s in for a good long stretch of bedrest….HAHA ONLY JOKING because now the First Scientist is back and is telling everyone the Doctor has gone off to the aqueduct alone and will probably be mauled by beastie or beasties unknown. ACTION STATIONS! Susan protests that Ian is too ill, but Ian’s having none of it, so off they trot to save the Doctor from the monsters. Which impresses the First Elder so much he has to call his mates and tell them about it.

Over in captivity, the real Second Elder can hear the First Elder calling him but can’t reply without his transmitter thingie. The City Administrator demands to know what’s being said and tells the Second Elder to think of his family group. How unpleasant. So obviously the Second Elder spills the beans, which excites the CA because nobody comes out alive so victory is clearly nigh.

In the aqueduct, the First Scientist provides Susan with a radio-electric light, and it makes a nice change to see Susan in charge and supporting Ian and telling him he doesn’t have to go any further if he doesn’t want to. Ian would obv rather eat live scorpions than admit he feels like crap, so off they go into the dark.

The Doctor, meanwhile, has found some belladonna/deadly nightshade in the pipes, which he examines through a magnifying glass…AS A BEASTIE OF UNKNOWN MAGNITUDE AND DEADLINESS BELLOWS IN THE DARK.

MERCY ME, WILL THE DOCTOR BE TORN ASUNDER BY WHAT I CAN ONLY ASSUME IS A SPACE BASILISK? WILL IAN AND SUSAN GET THERE IN TIME OR WILL THEY ALSO MEET WITH A STICKY END? IS THE MONSTER EVEN REAL? WHERE IS BARBARA AND WHAT WILL SHE DO IF ALL HER FRIENDS END UP AS THE BOGEYMAN’S LUNCH AND SHE’S FORCED EITHER TO STAY IN ORBIT AROUND THE SENSE SPHERE FOREVER OR TRY TO FORGE A NEW LIFE IN THE 28TH CENTURY? PLEASE CAN IAN AND SUSAN NEVER BE THIS HANDSY WITH ONE ANOTHER EVER AGAIN?

Summary (as applicable to this episode)

Does it pass the Bechdel test? Ermmm...actually there's a point. There's no Barbara this week, and I'm pretty sure Carol and Susan don't speak to one another. So I think possibly not.

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. Though Babs is essentially held hostage.

Does the Doctor/a man companion/any other man have to rescue the woman companion(s) from peril? No. But Susan and Ian have to go and rescue the Doctor.

Is a woman placed under threat of actual bodily harm? Ian's most under threat this week.

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? Not as such, but the Doctor is terrible at following Susan's advice on Sensorite diplomacy this week.

Does a man talk over a woman or talk about a woman as though she isn't there? Not that I can recall.

Does the woman companion have to be calmed/comforted by the Doctor/a man companion/a man? No.

Is a woman the first/only person to be (most gratuitously) menaced by the episode's antagonist(s)? It's mostly Ian and the Second Elder who are in for it this week. Also the Doctor gets growled at.

Is a man shamed into doing/not doing something because the alternative is a woman doing/not doing something? Not exactly, but Ian seems to be determined to go off to rescue the Doctor (by which I mean determined not to let Susan go off rescuing her grandfather alone) despite having only recently recovered from a poisoning incident.

Does the woman companion come up with a plan? The Doctor has a plan as far as the atropine thing goes, but it's Susan's initiative that derails the CA's plan to let Ian die to check he's not faking it.

Does the woman companion do something stupid/banal/weird which inspires a man to be a Man with a Plan? Yes! Carol's thing about all the Sensorites looking the same without their sashes inspires the CA to come up with a Cunning Plan.

Does a woman come up with a theory and is it ridiculed by the Doctor/a man? No.

Does a woman call the Doctor out on his bullshit? Susan!

Does a woman get to be a badass? Yup! I'm sad that Susan is relegated from diplomat to nurse, but she does eventually show some viable nursing skills (injections etc.) that make me think she is actually suited to the job in some way.

Is the young, strong, straight, white male lead the person most often in control of the situation? The Doctor is bossing everyone around this week. Though the CA is manipulating everything behind the scenes.

Is there past/future/alien sexism? Susan, you can be nurse...

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

Well obviously I'm very upset at the absence of Babs this week, but Susan does get some good stuff to do: she gets to be a pretty good diplomat (despite the fact that the Doctor doesn't really take her that seriously), and while I was initially hacked off that she got relegated to brow-mopping duty, she does eventually get to show some actual nursing skills and clearly knows how to inject humans with things without killing them. She also shows initiative when the antidote doesn't arrive and kicks ass off-screen somewhere to get some more rather than just waiting for Ian to die. The Doctor is a menace to himself and others this week, yelling the place down and skipping off into danger without backup, but it was at least fun to see him with his specs on frowning at test tubes. Ian was mostly horizontal this week, though it didn't stop him insisting on accompanying Susan on a rescue mission for which he was clearly unfit. Sigh. The CA, meanwhile, can't seem to decide whether he's Caliban or Trump. Bring back Babs to sort out this sorry mess.