The Sensorites (1964) Review

Despite putting forth some interesting ideas, The Sensorites is ultimately mediocre. The story involves a bunch of telepathic aliens who are friendly. Except some aren't. And that's really it. There's very little going on except the "humans are so much better than us" speeches from the First Elder and the city administrator's typical villain quotes(before they were invented, but still as cliche).

Hartnell has a few great scenes here and there such as where he fails to notice an enemy right next to Ian(that was such a nice Matt Smith-esque moment), but even he's quite bland. Like almost everything else.

Ian has a little plot about being poisoned, but it's quickly ushered to the sidelines and he goes back to being the Doctor's bodyguard. I really hate this use of Ian's character, he's a science teacher so why doesn't he do any science? I'm starting to see why they got rid of him(not that I don't still like him, quite the opposite, but as a teacher character, he's obsolete now that the Doctor is nice and talkative).

Barbara disappears for half the serial so no comment on her whatsoever.

Susan we find is a half-telepath and so is the Doctor(giving a little insight to Time Lord abilities, which is always nice). She also delivers a very beautiful description of Gallifrey. It's really nice to know that RTD and Moffat look back to these early stories for canon information. Easily the best use of Susan since the beginning.

The ending was horrendous. There was just no climax. The city administrator was taken out off-screen, OFF-SCREEN after like six episodes of evil plotting! That's bad writing, that is. I liked the idea that the TARDIS keyhole could be removed. Of course, had the Doctor just snapped his fingers...
But still, it's a nice idea. I'm just a little irritated that the intricacies and security systems of the TARDIS keyhole never came up in the new series. How exactly did the Editor from The Long Game planning to get in if only the Doctor could turn it the right way? Did the Doctor remove the safety mechanism? And if so, why?