Doctor Who: The Sensorites (TV Soundtrack)

Dec 14, 2025 6:25 AM

Author:Peter R. Newman,William Hartnell,William Russell,Full Cast

William Hartnell stars as the original Doctor in this remastered classic TV soundtrack with linking narration by William Russell. The TARDIS, carrying the Doctor, his granddaughter Susan and the two schoolteachers Ian and Barbara, materialises on board a drifting spaceship in the 28th century, in orbit around a planet called the Sense-Sphere. As the crewmembers wake from a catatonic trance, the TARDIS’s door lock is stolen by two shadowy aliens also on board. Before long the travellers encounter the Sensorites - humanoid creatures who are sensitive to bright light and loud noise. Establishing a telepathic link with Susan, they request a meeting with the Doctor and friends down on the Sense-Sphere. The Doctor discovers deep mistrust between the humans and the Sensorites, whose people are afflicted with a strange disease. When Ian also falls ill, the Doctor must discover the cause of the disease whilst also trying to make peace between the two races. William Russell, who played Ian in the story, provides linking narration for these six episodes, first broadcast in 1964. In a bonus interview he also recalls the making of the serial, and remembers his time on ‘Doctor Who’ in general.

Reviews

Raises important questions about self-respect, tolerance and emotional maturity…lifts the veil of an obscured world

—— Telegraph Magazine

Brave and surprisingly informative

—— Guardian

Irresistible and thought-provoking…an entertaining read: revealing, hilarious and chilling in turn

—— The Independent

A rich vein of dry humour runs throughout

—— Evening Standard

Intriguing, tender and entertaining … easily Preston's best

—— Independent

A delicate, quietly affecting human drama

—— Daily Mail

A moving novel that coheres wonderully as it progresses

—— Spectator

A delicate evocation of a vanished era

—— Sunday Times

Wonderful, evocative. From this simple tale of dirt, Preston has produced the finest gold. He keeps an iron grip on the reader's attention

—— Observer

Beatutifully written...there is a true and wonderful ending to the story

—— Bill Wyman , Mail on Sunday

Wistful and poignant. A masterpiece in Chekhovian understatement

—— Times Literary Supplement

Exciting, evocative and beautifully written. A treasure in itself

—— Griff Rhys Jones

Shimmers with longing and regret . . . Preston writes with economical grace . . . He has written a kind of universal chamber piece, small in detail, beautifully made and liable to linger on in the heart and the mind. It is something utterly unfamiliar, and quite wonderful.

—— Michael Pye , The New York Times Book Review

Quite simply, the master of comic writing at work

—— Jane Moore

To pick up a Wodehouse novel is to find oneself in the presence of genius - no writer has ever given me so much pure enjoyment

—— John Julius Norwich

Compulsory reading for anyone who has a pig, an aunt - or a sense of humour!

—— Lindsey Davis

The Wodehouse wit should be registered at Police HQ as a chemical weapon

—— Kathy Lette

Witty and effortlessly fluid. His books are laugh-out-loud funny

—— Arabella Weir

The funniest writer ever to put words to paper

—— Hugh Laurie

The greatest comic writer ever

—— Douglas Adams

P.G. Wodehouse wrote the best English comic novels of the century

—— Sebastian Faulks

Sublime comic genius

—— Ben Elton

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