Doctor Who: The Sensorites (7 page)

'So the Sensorites'
eyes would contract in the darkness?' concluded Ian.

'Exactly! And that
is our best weapon - the Sensorites would be frightened in the dark!'

It was the greatest
fear of all, but Barbara was not convinced. 'How can you be sure that
the Sensorites would be, well, scared of the dark?' she asked.

'My dear Barbara,'
said the Doctor, 'wouldn't you be afraid if you couldn't see your
enemies?'

Neither Ian nor
Barbara needed to consider their answer. They each remembered far too
well the terror they had felt in the ship's darkened corridors when
they were searching for the Sensorites. In the dark they had been
totally helpless, frightened out of their wits. Barbara also
remembered something Ian had said earlier: both the humans and the
Sensorites were scared stiff of each other.

Pleased with his
deductions, the Doctor looked at Ian with a merry twinkle in his
eyes. 'Thank you for your admiration, my boy.'

Ian was staggered.
'I never said a word!' he protested. 'Telepathy isn't just a
prerequisite of the Sensorites,' said the old man. 'I know sometimes
what you're thinking!'

Their merriment was
short-lived however. 'I won't go Susan suddenly shouted. 'What?'

The Doctor hushed
Ian. 'She's in contact with the Sensorites again.' He looked deep
into his granddaughter's glazed eyes. 'What is it, my child?' he
asked.

Susan raised her
hands to her temples to smooth away the tension she felt. 'I... I
can't hear them very clearly. . .' she said. 'Wait - that's better,
there's just one voice now, a very long way off. . .'

'What are they
saying?' asked Barbara.

Ignoring her
question, Susan continued her mental conversation with the
Sensorites.

'All right,' she
said reluctantly; 'but none of the others must be harmed.' She turned
back to her friends and held out a hand in warning. 'Don't move any
of you.'

Her face grim with
determination, she crossed over to the main door. It had slid open
again and now standing there in the doorway waiting for Susan were
the two Sensorites.

Susan looked over
at her grandfather. His face was drawn with concern.

'Grandfather, it
was the only way,' she cried plaintively. 'They knew I'd agree . . .'

'Agree to what, my
child?' the Doctor asked through trembling lips.

There were tears in
Susan's eyes as she explained: 'To go down with them to their planet.
Otherwise we'll all be killed.'

The Quest for
Freedom

Susan turned
painfully away from the confused faces of her companions and walked
through the doorway to join the Sensorites. After the door slid shut
on them it was a few moments before Ian broke the stunned silence.

'Come with me,
Barbara, we must stop them!'

'No!' protested
Carol. 'The Sensorites will harm or kill her if you try to
interfere.'

'And if we do
nothing she'll die anyway!' Ian exploded, no longer attempting to
conceal the antipathy he felt towards the two astronauts. They seemed
perfectly content to let the most terrible things happen to them
without any attempt at resistance.

Barbara operated
the opening mechanism of the door. 'Are we going to try out the
Doctor's theory that they can't see in the dark?' she asked.

Ian nodded. It was
the only thing they had to fight the Sensorites with. As the two
teachers passed through the doorway in pursuit of Susan and her alien
escorts, Barbara glanced back at the Doctor who had remained
strangely silent.

The old man was
standing there, a strange look of hurt bewilderment in his eyes.
Barbara had known the Doctor long enough to guess the cause. Beneath
the Doctor's hard shell he was in truth a deeply compassionate and
caring man. And the person he cared most for in all the worlds he had
ever visited was his granddaughter Susan. And now she had been taken
from him. For the first time in his life he felt utterly and
completely alone. Shaking his head sadly, he followed Ian and Barbara
through the doorway.

When the door had
hissed open, Susan and the Sensorites had turned around to see Ian
and Barbara coming after them down the corridor.

'Go back!' Susan
begged them. 'Don't interfere - please.'

'The young girl has
agreed to go with us,' said the first Sensorite. 'She will not be
harmed. Why then do you follow us?'

'She must not go
with you,' Barbara said firmly, taking a step towards the Sensorites.

'Do not come any
nearer!' the first Sensorite commanded and raised his hand weapon in
Barbara's direction.

Ian put a
restraining hand on Barbara's shoulder, and addressed the aliens. 'We
want to talk to you,' he said.

'We have no wish to
harm you in any way,' the second Sensorite insisted.

'I said talk - not
fight,' countered Ian.

'Intruders from
other planets always say that they wish to talk but all they mean to
do is to destroy.'

Susan finally spoke
for herself and pleaded with Ian: 'Please let me go with them.
Because I can use telepathy they trust me.'

'You're not going
with them, Susan, and that's final!' snapped Barbara, suddenly back
in the classroom.

'Why not?' Susan
was defiant. 'It's suspicion that's making them hostile. You don't
understand the Sensorites.'

'You think I don't
understand?' demanded the Doctor, marching purposefully up to the
little group. 'Trust is a two-sided affair. If you go with them, they
will have all the advantages,' he pointed out.

'They only want to
talk to me, Grandfather.'

The Doctor regarded
his granddaughter with tenderness, but the tone he took with her was
stern. 'I'm sorry, Susan, but I don't believe you have the ability to
represent us.'

Susan's patience
finally broke. 'Stop treating me like a child!' she cried, so loudly
that the Sensorites were once again forced to cover up their ears.

'You will do as
you're told, Susan!' barked the Doctor. 'Come here.' He held out a
beckoning hand towards her.

'I'm sorry,
Grandfather, I can't do it. . .'

'This instant!'

Shocked by her
grandfather's anger, Susan automatically took a step towards him.
Then she checked herself, seeming to weigh up the choices before her:
to follow through with her own decision and go with the Sensorites,
or to obey without question the man
she loved and trusted above all else.

With some
reluctance she finally went meekly over to her grandfather's side.
The Doctor placed a possessive arm about her shoulder, relieved to
have won back his granddaughter from the Sensorites.

As one of the
aliens raised its hand weapon in a threatening gesture, the Doctor
called out a command to Ian. Suddenly the half-light of the
passageway was transformed into near-pitch darkness as Ian activated
a light control on the wall. Confused and terrified in the sudden
darkness the Sensorites fell wailing to their knees.

'You were
absolutely right, Doctor,' said Ian, 'they're helpless in the dark.'

As their eyes
quickly grew accustomed to the dark the time-travellers watched in
sober reflection as the Sensorites sprawled on the floor, pleading
pathetically with Ian to switch on the light. The Doctor instructed
Susan to join the others on the flight deck and then told Ian to
return the corridor to its usual state of half-illumination. He
looked down at the Sensorites who were beginning to struggle to their
feet.

'You could have
been left here in the darkness,' he said. 'We have proved our power
over you but we don't intend to use it - except in our own defence.'

'What do you want
of us?' the Sensorites asked.

'Nothing that isn't
ours. You stole the lock from my Ship.'

The Sensorites
looked at each other in mute communication, and then turned back to
the Doctor. 'I must refer this matter to the Sense-Sphere,' the first
Sensorite said, moving slightly apart from the humans and his
companion. He placed the white disc against his forehead.

The Doctor tapped
his foot irritably.

'You must have
patience,' the other Sensorite advised. 'The Sense-Sphere is very far
away. The mind transmitter amplifies our thoughts. Please have
patience.'

The Doctor shot him
a look so withering that a charging rhinoceros would have had cause
for concern. 'If they try anything, put the light out again,' he told
Ian and Barbara. 'I won't put up with this nonsense: dictated to by
petty thieves and my own grandchild!' And with that he stalked off in
the direction of the flight deck.

Barbara watched him
go. 'I've never seen him so angry before,' she said to Ian.

'Susan set him
off,' he replied. 'The Sensorites must have hypnotised her.'

Barbara smiled.
'No, I don't think so ... She's just growing up, that's all. . .'

In a quiet corner
of the flight deck, away from the ears of Maitland and Carol, the
Doctor held his granddaughter affectionately in his arms.

'Now, what is all
this?' he asked. 'Setting yourself up against me?'

'I didn't,
Grandfather . . .' Susan began to protest.

'I think I'm the
best judge of that, Susan,' said the Doctor, some of his former
sternness returning to his voice.

Susan raised her
head to meet her grandfather's gaze. 'I have opinions too,' she
argued.

'My dear girl, the
purpose of growing old is to accumulate knowledge and wisdom and to
help other people,' the Docto: declared loftily. He sounded exactly
like the Victorian head master of an English public school.

'So, I'm to be
treated like a little child!' said Susan breaking away from her
grandfather's embrace.

'If you behave like
one - yes!' he snapped back.

Stuggling to remain
calm Susan pleaded with the Doctor 'I understand the Sensorites,' she
said. 'They're really very timid little people. Because my mind and
theirs can some times communicate they trust me.'

'I assure you we
will make use of that fact,' the Doctor promised her. 'But not
without discussion. You will not make decisions on your own accord.
Is that quite clear?'

Susan took a deep
breath: 'I won't be pushed aside, Grandfather. I'm not a child
anymore.'

Unnoticed by the
Doctor and Susan, the Sensorites had entered the flight deck with Ian
and Barbara. They had been listening with interest to the
conversation.

'Why do you make
her unhappy?' the first Sensorite asked the Doctor.

'We can read the
misery in her mind,' the other explained.

Grateful for an
opportunity to attack an opponent with some verbal abuse,
the Doctor turned savagely on the two aliens. 'It's a good thing you
can't read the anger in my mind,' he began, deliberately raising his
voice. 'In all the years my granddaughter and I have been travelling
we have never had an argument. And now you creatures have caused
one!'

Susan urged him to
be silent. 'I'll do as you tell me, Grandfather,' she promised. 'I'll
stay with you.'

Caught off-guard,
the Doctor was for once lost for words. Eventually he managed to say,
'Very well - now let's work together and get back the lock of the
TARDIS.'

'We have orders
from the First Elder, our leader,' the first Sensorite said. 'We are
to listen to you and transmit your words to him.'

The Doctor once
more appointed himself the spokesman for his and Maitland's crew.
'I'm afraid that isn't good enough: I would like to talk to the First
Elder face-to-face,' he said. 'I want to arrange the release of this
spaceship.' The first Sensorite held his mind transmitter to his
forehead, sending the Doctor's words back to the Sense-Sphere as the
Doctor continued: 'Tell him we're not pirates or plunderers. There's
only one treasure we desire from him: freedom!'

Carol sat on the
edge of John's bed, looking down sadly at the sleeping form of the
disturbed mineralogist. As if to reassure herself of the presence of
the man she loved she affectionately caressed his cheek.

Suddenly he sat
bolt upright, his eyes staring ahead with fear.

Carol took him by
the shoulders and gently pushed him back down on the bed; just as she
would to a child who had woken up from a terrible nightmare.

'It's all right,
John,' she whispered comfortingly, 'I'm here.'

She searched in his
eyes for a glimmer of recognition, some acknowledgement that he
remembered who she was. 'John ... do you know who I am?' she asked.
She silently prayed for the answer she most desired.

John looked
searchingly at her, trying to put a name to the face he was sure he
knew so well. All he could remember was that this strangely
familiar woman was a friend.

'You're . . .
you're good,' he said after some hesitation.

Carol turned away
as tears welled up in her eyes. John sat up, concerned that he had
made his friend cry. 'The Sensorites . . .' he began apologetically.
'They want me to forget ... all the voices in my head, begging me to
for-get...'

The cabin door slid
softly open and Maitland entered. He regarded John with a forced
smile and then looked enquiringly at Carol.

'It's no use,' she
despaired, 'He might as well be dead . . .' Maitland protested, but
she continued, no longer bothering to hold back her tears. 'Can you
imagine what it's like to be in love with someone and to stand
helplessly by while they're being slowly destroyed?' she sobbed.

Maitland knelt down
by her side and clasped her hands in his. 'Carol, the Doctor's been
talking to the Sensorite; You're to go down to the Sense-Sphere with
John and the others. The Sensorites are going to cure him.'

But Carol was
beyond all hope. 'Undo the damage they've caused, you mean,' she said
bitterly. 'Can't you see? It's too late.'

After a lengthy
discussion between the Doctor and the First Elder, or rather between
the Doctor and the Sensorite who relayed his demands to his leader,
it had been decided that the time-travellers would be allowed to go
down to the Sense-Sphere and negotiate for the return of the TARDIS
lock, and the release of Maitland's spaceship.