gingerreader99's review against another edition
4.0
Now THIS is a class story. Both in the sense of Sci-Fi but also in the sense of Doctor Who. The first Doctor here is a mervelous hero to which I have been informed is very unlike him up to this point(kinda a turning point for him). Athough many parts were predictable, that's what made it so classic and great for me.
nwhyte's review against another edition
http://nhw.livejournal.com/1018079.html[return][return]I was deeply underwhelmed by the TV version of this story, which fights off strong competition from The Web Planet to be probably the worst Hartnell adventure. Curiously, Nigel Robinson actually manages to smooth over the most awful bits of the narrative - the poor acting of the human characters, the poor characterisation of the non-humans - to the point where one feels that there is actually a decent sf tale in there somewhere, trying desperately to get out. Unfortunately the attempt is doomed to failure because of Robinson's plonkingly awful prose style. Some day some keen fan will do a version of this - the Sensorites as they should have been written. Meantime this book is only for completists.
octavia_cade's review
2.0
If I'm perfectly honest, the tv episodes of "The Sensorites" did very little for me. There were some nice moments, but it was very slow. Robinson's novelisation actually improved on the story in this regard. The pace picked up, and everything zipped along so that I ended up, for once, thinking more of the book than the actual programme. Unfortunately, the book failed to address the same giant plot problem of the episodes - namely, where was that deadly nightshade coming from?! It's an Earth plant, so it shouldn't be growing on an alien world. Perhaps the astronauts brought it with them... enough to poison an entire city (why would anyone need so much, and why would they bring it in the first place?). Possibly they only had a small sample and grew more (in dark underground tunnels where there's no sunshine for photosynthesis, and in alien soils which lack the microbiota of Earth?). I don't think so.
I'm a botanist by training, alright. These things matter to me.
I'm a botanist by training, alright. These things matter to me.
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