"These creatures are defeating us with smiles and gentle words."
This is a tough one to call. On the one hand there were advances to the plot in this episode. On the other this one feels like it has more padding than a fourteen year old girl trying to get into a bar. Unless things are taut from here on out (which I'm doubting) I'm guessing that this story could have been told in four episodes instead of six.
This wasn't an especially bad episode, it just wasn't as good as the rest of the serial so far.
The City Administrator is still opposed to the humans with the same zest that Michele Bachmann uses in her war versus facts. There's no getting through to him.
There is a point where I thought that the script writer had done something extremely stupid. The Sensorites differentiate themselves by clothing and ornamentation. The First Elder has two sashes, the Second Elder one and the City Administrator has a spiffy neck band.
At one point Carol tells the City Administrator that it's hard to differentiate between him and other Sensorites when their backs are turned and she can't see their badges of rank. I know the old "they all look alike" schtick. The City Administrator said pretty much the same thing five minutes before she did only he was far more hostile about it.
After hearing what Carol had to say he gets it into his head that he's going to become the Second Elder by kidnapping him and wearing his sash. It sounded an awful lot like he was saying that one Sensorite couldn't tell one Sensorite from another without their badges. A little later they explain that the disguise is only going to work on the people who don't directly interact with the Second Elder very often. Apparently there are no paparazzi on the Sense Sphere since the only people who recognize the Second Elder by face are other Elders.
I suppose it would be the same as me wearing a cops uniform and acting cop like. Most people would probably just assume that I was what I seemed to be. If I ran into a real cop he'd figure out pretty quickly that I was an imposter.
There is also the matter of John's cure. They have the guy in this chair attached to a metric buttload of equipment. He is wearing a crown that looks like it's made of a dozen or so miniature Eiffel Towers with red clown noses on the top.
I realize that I just described them as "red" clown noses even though this episode is black and white. They are so iconically red that they transcend the limitations of black and white television and make their redness known to the viewer.
They're that red.
There's a little technical goof that I'm going to point out too. During the scene where the Doctor, Carol and the weirdly hatted John are together the camera keeps slipping upwards. Just after a quick reaction shot of John the camera shifts back to a medium shot of the three. It ends up going too high and I think we get a bit of boom mike or possibly a light. It's hard to say.
Next up: Kidnap
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