10 July 1964 by Henric Hirsch, director of the following episode. Reception Broadcast and ratings The first episode was broadcast on BBC1 on 20 June 1964 and was watched by 7.9 million viewers. The second episode aired 25 minutes late on 27 June due to an overrun of the previous programme Summer Grandstand, achieving 6.9 million viewers. While the third episode was provisionally scheduled to run two hours late on 4 July, due to extended coverage of the Wimbledon tennis championships and Ashes Test match, it was replaced by Juke Box Jury and postponed to the following week, receiving 7.4 million viewers. The fourth and fifth episodes dropped to 5.5 and 6.9 million viewers, respectively, but were nonetheless the highest-rated BBC show in the BBC North region for their respective weeks. The final episode aired on 1 August to 6.9 million viewers. The Appreciation Index was an average of 58 for the six episodes, ranging from 56 to 60. Episodes 3–5 were erased by the BBC on 17 August 1967, while the remaining three were erased on 31 January 1969. BBC Enterprises retained negatives of the original 16 mm film with soundtracks made in 1967; these were returned to the BBC Archives in 1978. Critical response Retrospective reviews of the serial were positive. In The Discontinuity Guide (1995), Paul Cornell, Martin Day, and Keith Topping wrote that "it veers from sinister to unintentionally hilarious, with everyone fluffing their lines". In The Television Companion (1998), David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker enjoyed the set-up of the first two episodes and the escalation of the threat, though noted that it contained a "classic piece of sixties sexism" in the traditional roles of Susan and Barbara; they praised the "bravura performance" of Dartnell, and felt that the characters of Maitland and Carol are "well defined". In A Critical History of Doctor Who (1999), John Kenneth Muir considered the Sensorites justified in their hatred of humans, appreciating that they "are not merely evil because the story demands it of them". In 2008, Mark Braxton of Radio Times described the Sensorites as "a triumph of realisation, in their appearance ... and in their hierarchy, culture and customs" but felt they were developed to the detriment of the humans; Braxton praised the performance of Dartnell, Hartnell and Ford, noting the serial's importance to the relationship between the Doctor and Susan. In 2012, IGN Arnold T.