A Child From Another Time
I'm currently watching Doctor Who. That should stun precisely no-one. Currently though I've gone back to the beginning and I've started watching the episodes from 1963. To give you an idea with what was happening with cult media at the time, the British TV series the Avengers was 20 months old but had yet to achieve its definitive look, John Steed was still the sidekick. The American comic book the Avengers had just launched its first issue only weeks earlier. Spider-Man was just over a year old, the Fantastic Four just under two years old. Gerry Anderson was working on Fireball XL5. Stingray was still a year away, Thunderbirds another year beyond that. Doctor Who's long-time fan rival Star Trek was still three years in the future.
The story of the shows gestation is well-known now. The concept cooked up by BBC bigwigs Sidney Newman and Donald Wilson was flicked to Newman's protégé, first-time producer Verity Lambert to create a fun and educational series aimed at young school-age families. Lambert, a BBC outsider and a woman found it difficult to make headway. The view within the BBC was the show was doomed to just a single season, if that. It was assigned the smallest, oldest facilities and equipment for production and the youngest, least experienced crews. Which, as it turned out, was the best thing that could have happened. Lambert's crew became gonzos, creating new techniques, innovating at every corner to get things done. The series first script editor left before the show had even gone to air. Two scripts collapsed in the early half of the season. Lambert though did have a capable team of directors and the new script editor David Whitaker was a wise head who specialised in dialogue, perfect for guiding the development of the four lead roles as the sub-contracted script writers wrote not knowing completely how they should be characterised. Lambert lucked out with her central cast. Character actor Bill Hartnell saw it as a chance late in his career to diversify after years of playing hard men and fresh from the success of a storied supporting role in the successful film "This Sporting Life". I saw this film quite recently, it’s actually quite good. William Russell, first to be cast, was in from the beginning. Already a veteran of BBC he had been TV's first Lancelot. Jacqueline Hill came in sideways, a friend of a friend of Lambert and Carole Ann Ford had been hardest to cast as a group of younger actresses could not quite grasp the role. Already 23 and mother of a three-year-old, Ford was more than capable of playing 16 with looks to match.
The first script laid the foundation. Written as a collaboration between C.E. Webber and the original script editor Anthony Coburn it was two stories in one. An establishing episode with three following episodes in the distant past. The first episode saw two London school teachers puzzled over an enigmatic female student Susan. Susan is brilliant with sciences and with history to the point she knows more than her teachers, but has embarrassing gaps in the specifics of how 1960s Britain works. Her history master Barbara Wright convinces her science master Ian Chesterton to follow young Susan home after Barbara discovers her registered address is an industrial junkyard and she has no parents, but an unnamed grandfather for a guardian.
The teachers discover she and her grandfather are aliens, living in a spaceship disguised as a Police Telephone Box, the fixed location ancestor to two-way radios. That first episode contain little in the way of action but established the mystery of Susan, and then the confrontation between the teachers and the Doctor when we meet him in the junkyard as he attempt to protect his and Susan's privacy in the face of discovery by humans and the potential for ridicule or worse from their exposure. The Doctor's subsequent decision to take off in his time machine leaving 1963 seemingly forever behind is understandable but in taking the teachers with them we discover a different, harsher morality underlining this Doctor.
The interplay between the four characters still stands up some 49 years later and it is certainly interesting to watch this first Doctor in the context of the heroic Doctors of the modern series. You are also reminded of the occasions, most notably with the fourth, ninth and eleventh Doctors that he is not human and on occasion he will be in an alien manner.
The remainder of the story has aged less well. The TARDIS lands in pre-historic times and the Doctor is quickly kidnapped by a desperate caveman who sees the Doctor light up a pipe in the one and only occasion we see the Doctor indulge in smoking. The caveman presents the Doctor to the tribe as someone who will restore to them the ability to warm themselves with fire with the onset of winter approaching, an ability lost with the death of a tribal leader who jealously guarded the firemaking skill to preserve his position within the tribe. The teachers and Susan are captured as they attempt to retrieve the Doctor and the four have to balance their lives and skills to win their freedom to return to the TARDIS while caught up in against the politics of the two senior hunters as they strive to control the tribe.
It would probably seem unwatchable to todays Gen Ys, kitsch, underdeveloped and lacking colour, something not helped by the tribe's simplistic speech. The climactic fight between the would be leaders had its violence toned down notably with some sickening sound effects of the crushing of a skull removed. The story does remain surprisingly grisly given its prospective timeslot and target audience. It skirts the edges of horror. But what the story does do most importantly is bond the four time travellers together at a point where Ian and Barbara could justifiably feel as victims of a criminal act and with a year's worth of television in store for them. The four develop the team work the gains the freedom and we see the developing of the four personalities. The Doctor as the condescending know-it-all, humbled by situation and appreciating the skills of his new companions. Ian's pragmatism and scepticism, healthily playing the role of the viewer within the story. Barbara's argumentative nature, unwilling to accept the grimness of the situation, providing the additional steel to the group and Susan whose enthusiasm and courage wee see the beginnings of here while she also plunges the depths of despair of the four. Her mood swings helping to entrench her immaturity.
I know there is far worse to come. I would give it about a five, but a seven individually for the first episode. At the time the ratings were good. Nothing to shout about, but perhaps unexpectedly promising. The show of course famously had help as the lead in to the first episode screening - somewhat later than planned, was the ending of BBC's round the clock coverage of the death of President John F. Kennedy the previous day. That first episode was repeated the following week to allow those who had grown sick of their televisions after the saturation news coverage of one of the 1960s most memorable moments, perhaps second only to the moon landing.
Once established Doctor Who was showing promise above its modest production. It is easy to look back now and know the explosion to come in the next three weeks as one of the iconic figures in the history of British television was about to screech its way into living rooms. But at this point the future of the series was in doubt and the production team was in desperate straits as the planned second script had collapsed, as had another. Just before An Unearthly Child went to air the commision for the series had been expanded to 13 episodes, but there was yet to be a guarantee for a full season. That number had created a scripting disaster but more of that later. The series was poised on a precipice and no-one was to know just how small, and large it really was until years later.
The story of the shows gestation is well-known now. The concept cooked up by BBC bigwigs Sidney Newman and Donald Wilson was flicked to Newman's protégé, first-time producer Verity Lambert to create a fun and educational series aimed at young school-age families. Lambert, a BBC outsider and a woman found it difficult to make headway. The view within the BBC was the show was doomed to just a single season, if that. It was assigned the smallest, oldest facilities and equipment for production and the youngest, least experienced crews. Which, as it turned out, was the best thing that could have happened. Lambert's crew became gonzos, creating new techniques, innovating at every corner to get things done. The series first script editor left before the show had even gone to air. Two scripts collapsed in the early half of the season. Lambert though did have a capable team of directors and the new script editor David Whitaker was a wise head who specialised in dialogue, perfect for guiding the development of the four lead roles as the sub-contracted script writers wrote not knowing completely how they should be characterised. Lambert lucked out with her central cast. Character actor Bill Hartnell saw it as a chance late in his career to diversify after years of playing hard men and fresh from the success of a storied supporting role in the successful film "This Sporting Life". I saw this film quite recently, it’s actually quite good. William Russell, first to be cast, was in from the beginning. Already a veteran of BBC he had been TV's first Lancelot. Jacqueline Hill came in sideways, a friend of a friend of Lambert and Carole Ann Ford had been hardest to cast as a group of younger actresses could not quite grasp the role. Already 23 and mother of a three-year-old, Ford was more than capable of playing 16 with looks to match.
The first script laid the foundation. Written as a collaboration between C.E. Webber and the original script editor Anthony Coburn it was two stories in one. An establishing episode with three following episodes in the distant past. The first episode saw two London school teachers puzzled over an enigmatic female student Susan. Susan is brilliant with sciences and with history to the point she knows more than her teachers, but has embarrassing gaps in the specifics of how 1960s Britain works. Her history master Barbara Wright convinces her science master Ian Chesterton to follow young Susan home after Barbara discovers her registered address is an industrial junkyard and she has no parents, but an unnamed grandfather for a guardian.
The teachers discover she and her grandfather are aliens, living in a spaceship disguised as a Police Telephone Box, the fixed location ancestor to two-way radios. That first episode contain little in the way of action but established the mystery of Susan, and then the confrontation between the teachers and the Doctor when we meet him in the junkyard as he attempt to protect his and Susan's privacy in the face of discovery by humans and the potential for ridicule or worse from their exposure. The Doctor's subsequent decision to take off in his time machine leaving 1963 seemingly forever behind is understandable but in taking the teachers with them we discover a different, harsher morality underlining this Doctor.
The interplay between the four characters still stands up some 49 years later and it is certainly interesting to watch this first Doctor in the context of the heroic Doctors of the modern series. You are also reminded of the occasions, most notably with the fourth, ninth and eleventh Doctors that he is not human and on occasion he will be in an alien manner.
The remainder of the story has aged less well. The TARDIS lands in pre-historic times and the Doctor is quickly kidnapped by a desperate caveman who sees the Doctor light up a pipe in the one and only occasion we see the Doctor indulge in smoking. The caveman presents the Doctor to the tribe as someone who will restore to them the ability to warm themselves with fire with the onset of winter approaching, an ability lost with the death of a tribal leader who jealously guarded the firemaking skill to preserve his position within the tribe. The teachers and Susan are captured as they attempt to retrieve the Doctor and the four have to balance their lives and skills to win their freedom to return to the TARDIS while caught up in against the politics of the two senior hunters as they strive to control the tribe.
It would probably seem unwatchable to todays Gen Ys, kitsch, underdeveloped and lacking colour, something not helped by the tribe's simplistic speech. The climactic fight between the would be leaders had its violence toned down notably with some sickening sound effects of the crushing of a skull removed. The story does remain surprisingly grisly given its prospective timeslot and target audience. It skirts the edges of horror. But what the story does do most importantly is bond the four time travellers together at a point where Ian and Barbara could justifiably feel as victims of a criminal act and with a year's worth of television in store for them. The four develop the team work the gains the freedom and we see the developing of the four personalities. The Doctor as the condescending know-it-all, humbled by situation and appreciating the skills of his new companions. Ian's pragmatism and scepticism, healthily playing the role of the viewer within the story. Barbara's argumentative nature, unwilling to accept the grimness of the situation, providing the additional steel to the group and Susan whose enthusiasm and courage wee see the beginnings of here while she also plunges the depths of despair of the four. Her mood swings helping to entrench her immaturity.
I know there is far worse to come. I would give it about a five, but a seven individually for the first episode. At the time the ratings were good. Nothing to shout about, but perhaps unexpectedly promising. The show of course famously had help as the lead in to the first episode screening - somewhat later than planned, was the ending of BBC's round the clock coverage of the death of President John F. Kennedy the previous day. That first episode was repeated the following week to allow those who had grown sick of their televisions after the saturation news coverage of one of the 1960s most memorable moments, perhaps second only to the moon landing.
Once established Doctor Who was showing promise above its modest production. It is easy to look back now and know the explosion to come in the next three weeks as one of the iconic figures in the history of British television was about to screech its way into living rooms. But at this point the future of the series was in doubt and the production team was in desperate straits as the planned second script had collapsed, as had another. Just before An Unearthly Child went to air the commision for the series had been expanded to 13 episodes, but there was yet to be a guarantee for a full season. That number had created a scripting disaster but more of that later. The series was poised on a precipice and no-one was to know just how small, and large it really was until years later.