Story 1 - An Unearthly Child
I'm going to do some running commentary and then have a summary paragraph, I think.
I'll only say this once, but I do love this original title music the best. It's simple and otherworldly and intriguing. Composed by Ron Grainer with the amazing genius of Delia Derbyshire and the BBC Radiophonic workshop, these titles anticipated the whole world of electronic music.
Episode One - An Unearthly Child
Short summary: Barbara Wright asks fellow teacher Ian Chesterton to help her confront the grandfather of a student of theirs, Susan Foreman. She has many strange ideas and behaviors. They follow her to an old junkyard, but she's disappeared. An old man appears. They confront him, and are about to leave when they hear Susan's voice coming from inside an old police box. They push their way inside, and find it's bigger on the inside than out. The Doctor quickly starts up the ship to leave, afraid the teachers will interfere and mess up timelines. Susan pleads for them, to no avail. Ian and Barbara pass out; outside there's an eerie shadow in the desert landscape...
Susan's way more interesting in this first bit than she turns out to be later on. I can see why the actress complained.
William Russell does a great job of establishing Ian right away. I know him, he's cheery and forthright with a slightly cheeky sense of humor; he's a person willing to laugh at himself first. He's also brave.
The first episode of this story does a great job of being spooky and mysterious. For all the limitations of three camera single set space in the junkyard there was some good shooting through spaces and good composition. I find it interesting that the camerawork is less innovative the second time around for the pilot shoot, though it's steadier.
Whew, and so much exposition they all had to get out right away. Couched in an argument, no less; good times.
And hey, watch canon being created for later contradictions.
"You and your companion will be footprints in a time you are not supposed to have walked." Hartnell said that with nice spooky inflection. I wonder why they cut that from the final pilot.
I also do harbor some great affection for this crabby fusspot William Hartnell. He has a ruthlessness that sometimes got lost in later incarnations. Even in his later portrayal for that matter. The Kinder Gentler Doctor of the transmitted episode works as well, but I do like that first angry doctor. I can see why they changed it--for him to start off so angry gives a chance for fewer colors later on. Also he really was quite cruel to Susan.
Susan's outfit is more earth contemporary in the aired version as well.
Episode Two - Cave of Skulls
Short summary: And wake up. Both are incredulous and want to be let out. They come into a very different space than they left. Za, an obvious caveman, is trying to make a fire, but it's not working. Kal, his rival to leadership and a newcomer to the tribe, is out hunting. Hur is promised to the clan leader, but clearly supports Za. Kal sees the Doctor make fire with his lighter, and kidnaps him to make him fire. The rest of the crew is captured when they try to rescue the Doctor. When he can't make fire, they are tied up and put in the cave of skulls, which is creepy...
Fast setup of the conflict! They really got down to the story fast in this one, didn't they. Not too much time spent on setup and exposition. I know it's not as fast paced as today's television, but it's faster paced than some later Doctor Whos.
Why are they going to wander around in those terrible shoes?
Having the chameleon circuit be broken for the first time was also a genius idea.
Screechy Susan rears her head. I know she's supposed to be a stand in for the children of the audience but it doesn't make any sense for her to be so helpless. She has been to other worlds without Ian and Barbara; why would she fall apart? It was a bad storytelling decision they were stuck with.
Kal is a dirty snake--getting food and sustenance and then immediately challenging for leadership.
Hur is a decent Lady MacBeth, using herself as a bargaining chip.
I do like the Doctor apologizing; that's rare enough.
Creepy Cave of Skulls.
Episode Three - The Forest of Fear
Short summary: The creepy old lady sneaks into the cave and sets the strangers free; she fears a world with fire. Za chases after them and gets attacked by a wild animal. Barbara feels compassion and goes back to help the injured Za. The Doctor moves to kill Za, but Ian stops him; luckily Hur doesn't see this bit. For their help, Za and Hur let them leave. In the meantime, Kal kills the old woman and convinced the tribe that the Tardis crew has escaped. Just before the crew reaches the Tardis, the tribe pops out...
Forest of fear? Ha!
So, do they use the skulls to cut their bonds? Only time will tell.
The furs are a nice detail. They look mangy and stinky and patched together. According to the infotext, they also had fleas, ugh.
Barbara's fear makes more sense than Susan's. She's never been offworld before, and can't trust that things are going to work out. I love her bravery during the animal attack, more so because she is obviously still quite afraid. To act in spite of fear is braver, so say I.
Dude, did the Doctor just go to pick up a rock and kill Za? Whoa. This is some kind of characterization! Ian as moral compass, eh?
I would have liked to see more fear from Ian, honestly. Was he in the army or anything? He certainly seems comfortable with clomping around in the forest and making fire. Although sometimes it is easier to put on a brave face when one is with someone who needs reassurance.
Oh yeah, now I remember, Kal is a dirty rat. Boo Kal, Boo.
Episode Four - The Firemaker
Short summary: So they are recaptured. Kal tries to challenge Za's leadership, but the Doctor manages to prove that Kal killed the old lady, and he is run out of the tribe. For their troubles they are re-imprisoned. Ian makes fire for Za, which prompts Za to decide to keep the strangers for their knowledge. Kal comes back and attacks Za, and Kal is killed. Ian figures out how to make torches, so they make skull torches and escape back to the Tardis. And land outside a white forest.
I think my color commentary went away.
Hur has some great moments--standing by her man, seeing the bigger picture when her father (who had been reasonable in earlier decisions) suddenly becomes ready to sacrifice everyone.
Za is a nice complicated character as well. He has an overwhelming desire for power, but he is also able to listen and take advice, to make snap decisions that are about more than just his own survival. His decision to renege on his bargain with Ian shows a nice paternalistic selfishness--"for your own good I'm keeping you here, you'll love it."
This fight between Kal and Za is quite wrestle-ish. It is personal and kind of brutal, with a hard core death at the end. The extreme closeups and horror on our heroes faces make the fight more horrible as well. It's so intensely artificial, the close-ups against the black, but the fight feels scarier for it. Nice work. Not quite as effective is the run through the forest, where it is obvious the actors are being slapped on the face with foliage.
And then escape and bickering and why are we still lost? What is that spooky forest? I hope it's not a forest of fear.
Conclusion
I think this is an excellent introduction to the series. I was more impressed with it this time than I have been in the past, I think because I was evaluating it as an introduction. It establishes all the characters as quite distinctive. We can see traits that will grow stronger with time, but the core portrayals are there.
The plot itself--space travelers bring fire to cavemen--was a trite one but as a blueprint for how the series would work it services the series well. These episodes had to make concrete a pretty complicated backstory, give enough mystery for future writers to play with and set its characters out on an adventure trajectory, and it did all that.
The cavemen were nice and complicated too, Za and Hur especially. Old lady firebad was the only speaking character who had no other purpose than to die at a conveniently plot-tastic time. For all that the plot wasn't about tribal politics and alliances, these also had some nice layers.
I also really liked the music on this story all the way through. It sets up a creepy fearful mood that matches the whowhatwhy for us, first time adventurers. Again, if we'd been in series two already, this story wouldn't have worked as well.
I'm glad they didn't totally go the route of "cave-man speech." I mean, yes, they had the cave men speaking slowly with strange pauses, and they were given a simpler child-like reasoning, but not necessarily children's sentence structure. I hate it when primitive speech is illustrated by the omission of verbs and articles. Surely in those long ago days they wanted to verb things. Action!!
This gets, I'd say, a 7 or 8. Actually I'm going with 8.
I'll only say this once, but I do love this original title music the best. It's simple and otherworldly and intriguing. Composed by Ron Grainer with the amazing genius of Delia Derbyshire and the BBC Radiophonic workshop, these titles anticipated the whole world of electronic music.
Click to viewEpisode One - An Unearthly Child
Short summary: Barbara Wright asks fellow teacher Ian Chesterton to help her confront the grandfather of a student of theirs, Susan Foreman. She has many strange ideas and behaviors. They follow her to an old junkyard, but she's disappeared. An old man appears. They confront him, and are about to leave when they hear Susan's voice coming from inside an old police box. They push their way inside, and find it's bigger on the inside than out. The Doctor quickly starts up the ship to leave, afraid the teachers will interfere and mess up timelines. Susan pleads for them, to no avail. Ian and Barbara pass out; outside there's an eerie shadow in the desert landscape...
Susan's way more interesting in this first bit than she turns out to be later on. I can see why the actress complained.
William Russell does a great job of establishing Ian right away. I know him, he's cheery and forthright with a slightly cheeky sense of humor; he's a person willing to laugh at himself first. He's also brave.
The first episode of this story does a great job of being spooky and mysterious. For all the limitations of three camera single set space in the junkyard there was some good shooting through spaces and good composition. I find it interesting that the camerawork is less innovative the second time around for the pilot shoot, though it's steadier.
Whew, and so much exposition they all had to get out right away. Couched in an argument, no less; good times.
And hey, watch canon being created for later contradictions.
"You and your companion will be footprints in a time you are not supposed to have walked." Hartnell said that with nice spooky inflection. I wonder why they cut that from the final pilot.
I also do harbor some great affection for this crabby fusspot William Hartnell. He has a ruthlessness that sometimes got lost in later incarnations. Even in his later portrayal for that matter. The Kinder Gentler Doctor of the transmitted episode works as well, but I do like that first angry doctor. I can see why they changed it--for him to start off so angry gives a chance for fewer colors later on. Also he really was quite cruel to Susan.
Susan's outfit is more earth contemporary in the aired version as well.
Episode Two - Cave of Skulls
Short summary: And wake up. Both are incredulous and want to be let out. They come into a very different space than they left. Za, an obvious caveman, is trying to make a fire, but it's not working. Kal, his rival to leadership and a newcomer to the tribe, is out hunting. Hur is promised to the clan leader, but clearly supports Za. Kal sees the Doctor make fire with his lighter, and kidnaps him to make him fire. The rest of the crew is captured when they try to rescue the Doctor. When he can't make fire, they are tied up and put in the cave of skulls, which is creepy...
Fast setup of the conflict! They really got down to the story fast in this one, didn't they. Not too much time spent on setup and exposition. I know it's not as fast paced as today's television, but it's faster paced than some later Doctor Whos.
Why are they going to wander around in those terrible shoes?
Having the chameleon circuit be broken for the first time was also a genius idea.
Screechy Susan rears her head. I know she's supposed to be a stand in for the children of the audience but it doesn't make any sense for her to be so helpless. She has been to other worlds without Ian and Barbara; why would she fall apart? It was a bad storytelling decision they were stuck with.
Kal is a dirty snake--getting food and sustenance and then immediately challenging for leadership.
Hur is a decent Lady MacBeth, using herself as a bargaining chip.
I do like the Doctor apologizing; that's rare enough.
Creepy Cave of Skulls.
Episode Three - The Forest of Fear
Short summary: The creepy old lady sneaks into the cave and sets the strangers free; she fears a world with fire. Za chases after them and gets attacked by a wild animal. Barbara feels compassion and goes back to help the injured Za. The Doctor moves to kill Za, but Ian stops him; luckily Hur doesn't see this bit. For their help, Za and Hur let them leave. In the meantime, Kal kills the old woman and convinced the tribe that the Tardis crew has escaped. Just before the crew reaches the Tardis, the tribe pops out...
Forest of fear? Ha!
So, do they use the skulls to cut their bonds? Only time will tell.
The furs are a nice detail. They look mangy and stinky and patched together. According to the infotext, they also had fleas, ugh.
Barbara's fear makes more sense than Susan's. She's never been offworld before, and can't trust that things are going to work out. I love her bravery during the animal attack, more so because she is obviously still quite afraid. To act in spite of fear is braver, so say I.
Dude, did the Doctor just go to pick up a rock and kill Za? Whoa. This is some kind of characterization! Ian as moral compass, eh?
I would have liked to see more fear from Ian, honestly. Was he in the army or anything? He certainly seems comfortable with clomping around in the forest and making fire. Although sometimes it is easier to put on a brave face when one is with someone who needs reassurance.
Oh yeah, now I remember, Kal is a dirty rat. Boo Kal, Boo.
Episode Four - The Firemaker
Short summary: So they are recaptured. Kal tries to challenge Za's leadership, but the Doctor manages to prove that Kal killed the old lady, and he is run out of the tribe. For their troubles they are re-imprisoned. Ian makes fire for Za, which prompts Za to decide to keep the strangers for their knowledge. Kal comes back and attacks Za, and Kal is killed. Ian figures out how to make torches, so they make skull torches and escape back to the Tardis. And land outside a white forest.
I think my color commentary went away.
Hur has some great moments--standing by her man, seeing the bigger picture when her father (who had been reasonable in earlier decisions) suddenly becomes ready to sacrifice everyone.
Za is a nice complicated character as well. He has an overwhelming desire for power, but he is also able to listen and take advice, to make snap decisions that are about more than just his own survival. His decision to renege on his bargain with Ian shows a nice paternalistic selfishness--"for your own good I'm keeping you here, you'll love it."
This fight between Kal and Za is quite wrestle-ish. It is personal and kind of brutal, with a hard core death at the end. The extreme closeups and horror on our heroes faces make the fight more horrible as well. It's so intensely artificial, the close-ups against the black, but the fight feels scarier for it. Nice work. Not quite as effective is the run through the forest, where it is obvious the actors are being slapped on the face with foliage.
And then escape and bickering and why are we still lost? What is that spooky forest? I hope it's not a forest of fear.
Conclusion
I think this is an excellent introduction to the series. I was more impressed with it this time than I have been in the past, I think because I was evaluating it as an introduction. It establishes all the characters as quite distinctive. We can see traits that will grow stronger with time, but the core portrayals are there.
The plot itself--space travelers bring fire to cavemen--was a trite one but as a blueprint for how the series would work it services the series well. These episodes had to make concrete a pretty complicated backstory, give enough mystery for future writers to play with and set its characters out on an adventure trajectory, and it did all that.
The cavemen were nice and complicated too, Za and Hur especially. Old lady firebad was the only speaking character who had no other purpose than to die at a conveniently plot-tastic time. For all that the plot wasn't about tribal politics and alliances, these also had some nice layers.
I also really liked the music on this story all the way through. It sets up a creepy fearful mood that matches the whowhatwhy for us, first time adventurers. Again, if we'd been in series two already, this story wouldn't have worked as well.
I'm glad they didn't totally go the route of "cave-man speech." I mean, yes, they had the cave men speaking slowly with strange pauses, and they were given a simpler child-like reasoning, but not necessarily children's sentence structure. I hate it when primitive speech is illustrated by the omission of verbs and articles. Surely in those long ago days they wanted to verb things. Action!!
This gets, I'd say, a 7 or 8. Actually I'm going with 8.