Doctor Who 1.01 An Unearthly Child

[whatinthewho]

(This is an updated and expanded re-write of a review I have previously posted.)

The First Doctor with Susan, Ian and BarbaraDOCTOR: "We are not of this race. We are not of this Earth. We are wanderers in the fourth dimensions of space and time, cut off from our own planet and our own people by aeons and universes that are far beyond the reach of

Comments

[whatinthewho]

Hallo. As mentioned in my reply to one of your other comments, these take far too long to write! It's been an evolving process, though - when I started, I dashed them off relatively quickly, often from the top of my head, but the more I watched the more I wanted to say and the more I wanted to be careful and measured about what I said, so the reviews got longer and longer and so did the time invested in them. This one - and the next - I took especial care over because I wanted to give a strong introduction to the classic show, explain some of the greatest differences between the 1960s and the modern era and encourage any readers to look past those differences to the strengths of the stories and characters that lie behind.

Have I quoted the unaired pilot? I didn't think I had, but I pulled my quotes from a transcript site rather than transcribing them myself so I suppose it's possible!

I haven't delved much into the book world, although I grew up on the novelisations. After the show ended, we started collecting the new adventures, but quickly gave up - they seemed to be trying too hard to be different from the show, too adult, too edgy to feel as if they belong in the same universe (much like Torchwood, which had some great moments, but overall I prefer to expunge it from my internal headcanon!) I know a fair bit about what the novels did with the mythology, but don't really feel comfortable with it. I'd rather take my Gallifreyan mythology direct from the show, contradictory and muddled or not! Each to their own, though!

[blogger_who]

I grew up on the NA's as they were pretty much the only way to experience the show for years as I'd read most of the novelizations that i wanted to read by then or watched the episodes. I understand what you mean by trying to be "to adult" as sometimes the content was a bit gratuitous, but I feel that with many writers for the series stepping into the book writers shoes that the gratuitous sex aside, what was in the books wasn't really that far of a departure from what was already being done in the McCoy era. Now I know that the McCoy era is already one of the most controversial in the show's history, so that's a can of worms in itself but that's a conversation for another time.