Doctor Who 1.01 An Unearthly Child
(This is an updated and expanded re-write of a review I have previously posted.)
The First Doctor with Susan, Ian and Barbara
DOCTOR: "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 your most advanced sciences."
Background
It is said that the past is a foreign country, they do things different there and this is certainly true of the world of television. That being the case, it isn't easy for a modern viewer, trained to expect particular narrative and production styles, to go back to the very beginning of Doctor Who and re-watch episodes that were made in 1963, when everything about the nature of television was so very different.
Veterans of twenty-first century television are accustomed to fast-paced and sophisticated productions stuffed with action and witty banter, shows with high production values and glossy special effects, utilising the very latest in rapidly developing technology and filmed in high definition for a digital age. We are able to record our shows or buy them on DVD so that we can re-watch them over and over, scrutinising every tiniest detail and analysing frame-by-frame, gathering online the moment each new episode ends in order to dissect and discuss what we just saw. Twenty-first century television is an immersive, interactive experience that can be re-lived over and over, squeezing every last nuance out of each and every frame, with intricate story arcs woven through seasons and intertwined with intense emotional character arcs arcs that are built, in fact, around the knowledge that viewers can and will re-watch every episode over and over, often in marathon viewing sessions, and are designed to reward such dedication.
In 1963, however, television was still in its infancy and was a very ephemeral, throwaway medium. Doctor Who was created as a low budget, educational tea-time science fiction show aimed primarily at children, with the expectation that each episode would be aired once and once only. The show was structured as an ongoing serial, with each 25 minute instalment leading directly into the next there was no such thing as a standalone episode; there was simply the show: one long, ongoing adventure. Since each episode could only be seen once, the show had to tell simple, straight-forward stories that could be easily followed from one week to the next, focusing on the characters and how they handled whatever situation they found themselves in, rather than on intricately convoluted plots and sub-plots requiring multiple viewings to grasp all the nuances. The cast rehearsed during the week, but then filmed each episode 'as live', with each scene shot in sequence, usually in a single take; if a mistake was made, so long as it wasn't catastrophic they simply had to carry on, as there wasn't time to re-shoot. The show was filmed mainly on set, with little or nothing in the way of special effects or post-production indeed, watching the 26 years of the classic show in chronological order is quite an education in the gradual evolution of televisual technology through the 1960s-80s. Between the mistakes, primitive sets, theatrical acting styles and use of heavy, static cameras, the early episodes can have the feel of a filmed stage play rather than a television drama, relying on the imagination of the viewer to fill in the gaps.
Almost everything about the structure and production of those earliest seasons feels alien to a modern viewer, accustomed to hi-tech and fast-paced shows to match our hi-tech and fast-paced lifestyles, but we should be careful not to impose modern expectations onto vintage television. Just because something is old and outdated doesn't mean it has nothing to offer. Classic shows such as Doctor Who can never conform to modern standards because they were made for a very different age and for very different viewing habits, but if we adjust our expectations to meet the show on its own terms and watch it in the spirit with which it was made, if we can take our foot off the gas long enough to appreciate a simpler story told at a slower pace, the experience can be tremendously rewarding. Although it might come as quite a culture shock to the uninitiated, for those able to overcome that culture barrier and accept it for what it is instead of dismissing it for what it isn't, the early show is rich in characters and ideas and feels wonderfully fresh and free. Everything about Doctor Who was brand new in 1963. There was no set formula to adhere to, no constraint imposed by backstory or tradition the fledgling show was free to explore its concept to the full, limited only by what could be achieved by 1960s television production.
These early adventures form the origin story of the Doctor, the story of how he came to fall in love with the human race, the story of how he became the hero that later generations have come to take so much for granted. And for those able to look past the serialised narrative structure, primitive production values and theatrical acting style to fully engage with the characters and their situation, those first seasons of the show are tremendous fun to watch.
Writer - Anthony Coburn
Director - Waris Hussein
Script editor - David Whitaker
Producer - Verity Lambert / Mervyn Pinfield
Aired - 23 November- 14 December 1963
Overview
An Unearthly Child is made up of the first four episodes of Doctor Who, boxed up as a single serial. Those four episodes break down, however, into two separate stories. The first episode, the titular 'An Unearthly Child', stands alone as a self-contained story in which the characters and situation are introduced in beautiful and hauntingly atmospheric detail, setting the scene for the adventures that follow. The next three episodes, titled 'The Cave of Skulls', 'The Forest of Fear' and 'The Fire-maker', follow directly on from this introductory episode to form the first real adventure of the show, and those three episodes are sometimes badged together under a separate title as '100,000 BC'.
This is how Doctor Who began. It is impossible for me now, almost 50 years later, to grasp the impact this would have made upon its first airing in 1963, but after a lifetime of knowing the Doctor as the hero of the story well, comparing who he was with the person he has since become is absolutely fascinating.
The Doctor is not the hero of this story, and that is something that modern NuWho fans and Classic show virgins probably find hardest to grasp about this first adventure. The concept of the Doctor as the hero of the show is so deeply ingrained in our collective psyche these days that it seems incomprehensible that he should ever have been anything else. The show is named after him, after all. And yet the truth is that he became that hero over the course of the show, rather than starting out fully fledged. And so it is that the First Doctor as seen here is the antithesis of his later selves. He is high-handed, arrogant, self-serving, curmudgeonly, rude, manipulative, aggressive, autocratic and downright hostile. It comes as quite a shock to the system, even when you are expecting it.
And yet a lot of those negative qualities can also, in fact, be applied to his later selves, in varying degrees. There, however, they are balanced by the positive qualities that by then we know him to also possess in abundance, whereas here they are presented to us cold, with very few redeeming features in evidence. The Doctor is not the hero of this story, he is merely its catalyst: the mysterious, alien Other, who, largely as a result of circumstance, misunderstanding, and clashing personalities and motivations, abducts a pair of hapless humans from 1963 and whisks them away through space and time. The story is not told from his point of view, but rather is seen through the eyes of Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, that pair of very ordinary human schoolteachers whose concern for a problem student is what leads them into this extraordinary adventure. It is they who are the heroes of this story.
This Doctor, in stark contrast to his later selves, is a recluse, holding himself strictly aloof from the society in which he is currently dwelling. His interest in any place he lands is purely scientific and he shows no interest in people whatsoever. What a contrast he makes to the later incarnations of the character, who crave companionship! It is Ian and Barbara who are the catalyst for that change: it is they who teach him to care about the people he meets on his travels and to intervene for the greater good, while the relationship he forms with them, over the course of their acquaintance, is the beginning of his enduring love affair with the human race.
That is the real beauty of that first ever season of the show we get to watch the Doctor fall in love with humans for the very first time.
Here in this first adventure, however, there is no love lost between the Doctor and the humans he abducts rather than run the risk of them telling anyone what they saw inside the incredible machine the TARDIS that he calls home. This is not something that his later incarnations would be the slightest bit concerned about, but here we must remember that although this is the oldest and frailest body he has ever worn, this is the youngest and most inexperienced version of the Doctor we have ever met. Although an exile from his homeworld, for reasons that have never been explained, at this stage in his life he still believes in non-intervention. And so, in a moment of panic and pique, he abducts Ian and Barbara from the place and time they have always known, in full knowledge of the fact that he is unable to steer the TARDIS and therefore cannot take them back home. They land in an impossibly distant past, immediately run into trouble, are forced to work together in order to survive and thus Doctor Who was born.
Observations
A few random thoughts while watching:
From the very first scene, the atmosphere of the first episode is excellent, so haunting and mysterious beautifully done.
I really, really love the relationship between Ian and Barbara, established from their very first scene. They enter the show together, on a truly equal footing, as both colleagues and firm friends, and the adventures they experience with the Doctor serve only to reinforce and deepen that pre-existing relationship. I really enjoy their opening scene, in which Barbara approaches Ian to discuss her concerns about the enigmatic Susan Foreman, a student who puzzles them both. I love the ease and familiarity of their discussion, that Barbara knows she can bring her concerns to Ian and be taken seriously, the way he continues to potter around tidying his lab while they talk, Ian's lapses into facetiousness, Barbara telling him off for not paying attention everything about their interaction in this scene speaks to their long-standing friendship. Having heard Barbara's concerns and agreed with them, Ian agrees to investigate with her without hesitation, without having to be asked this is the first time he identifies with Barbara as a unit, but certainly not the last. Although never acknowledged by the show as a romantic pairing, they are presented very much as a unit throughout their time with the Doctor, a partnership of equals, who balance one another perfectly: Barbara's open-mindedness to Ian's scientific scepticism, Barbara's compassion to Ian's heroism, Barbara's idealism to Ian's pragmatism. Their journey together during their time aboard the TARDIS is a joy to watch supporting one another, giving each other strength when they need it most, occasionally arguing but always finding middle ground, sharing both their fears and their triumphs and that journey begins here, in Ian's laboratory at Coal Hill School, the moment they decide to investigate the mysterious Susan Foreman together.
Everyone is just so wonderfully formal to one another, it's so very 1963.
Barbara tells us that Susan is 15. What we don't know, however, is whether or not that is true, only that it is the age she gave when she registered at Coal Hill School. Since she isn't human, her true age is anyone's guess is she actually 15 in Gallifreyan years, or is 15 simply an approximation of her age translated into human terms? Is she in fact much older than that, yet still a child by the standards of her people? How long does childhood last for Gallifreyans? We have no way of knowing, but it is clear that she is very young and inexperienced by the standards of both humans and Time Lord.
The Susan we meet in the opening episode is a fascinating character, especially when considered in terms of everything we later learn not only about her but about the Doctor, Gallifrey and the Time Lords. She really is beautifully enigmatic and otherworldly, and it is a real shame that Carole Ann Ford was never allowed to develop that aspect of the character. It is easy to understand why her teachers are so puzzled by her. An alien from a highly advanced race, she is a genius in many ways, by human standards, but she also has huge, unaccountable gaps in her basic day-to-day knowledge, and the glaring contrast between her incredible knowledge in some areas and equally incredible lack of knowledge in other areas is really well played out as a series of flashbacks narrated by the teachers as they discuss the conundrum in an attempt to justify their curiosity. For viewers with the benefit of hindsight, meanwhile, the fact that she has chosen to enrol at a local school during her stay in 1963 speaks volumes both for her desire to learn more about the culture she is visiting and her craving for company and friendship beyond that of her grandfather and perhaps also about her need for some kind of stability in her transient life, which ties in well with her eventual exit story.
Susan tells us that she and her grandfather have been living in London 1963 for five months, mainly because she likes it there and wants to stay and he is indulging her. What we aren't told is how long they had been travelling time and space together as outcasts from their home world before landing in Totter's Yard. Later stories are littered with references to previous adventures.
Susan is often sneered at by fans for being feeble and prone to hysteria, and it is true that she can be a bit of a broken reed of a character at times, but that in itself is an interesting personality trait, in terms of her backstory one has to wonder what might have happened in her past to make her so anxious and clingy, especially since we are told that she and the Doctor are in exile, and we later learn that he ran away from his people. Was it the trauma of that event followed by the inherent instability of their peripatetic lifestyle that makes Susan so meek and insecure? There is so much we don't know about the character. Why is she travelling with the Doctor? Is she really his granddaughter? Just how young was she when he took her from Gallifrey and they began their travels? Where are her parents and what happened to them? Susan is a very human name, so is it her real name or merely one she has adopted since leaving Gallifrey? Is she also a Time Lord? She claims to have been born in the 49th century but whose 49th century, Earth's or Gallifrey's? So many questions posed by this character and even 50 years later, those questions have never been answered!
Regardless of her anxiety and abandonment complexes, Susan is a lovely character: sunny-tempered, warm-hearted, generous and loving. In these early episodes she is regularly called upon to act as mediator between the Doctor and his human abductees, and although her loyalty lies with her grandfather, she isn't afraid to stand up to him and argues passionately in defence of her teachers, who have got themselves into this situation out of concern for her (and nosiness, of course). She might not be the strongest of characters, but she is intensely loyal, devoted to her grandfather, loves to learn, and although she is frequently afraid she always tries to do the right thing anyway. I have a lot more respect for Susan's efforts to be brave when we can see that she is terrified than I do for those sassy, 'feisty' characters who wise-crack their way through death-defying adventures without showing any fear at all; she is certainly much easier to relate to.
Show was way ahead of its time, predicting that the UK would eventually switch to a decimal financial system! Susan talks about it as a fait accompli, which can't have been obvious in 1963, surely? Or was it?
There is a lot of humour in the dialogue of this serial witty banter was not invented by modern shows!
I am always amused by the Doctor sniffing that he 'tolerates this century' but doesn't enjoy it ironic considering how much time he will spend in the 20th century hereafter!
The first episode is really strong, which is all the more remarkable when you consider that it has only four speaking characters and three sets and is pretty much nothing but dialogue, exposition-heavy dialogue, at that. The scenes at the scrapyard especially have a wonderfully moody atmosphere that really sells the mysteriousness of the situation the black-and-white really works in the show's favour. Ian and Barbara's initial confrontation with the Doctor is excellent, escalating rapidly and culminating in their unplanned entry into the TARDIS, which changes all of their lives, irrevocably.
I always love watching a new person's reaction to the TARDIS interior. Here, with Ian and Barbara, this was the very first time anyone had ever seen inside and been astounded by the different dimensions. It really is a magical moment followed by the equally powerful moment early in episode two when Ian and Barbara step back out of the TARDIS and find themselves in another place and time. We take the TARDIS so much for granted these days, after 50 years of the show, but back then this really was an awesome moment, in the truest sense of the word. I love it whenever the show takes the time to fully explore a new companion's reactions to the TARDIS and their first trip in it, because it calls back to this moment, every time, when everything was fresh and new and utterly incredible.
Also, I love the First Doctor's console room. It's so primitive, yet so spacious, with such random bits and pieces of furniture scattered around to give it a lived-in feel, and I love that we get to see so much of the ship beyond the console room in these early adventures.
The first time the question 'Doctor who?' was asked in the show is right here, at the beginning and it is the Doctor himself who asks the question, when Ian addresses him as 'Doctor Foreman' and he is thrown, having completely forgotten that he's been going by that name during his stay in London 1963. Later, Ian asks the same question, frustrated that he knows so little about the man. Fifty years later, while we may have learned an awful lot about the Doctor in the interim, we still don't know the full answer to that question and I hope we never do!
'Yearometer'? Oh, Show.
Susan claims to have invented the name 'TARDIS' funny how that later catches on among Time Lords in general!
Susan tells us that the Doctor has a notebook containing all the key codes for the Tardis and notes about everywhere they have travelled together. He never goes anywhere without it, she says. We only rarely hear about this diary again, although it is mentioned a few times over the years he doesn't really have the time for such a thing once the adventures start coming thick and fast, but it's entertaining to imagine him writing up those adventures at the end of each action-packed day!
Barbara comes to accept the impossible as true a lot faster than Ian does, which pretty much sums up their personalities in a nutshell. Barbara is a free-thinker, open-minded, whereas Ian is a scientist and needs hard evidence before he is willing to believe. I love the little speech the Doctor gives him "If you could touch the alien sand and hear the cries of strange birds and watch them wheel in another sky, would that satisfy you?" It just seems to sum up the possibility of the TARDIS in a single sentence, the mystery and magic of being able to visit other worlds and other times.
As the group exit the TARDIS and begin to explore, the Doctor is perturbed to see that it hasn't changed shape, prompting Susan to explain to Ian and Barbara that the TARDIS is supposed to camouflage itself. She tells us that in the past it has appeared as an Ionic column and a sedan chair, which must have been quite a sight. At some point during their stay in 1963, the chameleon circuit has got stuck, and stuck it has been more or less ever since there are a few occasions over the years when the Doctor makes half-hearted attempts at repairing it, but by the time he has the capability, he has grown to love the police box form far too much to want to lose it.
The Doctor as we meet him here is far less experienced than he will become in later years particularly where the TARDIS is concerned. He doesn't really know how to fly it, doesn't have the necessary codes for its correct operation which ties in well with the assertion in later years that he stole it! He also struggles to identify the time and place they have landed, something his later self gradually becomes more and more adept at (although still doesn't always get it right).
Episodes two to four don't really live up to the standard of episode one; the story of the primitive cave men and their tribal leadership battle works better in concept than the show was able to realise. Yet when you look past the clumsy nature of that story, it has a lot of quite powerful points to make about the characters and how they relate to one another. There are no alien invaders here and there is no great threat to an entire world merely a primitive tribe of superstitious cave dwellers struggling to survive because their leader has died and his successor is weak, unable to make fire with which to cook their food and keep them warm but one thing I really appreciate about this story is that although the problem faced by the TARDIS travellers is relatively simple in the grand scheme of things, it is nonetheless a huge obstacle for them to overcome, given their situation and the resources available to them. The travellers are forced to work together in order to survive and escape, whether they trust each other or not, and that shared adversity bonds them. "Fear makes companions of us all," as the Doctor observes. It is a salutary reminder that stories don't have to be told on a grand, epic scale in order to be meaningful and that a problem doesn't have to be world-shattering to be significant in the life of an individual. At this stage, the show wasn't about monsters and aliens; it was about the characters and their experiences and how those experiences change them, teaching them about themselves, about one another and about the wider universe and a smaller-scale, intimate story like this, told slowly but surely to allow each character's voice to be heard, achieves that far better than any wise-crack-packed 45-minute blockbusting action thriller could.
Credit where it's due, for all his faults the Doctor is gracious enough to take full responsibility for the danger the group find themselves in, and, as cantankerous and hostile as he is, we do see flashes of some of the character traits we will later come to associate with him his quick-thinking and his ability to talk his way out of a crisis, in particular. It is strange, though, to see him so reliant on the bravery and resourcefulness of his companions. As a team, this group is far more well-balanced than any that follow.
Later incarnations of the Doctor are so energetic, it comes as quite a shock to see how frail and feeble this very elderly First incarnation is. His later selves might be older chronologically, but none of them last long enough for their rejuvenated bodies to reach this stage of physical decrepitude.
I love that the cavewoman Hur thinks that Ian's name is Friend. Because that's how he introduced himself, and her people have no understanding of the concept of friendship, so she thinks it must be his name.
One of the more powerful scenes in the serial comes in episode three, when the travellers have escaped and are hot-footing it back to the TARDIS, pursued by wannabe tribe leader Za and his ambitious mate Hur. Za is attacked and wounded by a wild animal, and Ian and Barbara insist on going back to help him instead of taking the opportunity to escape. Susan follows their example, sweet girl that she is, but the Doctor simply cannot understand what they are doing, why they would waste their time on such a primitive being who has been holding them captive. He has come so, so far in the years that have passed since that moment and it is Ian and Barbara, with their compassion and generosity toward a fellow being, who set him on that path, beginning right here in this serial.
The Doctor states outright here that he is not a doctor of medicine. He wavers back and forth on that point over the years, later proving to have plenty of medical knowledge, even if it is largely theoretical rather than applied.
The central theme of this story is about respecting and recognising value in those who may seem more primitive than oneself, and despite the clumsy attempt at actualising cave people, the concept is a strong one. Ian and Barbara, coming from 1963, seem remarkably primitive to the Doctor and thus he initially treats them with disdain and contempt. It is only when he sees their resourcefulness and strength of character, and the kindness and compassion they show toward the cave people, who are so much more primitive than themselves, that he begins to realise that he was wrong. He begins to realise that even people with limited or primitive knowledge compared to his own can still be worthy of being liked and even respected. It is a lesson that has been reinforced by just about every companion he's had, ever since.
Ian is the hero of this story and he spends most of it butting heads with the Doctor, a classic clash of would-be alpha males yet when called upon to identify himself as the leader of the group, he defers to the Doctor without hesitation. It is part of their plan to win freedom by giving the cave-people fire, sure, but still four episodes into the story and the unwilling companions are beginning to work together as a team, albeit by necessity rather than choice. Not that it stops them bickering, of course. Not until the Fifth Doctor will we again see such acrimony among a group living aboard the TARDIS. That conflict between the characters works well for this story it makes for a nicely tense dynamic, as they are forced to depend on one another yet they are very much divided into two camps that don't really know, trust or even particularly like each other. Their development through the next few stories is wonderful to watch, as they start out from this unpromising beginning to form true friendship and even genuine love for one another. Of all the character dynamics this show has seen over the last half century, the development of the relationship between the First Doctor and Ian and Barbara is my absolute favourite I defy anyone to watch their adventures together in sequence and then try to tell me there was no character development in Classic Who!
One thing I really like about this story is that it allows all four central characters to shine, each in their own individual way. Ian and Barbara are very much to the fore early on, as the POV characters driving the story, but then in episode four , having spent much of the serial so far as more of an antagonist than anything else, the Doctor begins to show his mettle when Za's rival for leadership falsely accuses him of murder. The Doctor steps up with logic and forensic evidence, argued clearly and concisely in language the cave-dwellers will understand, to exonerate Za and implicate Kal instead. It is our first real glimpse of the Doctor we will later come to know and love so much, a glimpse at the quick mind and cunning that lie beneath that frail, cantankerous exterior. Ian is quick to back him up and the tribe are given a valuable lesson in the power of solidarity and unity.
But the tribe still won't let the TARDIS travellers go, imprisoning them in the cave of skulls once more. It is Susan who comes up with the bright idea that finally allows them to win their freedom, creating a diversion by placing skulls over flaming torches, which terrifies the deeply superstitious cave-dwellers long enough to allow their prisoners to slip past and escape. Well done, Susan she doesn't get many moments of glory during her time on the show.
The group escape and make it back to the TARDIS safely just. But the Doctor is unable to take Ian and Barbara back to their own time even if he wanted to and won't admit whether or not he is even willing to try. Although extremely defensive about it, he does admit that he is unable to operate the TARDIS properly because he doesn't have the right codes, which again ties in with the assertion in later years that he stole it. I like the way Susan immediately makes excuses for him, bless her, always the peacemaker. So the TARDIS brings its team of unwilling shipmates to a new destination leading into the next adventure.
Quotable Quotes
IAN: "Hmm. That's a bit of a mystery. Well, there must be a simple answer somewhere."
BARBARA: "Well, what?"
IAN: "Well, we'll have to find out for ourselves, won't we?"
BARBARA: "Thank you for the 'we'."
SUSAN: "It's John Smith and the Common Men. They've gone from nineteen to two."
IAN: "John Smith is the stage name of the Honourable Aubrey Waites. He started his career as Chris Waites and the Carollers, didn't he, Susan?"
SUSAN: "You are surprising, Mister Chesterton. I wouldn't expect you to know things like that."
IAN: "I have an enquiring mind. And a very sensitive ear."
BARBARA: "I suppose we are doing the right thing, aren't we?"
IAN: "You can't justify curiosity."
BARBARA: "But her homework?"
IAN: "A bit of an excuse, really, isn't it? I've seen far worse. The truth is, we're both curious about Susan and we won't be happy until we know some of the answers."
BARBARA: "You can't just pass it off like that. If I thought I was just being a busybody, I'd go straight home. I thought you agreed she was a bit of a mystery."
IAN: "Yes, but I think you'll find there's a very simple explanation to all this."
IAN: "I suppose she couldn't be a foreigner? No, doesn't make sense. Nothing about this girl makes sense."
BARBARA: "I feel frightened as if we're about to interfere in something that is best left alone."
IAN: "Come on, let's get it over with."
BARBARA: "Well, don't you feel it?"
IAN: "I take things as they come."
IAN: "It's a police box! What on earth's it doing here? These things are usually on the street. Feel it. Feel it. Do you feel it?"
BARBARA: "It's a faint vibration."
IAN: "It's alive!"
DOCTOR: "You don't understand, so you find excuses. Illusions, indeed? You say you can't fit an enormous building into one of your smaller sitting rooms."
IAN: "No."
DOCTOR: "But you've discovered television, haven't you?"
IAN: "Yes."
DOCTOR: "Then by showing an enormous building on your television screen, you can do what seemed impossible, couldn't you?"
IAN: "Well, yes, but I still don't know "
DOCTOR: "Not quite clear, is it. I can see by your face that you're not certain. You don't understand. And I knew you wouldn't."
SUSAN: "The TARDIS can go anywhere."
BARBARA: "TARDIS? I don't know what you mean, Susan."
SUSAN: "I made up TARDIS from the initials, Time and Relative Dimension In Space. Well, I thought you'd both realise when you came inside and saw the different dimensions from outside."
IAN: "Just let me get this right. A thing that looks like a police box, stuck in a junkyard, can move anywhere in time and space?"
SUSAN: "Yes!"
IAN: "Just let me get this straight. A thing that looks like a police box, standing in a junkyard, it can move anywhere in time and space?"
SUSAN: "Yes."
DOCTOR: "Quite so."
IAN: "But that's ridiculous."
SUSAN: "Why won't they believe us?"
BARBARA: "How can we?"
DOCTOR: "Now, now, don't get exasperated, Susan. Remember the Red Indian. When he saw the first steam train, his savage mind thought it an illusion, too."
IAN: "You're treating us like children."
DOCTOR: "Am I? The children of my civilisation would be insulted."
IAN: "Your civilisation?"
DOCTOR: "Yes, my civilisation. I tolerate this century, but I don't enjoy it. Have you ever thought what it's like to be wanderers in the fourth dimension? Have you? To be exiles? Susan and I are cut off from our own planet, without friends or protection. But one day we shall get back. Yes, one day. One day."
BARBARA: "But you are one of us. You look like us, you sound like us."
SUSAN: "I was born in another time, another world."
DOCTOR: "You still think this is a trick?"
IAN: "I know that free movement in the fourth dimension of space and time is a scientific dream I didn't expect to find solved in a junkyard."
DOCTOR: "For your science, schoolmaster, not for ours. I tell you, before your ancestors turned the first wheel, the people of my world had reduced movement through the farthest reaches of space to a game for children."
DOCTOR: "My dear child, you know very well we cannot let them possess even one idea that such a ship as the TARDIS might be possible. [...] Look, see how they watch and listen as we talk. If they leave the ship now, they might come to believe at last all this is possible. Think what would have happened to the ancient Romans if they'd possessed the power of gunpowder, if Napoleon had been given the secret of the aeroplane no, my child. We both know we cannot let our secret loose into the world of the twentieth century."
SUSAN: "But you can't keep them prisoners here!"
IAN: "You can't keep us prisoners anywhere."
DOCTOR: "I cannot let you go, schoolteacher. Whether you believe what you have been told is of no importance. You and your companion would be footprints in a time where you were not supposed to have walked."
IAN: "Just open the doors, Doctor Foreman."
DOCTOR: "Eh? Doctor who? What's he talking about?"
IAN: "But it is ridiculous. Time doesn't go round and round in circles. You can't get on and off whenever you like in the past or the future."
DOCTOR: "Really? Where does time go, then?"
IAN: "It doesn't go anywhere. It just happens and then it's finished."
DOCTOR: (to Barbara) "You're not as doubtful as your friend, I hope?"
BARBARA: "No."
IAN: "Barbara, you can't "
BARBARA: "I can't help it. I just believe them, that's all."
DOCTOR: "If you could touch the alien sand and hear the cries of strange birds and watch them wheel in another sky, would that satisfy you?"
IAN: "Yes."
DOCTOR: "Now, see for yourself."
IAN: "Who is he? Doctor who? Perhaps if we knew his name we might have a clue to all this."
BARBARA: "But how are we going to get out of this?"
DOCTOR: "We should use our cunning."
BARBARA: "You're trying to help me."
DOCTOR: "Fear makes companions of all of us. That's right."
BARBARA: "I never thought once you were afraid."
DOCTOR: "Fear is with all of us, and always will be. Just like that other sensation that lives with it."
BARBARA: "What's that?"
DOCTOR: "Your companion referred to it. Hope."
DOCTOR: "Aren't you a tiresome young man!"
IAN: "And you're a stubborn old man."
IAN: "I am your friend. You understand? Friend. I want to help him."
HUR: "Friend?"
IAN: "Well, we've lost our chance of getting away. Your flat must be littered with stray cats and dogs."
BARBARA: "These are human beings, Ian."
IAN: "Yes, I know."
IAN: "You're a doctor, do something."
DOCTOR: "I'm not a doctor of medicine."
IAN: "How about giving us a hand, Doctor?"
SUSAN: "He's always like this if he doesn't get his own way."
IAN: "Remember, Kal is not stronger than the whole tribe."
IAN: "The whole tribe should be watching. Everyone should know how to make fire."
ZA: "Everyone cannot be leader."
IAN: "No, that's perfectly true. But in our tribe, the fire-maker is the least important man."
ZA: "Ha! I do not believe this."
DOCTOR: "He is the least important because we can all make fire."
IAN: "Have you taken us back to our own time?"
DOCTOR: "You know I can't do that. Please be reasonable."
IAN: "What?"
BARBARA: "Please, you must take us back. You must."
DOCTOR: "You see this isn't operating properly. Or rather, the code is still a secret. When you put the right data, precise information to a second of the beginning of a journey, then we can fix a destination, but I had no data at my disposal."
BARBARA: "Are you saying that you don't know how to work this thing?"
DOCTOR: "Well of course I can't. I'm not a miracle worker."
IAN: "Just a minute. Did you try and take us back to our own time?"
DOCTOR: "Well, I got you away from that other time, didn't I?"
IAN: "That isn't what I asked you."
DOCTOR: "It's the only way I can answer you, young man."
The verdict
Overall and taken as a whole, An Unearthly Child is a bit of a mixed bag. It can be very difficult to watch at first, for a modern viewer coming into it cold without any knowledge or experience of vintage television. Yet once you have adjusted to the limitations of the material, if you approach it with the benefit of hindsight and knowledge of the development of the Doctor in the years after this point, it is a lovely story to watch, full of valuable character exploration that is truly delightful at times. The show and the character of the Doctor have both come so very far since these humble beginnings that it is easy to lose focus and objectivity. Touching base with how it all began lends a lot of perspective to the later years of the show. This is the story of how the Doctor started out on the path toward becoming the hero later generations came to know him as, and it is the beginning of the story of how the Doctor came to fall in love with mankind and began to develop the principles of compassion and fair play that he has lived by ever since. I love it.
The First Doctor with Susan, Ian and Barbara
DOCTOR: "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 your most advanced sciences."
Background
It is said that the past is a foreign country, they do things different there and this is certainly true of the world of television. That being the case, it isn't easy for a modern viewer, trained to expect particular narrative and production styles, to go back to the very beginning of Doctor Who and re-watch episodes that were made in 1963, when everything about the nature of television was so very different.
Veterans of twenty-first century television are accustomed to fast-paced and sophisticated productions stuffed with action and witty banter, shows with high production values and glossy special effects, utilising the very latest in rapidly developing technology and filmed in high definition for a digital age. We are able to record our shows or buy them on DVD so that we can re-watch them over and over, scrutinising every tiniest detail and analysing frame-by-frame, gathering online the moment each new episode ends in order to dissect and discuss what we just saw. Twenty-first century television is an immersive, interactive experience that can be re-lived over and over, squeezing every last nuance out of each and every frame, with intricate story arcs woven through seasons and intertwined with intense emotional character arcs arcs that are built, in fact, around the knowledge that viewers can and will re-watch every episode over and over, often in marathon viewing sessions, and are designed to reward such dedication.
In 1963, however, television was still in its infancy and was a very ephemeral, throwaway medium. Doctor Who was created as a low budget, educational tea-time science fiction show aimed primarily at children, with the expectation that each episode would be aired once and once only. The show was structured as an ongoing serial, with each 25 minute instalment leading directly into the next there was no such thing as a standalone episode; there was simply the show: one long, ongoing adventure. Since each episode could only be seen once, the show had to tell simple, straight-forward stories that could be easily followed from one week to the next, focusing on the characters and how they handled whatever situation they found themselves in, rather than on intricately convoluted plots and sub-plots requiring multiple viewings to grasp all the nuances. The cast rehearsed during the week, but then filmed each episode 'as live', with each scene shot in sequence, usually in a single take; if a mistake was made, so long as it wasn't catastrophic they simply had to carry on, as there wasn't time to re-shoot. The show was filmed mainly on set, with little or nothing in the way of special effects or post-production indeed, watching the 26 years of the classic show in chronological order is quite an education in the gradual evolution of televisual technology through the 1960s-80s. Between the mistakes, primitive sets, theatrical acting styles and use of heavy, static cameras, the early episodes can have the feel of a filmed stage play rather than a television drama, relying on the imagination of the viewer to fill in the gaps.
Almost everything about the structure and production of those earliest seasons feels alien to a modern viewer, accustomed to hi-tech and fast-paced shows to match our hi-tech and fast-paced lifestyles, but we should be careful not to impose modern expectations onto vintage television. Just because something is old and outdated doesn't mean it has nothing to offer. Classic shows such as Doctor Who can never conform to modern standards because they were made for a very different age and for very different viewing habits, but if we adjust our expectations to meet the show on its own terms and watch it in the spirit with which it was made, if we can take our foot off the gas long enough to appreciate a simpler story told at a slower pace, the experience can be tremendously rewarding. Although it might come as quite a culture shock to the uninitiated, for those able to overcome that culture barrier and accept it for what it is instead of dismissing it for what it isn't, the early show is rich in characters and ideas and feels wonderfully fresh and free. Everything about Doctor Who was brand new in 1963. There was no set formula to adhere to, no constraint imposed by backstory or tradition the fledgling show was free to explore its concept to the full, limited only by what could be achieved by 1960s television production.
These early adventures form the origin story of the Doctor, the story of how he came to fall in love with the human race, the story of how he became the hero that later generations have come to take so much for granted. And for those able to look past the serialised narrative structure, primitive production values and theatrical acting style to fully engage with the characters and their situation, those first seasons of the show are tremendous fun to watch.
Writer - Anthony Coburn
Director - Waris Hussein
Script editor - David Whitaker
Producer - Verity Lambert / Mervyn Pinfield
Aired - 23 November- 14 December 1963
Overview
An Unearthly Child is made up of the first four episodes of Doctor Who, boxed up as a single serial. Those four episodes break down, however, into two separate stories. The first episode, the titular 'An Unearthly Child', stands alone as a self-contained story in which the characters and situation are introduced in beautiful and hauntingly atmospheric detail, setting the scene for the adventures that follow. The next three episodes, titled 'The Cave of Skulls', 'The Forest of Fear' and 'The Fire-maker', follow directly on from this introductory episode to form the first real adventure of the show, and those three episodes are sometimes badged together under a separate title as '100,000 BC'.
This is how Doctor Who began. It is impossible for me now, almost 50 years later, to grasp the impact this would have made upon its first airing in 1963, but after a lifetime of knowing the Doctor as the hero of the story well, comparing who he was with the person he has since become is absolutely fascinating.
The Doctor is not the hero of this story, and that is something that modern NuWho fans and Classic show virgins probably find hardest to grasp about this first adventure. The concept of the Doctor as the hero of the show is so deeply ingrained in our collective psyche these days that it seems incomprehensible that he should ever have been anything else. The show is named after him, after all. And yet the truth is that he became that hero over the course of the show, rather than starting out fully fledged. And so it is that the First Doctor as seen here is the antithesis of his later selves. He is high-handed, arrogant, self-serving, curmudgeonly, rude, manipulative, aggressive, autocratic and downright hostile. It comes as quite a shock to the system, even when you are expecting it.
And yet a lot of those negative qualities can also, in fact, be applied to his later selves, in varying degrees. There, however, they are balanced by the positive qualities that by then we know him to also possess in abundance, whereas here they are presented to us cold, with very few redeeming features in evidence. The Doctor is not the hero of this story, he is merely its catalyst: the mysterious, alien Other, who, largely as a result of circumstance, misunderstanding, and clashing personalities and motivations, abducts a pair of hapless humans from 1963 and whisks them away through space and time. The story is not told from his point of view, but rather is seen through the eyes of Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, that pair of very ordinary human schoolteachers whose concern for a problem student is what leads them into this extraordinary adventure. It is they who are the heroes of this story.
This Doctor, in stark contrast to his later selves, is a recluse, holding himself strictly aloof from the society in which he is currently dwelling. His interest in any place he lands is purely scientific and he shows no interest in people whatsoever. What a contrast he makes to the later incarnations of the character, who crave companionship! It is Ian and Barbara who are the catalyst for that change: it is they who teach him to care about the people he meets on his travels and to intervene for the greater good, while the relationship he forms with them, over the course of their acquaintance, is the beginning of his enduring love affair with the human race.
That is the real beauty of that first ever season of the show we get to watch the Doctor fall in love with humans for the very first time.
Here in this first adventure, however, there is no love lost between the Doctor and the humans he abducts rather than run the risk of them telling anyone what they saw inside the incredible machine the TARDIS that he calls home. This is not something that his later incarnations would be the slightest bit concerned about, but here we must remember that although this is the oldest and frailest body he has ever worn, this is the youngest and most inexperienced version of the Doctor we have ever met. Although an exile from his homeworld, for reasons that have never been explained, at this stage in his life he still believes in non-intervention. And so, in a moment of panic and pique, he abducts Ian and Barbara from the place and time they have always known, in full knowledge of the fact that he is unable to steer the TARDIS and therefore cannot take them back home. They land in an impossibly distant past, immediately run into trouble, are forced to work together in order to survive and thus Doctor Who was born.
Observations
A few random thoughts while watching:
From the very first scene, the atmosphere of the first episode is excellent, so haunting and mysterious beautifully done.
I really, really love the relationship between Ian and Barbara, established from their very first scene. They enter the show together, on a truly equal footing, as both colleagues and firm friends, and the adventures they experience with the Doctor serve only to reinforce and deepen that pre-existing relationship. I really enjoy their opening scene, in which Barbara approaches Ian to discuss her concerns about the enigmatic Susan Foreman, a student who puzzles them both. I love the ease and familiarity of their discussion, that Barbara knows she can bring her concerns to Ian and be taken seriously, the way he continues to potter around tidying his lab while they talk, Ian's lapses into facetiousness, Barbara telling him off for not paying attention everything about their interaction in this scene speaks to their long-standing friendship. Having heard Barbara's concerns and agreed with them, Ian agrees to investigate with her without hesitation, without having to be asked this is the first time he identifies with Barbara as a unit, but certainly not the last. Although never acknowledged by the show as a romantic pairing, they are presented very much as a unit throughout their time with the Doctor, a partnership of equals, who balance one another perfectly: Barbara's open-mindedness to Ian's scientific scepticism, Barbara's compassion to Ian's heroism, Barbara's idealism to Ian's pragmatism. Their journey together during their time aboard the TARDIS is a joy to watch supporting one another, giving each other strength when they need it most, occasionally arguing but always finding middle ground, sharing both their fears and their triumphs and that journey begins here, in Ian's laboratory at Coal Hill School, the moment they decide to investigate the mysterious Susan Foreman together.
Everyone is just so wonderfully formal to one another, it's so very 1963.
Barbara tells us that Susan is 15. What we don't know, however, is whether or not that is true, only that it is the age she gave when she registered at Coal Hill School. Since she isn't human, her true age is anyone's guess is she actually 15 in Gallifreyan years, or is 15 simply an approximation of her age translated into human terms? Is she in fact much older than that, yet still a child by the standards of her people? How long does childhood last for Gallifreyans? We have no way of knowing, but it is clear that she is very young and inexperienced by the standards of both humans and Time Lord.
The Susan we meet in the opening episode is a fascinating character, especially when considered in terms of everything we later learn not only about her but about the Doctor, Gallifrey and the Time Lords. She really is beautifully enigmatic and otherworldly, and it is a real shame that Carole Ann Ford was never allowed to develop that aspect of the character. It is easy to understand why her teachers are so puzzled by her. An alien from a highly advanced race, she is a genius in many ways, by human standards, but she also has huge, unaccountable gaps in her basic day-to-day knowledge, and the glaring contrast between her incredible knowledge in some areas and equally incredible lack of knowledge in other areas is really well played out as a series of flashbacks narrated by the teachers as they discuss the conundrum in an attempt to justify their curiosity. For viewers with the benefit of hindsight, meanwhile, the fact that she has chosen to enrol at a local school during her stay in 1963 speaks volumes both for her desire to learn more about the culture she is visiting and her craving for company and friendship beyond that of her grandfather and perhaps also about her need for some kind of stability in her transient life, which ties in well with her eventual exit story.
Susan tells us that she and her grandfather have been living in London 1963 for five months, mainly because she likes it there and wants to stay and he is indulging her. What we aren't told is how long they had been travelling time and space together as outcasts from their home world before landing in Totter's Yard. Later stories are littered with references to previous adventures.
Susan is often sneered at by fans for being feeble and prone to hysteria, and it is true that she can be a bit of a broken reed of a character at times, but that in itself is an interesting personality trait, in terms of her backstory one has to wonder what might have happened in her past to make her so anxious and clingy, especially since we are told that she and the Doctor are in exile, and we later learn that he ran away from his people. Was it the trauma of that event followed by the inherent instability of their peripatetic lifestyle that makes Susan so meek and insecure? There is so much we don't know about the character. Why is she travelling with the Doctor? Is she really his granddaughter? Just how young was she when he took her from Gallifrey and they began their travels? Where are her parents and what happened to them? Susan is a very human name, so is it her real name or merely one she has adopted since leaving Gallifrey? Is she also a Time Lord? She claims to have been born in the 49th century but whose 49th century, Earth's or Gallifrey's? So many questions posed by this character and even 50 years later, those questions have never been answered!
Regardless of her anxiety and abandonment complexes, Susan is a lovely character: sunny-tempered, warm-hearted, generous and loving. In these early episodes she is regularly called upon to act as mediator between the Doctor and his human abductees, and although her loyalty lies with her grandfather, she isn't afraid to stand up to him and argues passionately in defence of her teachers, who have got themselves into this situation out of concern for her (and nosiness, of course). She might not be the strongest of characters, but she is intensely loyal, devoted to her grandfather, loves to learn, and although she is frequently afraid she always tries to do the right thing anyway. I have a lot more respect for Susan's efforts to be brave when we can see that she is terrified than I do for those sassy, 'feisty' characters who wise-crack their way through death-defying adventures without showing any fear at all; she is certainly much easier to relate to.
Show was way ahead of its time, predicting that the UK would eventually switch to a decimal financial system! Susan talks about it as a fait accompli, which can't have been obvious in 1963, surely? Or was it?
There is a lot of humour in the dialogue of this serial witty banter was not invented by modern shows!
I am always amused by the Doctor sniffing that he 'tolerates this century' but doesn't enjoy it ironic considering how much time he will spend in the 20th century hereafter!
The first episode is really strong, which is all the more remarkable when you consider that it has only four speaking characters and three sets and is pretty much nothing but dialogue, exposition-heavy dialogue, at that. The scenes at the scrapyard especially have a wonderfully moody atmosphere that really sells the mysteriousness of the situation the black-and-white really works in the show's favour. Ian and Barbara's initial confrontation with the Doctor is excellent, escalating rapidly and culminating in their unplanned entry into the TARDIS, which changes all of their lives, irrevocably.
I always love watching a new person's reaction to the TARDIS interior. Here, with Ian and Barbara, this was the very first time anyone had ever seen inside and been astounded by the different dimensions. It really is a magical moment followed by the equally powerful moment early in episode two when Ian and Barbara step back out of the TARDIS and find themselves in another place and time. We take the TARDIS so much for granted these days, after 50 years of the show, but back then this really was an awesome moment, in the truest sense of the word. I love it whenever the show takes the time to fully explore a new companion's reactions to the TARDIS and their first trip in it, because it calls back to this moment, every time, when everything was fresh and new and utterly incredible.
Also, I love the First Doctor's console room. It's so primitive, yet so spacious, with such random bits and pieces of furniture scattered around to give it a lived-in feel, and I love that we get to see so much of the ship beyond the console room in these early adventures.
The first time the question 'Doctor who?' was asked in the show is right here, at the beginning and it is the Doctor himself who asks the question, when Ian addresses him as 'Doctor Foreman' and he is thrown, having completely forgotten that he's been going by that name during his stay in London 1963. Later, Ian asks the same question, frustrated that he knows so little about the man. Fifty years later, while we may have learned an awful lot about the Doctor in the interim, we still don't know the full answer to that question and I hope we never do!
'Yearometer'? Oh, Show.
Susan claims to have invented the name 'TARDIS' funny how that later catches on among Time Lords in general!
Susan tells us that the Doctor has a notebook containing all the key codes for the Tardis and notes about everywhere they have travelled together. He never goes anywhere without it, she says. We only rarely hear about this diary again, although it is mentioned a few times over the years he doesn't really have the time for such a thing once the adventures start coming thick and fast, but it's entertaining to imagine him writing up those adventures at the end of each action-packed day!
Barbara comes to accept the impossible as true a lot faster than Ian does, which pretty much sums up their personalities in a nutshell. Barbara is a free-thinker, open-minded, whereas Ian is a scientist and needs hard evidence before he is willing to believe. I love the little speech the Doctor gives him "If you could touch the alien sand and hear the cries of strange birds and watch them wheel in another sky, would that satisfy you?" It just seems to sum up the possibility of the TARDIS in a single sentence, the mystery and magic of being able to visit other worlds and other times.
As the group exit the TARDIS and begin to explore, the Doctor is perturbed to see that it hasn't changed shape, prompting Susan to explain to Ian and Barbara that the TARDIS is supposed to camouflage itself. She tells us that in the past it has appeared as an Ionic column and a sedan chair, which must have been quite a sight. At some point during their stay in 1963, the chameleon circuit has got stuck, and stuck it has been more or less ever since there are a few occasions over the years when the Doctor makes half-hearted attempts at repairing it, but by the time he has the capability, he has grown to love the police box form far too much to want to lose it.
The Doctor as we meet him here is far less experienced than he will become in later years particularly where the TARDIS is concerned. He doesn't really know how to fly it, doesn't have the necessary codes for its correct operation which ties in well with the assertion in later years that he stole it! He also struggles to identify the time and place they have landed, something his later self gradually becomes more and more adept at (although still doesn't always get it right).
Episodes two to four don't really live up to the standard of episode one; the story of the primitive cave men and their tribal leadership battle works better in concept than the show was able to realise. Yet when you look past the clumsy nature of that story, it has a lot of quite powerful points to make about the characters and how they relate to one another. There are no alien invaders here and there is no great threat to an entire world merely a primitive tribe of superstitious cave dwellers struggling to survive because their leader has died and his successor is weak, unable to make fire with which to cook their food and keep them warm but one thing I really appreciate about this story is that although the problem faced by the TARDIS travellers is relatively simple in the grand scheme of things, it is nonetheless a huge obstacle for them to overcome, given their situation and the resources available to them. The travellers are forced to work together in order to survive and escape, whether they trust each other or not, and that shared adversity bonds them. "Fear makes companions of us all," as the Doctor observes. It is a salutary reminder that stories don't have to be told on a grand, epic scale in order to be meaningful and that a problem doesn't have to be world-shattering to be significant in the life of an individual. At this stage, the show wasn't about monsters and aliens; it was about the characters and their experiences and how those experiences change them, teaching them about themselves, about one another and about the wider universe and a smaller-scale, intimate story like this, told slowly but surely to allow each character's voice to be heard, achieves that far better than any wise-crack-packed 45-minute blockbusting action thriller could.
Credit where it's due, for all his faults the Doctor is gracious enough to take full responsibility for the danger the group find themselves in, and, as cantankerous and hostile as he is, we do see flashes of some of the character traits we will later come to associate with him his quick-thinking and his ability to talk his way out of a crisis, in particular. It is strange, though, to see him so reliant on the bravery and resourcefulness of his companions. As a team, this group is far more well-balanced than any that follow.
Later incarnations of the Doctor are so energetic, it comes as quite a shock to see how frail and feeble this very elderly First incarnation is. His later selves might be older chronologically, but none of them last long enough for their rejuvenated bodies to reach this stage of physical decrepitude.
I love that the cavewoman Hur thinks that Ian's name is Friend. Because that's how he introduced himself, and her people have no understanding of the concept of friendship, so she thinks it must be his name.
One of the more powerful scenes in the serial comes in episode three, when the travellers have escaped and are hot-footing it back to the TARDIS, pursued by wannabe tribe leader Za and his ambitious mate Hur. Za is attacked and wounded by a wild animal, and Ian and Barbara insist on going back to help him instead of taking the opportunity to escape. Susan follows their example, sweet girl that she is, but the Doctor simply cannot understand what they are doing, why they would waste their time on such a primitive being who has been holding them captive. He has come so, so far in the years that have passed since that moment and it is Ian and Barbara, with their compassion and generosity toward a fellow being, who set him on that path, beginning right here in this serial.
The Doctor states outright here that he is not a doctor of medicine. He wavers back and forth on that point over the years, later proving to have plenty of medical knowledge, even if it is largely theoretical rather than applied.
The central theme of this story is about respecting and recognising value in those who may seem more primitive than oneself, and despite the clumsy attempt at actualising cave people, the concept is a strong one. Ian and Barbara, coming from 1963, seem remarkably primitive to the Doctor and thus he initially treats them with disdain and contempt. It is only when he sees their resourcefulness and strength of character, and the kindness and compassion they show toward the cave people, who are so much more primitive than themselves, that he begins to realise that he was wrong. He begins to realise that even people with limited or primitive knowledge compared to his own can still be worthy of being liked and even respected. It is a lesson that has been reinforced by just about every companion he's had, ever since.
Ian is the hero of this story and he spends most of it butting heads with the Doctor, a classic clash of would-be alpha males yet when called upon to identify himself as the leader of the group, he defers to the Doctor without hesitation. It is part of their plan to win freedom by giving the cave-people fire, sure, but still four episodes into the story and the unwilling companions are beginning to work together as a team, albeit by necessity rather than choice. Not that it stops them bickering, of course. Not until the Fifth Doctor will we again see such acrimony among a group living aboard the TARDIS. That conflict between the characters works well for this story it makes for a nicely tense dynamic, as they are forced to depend on one another yet they are very much divided into two camps that don't really know, trust or even particularly like each other. Their development through the next few stories is wonderful to watch, as they start out from this unpromising beginning to form true friendship and even genuine love for one another. Of all the character dynamics this show has seen over the last half century, the development of the relationship between the First Doctor and Ian and Barbara is my absolute favourite I defy anyone to watch their adventures together in sequence and then try to tell me there was no character development in Classic Who!
One thing I really like about this story is that it allows all four central characters to shine, each in their own individual way. Ian and Barbara are very much to the fore early on, as the POV characters driving the story, but then in episode four , having spent much of the serial so far as more of an antagonist than anything else, the Doctor begins to show his mettle when Za's rival for leadership falsely accuses him of murder. The Doctor steps up with logic and forensic evidence, argued clearly and concisely in language the cave-dwellers will understand, to exonerate Za and implicate Kal instead. It is our first real glimpse of the Doctor we will later come to know and love so much, a glimpse at the quick mind and cunning that lie beneath that frail, cantankerous exterior. Ian is quick to back him up and the tribe are given a valuable lesson in the power of solidarity and unity.
But the tribe still won't let the TARDIS travellers go, imprisoning them in the cave of skulls once more. It is Susan who comes up with the bright idea that finally allows them to win their freedom, creating a diversion by placing skulls over flaming torches, which terrifies the deeply superstitious cave-dwellers long enough to allow their prisoners to slip past and escape. Well done, Susan she doesn't get many moments of glory during her time on the show.
The group escape and make it back to the TARDIS safely just. But the Doctor is unable to take Ian and Barbara back to their own time even if he wanted to and won't admit whether or not he is even willing to try. Although extremely defensive about it, he does admit that he is unable to operate the TARDIS properly because he doesn't have the right codes, which again ties in with the assertion in later years that he stole it. I like the way Susan immediately makes excuses for him, bless her, always the peacemaker. So the TARDIS brings its team of unwilling shipmates to a new destination leading into the next adventure.
Quotable Quotes
IAN: "Hmm. That's a bit of a mystery. Well, there must be a simple answer somewhere."
BARBARA: "Well, what?"
IAN: "Well, we'll have to find out for ourselves, won't we?"
BARBARA: "Thank you for the 'we'."
SUSAN: "It's John Smith and the Common Men. They've gone from nineteen to two."
IAN: "John Smith is the stage name of the Honourable Aubrey Waites. He started his career as Chris Waites and the Carollers, didn't he, Susan?"
SUSAN: "You are surprising, Mister Chesterton. I wouldn't expect you to know things like that."
IAN: "I have an enquiring mind. And a very sensitive ear."
BARBARA: "I suppose we are doing the right thing, aren't we?"
IAN: "You can't justify curiosity."
BARBARA: "But her homework?"
IAN: "A bit of an excuse, really, isn't it? I've seen far worse. The truth is, we're both curious about Susan and we won't be happy until we know some of the answers."
BARBARA: "You can't just pass it off like that. If I thought I was just being a busybody, I'd go straight home. I thought you agreed she was a bit of a mystery."
IAN: "Yes, but I think you'll find there's a very simple explanation to all this."
IAN: "I suppose she couldn't be a foreigner? No, doesn't make sense. Nothing about this girl makes sense."
BARBARA: "I feel frightened as if we're about to interfere in something that is best left alone."
IAN: "Come on, let's get it over with."
BARBARA: "Well, don't you feel it?"
IAN: "I take things as they come."
IAN: "It's a police box! What on earth's it doing here? These things are usually on the street. Feel it. Feel it. Do you feel it?"
BARBARA: "It's a faint vibration."
IAN: "It's alive!"
DOCTOR: "You don't understand, so you find excuses. Illusions, indeed? You say you can't fit an enormous building into one of your smaller sitting rooms."
IAN: "No."
DOCTOR: "But you've discovered television, haven't you?"
IAN: "Yes."
DOCTOR: "Then by showing an enormous building on your television screen, you can do what seemed impossible, couldn't you?"
IAN: "Well, yes, but I still don't know "
DOCTOR: "Not quite clear, is it. I can see by your face that you're not certain. You don't understand. And I knew you wouldn't."
SUSAN: "The TARDIS can go anywhere."
BARBARA: "TARDIS? I don't know what you mean, Susan."
SUSAN: "I made up TARDIS from the initials, Time and Relative Dimension In Space. Well, I thought you'd both realise when you came inside and saw the different dimensions from outside."
IAN: "Just let me get this right. A thing that looks like a police box, stuck in a junkyard, can move anywhere in time and space?"
SUSAN: "Yes!"
IAN: "Just let me get this straight. A thing that looks like a police box, standing in a junkyard, it can move anywhere in time and space?"
SUSAN: "Yes."
DOCTOR: "Quite so."
IAN: "But that's ridiculous."
SUSAN: "Why won't they believe us?"
BARBARA: "How can we?"
DOCTOR: "Now, now, don't get exasperated, Susan. Remember the Red Indian. When he saw the first steam train, his savage mind thought it an illusion, too."
IAN: "You're treating us like children."
DOCTOR: "Am I? The children of my civilisation would be insulted."
IAN: "Your civilisation?"
DOCTOR: "Yes, my civilisation. I tolerate this century, but I don't enjoy it. Have you ever thought what it's like to be wanderers in the fourth dimension? Have you? To be exiles? Susan and I are cut off from our own planet, without friends or protection. But one day we shall get back. Yes, one day. One day."
BARBARA: "But you are one of us. You look like us, you sound like us."
SUSAN: "I was born in another time, another world."
DOCTOR: "You still think this is a trick?"
IAN: "I know that free movement in the fourth dimension of space and time is a scientific dream I didn't expect to find solved in a junkyard."
DOCTOR: "For your science, schoolmaster, not for ours. I tell you, before your ancestors turned the first wheel, the people of my world had reduced movement through the farthest reaches of space to a game for children."
DOCTOR: "My dear child, you know very well we cannot let them possess even one idea that such a ship as the TARDIS might be possible. [...] Look, see how they watch and listen as we talk. If they leave the ship now, they might come to believe at last all this is possible. Think what would have happened to the ancient Romans if they'd possessed the power of gunpowder, if Napoleon had been given the secret of the aeroplane no, my child. We both know we cannot let our secret loose into the world of the twentieth century."
SUSAN: "But you can't keep them prisoners here!"
IAN: "You can't keep us prisoners anywhere."
DOCTOR: "I cannot let you go, schoolteacher. Whether you believe what you have been told is of no importance. You and your companion would be footprints in a time where you were not supposed to have walked."
IAN: "Just open the doors, Doctor Foreman."
DOCTOR: "Eh? Doctor who? What's he talking about?"
IAN: "But it is ridiculous. Time doesn't go round and round in circles. You can't get on and off whenever you like in the past or the future."
DOCTOR: "Really? Where does time go, then?"
IAN: "It doesn't go anywhere. It just happens and then it's finished."
DOCTOR: (to Barbara) "You're not as doubtful as your friend, I hope?"
BARBARA: "No."
IAN: "Barbara, you can't "
BARBARA: "I can't help it. I just believe them, that's all."
DOCTOR: "If you could touch the alien sand and hear the cries of strange birds and watch them wheel in another sky, would that satisfy you?"
IAN: "Yes."
DOCTOR: "Now, see for yourself."
IAN: "Who is he? Doctor who? Perhaps if we knew his name we might have a clue to all this."
BARBARA: "But how are we going to get out of this?"
DOCTOR: "We should use our cunning."
BARBARA: "You're trying to help me."
DOCTOR: "Fear makes companions of all of us. That's right."
BARBARA: "I never thought once you were afraid."
DOCTOR: "Fear is with all of us, and always will be. Just like that other sensation that lives with it."
BARBARA: "What's that?"
DOCTOR: "Your companion referred to it. Hope."
DOCTOR: "Aren't you a tiresome young man!"
IAN: "And you're a stubborn old man."
IAN: "I am your friend. You understand? Friend. I want to help him."
HUR: "Friend?"
IAN: "Well, we've lost our chance of getting away. Your flat must be littered with stray cats and dogs."
BARBARA: "These are human beings, Ian."
IAN: "Yes, I know."
IAN: "You're a doctor, do something."
DOCTOR: "I'm not a doctor of medicine."
IAN: "How about giving us a hand, Doctor?"
SUSAN: "He's always like this if he doesn't get his own way."
IAN: "Remember, Kal is not stronger than the whole tribe."
IAN: "The whole tribe should be watching. Everyone should know how to make fire."
ZA: "Everyone cannot be leader."
IAN: "No, that's perfectly true. But in our tribe, the fire-maker is the least important man."
ZA: "Ha! I do not believe this."
DOCTOR: "He is the least important because we can all make fire."
IAN: "Have you taken us back to our own time?"
DOCTOR: "You know I can't do that. Please be reasonable."
IAN: "What?"
BARBARA: "Please, you must take us back. You must."
DOCTOR: "You see this isn't operating properly. Or rather, the code is still a secret. When you put the right data, precise information to a second of the beginning of a journey, then we can fix a destination, but I had no data at my disposal."
BARBARA: "Are you saying that you don't know how to work this thing?"
DOCTOR: "Well of course I can't. I'm not a miracle worker."
IAN: "Just a minute. Did you try and take us back to our own time?"
DOCTOR: "Well, I got you away from that other time, didn't I?"
IAN: "That isn't what I asked you."
DOCTOR: "It's the only way I can answer you, young man."
The verdict
Overall and taken as a whole, An Unearthly Child is a bit of a mixed bag. It can be very difficult to watch at first, for a modern viewer coming into it cold without any knowledge or experience of vintage television. Yet once you have adjusted to the limitations of the material, if you approach it with the benefit of hindsight and knowledge of the development of the Doctor in the years after this point, it is a lovely story to watch, full of valuable character exploration that is truly delightful at times. The show and the character of the Doctor have both come so very far since these humble beginnings that it is easy to lose focus and objectivity. Touching base with how it all began lends a lot of perspective to the later years of the show. This is the story of how the Doctor started out on the path toward becoming the hero later generations came to know him as, and it is the beginning of the story of how the Doctor came to fall in love with mankind and began to develop the principles of compassion and fair play that he has lived by ever since. I love it.