An Unearthly Child - The First Review
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| The First Doctor, played by the late, great, William Hartnell. |
Written by Anthony Coburn.
Directed by Waris Hussein.
At Coal Hill School, teachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright have concerns about pupil Susan Foreman, who has an alien outlook on England. When the teachers visit her address to investigate, they encounter a police box and hear Susan's voice inside. An old man arrives, but refuses to let the teachers inside the police box. They force their way inside to find Susan in a futuristic control room that is larger than the police box exterior. Susan explains that the object is a time and space machine called the TARDIS and the old man is her grandfather.
The very first Doctor Who story is something very special. Unlike a lot of television programmes that take a little time to get going, Doctor Who hits the ground running with a confident and stylish first story that, while not being the greatest thing ever (going off the evidence of parts 2-4), manages to establish Doctor Who as one of the greatest TV programmes ever. The first episode, especially, is a masterful piece of suspenseful storytelling, with a slow burning mystery that stratospherically explodes the moment Barbara and Ian step into the TARDIS.
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| Team TARDIS - 1963 style! |
In many ways, for a show as big as Doctor Who, you expect it to start out with more of a bang. However, this small, contained opening is exactly the right way to open, as you slowly get drawn into the world of the show. It starts with a very ordinary discussion about a troubled pupil, so, if you'd gone into Doctor Who knowing it was a sci-fi show, you may have been a little surprised. However, soon, we start to realise there's something more to this situation. That Susan isn't just a troubled teen who Ian and Barbara are concerned about. The episode builds up a wonderful sense of intrigue and mystery around Susan, so, like the two teachers, you also want to find out what is going on. That's "An Unearthly Child's" great strength: it pulls the audience into the mystery as well. Like Ian and Barbara, you won't stop watching until you are satisfied with the answers, even if you, like I suspect the majority of people who've watched this episode, know what's coming next. I would love to be able to go back in time, and experience this episode 'live', as it were, because the reveal of the TARDIS for the first time has to be one of the most iconic moments in television history, never mind just the history of the show. The episode builds towards it so subtly that, when it comes, it's almost comes out of nowhere. However, it just works. I mean, the imagination behind this show is staggering, because you have to remember that, back in 1963, there were people that found these ideas so ludicrous, so silly, that they instantly dismissed them. Yet, visionaries like Sidney Newman and Verity Lambert didn't, and writer Anthony Coburn fleshed them out into something that stands today as one of the most ground-breaking, progressive and long-lasting pillars of television. And, in the character of the Doctor, we have one of television's longest lasting heroes. Yes, it is still early days for the character. He's grumpy, irritable, and sometimes even quite callous. Yet, even at such an early stage, there are the roots of the character we know and love today, just beginning to form. You can see his great intellect, and his great respect for cultures other than his own. He is exactly the kind of hero we don't see enough of, and, through his and her different faces, has evolved across time. And yet, in the beginning, the Doctor was very much a figure of mystery. In these first three stories certainly (this, "The Daleks and "The Edge of Destruction"), the Doctor doesn't really come across as particularly likable, and, in some ways, recklessly stubborn. The moment he stands over the injured Za and picks up a rock will shock a lot of modern viewers, especially those who are used to the modern series and the Doctor's clear 'no weapons' policy. However, in many ways, its a defining moment for the Doctor, especially his stumbling in front of Ian when he's called out over it. It's when the Doctor realises that violence won't get him anywhere, and will only lead to more pointless violence. This is reinforced by the three episodes set in the Stone Age, which, while seeming like filler and a lesser successor to the first part, actually help to reinforce this message.
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| Watched over by Barbara (Jacqueline Hill) and Ian (William Russell), Susan (Carole Ann Ford) poses an unusual mystery for the two teachers... |
The first TARDIS team has to be one of the most well-developed and interesting in the show's history, and this stretches beyond the Doctor, and into the companions as well. Despite being called Doctor Who, for the first two years of the show, under producer Verity Lambert, Doctor Who was an ensemble piece, in a way it hasn't really been since. Each of the three companions - Susan, Ian and Barbara - fill a distinct role in the TARDIS, and that role is key to the stories they tell in those early days. All four of them have a wonderful chemistry together, both as characters and actors, and they come together well as a cohesive unit. Particularly between Ian and Barbara, the dynamic between actors William Russell and Jacqueline Hill is so palpably strong, and this makes the early scenes such a delight. I don't think we'd have been half as invested in the early years of Doctor Who were it not for the characters of Ian and Barbara, who are very much the viewer's eyes and ears in these adventures. They have such a natural, easy chemistry, right from the first scene, that it just makes the whole thing come to life. Susan, meanwhile, may stand apart from the group a little bit, but Carole Ann Ford does a wonderful job of bringing Susan to life. In comparison to the pilot episode, its much easier to get a handle on Susan than in that version, and much the same with the Doctor. So much has been written about William Hartnell, and his legacy on Doctor Who, that its hard to really come up with anything original to say about him and his performance. But, suffice to say, without William Hartnell, Doctor Who simply wouldn't exist today. His performance is so magical, so wonderful, that even when he's being grumpy, you're actually drawn to him, and you like him. His gently condescending nature towards Ian might ultimately be derisive, but there's a twinkle in his eye as he's doing it. Even at this early stage, Hartnell makes the Doctor likable, in a way, despite his curmudgeonly nature, and you can actually get behind his character, even if you aren't on board with a lot of his actions. The actors are wonderful together, and, despite all the obstacles in terms of belivability and production, they totally buy into this world. It's still amazing to watch, nearly 60 years later, and the acting still seems so fresh and current, somehow. It all just adds to the magic of "An Unearthly Child" as a piece of television, and it sets up the beginning of Doctor Who so wonderfully and enhances the production tenfold.
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| Ian and Barbara start picking out items to sell on their Antique Road Trip. But they find that I.M. Foreman's yard doesn't have much to offer. |
As I mentioned before, the three episodes that make up the Doctor and company's trip back to 100,000 BC isn't the most exciting story in the world, but, honestly, there's far worse Doctor Who out there. I think some people over-egg how bad these episodes are sometimes, because, honestly, they aren't terrible. There's enough danger for the TARDIS travellers in them to be worthwhile, and there's a grit and brutality to them that is rare in Doctor Who, especially Doctor Who of the early 60's. You start to wonder at points whether this show really is aimed at kids, as some of the fight sequences are incredibly brutal, and the image of a cave full of skulls is hauntingly disturbing. Of course, some of the dialogue struggles with the cavemen's speech, which is pretty basic, except when Coburn has to get across sections of the plot. Then it sounds like the cavemen have been swallowing at least a dictionary, as they momentarily gain the power to convey huge sections of dialogue as if they were child's play. It does create a disconnect, therefore, between certain moments that, I feel, doesn't quite work. At least the acting across the board is pretty good, even if the parts are rather stilted. The guest actors take it seriously, and at least try to buy into this world, even if they don't completely convince due to the script. In production terms, however, this story has little problem in convincing you of this world. Director Waris Hussain's efforts bring the script to life, both in the worlds of 1963 and 100,000 BC, and, of course, the TARDIS. Despite the incredibly primitive nature of Doctor Who's production in the 1960's, the production team still manage to make the finished product look incredibly confident, even if, at times, its a little frayed around the edges. It does look incredibly primitive in comparison to the show from even the end of Patrick Troughton's time on the programme, but the storytelling does carry you through, and it is clear that there's plenty of enthusiasm and passion for the project, both in front of and behind the cameras. Without it, I'm honestly not sure that the story on its own terms would carry anyone but the most ardent fan through it. As it is, though, most will still find something to enjoy in this.
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| Barbara and Ian watch the Doctor enter Totter's Lane, with no idea what awaits them in the mysteriously humming police box... |
Overall, then, the first ever Doctor Who story has a seminal legacy that cannot be overstated. Despite a handful of issues that prevent this from entering the upper echelons of Doctor Who story rankings, "An Unearthly Child" is still an amazingly enjoyable story that introduces the world to the Doctor and the TARDIS with style, sophistication and a wonderful sense of adventure. The first episode is definitely a classic series high, and, although the later three episodes can't quite follow that, the story remains an absolute must watch. The first ever Doctor Who story changed the landscape of television forever, and its not hard to see how and why. Starting a legacy that has lasted nearly 60 years, this is one story that is well worth its legacy and its place in the pantheon of Doctor Who adventures.
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