1: An Unearthly Child

Before watching

The received wisdom about this story is that the first episode is absolutely brilliant, and the other three are a bit of a bore. I will come clean and admit that I have watched this story once before, when it was shown as part of the BBC’s “Five Faces of Doctor Who” series of reruns in late 1981. Basically there was an unusually long gap between the 18^th series – Tom Baker’s last – and the 19^th series – Peter Davison’s first. The reruns series, which was the first time that the BBC had repeated stories featuring previous doctors was aimed at keeping interest in the show, getting people used to watching Doctor Who on a weekday evening, and hopefully handing over a decent audience to Peter Davison. The stories chosen were: -

An Unearthly Child

The Krotons

The Three Doctors

Carnival of Monsters

Logopolis

The Three Doctors was an obvious choice, as was the very first story, and the latest, Logopolis. Carnival of Monsters was an interesting choice, since it really wasn’t very representative of the Pertwee era as a whole. It is not set on Earth, there’s no UNIT, and no Master. Having said that there is Jo Grant, and its written by Robert Holmes, which is all to the good. Robert Holmes also wrote “The Krotons”, and this unfortunately is not even close to being as good a story as “Carnival of Monsters”. In 1981, then producer John Nathan Turner had little or not choice for his Troughton serial. Fewer Troughton stories existed complete in the BBC archives than any other Doctor, and of those that did exist, most were of more than 4 parts, while only 4 parters would fit the format of the Five Faces. If it were to happen now, the obvious choice for most people would be “The Tomb of the Cybermen”. In 1981, though, the story was missing presumed wiped. Since its recovery this story has undergone a critical reappraisal, and is no longer generally regarded as an all time classic, but it’s entertaining, and miles better than “The Krotons”.

Still, we’ll come back to those Troughton stories in the fullness of time. All I can remember at this time is that I thought that the first episode was terrific, although I was surprised by just how angry and nasty the Hartnell Doctor was. As for the actual Stone Age part of the story – nothing beside remains.

After Watching

Well, there’s no doubt that I was right that the first episode was very different from the other three. I think that what I’m coming to realise is that in this story at least, and maybe all the other stories of this first series, the idea isn’t to make the Doctor particularly likeable – in fact you’re allowed to dislike him as long as you accept his strangeness, the fact that he is different from us. Before the time that I started watching in the later part of the Troughton era, the Doctor had long since become the fixed point of normality around which the whole series was hung. You might not ever be quite sure exactly what he was going to do or say next, but you knew his essential values, and that he would always be one of the good guys. I can imagine that when the series started in November 1963, the original audience didn’t know this, and the writers and directors were quite happy to take their time letting you in on it.

Watch “An Unearthly Child” and you’ll not be left in any doubt that the heroes of the show, and the characters with whom the audience is supposed to identify are the companions, Ian and Barbara, and not the Doctor. This is interesting, since as the show develops I’d argue that while you might like the companions – you identified with the Doctor, because he was the real hero. I once read a book about the golden age of American superhero comic strips in the late 30s and the 40s, and this made the point that Bob Kane’s Batman was originally given a sidekick, Robin, so that younger readers could identify with this younger character. Pretty soon everyone else was getting in on the act, and almost every superhero had a teenage sidekick. And the whole rationale was a fallacy anyway, since younger readers as a whole identified with the hero, not the sidekick. Thus with Doctor Who – while you might really like some of the companions, it was always the Doctor himself that you were far more interested in – but not in this story. It seems like William Hartnell goes out of his way to make the Doctor unlikeable, apart from a few isolated moments. There’s just glimpses of what I think of as the real Doctor when he turns the tribe against Kal for the killing of Old Mother, and also when he apologises to the others for getting them into danger. As I say, though, although Hartnell makes the most of them moments like these are like jockey’s legs – few and far between.

As for the companions though, I was surprised by the way that Susan fades out of the story after the first episode. We’re left in no doubt that Ian and Barbara are the ones we’re rooting for, and any heroism nobility and decency is going to come from them. Susan, bless her, is excess baggage once the TARDIS lands. It’s clear already that Ian is going to be the square jawed action hero, while Barbara is going to be the crew’s conscience. I will come clean here. Over the last few years I have actually read some reviews of early Hartnell stories, and one consistent feature of these is praise for Jacqueline Hill’s acting. I can see why.

The first episode is extraordinary. You get the use of flashbacks, which is a very rare occurrence in Doctor Who, to point out to us just how unearthly Susan Foreman really is. As a teacher I find watching this episode unintentionally funny. I can’t believe that even back in the 60s trailing a pupil home to find out why they’d given a few stupid answers in class was really the done thing. If I did it today every time a pupil gave a stupid answer. . . well, let’s put it this way. If this episode was set in 2013 then in order to make it realistic you’d probably have to have Susan come out of the TARDIS in full rant, shouting “Wha’choo doin’ followin’ me home - you a pair of paedos or what?” After watching this I checked up on Wikipedia, and I was surprised to see that Carole Ann Ford was actually 23 when she made this, since she passes as 15 quite well. When I first watched this back in 1981 I didn’t notice that Susan gives us the information that she’s been attending Coal Hill School for five months. I can’t help wondering exactly what she was getting out of it. Kudos to Anthony Coburn for having Susan make the mistake that Britain used decimal currency in 1963, then correct herself saying that we hadn’t gone over to decimal yet.

What was all that business with the TARDIS console about? First of all Ian gets a mild electric shock when he touches one of the controls – I say mild because a) he didn’t die and b) recovered almost instantaneously.  Then you get the Doctor practically taunting him to use the control to open the doors, surely knowing that the clumsy oaf is going to set the TARDIS off. Also surely knowing that he can’t control the TARDIS well enough to bring them back. Irresponsible isn’t the word.

I suppose it’s inevitable that the next three episodes would be something of an anticlimax to the first. I don’t want to be horrible, but the stone age Tribe of Gum with whom they become involved – the Tribe of Dirty Faces but Clean Furs – are, well, a little cardboard, to be honest. I doubt that I’m the first person to wonder why it is that they can speak perfect English, but have yet to crack polysyllabic names, being stuck with ones like Kal and Za. Basically, it’s all about fire. Za’s father had the stupidity to die before teaching him the secret of making fire. He sounds like a right pillock. The trouble all stems from the fact that would-be tribe leader Kal watches as the Doctor comes out of the TARDIS, and lights up his pipe for a crafty smoke. D’you know, I don’t know what shocked me most, the fact that the Doctor seriously considered killing the comatose Za in episode 3, or the fact that he’s a smoker. Probably the latter. The Doctor is knocked out, dragged unconscious in front of the tribe, and ordered to make fire appear from his fingertips.

Ian, Barbara and Susan stage an unsuccessful rescue operation, and so the three of them and the Doctor are sent to spend the night in the Cave of Skulls before being sacrificed to Orb – presumably the Sun. At this stage the Doctor apologises for getting them into this mess. Ah – thought I – this is where he starts to actually become The Doctor as we know him. Think again. An old woman, who is imaginatively called Old Mother, frees them on the understanding that they will not make fire, as she is highly suspicious of this new fangled innovation. They head back for the TARDIS, and lo and behold, it is the Doctor who buggers up their escape. The grumpy old git insists they keep stopping for a rest, ensuring that they get caught by Za. Being as it’s nighttime, Za is attacked and savaged by a big cat, and it’s Barbara who insists they treat him. He has terrible claw wounds across his chest, but never fear, Barbara has Ian’s wet hankie, so all will be well. This is the point where Ian just prevents the Doctor from knocking his brains out with a rock.

Back with the tribe, the Doctor gets to actually be the Doctor for a few moments, enough to turn the whole tribe on Kal. This, and the fact that they saved his life cuts little ice with Za who decides that rules is rules and so they can go back into the Cave of Skulls – so called because it’s  a cave and it’s full of skulls. I wonder if he’s the ancestor of all OFSTED Inspectors? Eventually they escape and hot foot it back to the TARDIS being followed by angry stone throwing natives.

OK, it’s easy to mock. This is not by any means a great Doctor Who story, and the show would do similar things with ‘savage’ people a lot better in time to come. For all that, though, it’s done the job, and you can actually see one of the series’ key values – namely – what progress the travelers actually make is made through showing kindness and decency, and not through being vicious and aggressive when other living creatures are at their mercy.

Here’s an interesting thing too. Even the last episode actually had a cliffhanger. For as long as I can remember, the last part of a story would end with the Doctor and companion(s) either accepting grateful thanks and explaining that they can’t stay, or just quietly slipping away. Occasionally there might be a hint that the villain/monster could return on some unspecified future occasions – I think of The Deadly Assassin – but that would be as far as it goes. Here, though, we have the TARDIS landing on an alien world – which we know is Skaro, but the original audience didn’t. Susan checks the radiation gauge, which is reading a safe level. Thus satisfied they open the doors ready to go and explore, and as the familiar strains of the theme music begin, the needle of the gauge rises into the danger level, and the danger light comes on. It’s a very clever and rather subtle cliffhanger.

What Have We Learned?

What HAVEN’T we learned? For the 1963 viewer everything is a revelation. To try to sum up some of the more important things: -

·         * Susan and the Doctor are categorically not human ( it’ll be years before we find out what they actually are, though).

·        * Susan invented the acronym TARDIS – and from the start it stands for Time And Relative DIMENSION (no plural yet) In Space.

·         * The Doctor is a grumpy and unsympathetic old git.

·         * He and Susan have been in London for 5 months. In the first episode he tells her about finding an acceptable replacement for a filament, and it is clear he has been carrying out repairs.

·        *  The Doctor fully expected that the TARDIS would have changed shape when they landed – therefore the chameleon circuit has malfunctioned during this trip.

·       *   At this stage of the game there is no imperative to change things. The main device driving the plot is getting the 4 travellers safely back to the TARDIS.

·         * The Doctor cannot control the TARDIS’ destination without a huge amount of data in the first place.