The Bluffer’s Guide to Doctor Who: Ep. 1: An Unearthly Child
Begin pretending you’ve seen it all, starting with the beginning.
Welcome! There are, at the moment and depending on how you count, 862 episodes of Doctor Who. The series drifts in and out of mass appeal and it will be interesting if its diamond jubilee — celebrating 60 years — will turn it back into a massive talking point in offices and playgrounds.
If that happens: Don’t get caught out. The Bluffer’s Guide is going through each story in order charting observations. It’s not a review site: There’s enough of those around (not to say that the overall quality of an episode won’t shine through).
However, if you are watching these stories for the first time and want a perspective of what you’ve seen, seen these stories hundreds of times and want a different view, or want to pretend you’ve seen these stories, then the Bluffer’s Guide is for you.
It does assume a little basic knowledge (I’ve encountered people who thought it . The TARDIS is the police box that is bigger on the inside. It travels in Time and Space. The Doctor is the main character accompanied by other characters referred to as “companions”. The Doctor can “regenerate” basically allowing the series to recast the character and keep the show going. This also happens with production teams.
An Unearthly Child (First UK broadcast: 23rd November, 1963)
Writer: Anthony Coburn. Story Editor: David Whitaker. Director: Waris Hussein. Producer: Verity Lambert
This is… the first one.
What happens:
Exposition: Ian and Barbara — two high school teachers — have concerns about their pupil, Susan Foreman, who seems to have knowledge not of this time.
Rising action: They follow Susan to a junkyard, where they encounter the Doctor, Susan’s grandfather.
Climax: Fearing discovery, the Doctor kidnaps Ian and Barbara.
Denouement: The TARDIS lands in a prehistoric landscape. A humanoid shadow moves into view…
Things to Say:
- Despite being 15 minutes of exposition, we’re really made to see everything from Ian’s and Barbara’s POV. It’s all strange because they feel that it’s strange. We know the police box is bigger on the inside but that moment when Ian and Barbara step out of their own little private social realism drama into Doctor Who… Mesmerising.
- Hussein directs like Doctor Who is never going to be directed again, for a while. Mobile camerawork, POV shots in the flashbacks, transitions form the police box sign to the school words.
- The TARDIS is described in terms of how TV works, similar to how Willy Wonka describes sending chocolate bars (BBC got here first, Dahl publishes in 1964). This children’s logic is baked into the show.
- Susan — so alien, mysterious. Carole Ann Ford perfectly cast. It doesn’t last.
Don’t Say…
- “Ew! Black and white?!”
- “That French Revolution book is totally foreshadowing the season finale.” It’s a nice take, but it’s not true.
Hot Takes to Alienate Yourself:
- The differences between the “unaired pilot” and this episode are exaggerated, largely cosmetic, the general tone and vision are consistent. Hartnell is mischievous throughout. Evasive. His argument in the junkyard is done with a twinkle, proof that he understands how Doctor Who works
- People that think 60s TV is radio with pictures are wrong. The TARDIS leaving 1963 is a montage, designed to be watched, interpreted, felt. Genius.
Between You and Me…
An Unearthly Child is without a doubt, one of the finest half-hours of television. Part of what makes it wonderful is obviously the legacy of the show that continues from it. Another part of what makes it wonderful is just how much it works considering the crazy conditions it was made in. 1960s Doctor Who was all filmed “as-live” resulting in the production team having 75 minutes to make a 25-minute episode. (This is why Ian’s and Barbara’s flashbacks don’t include them: They are still in their part of the studio.) Compared to what else was on TV, An Unearthly Child was unique.
Further/Recommended Reading: