Episode 1: An Unearthly Child

 

The first in a new series, looking at each individual episode of Doctor Who, in-depth and in sequence.

SEASON 1.

Producer: Verity Lambert

Story Editor: David Whitaker

Regular Cast: William Hartnell (the Doctor), William Russell (Ian Chesterton), Jacqueline Hill (Barbara Wright), Carole Ann Ford (Susan).

Synopsis:

Susan Foreman, 15, is a pupil at Coal Hill School in the Shoreditch district of East London. Two of her teachers voice concerns about her to each other one evening after class. History teacher Barbara Wright has found her to have expert knowledge in some subjects, and yet she does not know relatively simple things like currency. Her concern caused her to go to Susan's home one evening recently to discuss the pupil with her guardian - her grandfather, who is supposed to be a doctor. On arriving at the address on her school record, Barbara found only a junkyard at 76 Totter's Lane. Ian Chesterton, the science teacher, has also found Susan to be brilliant at some subjects and lacking in others. 

He agrees to accompany Barbara that evening - following Susan to see where she goes to. The girl declines a lift, preferring to walk home. Barbara lends her a hefty tome about the French Revolution, and they are surprised to hear her claim that she will have finished it by the following morning.

Later, they are sitting in Ian's car when they see Susan arrive at the junkyard gates, then slip inside. They follow a minute or two later but find the yard deserted. There is no way out other than the gates. Ian is shocked to find a Police Public Call Box in the yard - one which seems to be giving off a faint vibration as though electrified.

An old man arrives soon after, and they hear Susan's voice call to him from within the Police Box. The old man is suspicious and defensive, refusing to cooperate with the teachers, who suspect he has abducted their pupil. The Police Box doors open and they hear Susan call out once more. The two teachers push their way inside, but find themselves in a huge, futuristic, brightly lit space.

The old man is revealed to be Susan's grandfather, the Doctor. They live here in this ship, which Susan says is called TARDIS - an acronym for Time And Relative Dimension In Space. It travels through space and time. Ian refuses to accept any of this, whilst Barbara is more accepting, though she thinks the Doctor and Susan delusional. The Doctor argues with Susan about how he was sure her joining the school would lead to a situation like this. He insists they they leave at once, to protect their secret from becoming public knowledge. He doesn't want to let the teachers go, and so activates the controls on the ship's central console.

Ian and Barbara collapse from the effects of the ship taking off. 

A few minutes later, the Police Box is sitting in a barren landscape, and the shadow of a figure stretches across the ground towards it...

Next Episode: The Cave of Skulls.

Data: 

Written by: Anthony Coburn. 

Recorded: Friday 18th October 1963 - Lime Grove Studio D

First broadcast: 5.15pm Saturday 23rd November 1963

Ratings: 4.4 million. AI 63.

Designer: Barry Newbery

Director: Waris Hussein.

Critique:

Had they not known that Doctor Who was going to be a Science-Fiction show, what might viewers have thought of this opening episode?

It begins at night, on a foggy urban street, with a police constable on his rounds - checking that premises are properly locked up. At first glance it looks like it's going to be a crime show, something akin to Z-Cars or Dixon of Dock Green. However, we next find ourselves in a school - a modern comprehensive - in the company of a couple of teachers. They are discussing a problematic pupil, so it looks like it's going to be a serious drama about child neglect and social services.

What we are hearing from the characters, though, is that there is a mystery which needs to be solved. How can an apparently normal 15 year old girl know so much science, yet not realise that there isn't a decimal system? Why has she apparently given a false address, and who is this grandfather she lives with?

When the old man turns up at the junkyard, it still looks like it might be a crime drama, as he may have kidnapped Susan.

Everything changes at the mid point of the episode, as Barbara pushes her way through the Police Box doors, and we enter the TARDIS. It's only now that the episode is categorically dealing with Science-Fiction territory. The TARDIS is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside, and it is said to be able to travel in space and time. The episode concludes with us seeing it sitting in a totally different environment. The Police Box could be anywhere / anytime - and who or what is the figure watching it?

An Unearthly Child has a great deal to do in its 23 minutes and 10 seconds. Many pilots and debut episodes are often extended ones, or multi-parters, in order to introduce all the characters and concepts. This episode does everything needed in less than half an hour. 

First we learn about Susan, as viewed by her teachers - and through this we find out about them. We then get to meet Susan. This discussion continues away from the school and into Ian's car, and then into the junkyard. The TARDIS is introduced bit by bit - first the sighting of the Police Box in the yard in the opening seconds, and then again when Ian and Barbara come across it, and it seems to be "alive" as Ian terms it.

The Doctor is last to be introduced. The programme might be named after him, but at this stage it is William Russell's Ian who is likely to be the hero of this show. He was best known for playing the lead in The Adventures of Sir Lancelot at this time. The Doctor isn't terribly likeable to begin with, and seems to be up to no good.

The last thing to be introduced is the TARDIS proper - as we get to see what's inside it, and learn of its capabilities. 

First the characters, and then the scenario, are all set up in this first episode.

The Doctor and Susan are aliens, living in a disguised space / time ship in London, 1963, whilst the Doctor carries out some repairs - and Susan has enrolled at Coal Hill School (for the last 5 months) to get to experience normal life on Earth. The Doctor is so desperate to protect his secret that he is prepared to abduct the two teachers and prevent them from telling the authorities about the TARDIS.

All of the performances are spot-on, especially Russell and Hill who have to carry the first half of the episode. Ford is suitably other-worldly, whilst Hartnell plays the Doctor as an ill-tempered old man - but one who convinces that he is the alien who he claims to be.

A spaceship, disguised as a Police Box, which can travel in time, is a genius idea. The range of potential adventures is limitless. This series could run for decades...

Trivia:

• The episode was first attempted as a pilot, recorded on Friday 27th October, 1963. It was always intended that the series would get a pilot. If it went well, it would be broadcast - otherwise it would be re-recorded.
• The opening titles were filmed in August, and the shot of the TARDIS in the desert landscape on 19th September 1963 at Ealing Film Studios.
• The Ealing film work was handled by Waris Hussein's assistant - future director Douglas Camfield, who had more film experience.
• In the Pilot Susan said that she and her grandfather specifically came from the 49th Century. Instead of borrowing the French Revolution book, in which she spots an error straight away, she drew a strange geometric pattern.
• Other changes were the softening of the Doctor's character, and making Susan a little less unearthly.
• The designer on the pilot was Peter Brachacki, Unhappy on the show anyway, he was replaced when he fell ill, with Barry Newbery replicating his designs.
• Due to the impact of the assassination of President John F Kennedy on the eve of the first broadcast, the episode was repeated on Saturday 30th November at 5.05pm - gaining a higher rating of 6 million viewers.
• Early drafts of the series' opening instalment included one titled "Nothing at the End of the Lane", written by CE Webber. It would have led into a story in which the Doctor and the others would have been shrunk to less than an inch tall, and encountered threats in Ian's science lab at the school.
• Susan was originally going to be a normal schoolgirl named Biddy (Bridget). She would have a crush on the Ian character (then called Cliff, after pop star Cliff Richard). She then became an alien princess called Findooclare - she and the Doctor fleeing from enemies called the Paladin who had invaded their planet. It was the series' originator, Sydney Newman, who insisted that she be more of an ordinary character, for audience identification. Writer Anthony Coburn made her the Doctor's granddaughter, as he was concerned about a young girl travelling unchaperoned with an older man. Newman disagreed with this.
• Two future companions were potentials to play Susan - Anneke Wills (Polly) and Jackie Lane (Dodo). The latter did not audition as she did not want to be tied to a long-running series at this time.
• For the roles of the Doctor, Barbara and Susan, several artists were considered. William Russell was the only actor ever considered for the role of Ian.
• As well as being called Cliff, Ian was at one point going to be the school's headmaster, named CE Chesterton (Coburn being a big GK Chesterton fan).
• Barbara's original name was Lola McGovern.
• The TARDIS was at one point going to be invisible, or to be a different object in every story. Coburn made it a Police Box.
• The TARDIS was almost the CADESAE - Change And Dimensional Electronic Selector And Extender.
• In this episode and no other, the TARDIS take-off causes the companions to collapse, and even the Doctor and Susan seem unsettled by it.
• The schoolboy in the opening corridor scene appears to be impersonating Kenneth Williams. He was one of the stars of Beyond Our Ken, which got the Radio Times cover for the week this episode debuted. It had been thought that Doctor Who would get the cover, but the BBC top brass got cold feet about the programme's chances of success. 
• For the first two and a half seasons, Doctor Who stories did not always have an agreed overall title. The most common title for the four part story of which this is the first part is also An Unearthly Child. Other titles include "100,000 BC", "The Cavemen" and "The Tribe of Gum".