An Unearthly Child

The first ever episode of Doctor Who is wonderful and effective. It is then followed by less impressive episodes which make up the remainder of the first serial 100,000 BC. They are not awful but are not great and they are a poor indication of what the show will be like.

Episode 1: An Unearthly Child is a truly excellent episode giving the best possible start to the series which would go on to be one of the greatest TV shows ever.

It is incredible in a way that they got it so right straight from the beginning. It is not really surprising that the remainder of the first 'serial' which covered the following three episodes shows some flaws, it was a new show, it was experimental, it was low budget and filmed on a tight schedule. It is far more surprising that the first episode is such incredibly high quality. Those following episodes whilst good were perhaps not the best story to launch with (it was actually meant to be the second story) but the opening episode is near perfect.

An Unearthly Child is very well written (it merges writing by Anthony Coburn with C.E. Webber's script for the original opening story which this replaced), very well acted, intriguing, a little bit unnerving, atmospheric and well conceived in every respect.

The episode features two teachers who are intrigued by a pupil with unusual knowledge and behaviour. They follow the girl into an old junkyard where they encounter 'The Doctor', a time-traveller with hidden origins, as played by William Hartnell. His portrayal is mysterious, rather sinister and severe. He was to soften and develop into a multi-layered interesting and endearing character over Hartnell's tenure as The Doctor but right from the start Hartnell is superb and makes a brilliant Doctor, even viewing it after all the subsequent actors who replaced him in the role. Ian and Barbara the teachers who become companions in time travel with The Doctor by accident are excellent characters as they develop over the series and even in the first episode are well acted and characterised. Susan Foreman, grand-daughter of The Doctor, is also very good in this first episode and it is sad that the character would not be developed well as the series continued. She turns into a screaming, annoying character too much of the time. In this debut though she is very interesting.

The fact that over 50 years later the same main character (after numerous changes in actor), same concept, same time machine design, same theme music (though re-arranged) and other aspects, are still working with massive success shows what a brilliant idea it all was in the first place. All Doctor Who fans should watch this first episode.

Following on from the brilliant opening episode the remainder of the '100,000 BC' story is a slight disappointment.

It is not remotely bad as it has interesting elements and is of good quality in all respects but it is somewhat ill conceived to start the series with a story set in a prehistoric world with cavemen and their squabbles over the discovery of fire.

Any criticism that the story is not correct historically can be answered in that it is not specified that the setting is actually Earth. It could, therefore, be another planet at a time of caveman civilization. Also, criticisms of how cavemen could converse in English are explained because later on in Doctor Who we are told that the Doctor's time machine - the TARDIS - allows the travellers to converse with aliens or people speaking other languages via some sort of telepathic means. However, it is somewhat less interesting and somewhat more confusing for viewers of the day than if they had an opening serial featuring alien beings or a more suitable human era such as recent past or the future.

The discovery of fire story with tribal in fighting is not really typical of the series to follow and does not afford good guest characters or sufficiently intelligent plot to get really into it. There is some very annoying screeching and grunting at times and the cavemen are somewhat lacking in interest. There is, though, a lot more intelligent scripting and interest provided with the Doctor and his companions. Their characters begin to be fleshed out and their relationships begin to develop. That aspect of the story is very good.

Overall 100,000 BC is really good but could have been an all time classic with aliens instead of cavemen to follow up the wonderful debut episode.

My Ratings: Episode 1 - 10/10, Episode 2 - 7.5, Episode 3 - 7.5, Episode 4 - 7.

Overall 8/10

I wish I could rate the opening episode "An Unearthly Child" separately from the cavemen story that it opens into. The first episode stands as an exemplary moment that launched a 5 decades and counting Sci-Fi juggernaut and has held up to the test of time. All of the mystique and wonder of The Doctor shines as much today as it did back in 1963 and makes you want to follow along on the adventure. Unfortunately, it falls flat after that with a mundane imagining of early man politics. The historical portion doesn't portray much history and the plot itself is thin.

Part 1: 10/10, absolutely mandatory watching for any fan of the show
Parts 2-4: 2/10, rather mundane and not representative of what came after

The first ever Doctor Who story starts of wonderfully, with a tightly plotted, well-acted, intriguing first episode ('An Unearthly Child'). This episode lays the groundwork for the rest of the show and, indeed, the rest of season 1. Hartnell is very good here, playing a grumpy, rude and inconsiderate 1st doctor. Personally, while he is a bit annoying here, I love the character development that follows in this season thanks to Ian and Barbara.

The first episode introduces all the core aspects of Doctor Who (the doctor, companions, his granddaughter, the TARDIS, time travel) wonderfully. Unfortunately the 3 episodes that follow ('The Cave of Skulls', 'The Forest of Fear' and 'The Firemaker') are pretty bad. These episodes are incredibly slow, moving on at what seems like 1/2 a mile per hour. The cavemen characters are boring too and overall it's just not an interesting story.

I like how the doctor considers smashing the caveman's head in with a rock, it really shows the difference between how the doctor was back then and what he evolved into, thanks to the influence of Ian and Barbara, as shown starting here. They are really the best part of this episode, The Doctor, Ian and Barbara. Susan is a bit annoying and is characterized pretty weakly throughout her whole run.

Overall, the first episode is fantastic (9/10), while the following three are very weak, but not terrible (about 3/10).

A brilliant and iconic opening to the series and Hartnell's tenure as the doctor. The first part is absolutely exceptional and I would rate it 10/10. The mystery is engaging and enticing throughout and everyone puts in a stellar performance, particularly Hartnell who is just magic to behold as soon as he walks on the scene until the end of the episode. There are some great and memorable lines in the first part, mainly in the back and fourth between the doctor and Ian when we enter the TARDIS for the first time. You really begin to appreciate Hartnell's performance when you compare it to in the original pilot and how different the character of the doctor could have been. And that cliff hanger at the end of part 1 must have had the audience of 1960 mesmerized. As for the other parts, well that's where the story starts to go downhill somewhat. There's nothing particularly wrong with these 3 parts but equally nothing really stands out either. I do like the first half of part two and I think it is on par with the previous episode but this story can feel like the characters are running around in circles, especially when they find themselves all the way back at the cave of skulls again. The plot seems to go around in circles too and can become dull and repetitive. I appreciate that the cave man era that the crew visit is a good way of demonstrating the time travel ability of the TARDIS. Not many people see the fact that modern day people, Ian and Barbara, being around savages allows us to relate to the doctor in the sense that that is how he sees our modern man. Also, the rest of this story allows for relationship building between the characters which I enjoy. Overall I would give this story an 8 / 10 as I think anything less would be an insult to the brilliance of the first part.