An Unearthly Child
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- "100,000 BC" redirects here. For , see Middle Paleolithic.
Synopsis
Susan Foreman looks like an ordinary 15-year-old girl, but seems to possess scientific knowledge far beyond her years. When schoolteachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright try to solve the mystery of this unearthly child, they find that a police box in a junkyard holds the secrets of time and space...Plot
Schoolteachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright become concerned about one of their pupils, Susan Foreman. She seems to have a very alien outlook on 1963 England and though her knowledge of some issues is very advanced, she has other curious gaps in her basic understanding or extends concepts beyond their normal parameters. Following her home, Ian and Barbara discover that she appears to live in a junkyard with her grandfather. In fact, Susan and her grandfather, the Doctor, are aliens, who travel through time and space in the TARDIS, a time machine disguised as a police box that is much larger on the inside than it is on the outside. When Ian and Barbara stumble into the TARDIS, the Doctor, who appears to be a wanderer and a fugitive, decides that it is too dangerous to remain in 1963 London and so dematerialises the TARDIS with himself, Susan and the two schoolteachers on board.
The four travel to back to the Stone Age as very uneasy companions, Ian and Barbara blaming the Doctor for having kidnapped them from contemporary society. They also have difficulty believing they have actually travelled in time, but the remoteness of their situation and the vileness of the civilisation they encounter convinces them that they have indeed been taken far back into the past. The Doctor is concerned too because the exterior of the TARDIS does not seem to have changed when the ship rematerialised – Susan explains that the ship is supposed to change its appearance to blend in with its surrounding, but for some reason it has remained in the shape of a police box.
They soon become involved in the power struggles of a stone age tribe (known in an early working title of the serial as the Tribe of Gum), where leader Za is being mocked for not being able to produce fire, which his father, the previous leader, was able to do. Kal, an interloper from another tribe, only heightens the tension when he offers himself as an alternative leader who could make fire. His evidence is the Doctor, whom he saw trying to light his pipe, but the old man has dropped his matches and is unable to help. As a punishment the four time travellers are incarcerated in the hideous Cave of Skulls, containing remnants of executed people and sacrifices, and promised a similar fate for refusing to co-operate. They are freed by Old Mother, the naïve widow of the last tribal leader, who believes that they could make fire but does not want them to do so, as she considers it a bad omen. The four travellers then flee into a paleolithic forest pursued by Za and his partner Hur.
When Za and Hur catch up with them the tribal leader is attacked by a wild beast and seriously injured. The Doctor is so desperate to leave that he contemplates killing the caveman, but is stopped by Ian. They build a makeshift stretcher to help convey Za back to the tribal settlement, hoping by doing so to prove their good intentions. However, in their absence Kal has killed Old Mother and blamed it on Za. The four travellers are returned to the Cave of Skulls, this time with Old Mother’s body for company, but Za recovers and offers them safety. In return, Ian is eventually able to make fire for Za using friction for a spark. Za has further confirmed the leadership of the tribe by killing the usurper Kal and, with fire at his disposal, is undisputed leader. In this security he decrees that the travellers will merge with his tribe rather than leave and orders them confined to the Cave indefinitely.
Susan eventually devises a plan to scare and distract the tribespeople enough to allow them to flee. Four skulls are placed on top of burning torches, and this ghoulish vision is enough to allow them to escape back into the forest. This time the four travellers make it back inside the TARDIS before the tribe can capture them and, once they are ensconced, the ship dematerialises once more.
Cast
- Dr. Who — William Hartnell
- Ian Chesterton — William Russell
- Barbara Wright — Jacqueline Hill
- Susan Foreman — Carole Ann Ford
- Za — Derek Newark
- Hur — Alethea Charlton
- Old Mother — Eileen Way
- Kal — Jeremy Young
- Horg — Howard Lang
Pilot episode
The first episode, "An Unearthly Child", was originally recorded a month before full recording on the series began. However, the initial recording was bedevilled with technical problems and errors made during the performance. A particular problem occurred with the doors leading into the TARDIS control room which would not close properly, instead randomly opening and closing through the early part of the scene. Two versions of the scene set in the TARDIS were recorded, along with an aborted first attempt to start the second version.
Sydney Newman, after viewing the episode, met producer Verity Lambert and director Waris Hussein. He indicated the many faults he found with the pilot and ordered that it be mounted again; a consequence of this was the delay of the show's planned November 16, 1963 premiere date. This initial episode is now known as the unaired "pilot episode", although it was never intended as such, since the practice of producing pilot episodes did not exist in Britain in the 1960s.
During the weeks between the two tapings, changes were made to costuming, effects, performances, and the script (which had originally featured a more callous and threatening Doctor, and Susan doing strange things like flicking ink blots onto paper). Changes made before the final version was filmed include a thunderclap sound effect being deleted from the opening theme music; Susan's dress being changed to make her look more like a schoolgirl than the original costume which made her appear more alien and sensual; the Doctor's costume being changed from a normal suit and tie to his familiar, Edwardian clothing; a reference to the Doctor and Susan being from the 49th Century being replaced by them being from "another time, another world"; the TARDIS door being repaired so that it closed properly; and a refinement of the TARDIS sound effect.
The original episode was not broadcast until August 26, 1991 when the BBC aired a version that edited together the first half of the taping with one of the two completed second halves (as it happened, the version chosen was the one in which the TARDIS doors would not close). This was later released on the VHS compilation The Hartnell Years. In late 2005, the Doctor Who: The Beginning DVD set (released in North America in March 2006) contained two versions of the episode: an unedited studio recording including all takes of the second part of the show, and a newly created version of the pilot that uses the best footage from the original recording, with additional editing and digital adjustments to remove blown lines, technical problems, and reduce studio noise. Like the other episodes from this serial, both versions of the "pilot" were remastered for DVD release, using VidFIRE technology that simulated the original video look of the 1963 production.
Production
Coburn's script for the very first episode was heavily based on a draft originally prepared by BBC staff writer C.E. Webber, who had greatly contributed to the initial formatting of the programme and had been present at many of the key development meetings. However, Head of Serials Donald Wilson felt that Webber was incapable of 'writing down' to the level required for Doctor Who, and none of his scripts ever made it to production. Nevertheless, he received a co-writer's credit for An Unearthly Child on internal BBC documentation, although not on-screen.The first incidental music score was provided for this story by Norman Kay.
Alternative titles
As was usual at the beginning of the series' history, no overall title appeared on-screen, and each episode has its own title. 100,000 BC is the title that was used by the production team at the time of transmission. However, due to the absence of an overall onscreen title for the four episode storyline, reference works have used various different titles, some originating from the BBC production office and others seemingly invented by fans.Titles used for the story include, in rough chronological order:
- The Tribe of Gum - An early working title which was used up until the beginning of recording. It survived in a few documents derived from earlier paperwork, such as the payments for overseas sales, and started appearing again in reference works in the late 1970s and 1980s, including being used when the teleplay was published by Titan Books.
- 100,000 BC - The first known use is a publicity release dating from when the story was being recorded and this title is used on subsequent lists and publicity releases.
- The Paleolithic Age - Used by producer Verity Lambert in a letter to a viewer in late 1964.
- The Stone Age - Used on the biography listing on a publicity release for a later story in late 1965.
- An Unearthly Child (or variants thereof) - The title of the first episode, used by the 1973 Radio Times Tenth Anniversary Special and subsequently by the 1976 edition of The Making of Doctor Who, with much subsequent commercial use including the novelisation, VHS and DVD releases of the story.
- The Cavemen - A quick description of the story material used in a 1974 fan listing due to the seeming lack of any other title.
Which title should be used is a subject that has generated deep controversy amongst fans of the series. Researchers such as David J. Howe argue that since 100,000 BC was used by the production team at the time of transmission, it is the most accurate title. However, the BBC tends to market the story as An Unearthly Child. Consequently, this become the most common title used for the story in recent years (see also Doctor Who story title controversy).
Broadcast and releases
The first episode was transmitted the day after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. There is a myth that the transmission was delayed by ten minutes due to extended news coverage, in fact it went out just eighty seconds late. However, due to the fact that it was felt that the coverage of the events of the assassination as well as a series of power blackouts across the country may have caused too many viewers to miss this introduction to a new series it was broadcast again on November 30, just before the broadcast of episode two. This repeat was not broadcast in Northern Ireland.This story represented the First Doctor in "The Five Faces of Doctor Who" on BBC2 in 1981.
This story was originally released on VHS in 1990. It was rereleased and remastered in 2000. It was subsequently released with The Daleks and The Edge of Destruction in the DVD box set "The Beginning".
In print
Terrance Dicks wrote the Target Books novelisation of this story, initially published as Doctor Who and an Unearthly Child in October 1981. A French language version of the novelisation with the title "Docteur Who entre en scène" (Doctor Who enters the scene) was published in 1987. A 1990 German edition published by Goldmann was one of six Doctor Who novels from that publisher, this being the only not involving the Daleks. The German title was "Doctor Who und das Kind von den Sternen" (Doctor Who and the Child of the Stars).The First Doctor's appearance in the BBC Books Eighth Doctor Adventures novel The Eight Doctors, also by Terrance Dicks, occurs during this story.
Trivia
- The four episodes of the serial had individual titles. They were, respectively, "An Unearthly Child", "The Cave of Skulls", "The Forest of Fear" and "The Firemaker".
- In many ways, the serial consists of two stories; there is a strong discontinuity between the first episode, introducing the characters and establishing the premise of the series, and the three episodes set in the paleolithic. The first episode, in particular, is often seen as a classic of television science fiction (though the contemporary critical reaction was somewhat less positive).
- The second episode mentions the malfunction of the ship's ability to change its appearance to blend in with the background. Later stories would identify this as the chameleon circuit.
- When Ian calls the Doctor "Dr Foreman" in the second episode of this story, he gets the reply "Eh, Doctor who? What's he talking about?" Although at this stage the question is primarily presented to make a plot point (the Doctor's name is not Foreman), it is the first usage of the series' title in dialogue. The question would later be asked for humorous effect, a joke which has been repeated several times in the series.
- In the second part of this story, the Doctor is seen to smoke a pipe for the first, and last, time.
- At one point, Ian stops the Doctor from killing a caveman with a rock. While the Doctor has killed since in self-defence or as a last resort, the incongruity of the character (which was still developing) attempting to commit cold-blooded murder may shock fans who were introduced to the series through later Doctors. This scene is revisited in the Eighth Doctor Adventures novel The Eight Doctors, where the Eighth Doctor is the one who persuades the First Doctor not to kill the caveman. Like all spin-off media, its canonicity in relation to the television series is unclear.
- In the first episode, Susan is scolded for not knowing how many shillings are in a pound; she replies that she had forgotten that decimalisation of British currency "hasn't started yet." Discussions on decimalisation of British currency dated back to the 19th century. The Halsbury Committee on the Inquiry on Decimal Currency was set up in 1961 and presented its report in 1963, although adoption of its recommendations was not announced until 1966 and not implemented until 1971 on Decimal Day. Decimalisation of British currency did not change the number of shillings in a pound, which remained at 20.
References
External links
- [An Unearthly Child episode guide on the BBC website]
- [100,000 BC] at [Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)]
- [100,000 BC] at the [Doctor Who Reference Guide]
- [Five-Minute An Unearthly Child] — Parody version
Reviews
- [ }] reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
- [An Unearthly Child] reviews at [The Doctor Who Ratings Guide]
- [An Unearthly Child (original pilot)] reviews at [The Doctor Who Ratings Guide]
- [The Whoniverse's review on An Unearthly Child]
Target novelisation
- [ }] reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
- [On Target — Doctor Who and An Unearthly Child]
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