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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"He's a doctor, isn't he?", March 22, 2000
Ah, where the legend of Dr Who began! The first ever transmitted episode, aired on 23 November 1963, one day after the assassination of John F Kennedy. What an episode it is! Two teachers from Coal Hill school, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, are intrigued by the behaviour of one of their students, Susan Foreman (the eponymous child). They follow her to a junkyard wherein lies a police box and a fateful encounter with her mysterious grandfather. The rest is history. The first episode of this four part story is one of the best - watching it for the first time makes me feel sad I was not there to view it back in 1963. What a magical experience that would have been! Without all the baggage of hindsight and fandom's deconstructions and analyses of the show; without the knowledge it would endure on the small screen for 26 years. Watching the episode at the time would have been both a fascinating and wondrous experience - the cliffhanger of the TARDIS taking off would have left shocked faces and minds itching to know what happens next. Episodes 2-4 deal with the time travellers' experience with a tribe of cave people, who have lost the secret of fire. While some have criticised these episodes for dragging, this reviewer finds no such fault. It is one of the grittiest and dramatic Doctor Who adventures. The members of the tribe are convincing - primitive without being stupid. The situations are also tense. When the Doctor and co. are held prisoner inside the Cave of Skulls and attempt to free themselves, you are on the edge of your seat in anticipation. For viewers in 1963, without the knowledge of sonic screwdrivers or some humorous but ingenious method of escape that would be standard in ten years' time, the tension must have been unbearable! The flight through the forest provides more moments of tension, as does the TARDIS crew's attempts to escape at the end of the final episode. This story is a joy to watch all the way through. 5 stars for episode 1, 4 stars for episodes 2-4.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The dawn of a new age of television, August 4, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Doctor Who - An Unearthly Child [VHS] (VHS Tape)
I remember seeing this pilot episode of Dr. Who when it was first transmitted - in fact, seeing it twice because the first showing preceded the assassination of John Kennedy by a matter of hours, and fearing that the series might get overlooked, the BBC repeated episode 1 the following Saturday (30th November 1963) immediately prior to episode 2. The idea of a cranky time traveller captured the imagine in a way that is impossible to understand today. Dr. Who (in fact, it was meant to be "Dr. Who?" because no one knew the name of this strange old man) emerged at a time - it is so hard to avoid making a pun, however unintentionally - when most television in the U.K. was banal in the extreme (alas, most of it still is in America). Dr. Who helped to fire my young imagination, and that of many other kids growing up in England in the early 1960s. I always look back on this pilot story with great affection, and thoroughly recommend it as a true landmark in science fiction on the silver screen.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pure magic from beginning to end., May 15, 1999
By A Customer
Two school-teachers are curious about an enigmatic pupil who lives, apparently, in a junkyard. So one evening they decide to follow her home, with unexpected results. This first ever Dr Who adventure is still one of the high points. That first time-travel sequence in the first episode especially must rank as one of the great moments of the series. The TARDIS goes back to the dawn of civilization, appropriate for the dawn of what is possibly the best and most enduring sci-fi series ever made. Even today this story is a highly watchable and enjoyable piece of television.
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