Customer Reviews

Doctor Who - An Unearthly Child [VHS]

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

23 November 1963. One day after the assassination of President Kennedy, something earthshattering took place across the Atlantic. At 5:15 PM, Greenwich Time, a legend was born on BBC1.

"Have you ever wondered what it's like to be travelers in the fourth dimension? Have you? To be exiles? Susan and I are cut off from our own planet without friends or protection, but one day, we shall get back. Yes, one day..."

That's what two teachers at Coal Hill School, Ian Chesterton (science) and Barbara Wright (history) discover when an extraordinary student, Susan Foreman, piques their curiosity. She is brilliant in some things, outdoing even them, but not in others--she is eight years behind Britain's decimal currency conversion, for example. Also, she flips through a book of the French Revolution Barbara loans her, peers closely at a page, and says, "But that's not right!" Ian and Barbara become curious and follow their mysterious pupil home.

They meet Susan and her grandfather, an eccentric, Edwardian-looking gentlemen wearing a long coat and Astrakhan hat, who whisk them away in a time machine shaped like a police box. Naturally, Ian and Barbara are befuddled, as the space within appears larger than the box. However, it becomes clear when Susan explains the name of the machine, the TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimensions In Space).

The travellers then land during the dawn of man and become embroiled in power politics within a primitive tribe who have lost the secret of fire with the death of the firemaker, father of the current leader Za. The problem is simple. Without meat, they go hungry. Without fire, they freeze to death. And the leader is the one who makes fire. Kal, a newcomer the Za's tribe took in, vies for the leadership. And Hur, a woman of the tribe, is to be given to whoever will become leader, although she clearly favours Za. Then there's the Old Mother, a pyrophobic ancient who believes fire will bring about evil. She is played by Eileen Way, who would later play Karela, Lady Adrasta's vizier, in the 1979 Who story, The Creature From The Pit.

One will observe that the cavemen speak English and that the travellers understand them. We learn why this is in The Masque Of Mandragora (1976), where it's a Time Lord gift that is shared by the Doctor to whoever else is part of the TARDIS crew.

Having seen the first story so late since I first got into the show, it's interesting to see Ian and Barbara's personalities. Ian is initially skeptical about time travel and the TARDIS, yet Barbara's mind is more open. And the Doctor is shown as a tetchy anti-hero, but who can blame him? After all, Ian and Barbara barged their way into the TARDIS and blew his cover.
And for those not in the know, the title of my review is the line spoken by Ian to Barbara, when the latter calls him Dr. Foreman, after the name on the junkyard where they found the TARDIS, and explains the name of the show. Funny thing is, the Time Lord was never called Doctor Who, except for a goof in The War Machines and in the Peter Cushing movies, but always simply the Doctor.

The beginning of a legend in TV history. I'll conclude with something the Doctor tells Ian, who demands proof they have landed back in time. "If you could touch the alien sand and hear the cry of strange birds and watch them wheel in another sky, would that satisfy you?" All I can say is, if the Doctor landed that TARDIS and asked me if I wanted to go places, I wouldn't wait to pack my bags. To tweak a well-known bumper sticker, I'd say "Dematerialize, Doctor. This planet [is unacceptable]!" And I wouldn't want to return!

Viewers back in 1963 would have never expected that the Doctor was actually a Time Lord from Gallifrey with the ability to regenerate. And at that point neither did the writers. All saga's must have a starting point and "Unearthly Child" is where it all began for Doctor Who. I remember watching this episode all wide eyed back when they were rerunning all of the old episodes of Doctor Who back in the mid 1980's on the local PBS station. Despite getting increasingly boring after episode one, this video is well worth getting just to see the first ever episode. I'm not a paticular fan of the William Hartnell era of Who, but I think that it's very interesting how despite that the character of the Doctor was suppose to be the hero, he had a very cunning and manipulative side to him. Manipulative to the point where he endangers his unwilling companions. This video is great for new fans out there who only know about Tom Bakers stay as the Doctor who are curious to see the beginning of what would become a great cult classic in television.

Yes, the plot is full of holes, the biggest one being, of course, that cave-men speak and understand English. But for anyone who is a fan of the series, this is a must have, if for the historical record alone. Just to be able to see the first episode of a show that ran for over 20 years. And to be able to see the first doctor, William Hartnell, and get a sense of what the character was originally intended to be is a treat. The doctor as written here is crusty and arrogant, not the cuddly, loveable and occasionally (but amusingly) smug doctor you will know if you've only seen the Tom Baker episodes. Taken on its own merits, without the historical significance, this would rate only 2 stars. It's definitely not for the first time Doctor Who viewer, at least not if you want to know why this show is such a cult classic. But it did make me want to own more Hartnell episodes and to fill in the holes in my Doctor Who viewing experience.

I write here to review to the initiated. "An Unearthly Child" is more historic in what it is than in its content. The first episode of the storyline is great, tense television, but the caveman storyline is lacking. For the initiated this is absolute essential Doctor Who, but despite the fact this is the first story, I don't believe this is a good starting point. This is a show taking its baby steps and toying with its format. Even the Doctor was originally a pretty mean and hateful guy who is more than willing to let a caveman die in one scene. It's Ian and Barbara that are the righteous ones and the heroes in these early episodes. Hmmm, maybe the character of the Doctor owes everything he would become to these two cardigan loving schoolteachers. An exciting start to the greatest series of all time.

and say that "An Unearthly Child" is not that great of a video.

As the first episode of one of the longest running tv programs in history; a program that had frequent moments of magic and delight, "An Unearthly Child" is an important piece of history.

Unfortunately, as a piece of television entertainment, it leaves much to be desired. Which is not to say that it isn't entertaining. It is. It holds the attention, and the acting is fine. Minimal special effects are needed in this episode, and the few that are present are convincing. And yes, there are a few moments of magic (The doctor solving the murder of the Old Woman, the wonder of the younger cave woman at the way the handkerchief absorbs water, and her telling the other man that Ian's name is "Friend.") But, for the most part, the writing isn't great, and the plot holes enormous.

A few examples: Susan.... Susan's character has never been a favorite, and the problems start here. She's a brilliant young woman who has, apparently, been travelling the universe with the Doctor for quite some time. Yet, at the first hint of danger, she dissolves into screaming hysterics. [Barbara does too, but not so much, and it is understandable that she and Ian would be rather shell-shocked by their experiences.] Also, she's lived in London for 5 months, and has had, she says, the best time of her life. Presumably she's made friends, visited museums and shops and restaurants. She is already quite familiar with Earth history. But she has never used money? Not very likely.

The rationale for kidnapping Ian and Barbara is pretty unconvincing. (And Susan's refusal to leave Earth, resulting in the kidnapping, is also dubious.)The Doctor could easily have kicked the teachers out, and just left, while Susan sulked in her room.

Early in the story Ian says that "I take things as they come." But later, he refuses to believe anything the Doctor says, or even what he himself sees.

The plot of the cave portion of the story is, for the most part, a tiresome cycle of getting captured, escaping, and getting captured again. Over and over. As noted above, there are few magic moments, but a little more variety in action would have been nice.

And could someone please explain to me how the travellers were able to see while trapped inside a cave with a stone pushed in front of the door and no other openings? It SHOULD have been pitch black in there.

If you want to watch a sci-fi show that zaps, shrieks and
provides a deluge of visual effects, take a U-turn.
If you want to watch a sci-fi show that flirts with humor,
dimension-hopping and imagination unbound, please rent -
sorry - BUY this video!
An ideal introduction to the series.

The Doctor has changed so much in the evolution of the show that viewers who are used to seeing the 3rd thru 8th doctors may be a little shocked when they see this. I love the William Hartnell doctor. He is a more realistic character than later incarnations. He is more self-serving. He'll help out a society on the brink of disaster if he is compelled by threat or pursuit of knowledge, otherwise it's their problem. In one scene in this story the doctor even tries to smash a man's brains in with a large stone until he is stopped by his companions. that is something no other incarnation would have even dreamt of doing as the writers became more liberal and less rational. William Hartnell is Sylvester McCoy's polar opposite. This is a good thing.