Friday 2 March 2012

An Exciting Guide to AN UNEARTHLY CHILD


                In my last blog post, I introduced my “Exciting Guide to Doctor Who”, begun in 1998, consisting of watching and commenting on all of televised Doctor Who, in order. Here, as advertised, is the very first instalment – finally published online after 13 and a half years! Be aware – I ignored all “accepted wisdom” and just went with what’s actually seen and said on screen – so some of this is a little out of left field!

Story One
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Story Code
A

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Spoiler Alert!  Anyone who doesn’t want the mystery of the first episode spoiled for them should probably not read on.
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Title
An Unearthly Child
The above is the title of the first episode, and of the novelisation by Terrance Dicks.  It is also inaccurately known as The Tribe Of Gum, and rather more accurately as 100,000 BC.  This is a silly title, however, and I have chosen the title I grew up with and prefer.

“Friends” Title
The One With The Cavemen
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Episode Titles
An Unearthly Child
The Cave Of Skulls
The Forest Of Fear
The Firemaker

Current availability
All 4 episodes exist.

Source
BBC Video release.
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Date
1963.
Ian tells us that episode one takes place in London in the year 1963.
33,000 BC
No date is given for the remaining three episodes - the yearometer reading of “zero” is obviously incorrect.  I don’t know enough about the ascent of man to know if the year of the alternative title “100,000 BC” could be accurate, but at any rate this is never given on-screen.  Out of interest, various publications have set the date for this story at anywhere from 500,000 BC to 30,000 BC.  DWM issue 174 suggests a date of 50,000 BC, but doesn’t give any justification.  A History Of The Universe claims that 33,000 BC (as previously named in The Making Of Doctor Who) is “more historically accurate”, and who am I to argue with someone who’s clearly done their research?  At any rate, this is all academic because, as I said, no date is given on screen.  And all of this assumes, of course, that episodes two to four take place on Earth:  this is never explicitly stated.
(2012: Back then, I didn’t have Wikipedia to check! I just have, and apparently, use of fire probably became widespread in around...100,000 BC. Well, whaddaya know.)

Genre
Historical / Primitive Culture

Plot synopsis
1.            Two schoolteachers, Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton, follow one of their pupils, who they know as Susan Foreman, to her house out of curiosity.  They meet her grandfather, a Doctor, in the junkyard that occupies Susan’s address, and hear her voice coming from a police telephone box.  In a struggle, they fall through the box’s door to find themselves in the impossibly large control room to a spaceship that can cross the boundaries of space and time.  The Doctor forces them to leave 1963 with him, and the Ship lands on a desert plain, with someone approaching.
2.            The Ship has apparently landed on prehistoric Earth.  A tribe of cavemen look to their potential leader, Za, to give them fire.  A stranger to the tribe, Kal, captures the Doctor, believing he can make fire to make him, Kal, leader instead.  Susan, Ian and Barbara arrive to rescue the Doctor, who has lost his matches so cannot make fire.  They are all sent to the Cave of Skulls.
3.            Za’s mother, who believes fire will bring ruin to the tribe, frees the time travellers.  Za and his girl Hur give chase to get the secret.  Za is wounded by an animal, and the travellers stop to help him.  Kal kills the old woman and brings the tribe to recapture the party.
4.            Back at the cave, the Doctor discredits Kal by proving he killed the old woman.  The travellers are sent back to the Cave of Skulls, where they make fire for Za.  Kal returns, and is killed fighting with Za, who uses the fire to make himself leader.  The travellers set up skulls with fire inside them as a diversion to allow themselves to escape.  The Ship takes off and soon lands in what appears to be a white forest with high radiation levels.

Pitch
Like One Million Years B.C. but without the Ray Harryhausen monsters.

The Money Shot
Barbara stumbles into the police box and stops in astonishment when an enormous gleaming control room is revealed.  (Episode 1)

The Doctor and his kind
• The Doctor and Susan claim to be exiles, cut off from their own planet.  The Doctor believes they will return one day.
• Susan calls the Doctor “grandfather.”
• The Doctor states that he is not a doctor of medicine.
• Though alien, the Doctor and Susan have many human attributes - the Doctor even smokes a pipe.
• How old are the two aliens?  The teachers believe Susan is 15, but she seems to be much older - she has been at Coal Hill School for five months, and before this has had time to leave her own planet, obtain vast amounts of knowledge and visit several planets and time zones - notably the French Revolution.  By her own standards, though, she is clearly still a “child.”
• The Doctor and Susan’s people are clearly vastly technologically advanced, and he compares the twentieth century schoolteachers to “Red Indian” savages.  He claims the children of his own planet would be insulted by being compared to Ian and Barbara, and Susan’s great intelligence would seem to bear this out.
• The two aliens have different attitudes towards twentieth century England.  Susan loves it, and would rather stay there than continue her travels with the Doctor.  He, on the other hand, claims to tolerate the century, but not to enjoy it.
• What kind of person is the Doctor?  For the lead character in a TV series allegedly created for children, he seems more than a little amoral.  He is willing to electrocute the TARDIS console to stop Ian from touching it, and tricks his granddaughter into remaining in the Ship (arguably because he’d miss her if she were gone.)  He also seems willing to kill Za in cold blood to ensure his own safety - unless his own story that the rock knife was for the caveman to draw their way back to the Ship is true.  His moral stance clearly differs substantially from that of the human teachers:  when they return to help Za he responds with “What are they doing?  They must be out of their minds.”
• What is the Doctor’s name?  “Foreman” is just an alias.  He is referred to as “Dr. Who” in the on-screen credits (and the title of the show, of course.)  This is either his name, or refers to the mystery surrounding him.  He is generally called simply “The Doctor.”

The TARDIS log
• The Doctor’s Ship is known as the TARDIS - Susan says she made up the name from the initials for Time And Relative Dimension In Space.
• The TARDIS can go anywhere in time and space.
• The tiny exterior conceals a large room with roundels all over the walls, a central console, a screen and several pieces of ornate furniture.  It is suggested that there are further rooms beyond this one.
• The Ship is supposed to change its exterior form to blend in with its surroundings - it has apparently been an ionic column and a sedan chair.  The Doctor and Susan are surprised when it remains a police box on prehistoric Earth, so this is clearly a new fault.
• The Ship betrays its nature even from the outside - it hums, and there is “a faint vibration” causing Ian to exclaim “It’s alive!”
• Whatever else the Ship is, it’s clearly not soundproof - we can hear Susan from inside before the Doctor has finished turning the key in the lock.
• On take-off from the junkyard, the Ship shakes all over the place, knocking out Ian and Barbara.  This does not happen when it takes off from prehistoric Earth.  Maybe it was a little out of practice after spending five months in a junkyard.
• On both occasions, the TARDIS takes off with a wheezing, groaning noise heard inside and outside the Ship.  The central column in the console rises and falls.  The detailed depiction of take-off in episode one then shows a succession of swirls and other visual effects (largely repeating the series’ title sequence) together with a high-pitched whine.
• The screen in the control room is a scanner, which shows the “immediate view outside the Ship.”
• The doors are first seen to close by use of a little switch on the console, then later by turning something.  We see the Doctor operating the console for take-off twice, both times differently.  The only possible conclusion to draw is that the controls of the TARDIS are fluid, and operated differently each time for different reasons.
• After landing on prehistoric Earth, the light on top of the police box flashes, and this happens again when it takes off.  Why take-off should have this effect upon the TARDIS’ exterior disguise is unclear.
• The Doctor admits that his Ship isn’t entirely working properly (“I do wish this wouldn’t let me down!”) and that some of its codes are still secret.  Two controls shown to be unreliable are the “yearometer” (which sticks at zero) and the radiation counter (the dial of which is slow to move to the “danger” level).  The Doctor is clearly aware of its limitations, as even after checking the air and radiation levels in episode two he takes his Geiger counter with him (which is broken shortly afterwards).
• The key codes to the TARDIS machines are contained in the Doctor’s notebook, together with notes on everywhere they’ve been.  He would never voluntarily leave his notebook - it’s too important to him.
• The TARDIS apparently needs the exact location and moment of departure in order to fix a destination - the Doctor is unable to return Ian and Barbara home until this can be achieved.  He intends to pick up rock and plant samples to this end in episode two.
• It seems incredible, but this alien technology from another time is compatible with that of 1960s Britain - the Doctor claims to have found a “replacement for that faulty filament - it’s an amateur job but I think it’ll serve.”

Past Journeys
• Susan and the Doctor have visited the French Revolution - reading a book on the subject, she exclaims “That’s not right!”

The history of Earth
• (If indeed this is Earth.)  The tribe that the Doctor and the other travellers meet in prehistoric Earth are a skin-wearing, cave-dwelling, savage race of primitives.  They worship the sun-god Orb.  The travellers, and particularly Ian, teach them co-operation and give them fire.  But this is just one tribe, and it is pointless to over-estimate their impact on this society - we know there have been firemakers before, and we know there are other tribes.

Script Heaven
This first story is full of great dialogue, even in the caveman sequences.
• The Doctor “Not quite clear, is it?  I can see in your face that you’re not certain, you don’t understand. (delighted) I knew you wouldn’t, never mind.”
• Ian “You’re treating us like children.” The Doctor “Am I?  The children of my civilisation would be insulted.”
• The Doctor “Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be wanderers 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, one day...”
• Susan “I was born in another time, another world.”
• Ian “Time doesn’t go round and round in circles.  You can’t get on and off whenever you like in the past or the future.” The Doctor “Really?  Where does time go, then?” Ian “It doesn’t go anywhere.  It just happens and then it’s finished.”
• The Doctor “If you could touch the alien sand and hear the cries of strange birds and watch them wheel in another sky, would that satisfy you?”
• Za “Tomorrow I kill many bears.  You all have warm skins.” Horg “I say tomorrow you will rub your hands together and hold them to the dry sticks and ask Orb to send you fire - and the bears will stay warm in their own skins.”
• The Doctor “Fear makes companions of all of us, Miss Wright.”

Catchphrase
• The Doctor “Eh?  Doctor who?  What’s he talking about?”
• Ian “That’s not his name.  Who is he?  Doctor who?”

Things I learned from Doctor Who
• How to make fire.

Body Count
A modest count for this opening foray - the old woman, the guard outside the Cave of Skulls and Kal makes:
3.

Screams / Twists Ankle
• Appropriately enough for a science-fiction time travel series, Ian and Barbara are, respectively, teachers of Science and History.
• Prior to the events of this story, Ian and Barbara were clearly friends but not that close - his comments in the third episode suggest he has never been to her house.
• Ian is unexpectedly revealed as an authority on 1960s music - he knows the career history of John Smith and the Common Men.
• There are odd gaps in Susan’s knowledge.  Even her alien origins don’t explain why, after five months, she doesn’t know which fiscal system the United Kingdom uses.

Checkov’s Plot Device
Checkov’s fire.  In a way.  But it’s more an overarching theme.

Irrelevant Escape Attempts
Old Mother lets the travellers go free.  They make it all the way to the TARDIS, only to be intercepted and taken straight back to the Cave of Skulls.  This clears the way for them to do it all over again next episode. (Episode 3)

Dudley!
• Norman Kay gives us an unexpected whistling shriek as Ian and Barbara attempt to leave the Ship in episode one.

Notes
• The opening of episode one is marvellously atmospheric:  the swirling titles, the throbbing, haunting theme tune, merging into fog with a policeman investigating a junkyard.  The door creaks open of its own accord, and an incongruously placed police box is revealed, emanating a low hum...
• The broken dummy in the scrapyard behind Susan can be seen to foreshadow the cracked skulls in the Cave.
• Ian seems remarkably cavalier about the loss of his torch:  he doesn’t even look for it.
• There is a marvellous shot of the desert plain through the TARDIS doors as Ian realises he’s been wrong all along.
• Interestingly, the time travellers and the cavemen only have slight problems understanding each other.  English had certainly not developed as a language, however primitive, in prehistoric times, so this is a mystery.
• The conflict between Ian and the Doctor during their flight through the forest is among the story’s best scenes.
• Also during this flight, Ian seems to take the lead in the party.  In episode four, however, he defers to the Doctor.
• The budget apparently stretches to dead animals, but not to live ones.
• The tribe reach the TARDIS incredibly quickly at the end of episode three.  This suggests that the several mad dashes through the forest that the travellers undertake are unnecessary - there’s a much quicker way, if only you know how.
• After three episodes of mainly snapping at people and getting in the way, the Doctor only really shows his mettle when he proves to the tribe that Kal is a murderer.
• Za recovers remarkably quickly from his wound.

Queries
• Why is Susan ignorant of the British fiscal situation?
• Where has I.M.Foreman the scrap merchant been for the past five months while the Doctor and Susan have been living in his junkyard?
• If the Doctor’s notebook is as important as we’re told it is, why doesn’t he enquire about it?  And, for that matter, what happens to it and the other items found at the scene of Kal’s attack?
• Why does the old woman know a second way out of the Cave of Skulls when no-one else seems to?
• Who are the Doctor and Susan really?  Where do they come from?
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On-screen Credits
CAST
Dr. Who - William Hartnell, Ian Chesterton - William Russell, Barbara Wright - Jacqueline Hill, Susan Foreman - Carole Ann Ford, Za - Derek Newark (2-4), Hur - Alethea Charlton (2-4), Old Mother - Eileen Way (2-3), Kal - Jeremy Young (2-4), Horg - Howard Lang (2-4).
CREW
Written by Anthony Coburn.  Title Music by Ron Grainer with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.  Incidental Music by Norman Kay.  Special Effects by the Visual Effects Department of the BBC (1-3).  Fight Arranger - Derek Ware (4).  Story Editor - David Whitaker.  Designer - Peter Brachacki (1); Barry Newbury (2-4).  Associate Producer - Mervyn Pinfield.  Producer - Verity Lambert.  Directed by Waris Hussein.

Review
You really can’t slag off Doctor Who’s first story.  The first episode remains superb 35 years later, with great dialogue and characterisation.  The four lead actors make an excellent first impression (particularly Hartnell), and the sets throughout are surprisingly good considering the constraints.  The cavemen may be clichés, but somehow manage not to be embarrassing.  After the opening episode, basically, we’d be willing to watch just about anything for the next 35 years...

Rating
10 / 10