TV Review: Doctor Who: An Unearthly Child (1963)

Doctor Who: An Unearthly Child (1963) written by Anthony Coburn and directed by Waris Hussein

Two school teachers, Ian (William Russell) and Barbara (Jacqueline Hill), are worried about one of their star pupils. Susan Foreman (Carole Ann Ford) knows more science and history than they do but she doesn't know how many shillings are in a pound. Susan's excuse is because Britain is not on the decimal system yet. Barbara lives with her grandfather. When the teachers sneak off to the address, they discover a junk yard with a police box inside. The grandfather (William Hartnell) shows up and tries to shoo them away. Barbara comes out of the police box and the teachers force their way in, only to discover it is larger on the inside. It is in fact the TARDIS, a time and space ship that the Doctor and his granddaughter use to travel. They take Ian and Barbara to pre-historic Earth where they run into a tribe that's just lost the only member who could start fires. One of the natives sees the Doctor lighting his pipe, bonks the Doctor over the head, and takes him back to the tribe. The others try to save the Doctor and get dragged into the political conflict between two guys who want to be the firestarter and thereby the head of the tribe.

These are the very first episodes of Doctor Who and are a fun introduction to the show. The beginning is very mysterious and slowly reveals the fantastic premise of the show. The primitive tribe is a little bit cliche, though the show probably needs some familiar stuff so that everything isn't completely off the wall. Hartnell is a fascinating Doctor, grumpy and secretive. The rest of the cast does a good job and the pre-historic setting meant that they had no rubber-suited monsters or really cheap-looking sets. They will have plenty of that in the future.

Recommended, especially for Doctor Who fans.