An Unearthly Child Review

February 21st 2014

An Unearthly Child
Episode 1
And I'm off!
I just watched the very first episode, An Unearthly Child. And it was great.
I've watched this story at least two times, possibly three, before but it's been a few years since my last watch. Which is good. I remembered the story but I'd forgotten some of the intricacies. For instants that tracking shot at the beginning is just great. In fact there are quite a few slow tracking shots used in this episode and they're used very well. I was actually surprised at the use of them to be honest, I just wasn't expecting this technical skill at the beginning.
The first tracking shot is probably the best of this episode; starting on the policeman just looking around; following him to the gate of the junkyard where we get a good clear look of what it says; then staying on the doors as the policeman walks off, before slowly moving in as the door swings open; we move forward and then begin to turn, and we get our first look at the TARDIS as the camera backs away from it. Brilliant, just brilliant. What makes it just that bit more special is that you can hear the TARDIS humming in the background, straight from the off we get the suggestion of it being "alive", as Ian exclaims later on.

And then we get to meet Barbra and Ian. I've watched quite a few Hartnell era stories and I really like Ian. And it's no different here, both William Russell and Jacqueline Hill play there characters well here, but Russell just stands out to meet that bit more. When they start talking about Susan and swapping add stories the use of flashback is a great idea too, especially when the tracking shot is used again. This time from Ian's perspective the camera looks at Susan from around the table, over the shoulder of another pupil, and then walks round the table to face Susan, it really works.

We get a proper introduction to Susan at this point. Now Susan has never been a favourite of mine, I've always found her a bit to whiny/screamy. In this episode I think Carole Ann Ford plays the part well here though. When in the TRADIS she becomes quite distraught, she likes Ian and Barbra but doesn't want them intruding on her personal mysterious 'home' life, understandably.

And now for the big introduction; the Doctor himself. I have to say that I love William Hartnell's outfit here, the disjointed hat, the scarf and the way it's wrapped round him, and his cloak-like coat. I may be wrong but the hat and scarf don't really make much of an appearance after this story, which I think is a shame. But anyway. I do rather like Hartnell's Doctor, and his grumpy, slightly hostile (at least in this story), manner. In this episode we do get his rather more hostile side but I think Hartnell plays it very well here. The Doctor is certainly not nice here, but there is something about him that does draw you in. He doesn't come across as unlikable as you might think. And I do love his trademark "hhmm".

 Now I could waffle on all day about this, which just shows how good it is, but I'll try to wrap up with just a few last points now. I've been watching the Pilot episode whilst watching this, I've never bothered watching it before, and I just got to the bit where they Barbra rushes into the TARDIS. I must say everything I've seen so far on the pilot is not as good as the re-shooting of it that Sydney Newman ordered, but the way Barbra rushes in is actually done better. We actually get to see the interior just before Barbra enters fully.

I love the way that the opening returns as a visual representation of going through the time vortex, right back at the beginning that was the idea. I think it carries on a little bit too long but otherwise it's used to great effect here. If I had been a child in 1963, not knowing what was going to happen next, I think I would have found the strange noises and visuals exciting, unsettling and amazing.

I've giving this episode 10/10. Now if only the other episodes of this story could like up to it.


Episode 2: The Cave of Skulls

I watched this straight after writing the review for the episode above. I was going to be fair and give it a 7/10, but it really was boring. I've stooped to a 6/10, but I think that's being kind. Everyone knows the first episode is really great, then the rest of the story just drop the ball. The best bits where on the TARDIS where Ian is still trying to come to terms with whats going on, and after they go outside and the Doctor is missing. I do like that the TARDIS exterior is noticed straight away by the Doctor and Susan, they wonder why it hasn't changed, they're answering questions before the audience at home had even begun to wonder why the ship looked like a police box. The TARDIS is of course very iconic now, but back when the episode was made and broadcast it wouldn't have been of course, even so I can't help but thinking that the TARDIS looks iconic on top of the sand at the start of this episode, slightly wonky. Imagine if the TARDIS chameleon circuit was actually working and it did change every time, as was initially envisioned I wonder what it would have looked like in the cavemen setting? And I bet it wouldn't look half as good as the police box does.

We get another good tracking shot here when we're introduced to the cavemen, pausing to look at the faces of all of them as it goes along. It's probably the most interesting bit of the caveman part of the story! The idea of having a fight for leadership and trying to create fire is not a bad idea, I actually liked when Za (I had to look that up, I couldn't even remember their names, that's how interested I was) was rubbing the bone up and down his hands. But something about the way it is done just doesn't work. By the end of the episode I was struggling to work out the difference between Za and Kal.

In fact I'm changing my view, it is a  5/10 episode. Now just for a quick right up of some notes I made.

• I like how the TARDIS light is flashing when we see Kal looking at it, I don't know why it would be, but it's a nice touch.
• I like how Ian calls the Doctor "Doctor Foreman" and the Doctor is confused by this. I also love the little bits we have where we watch Hartnell's Doctor on his own, just talking to himself. Also Ian later tells Barbra that he doesn't think he is called 'Doctor Foreman'.
• "Sand and rock?" Ian exclaims, echoing the critics who say that alien planets are always just rocky quarries in Doctor Who
• I think the console looks really good here. There was obviously a lot of thought and care gone into that set.
• Now we get the doors opening from the inside and clearly see that they are the same as the rest of the set, with the circle things. I always made up this little explanation in my head that the doors were different because the ones you see when inside the TARDIS are not actually the exterior doors, but lead into a little mini area before you walk through the police box doors. Like a little porch. And most times I think that works, but here it plainly doesn't. So I'm going to say that it's... some sort of perception filter thing working with the chameleon circuit. From the interior the doors have the circle things, and from the exterior they look like the police box doors. Like a lot of things, it's relative and all about perspective!
• The Doctor smokes! And a pipe! I'd forgotten that. Is that the only time we see that happen? I think only Hartnell's Doctor could get away with it, maybe Troughton and Pertwee too.
• Za claims that tomorrow he will kill many bears to feed them all. Many bears? Bloody hell I don't know why there is a leadership contest if he can kill "many bears" by himself in one day!
• The Doctor saves "Chesterton's" (I like that he calls him that, even if it may be said a little patronizingly) life and later he says he's very sorry for getting them mixed up in this. I don't know if he feels responsible for them or if he's showing his softer side, maybe Barbra and Ian are starting to bring it out of him already?
• 
  
• Final word: 5/10. (Said in caveman voice) Cavemen scenes boring, TARDIS crew more interesting. Barbra is clever. I make fire.

Episode 3: The Forest of Fear

That's better, much more interesting episode. We start with another one of those tracking shots that I keep going on about. This time it follows the Old Woman sneaking around the cave when the rest of the tribe are asleep. It's a bit more atmospheric and intriguing. Though her arm must have been killing after she picked up the stone and had to held it there long enough for the episode title to appear on screen!

We go back to the cave of skulls and we see the Doctor looking quite dirty and out of sorts, his hair is in good need of a comb. The rest of the TARDIS crew also look quite dirty and disheveled throughout this episode and I like that, it makes it realistic. The ordeal they're going through is having an effect both physically and emotionally. Going back to the Doctor I haven't seen The Tenth Planet (though I look forward to watching it-awhile down the way yet) I hear that the Doctor becomes more and more exhausted throughout the story before regenerating. I can easily imagine that because he looks ready to do just that now!

At the start of the episode the Doctor is quite helpful, giving suggestions and treating Ian and Barbra with more respect they he's shown them before now. Barbra is even surprised and he talks about how fear makes "companions of us all". I found this quite interesting. The people who travel with the Doctor throughout his journeys are usually referred to as companions by fans and that statement has the ability to make you reconsider the relationships the Doctor has with all of us his companions really.

I quite like how Za's soon to be wife (they never seemed to name her) was almost manipulating Za and taking control of the situation. I bet that could be the basis of a talk about feminism.

I said before that the Doctor was nicer before, but later in the episode we see him at the worse yet. He calls the cavemen savages, not at all interested in helping Ian and the rest take care of Za and even contemplates killing Za with a rock. Ian is the only one who can stand against him, Barbra and Susan don't so much stand against the Doctor, as take sides with Ian. The Doctor is simply outnumbered. Susan's comment "he's always like this if he doesn't get his way," illustrates him best here. This maybe the youngest incarnation of the Doctor we see but he really is a grouchy old man, stubborn and perhaps tired of the world. A lot of people have said that Hartnell's Doctor mellows as the series goes, aided by Ian and Barbra, which I haven't seen enough of to agree with myself but I really look forward to seeing that happen. It seems like they help him become more like the Doctor we know and love, until finally he regenerates and has a fresh new outlook on life.

One last closing comment; bloody hell those cavemen didn't half move fast! One minute they were at the cave, the next they were surrounding the TARDIS. I know they knew a shortcut, but still.

Score: 7/10

Episode 4: The Forest of Fear

And that's it, I've finished the first ever story of Doctor Who. Though it interesting to note that it leads right into the next story. I've not watched past the three stories of the Beginning box set so I don't know if it continues but really the way each story leads into the next this really is one long journey.

Anyway to the actual episode. I think it was better than the second but not quite as good as the third. It has some interesting bits still. Ian relinquishes leadership to the Doctor (temporarily I think) in a way, though it is clear he is not perfectly happy in doing so. Ian is a man who tries to make the best of every situation and do what is best at that time, he thinks it best to let the Doctor seem in control again.

I knew this episode was only a four parter but when we're nearing the end of the episode and Za says that they must stay with them and merge tribes it could easily have a five, or more likely six, parter. There are some classic Who eps that run on a bit to long, so it's nice to see that they don't make that mistake here. That being said the groups escape seems a bit off to me. I don't really understand how the skulls torches were supposed to effect the cavemen. I understand it was a distraction, but they expect the tribe to think it was magic and that the TARDIS crew had died and come back to life? It didn't quite work for me, but it got them back to the TARDIS at least.

The fight scene in this episode is done very well, better than some Doctor Who episodes that were made decades after this that I've seen. And the reaction shots from the crew are a nice touch, they show character, especially Barbra as she looks away, and are well lit.

I made some notes as I was watching that I'll quickly bullet point here:

• The cavemen are swayed from one opinion to the other quite easily at the start, not sure if makes them seem a bit too dumb, especially in comparison to Za who is quite clever
•  The Doctor and Ian throw rocks at Kal, that could do some real damage if they hit
• Susan still calls Ian Mr Chesterton- nice touch
• Za killing Kal is quite horrific really
• The cliffhanger is quite good, helped by the ominous title

For this episode I'd say a 6.5/10

The average score overall for this story is 7/10

And now onto The Daleks!