Review An Unearthly Child (1963)

Doctor Omega

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
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Your journey into CLASSIC WHO starts here.....


With the first ever broadcast story:

AN UNEARTHLY CHILD

Starring the first ever Doctor, WILLIAM HARTNELL.....



Follow the links at the bottom of the first posts to take you to the next broadcast story - or the previous one - and follow the entire journey of 20th century televised Who....

And why not leave your reviews along the way? Other people would love to hear what you think of these stories. Good and bad! :emoji_alien:


Schoolteachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright follow mysterious pupil Susan Foreman to her home - a police box in a junk yard - and meet her grandfather the Doctor.



Your thoughts on this, the very first story of Doctor Who.... Ever!




On to the next story.....

THE DEAD PLANET:

https://www.imdforums.com/threads/the-dead-planet-1963.1606/






OR JUMP TO REMAINING CLASSIC DOCTORS' FIRST STORIES.....


TROUGHTON

https://www.imdforums.com/threads/the-power-of-the-daleks-1966.3648/


PERTWEE

https://www.imdforums.com/threads/spearhead-from-space-1970.3680/


TOM BAKER

https://www.imdforums.com/threads/robot-1974.5285/


DAVISON

https://www.imdforums.com/threads/castrovalva-1982.3697/


COLIN BAKER

https://www.imdforums.com/threads/the-twin-dilemma-1984.5291/


MCCOY

https://www.imdforums.com/threads/time-and-the-rani-1987.3694/
 
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chainsaw_metal1

chainsaw_metal1

Member: Rank 8
I still love this story, and not just because I'm a fanboy. It does quite a difficult job in just 23 minutes. It establishes its characters, but doesn't give everything away in the first episode. The fact that fifty years later there are still things we don't know about The Doctor is wonderful. I still think the old school look of the TARDIS is still the best. The center console looks futuristic but isn't too busy and distracting. It gives us just enough to be interested and want to come back for more.

I think the issue with modern viewers is this. Television producers now would start off a show like this with a two-hour premiere, and tell you everything about the setup, even going into an origin story. If DOCTOR WHO were started today, we would get at least an hour of backstory on Gallifrey, just to spoon feed the attention deficited audience. The pacing is slower, so that would be nixed for modern audiences. Alas, modern viewers are just idiots.
 
Gavin

Gavin

Member: Rank 6
VIP
chainsaw_metal1 said:
Alas, modern viewers are just idiots.
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I don't think that's necessarily true. Unfortunately it's definitely what television executives think.


A good example of the difference you describe between way a pilot for a show like this would be done now is Star Trek. The original series started part way into a 5 year mission with no back story (other than the opening narration describing the "mission"). By the time they got to Voyager some 30 years later, we got a double length episode with origin story for the crew (and back story about the maquis via text scrawl) and the whole episode was a set up of the series "mission" - to get home. Personally I much prefer to be dropped right into the middle of a story and gradually get the background as the series goes on.
 
chainsaw_metal1

chainsaw_metal1

Member: Rank 8
I only state it because when I've read reviews of shows, many negative comments are about how shows don't give enough backstory for characters, or leave things unsaid. The idea of spoon feeding comes from that, that too many viewers - both of television and movies - seem to have a biological need to know every little thing about what's going on. They don't want mystery, or the chance to fill in gaps later in the series. I will admit, this is most likely the vocal minority, and unfortunately, studio execs feel the need to cater to them.

Gavin said:
A good example of the difference you describe between way a pilot for a show like this would be done now is Star Trek. The original series started part way into a 5 year mission with no back story (other than the opening narration describing the "mission"). By the time they got to Voyager some 30 years later, we got a double length episode with origin story for the crew (and back story about the maquis via text scrawl) and the whole episode was a set up of the series "mission" - to get home. Personally I much prefer to be dropped right into the middle of a story and gradually get the background as the series goes on.
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Exactly! The powers that be feel the need to give us everything at the beginning. Is it because the audience needs it? Again, probably the minority, but because they are the most vocal, we get projects where we know too much before it even gets going. There's no need for it. Just give us a good premise and story, and we'll watch.
 
The Seeker

The Seeker

Member: Rank 6
Two things that could have improved it - well the first one refers to the series as a whole.

1) They should have kept Susan's cool demeanor from that first episode instead of making her a simpering, useless damsel in distress. No wonder the actress left the show.

2) They missed the chance to make the cavemen act like real cavemen - i.e. eating their boogers and shitting in full view of everyone, instead of this Shakespearian crap. But it is a family show, I guess.
 
Carol

Carol

Member: Rank 5
Best post of the day!

Your (1) no arguments - must get hold of a copy, I'm sure I'll agree.
(2 a ) Not so sure - cavemen presumably had cavemothers who I'm guessing had Views about boogers (I think that's the same as bogies: ballistic nasal matter?) - i.e. flick them at your sister or wipe them on the walls like everyone else, and shit outside or clean it up yourself.
(2 b) Shakespearean crap - that's fighting talk, lady - care to take it outside?

:emoji_yum:
 
Doctor Omega

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Nigel Robinson rewrote the novelisation especially for audio, with references to Barnes Common apparently!

Due to business shenanigans it has yet to see the light of day....


 
Doctor Omega

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
And the Doctor was actually shown, preparing to kill someone?

Or was he? :emoji_confused:


Not forgetting the fifty years later sequel in DWM: Hunters of the Burning Stone....

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Hunters of the Burning Stone was a Doctor Who Magazine comic story released in 2013, starting in issue 456.

It celebrated the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who.

It is most notable for the shocking re-appearance of Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright.

The story itself was a direct sequel to An Unearthly Child, explaining what happened to the Tribe of Gum after the TARDIS team left them.

It also added a vital piece of the mythology of Doctor Who, revealing that it was the Eleventh Doctor who broke the chameleon circuit on the First Doctor's TARDIS, as seen in the very first episode, giving the TARDIS its iconic image of a police box.

The story was voted by Doctor Who fans in 2013 as being the best comic of the year. (DWM 479)
 
Doctor Omega

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Doctor Omega said:
It also added a vital piece of the mythology of Doctor Who, revealing that it was the Eleventh Doctor who broke the chameleon circuit on the First Doctor's TARDIS, as seen in the very first episode, giving the TARDIS its iconic image of a police box.
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Those are the kind of retcons that I am not keen on. Reducing something mysterious to something inane and, often, silly.

Does everything need revealing and explaining? :emoji_confused:

And going slightly off-topic, but the Space Jockey in Alien is a case in point. How I wish it were still just an eerie and unexplained giant skeleton.
 
Gavin

Gavin

Member: Rank 6
VIP
Just finished re-reading the novelisation of this as I decided to work through the entire series in order. I hadn't read it or watched the episodes in a few years. It's a lot more bloodthirsty than I remembered (although from memory that was more implied than shown in the televised episodes).
 
johnnybear

johnnybear

Member: Rank 6
The first four episodes of Doctor Who and what a start it was! Even my wife liked it, well the first and second episodes anyway! I remember when BBC2 repeated it during The Five Faces of Doctor Who in 1981 and on the news were talks about water workers going on strike, which would of meant had it happened...no electricity and no more Five Faces of Doctor Who!
JB
 
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