Urban Hat€monger ?

Notable Guest Cast

Howard Lang as Horg - Would later become well known as Capt. William Baines, one of the principle characters of the BBC's popular 1970s sea-fearing drama 'The Onedin Line'.
Jeremy Young as Kal - Had a long career in British television playing mostly guest parts but is included here because he was the husband of The Rani actress, Kate O Mara.
Derek Newark as Za - Would return to Doctor Who in Jon Pertwee's first series in the story 'Inferno' and be mostly remembered for playing Greg Sutton, the manly drilling expert who probably smelled of Old Spice. Also received praise for his portrayal as Nazi Martin Bormann in a BBC film titled 'Inside The Fourth Reich' in the 1980s.

Trivia & Continuity

Because this story is two stories grafted together and because when the show began it would display individual episode titles at the start of the episode rather than the full story title there has been some debate over what this story is actual called. The first episode was always called 'An Unearthly Child'. '100,000 BC' was the collective working title given to the three Stone Age episodes that followed it. To make matters easier on BBC documentation it was classed as one 4 part story and 100,000 BC was the name given as the full title in all the paperwork at the time. In 1991 the BBC released the story on VHS as 'An Unearthly Child' and has since then used this title for the story as a whole in all of it's literature & merchandise. 'The Tribe Of Gum' was also used as a working title for the story.

The individual episode titles for this story were as follows
Episode 1: An Unearthly Child
Episode 2: The Cave Of Skulls
Episode 3: The Forest Of Fear
Episode 4: The Firemaker
All 4 episodes exist in the BBC archives

The first episode of Doctor Who was screened at 5.15 on Saturday 23rd November 1963, the day after the assassination of American president John F Kennedy. The viewing figures for the episode were a extremely disappointing 4.4 Million because most people in the country were following news of the assassination. Verity Lambert requested the first episode be repeated before the screening of Episode 2 the following week which was granted. The viewing figures for that week were a little more respectable but still bad 5.9 Million. It was decided to cancel the show after the 2nd story had finished production because of it's high costs and low viewing figures. But we all know what happened next........

There was an urban myth that the first episode was delayed because of news of the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald. This was no truth in this as Oswald wasn't killed until the following day on 24th November. The show did go out late because of the news but only by 1 minute 20 seconds.

Sydney Newman hated the opening titles and music and instructed Verity Lambert to change them. She refused. He admitted later on that she was right to do so.

Famed hair stylist Vidal Sassoon was bought in to give Susan a hairstyle that reflected her alienness with the hope that teenage girls would rush out and copy it.... They didn't.

The policeman who appears in the opening scene was a bit part actor named Reg Cranfield. He would appear in various bit part roles in Doctor Who over the next 13 years. In 2013 in the 11th Doctor novel 'Shroud of Sorrow' there is a character named Reg Cranfield patrolling around the junkyard in Totters Lane.

When we first meet Susan it's stated that she has been attending Coal Hill School for 5 months. The Doctor claims he's only staying in London in the 20th Century to keep Susan happy and that he hates being there.

The address of the junkyard is 76 Totters Lane in the East End London suburb of Shoreditch and is owned by someone named I.M. Foreman.

The Doctor reveals to Ian & Barbara he and Susan are cut off from their own planet and time and that they are exiles.

In episode 2 Ian calls The Doctor 'Doctor Foreman' to which The Doctor replies to himself "Eh... Doctor Who? What's he talking about?" starting a endless pun that would go on throughout the shows history.

When the travellers land in the Stone Age The Doctor is surprised that the TARDIS still retains it's Police Box shape suggesting this is the first time it's Chameleon Circuit had gone faulty. He would attempt to repair this throughout the shows history (notably in Logopolis & Attack Of The Cybermen) but it still refuses to work.

In this episode we see The Doctor smoking a pipe. This would be the first and only time The Doctor smokes onscreen, probably because he loses both that and his matches in this story.

Opinion
An Unearthly Child as a 4 part story is very much a case of a game of two halves. the opening episode with Ian & Barbara discovering this whole new world inside a junkyard in London is just fantastic. It's interesting to look at this first episode in the context of a child in 1963 watching the show for the first time and also as a long time fan or fan of the modern series looking back at this story and finding out just how much of the shows iconic imagery and folklore stems from this one episode alone.

Image being a child in 1963 watching for the first time and seeing these almost psychedelic like opening titles 3 or 4 years before psychedelia ever became a mainstream thing. The haunting electronic score of which it's like had never been heard before. And once those are over you're placed right back into the comfortable familiarity of a normal secondary school with a pair of ordinary teachers. You meet this strange girl and then all of a sudden you're whisked from being in a junkyard to this magical futuristic box that can go anywhere in space and time with a crotchety old man with a warm grandfatherly like playfulness for doing things he shouldn't. Is there any wonder why this show took off?

One of the strengths of the early years of the show were down to it's solid casting of the regulars. Even fans of the new series who go back and watch the old show regularly say that Ian & Barbara are right up there with their favourite companions. Ian is very much the hero character in the early series butting heads with The Doctor about doing the right thing. Barbara is smart and resourceful and is often called on to be the voice of reason. It's very much Ian & Barbara who form the backbone of the shows morality in the early years.

Having Hartnell playing the Doctor was a master stroke. Many of the cast and crew from the time talk about him being a very dangerous actor in the sense that he was very unpredictable and quirky and sometimes likely to lose his temper when he felt things weren't being done in the right way, and yet at the same time most of them also say just how fond of him they were and how he could also be very charming. It's that edge and charm he brought to the part and although this would be toned down as time went on during the first few stories you really didn't know if you could trust this guy or not.

There's no better scene to highlight this when they are escaping through the forest in episode 3. They hear the caveman Za is being attacked nearby by a wild animal. Barbara runs to help him followed by Ian and they find Za bleeding to death. The Doctor just wants to get back to his ship and the only thing that stops him going is Susan follows the two schoolteachers going against the Doctor's wishes. With the help of Za's wife Hur the travellers tend to his wounds and decide to take Za back to the tribe again the Doctor just wants to leave. On the way there the Doctor picks up a large rock but is stopped by Ian before he can do anything. Ian asks the Doctor what he was going to do with the rock and the Doctor stutters an explanation about getting Za to draw a map on the ground so they can get back to the TARDIS. It's never stated what the Doctor's intentions actually are but given how dark his character is at the point in the show and how he's only really interested in self preservation, it's not really difficult to imagine his intentions being far more sinister.

Susan was probably the weakest link in the cast although she is good in this story. She's fiercely loyal and protective of her Grandfather but at the same time she genuinely has affection for Ian & Barbara and gets distraught that they think she is lying about the ship and her Grandfather.

The actual storyline about the Stone age tribe is dull as ditch water other than a few moments such as the Doctor full of bluster that he can create fire and then realising he hasn't got any matches which gets them into this whole mess in the first place, and also the (unintentional) comedic moment at the end of the story when the four travellers are running for their lives back to the TARDIS through the forest being chased by the tribe. As they didn't have a whole forest to run through the shots were achieved by having each cast member run on the spot while being hit all over by branches and leaves by the production crew. You can basically sum up the rest of the story as follows.
Episode 2 - they get captured
Episode 3 - they escape and get captured
Episode 4 - they escape again.

Verdict
Episode 1: A wonderful story that started off a television institution
Episodes 2,3 & 4: A dull stage play with people in animal skins grunting in an overly theatrical manner.

Just watch the first one and a half episodes to see most of the basis of the shows mythology.

Rating
Episode 1: Episodes 2,3 & 4:

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