Welcome to your summer vacation through space and time, all from the comfort of your couch and TV. We’re spending our COVID-19 summer winding our way through Doctor Who history, focusing on one episode from each Doctor’s tenure through to the Capaldi era. (Want to know what we’re watching? Here’s the schedule!)
There’s no better place to start at the beginning, so for the First Doctor (William Hartnell), we’re taking a look at the four part serial that started it all, “An Unearthly Child,” which aired in four weekly installments from November 23, 1963 to December 14, 1963. And while this is a nearly 60 year old piece of television, the statute of limitations should be off. But I will warn you anyway: Spoilers!
1. Why Does that Date Look Familiar?
If you’re having a “why does that date look familiar but I just can’t seem to place it moment” when you look at the premiere date, here’s why: it was the day after U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. With world events obviously overshadowing this debut, and a world in mourning, the BBC repeated the first episode the following week before the second part aired. The rebroadcast was seen by 6 million viewers – – and while this practice is standard today, it was rather unorthodox in 1963.
2. How Do You Solve a Problem Like Susan Foreman?
The focus of Part 1 isn’t so much on the Doctor, but on Susan Foreman. Her teachers Ian and Barbara are quite concerned over Susan for her unorthodox outlooks in the classroom and her living situation: following her home, interrogating the Doctor (although it’s not told to the viewer here that this is the Doctor just yet) over here whereabouts and asking for assistance. While their methods are unorthodox and borderline illegal, they truly do care about their pupil.
Doctor Who was also conceived as an educational program, evident in the choice of a school setting and two teachers as primary adults in Susan’s life outside of her grandfather. She’s been on Earth enough to develop love for both The Doctor (her grandfather) and her teachers, and pleads with him to spare their lives, even though Ian and Barbara find her living situation – – and just who she is – – hard to believe.
They have plenty of time to sort out these questions, as the Doctor decides it’s time for a trip . . . all the way back to the Stone Age!
3. I’m the Doctor
A hallmark of The Doctor throughout the years is benevolence with a touch of arrogance, and that’s immediately on full display here. He’s rather rude to Ian and Barbara upon their first meeting, refusing to answer their questions – – and in spite of Susan’s pleas to let them go after they see the TARDIS interior, he fires up the TARDIS to head back in time. On the surface, this is a reckless man. But also states that his actions are to protect Susan and himself, though that love doesn’t really fall on understanding ears in the moment.
Another hallmark of The Doctor, underlining the intent that this is partially educational, is wonder and discovery. While their trip back to the Stone Age was under the guise of protection, The Doctor takes the opportunity to examine rocks and plants as a means to find out just where they are in the Stone Age. The space race is well underway in 1963, and the public’s fascination with science and scientific travel is nearing a peak (if it isn’t there already). The Doctor’s action capitalize on this, underscoring in a subtle way the use of the scientific method. Too bad it gets him kidnapped by the primitive people, thinking he has the secret to making fire – – and thus, the tribe’s survival.
4. The Companion
The Doctor’s distrust of humans carries right on into the Stone Age, disagreeing with Ian and Barbara on their new friendship with caveman Za. Their minds “change as quickly as night and day” and as such, they are expendable to the mission of getting back to the TARDIS. Ian and Barbara think differently, and their compassion through teaching Za how to make fire, and explaining to cavewoman Hur their desire for friendship does win The Doctor over, if reluctantly.
Continued belowHere is another hallmark for Doctor Who that was used to varying degrees over the years: companion as conscience. Sarah Jane Smith moved the companion past helpless foil to opinionated woman, tempering The Doctor’s egotistical natures. Rose Tyler, in her feelings for The Doctor, broke down a taboo from the classic series of romance, paving the way for The Doctor’s willingness to love deeper and harder. The companion was always the audience surrogate to a certain degree. And while we don’t see the hero-and-sidekick relationship that we see today (there’s a lot more damsel-in-distress style screaming than I would have liked), it’s important to note how early on this idea of the hopelessly flawed human as moral compass is part of the show.
(An aside: the term “companion” was not used on-screen until the revival in 2005, but for the sake of continuity, we’ll use it here, along with other terms that have been used by the show and the British press throughout the years, such as “travelers,” “assistants,” and “friends.”)
5. A Framework
As my colleague Matt said in his look at the pilot of Mission: Impossible, a pilot episode is a thesis for a show, a barometer to set the tone for the rest of the series. Is this here with “An Unearthly Child?” Indeed so. By the end of Part 1, we know – – in quite rapid succession in the back half, actually – – who the Doctor is, what the TARDIS is (and how it got its name), the relationship between The Doctor and the rest of his travelers. We establish a basic story structure: Doctor and companions travel somewhere, get themselves or locals in trouble (sometimes both), but save the day and come out relatively unscathed at the end. We understand the nature of the Doctor-companion relationship that will carry throughout the series.
Of course, some hallmarks of Doctor Who aren’t here yet: the Daleks, the Cybermen, the sonic screwdriver. (Two of those don’t even make an appearance until the Second Doctor’s tenure!) The idea of regeneration isn’t even in anyone’s mind. But here we have the structure of the series, a structure timeless enough to carry through to 2020. And with that structure, you can build pretty much anything around it. That’s a hallmark of a franchise that not only endures through time, but through various mediums.
TARDIS Trivia (our “Afterthoughts” section)
- This was also the first Doctor Who serial to air internationally, airing less than a year later on a local Christchurch, New Zealand TV station.
- Susan dives into a book about the French Revolution, exclaiming at one point that the book got things wrong. In the first season finale, the team does end up in 18th century France.
- The credits of each part list William Hartnell’s character as “Dr. Who” not “The Doctor” as the character is known today.
Next week, we’ll be watching the first full story to feature Patrick Troughton’s Second Doctor, “The Power of the Daleks.” Feel free to share your thoughts on this episode in the comments or on social media with our #12Weeks12Doctors hashtag.
If you want more classic Doctor Who, you can check out the streaming subscription service Britbox (available in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. at the time of this writing). If you’re in the U.S., Latin America, Puerto Rico, and Europe, you can also get your classic Who fix via the free streaming service Pluto TV, which has its own Doctor Who channel!
