Doctor Who: An Unearthly Child

It's only a model!

So, this is it! The first serial of Doctor Who ever! The one that started it all! Originally airing between November 23 and December 14, 1963. This episode pretty much set the tone for the next twenty-six years of science fiction in Britain. This four-part serial is the launching of a new ship that will take us through time and space!

So, here's a question... Does it hold up?

Two hours later....

WOW!

Okay, so... This is way different from the 2005 series. In fact, it's almost like I'm watching something completely different. Probably because I am.

So, the first thing that threw me was that the episode was entirely in black and white. This would've been okay, but looking at the screen gave me a headache after a while because there were times when it was difficult to see just what I was looking at. I don't know if I just found a copy with bad picture quality or if the episodes really did look that terrible on the first run.

A whole episode like this.

Second, this episode at least was slow. I mean, two hours and it felt like very little happened.  The first half hour was just set-up for the journey through time alone. You have two teachers, Ian and Barbara who are talking about their highly unusual student, Susan Foreman. They decide to follow her home because the address in her school file says she lives in a garbage dump. Turns out she does live in a garbage dump... in a police box.

And her grandfather is an extremely odd man.

After some denial, miscommunication, verbal sparring between The Doctor and Ian, and very frustrating visuals that are nearly washed out instead of too dark, the TARDIS activates and they go on a journey through Time and Space, ending the first episode and beginning the second. The next three episodes deal with the fact that they landed in what the TARDIS computer states is the year "0"... and there are cavemen who want fire.

From there it unfolds that two cavemen are competing to be leaders of a tribe and the only way to win is to make fire. Za's father could make fire, but he never taught the trick to Za. Kal is the other competitor and he'd obviously a sociopath who tries to kill all the main characters at least once. You know how that ends.

On one hand, I can definitely see the edutainment value of the episode. Go back to the beginning of man and see how they lived without modern conveniences or even fire.

On the other hand, the episode was very dull and the sound was uneven. Did I mention the picture quality? Also, I nearly dozed off around the time they got themselves captured... AGAIN.

While Ian and Barbara's characters are pretty much presented to you on a silver platter along with Susan's, the First Doctor, William Hartnell, is a little more difficult to pin down. He seems to consider himself above... well, everybody. First, he sort of plays with Ian and Barbara, trying to get them go away and I'm divided between punching the smirk off his face, trying to shake him and tell him that sending them away the way he is will only lead to trouble (and it does), and laughing because he is pretty funny and trying very hard to be clever. Then he starts predicting Ian and Barbara's moves and I want to shake them because they're playing into his hands of proving they're stupid apes.

And then I'm reminded of Christopher Eccleston and begin mentally comparing them for a few moments and realize I lack data.

Unlike initial viewers, I know who The Doctor is, what he is, and why the probably behaves the way he does. Like viewers in 1963, I haven't seen more of William Hartnell's Doctor so I don't feel that personal draw to him yet. Instead, my brain is examining the ones that I do know and trying to draw parallels which the people in 1963 really couldn't have done because there'd never been a Doctor before.

The episode itself does do a decent job of setting up the mystery and the time travel. It even leaves us off with the arrival at a new planet, time, or both with the radiation levels rather... dangerous. Even if I didn't already commit myself to watching the next episode, I would do it just to see where the show was going.

Do I like the slower pace and more episodes to set things up?

Actually, I do. I've often felt with some modern Doctor Who episodes that they feel too rushed. They constantly talk about running on the show and sometimes you feel like your running because they don't give you time to slow down or breath and take everything into consideration! The New Who is more of an action-science fiction series than a straight up science fiction series. They don't take enough time to set up and they probably don't want you to think about the events of episodes too much or you'll realize how ridiculous it is!

This serial may have been slower than molasses on a cold day in some parts, but at least I got a chance to think about every event and consider whether it made sense or not. I mean, seriously, The End of Time? If you took enough time to think through every twist and turn of the episode, you'd realize that it was a stupid shit-fest only "worth it" for schlock and David Tennant's big puppy dog eyes. The fast pace drags you into the moment, but that's why Fridge Logic exists, people!

Now, the next serial is a seven-parter called The Daleks. Let's hope the visuals and the sound quality are higher, but also that we get to know more about this Doctor fella.