Doctor Who: An Unearthly Child
Feb. 9th, 2026 10:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annavereOkay, I watched the first three Doctor Who serials back at the end of December, but it took a while to get my thoughts to cohere into an actual post. I would love to keep going in order, but I don't know how feasible that is with the lost episodes. We'll see. This first episode was just fascinating, so the post got a little long.
Quick note: I've seen the first ten seasons of NuWho (sans 'Last Christmas,' sadly for my Doctor/Clara loving heart). I've seen the McGann film, and (when I as about fourteen) two of the McCoy serials, 'The Curse of Fenric' and 'Ghost Light.' The former was my introduction to the Doctor, which explains a lot of my hangups. That is the totality of my Whovian experience, barring two episodes of Torchwood.
I was surprised by just how much of the traditional iconography is here from the start. The TARDIS both looks and sounds correct. The theme and the time vortex are actually cooler than the modern iterations. Amazing opening credits. I was not expecting to enjoy the visuals this much, as they generally get lambasted endlessly. I love the groovy retro-futuristic swinging 60s TARDIS interior. I like the desolate primeval wastes. All of it is enhanced by the black and white medium and looks quite eerie. It only fell down when the chase sequences got going, at which point they saved money by just doing extreme closeups of scared, sweaty faces in the dark.
Also, this was far enough back in time that most of the people who worked on it were willing to talk a bit more openly about the production process, meaning the special features on the disc I borrowed were actually jam-packed with useful intel, instead of being nothing but boilerplate and gladhanding, like all the NuWho discs.
I'm most interested in the fact that the Doctor doesn't actually have companions here. He's got a couple of kidnap victims and a granddaughter. He doesn't seem to care much for poor Ian and Barbara, solely concerned with Susan's safety. Susan is the one with compassion, who refuses to flee and leave her teachers behind. In fact, the Doctor is so unDoctorly in this installment, I found myself quickly thinking of him as Grandfather instead. The person acting like the Doctor is Ian. It's so fascinating to me. Ian, judging by this material, is probably the most pivotal companion in the Doctor's entire life.
It's made clear frequently in NuWho that no matter how many mortal lifetimes he spends being a hero, if left alone too long, the Doctor is simply too alien, too arrogant, and will always relapse and become something rather terrifying, even if his intentions are good. I have always believed there's a reason his best friend growing up was the Master. Thus, this is from the beginning a fundamentally optimistic story of choosing to be better and working toward it. Ian is the model for someone who is not a hero to become one, demonstrating compassion and leadership, and the best of humanity. I think that's kind of beautiful.
The general wisdom with regards 'An Unearthly Child' is that the first episode (the one befitting the title) is a classic and the remainder, involving cavemen, are boring. Which I can understand, but I would like to add a little nuance to the take: The first two episodes are riveting. The other two are narratively dull, thanks to putting the emphasis on the wrong component. Cavemen politics are not a snooze, but cavemen doing all the action (Old Woman lets our heroes go, caveman fights off jungle creature, two cavemen do battle, etc) kind of is. In the third and fourth episodes, our heroes spend a lot of time thrashing about without getting anywhere.
There's a certain realism to that. The companion formula is not in place. The Doctor chooses his companions for a reason, and that gets the ball rolling very quickly in NuWho, because he'll pick someone with fortitude, who asks the right questions, but who also demonstrates compassion and wonder (I think this is why most companions are young women, because they're less likely to respond aggressively to a threat, and the Doctor needs that counterbalance). The Doctor will also be the most competent, confident person in the room, allaying any likeliness of panic.
Here, he's just a desperate, misanthropic abductor who is valued by his "companions" only because he's the barely-competent pilot for their introductory spacecraft. And while they try to keep the Doctor alive, they are fighting absolute terror. They just wanted to stalk their student and moonlight as social workers, and now they're stuck in prehistory.
I can't say much about Barbara here, because she spends most of the episode in hysterics. Which, you know, is very understandable in the circumstances! Not very interesting, though. She gets better later.
What surprised me most is Susan. There is something really, really wrong in her behavior, but it's not what Ian and Barbara are on about. This girl has no confidence. She's frantic the second she thinks her grandfather is gone and goes tearing off to tackle cavemen while clearly scared out of her mind. She doesn't come across as a capable, space-faring adventurer. She comes across as someone who has been deeply traumatized. She says they've been in the 60s for five months and she's been happy. She's got no friends, she's laughed at by her peers, her teachers find her exasperating, half her classes bore her... and she's been really happy? What the hell happened to her when they ran from Gallifrey?
I don't want an answer to that, by the way. I know current trends lean toward overexplaining lore, and part of the reason I went to Classic instead of post-Moffat (besides availability) is because the Classic era promises more of the unexplained mysteries of which I am very fond. For instance, Susan appears to have a sense that her grandfather is in trouble. Does she have latent psychic abilities? It's common enough in NuWho. If she did have that power, would that go a ways toward explaining why the Doctor stopped traveling with her? Imagine the torment of sensing death and pain, and wandering around the universe with a magnet for death and pain!
It's a fun theory, anyway.
Other random observations:
1. Moffat apparently never met an allusion he didn't love. Coal Hill School and the "fear makes companions of us all" line are both callbacks, which of course I didn't realize.
2. Watching William Hartnell in this performance is just mesmerizing. The whole first episode is a great actor showcase. The Doctor being introduced in the antagonist role is so unexpected. It's a pity he is only the central focus during the first episode and then is kind of brushed aside.
3. It's also very interesting to note how old he is. He's clearly close to the end of his first regeneration, and he's reached it through simple passage of time, meaning he lived an exceedingly ordinary life on Gallifrey. A rubbish student, a bit eccentric perhaps, got into some trouble now and then, but ordinary. Started a family, lived a long Time Lord life, became a grandfather and then... something went terribly wrong. And he and his granddaughter fled, and they can't/won't go back. Did I mention I love mysteries?
4. What's most impressive is how much of what DOES qualify for early installment weirdness is fairly easy to headcanon. Susan claiming she invented the TARDIS acronym is said in such hurried tones, it's easy to say she's lying, either to go easy on her teachers' sanity, or because her grandfather is right there and he's really paranoid and hostile, so delivering some false information might be a way to soothe him. Or maybe TARDIS is not an acronym (or not an English acronym), and Susan was just being whimsical?
Meanwhile, the Doctor goes into a rant about how the "red Indian's savage mind couldn't understand the steam engine," which sounds weird as hell coming from him, but he's saying it to Ian, while Ian is flatly refusing to accept the TARDIS despite being in it, and it's very clear the Doctor has zero respect for this guy. It's also clear from his following line about "I tolerate the 20th century, but I don't enjoy it" that the Doctor is actually mocking the hell out of Ian, speaking to him in terms the Doctor thinks he'd understand. The Doctor is not a hero, he has no affection for Earth, he's here randomly (since he can't pilot the TARDIS) and has only stayed to please his granddaughter.
Not sure how to explain the pipe, though. I guess to blend in among the savages of the 20th century, he took up smoking? And getting attacked by cavemen for doing so probably put him off it thereafter? How to Quit Smoking, the Doctor Who Method! (*not recommended by actual doctors).
Anyway, this was much more fun than I expected.
Quick note: I've seen the first ten seasons of NuWho (sans 'Last Christmas,' sadly for my Doctor/Clara loving heart). I've seen the McGann film, and (when I as about fourteen) two of the McCoy serials, 'The Curse of Fenric' and 'Ghost Light.' The former was my introduction to the Doctor, which explains a lot of my hangups. That is the totality of my Whovian experience, barring two episodes of Torchwood.
I was surprised by just how much of the traditional iconography is here from the start. The TARDIS both looks and sounds correct. The theme and the time vortex are actually cooler than the modern iterations. Amazing opening credits. I was not expecting to enjoy the visuals this much, as they generally get lambasted endlessly. I love the groovy retro-futuristic swinging 60s TARDIS interior. I like the desolate primeval wastes. All of it is enhanced by the black and white medium and looks quite eerie. It only fell down when the chase sequences got going, at which point they saved money by just doing extreme closeups of scared, sweaty faces in the dark.
Also, this was far enough back in time that most of the people who worked on it were willing to talk a bit more openly about the production process, meaning the special features on the disc I borrowed were actually jam-packed with useful intel, instead of being nothing but boilerplate and gladhanding, like all the NuWho discs.
I'm most interested in the fact that the Doctor doesn't actually have companions here. He's got a couple of kidnap victims and a granddaughter. He doesn't seem to care much for poor Ian and Barbara, solely concerned with Susan's safety. Susan is the one with compassion, who refuses to flee and leave her teachers behind. In fact, the Doctor is so unDoctorly in this installment, I found myself quickly thinking of him as Grandfather instead. The person acting like the Doctor is Ian. It's so fascinating to me. Ian, judging by this material, is probably the most pivotal companion in the Doctor's entire life.
It's made clear frequently in NuWho that no matter how many mortal lifetimes he spends being a hero, if left alone too long, the Doctor is simply too alien, too arrogant, and will always relapse and become something rather terrifying, even if his intentions are good. I have always believed there's a reason his best friend growing up was the Master. Thus, this is from the beginning a fundamentally optimistic story of choosing to be better and working toward it. Ian is the model for someone who is not a hero to become one, demonstrating compassion and leadership, and the best of humanity. I think that's kind of beautiful.
The general wisdom with regards 'An Unearthly Child' is that the first episode (the one befitting the title) is a classic and the remainder, involving cavemen, are boring. Which I can understand, but I would like to add a little nuance to the take: The first two episodes are riveting. The other two are narratively dull, thanks to putting the emphasis on the wrong component. Cavemen politics are not a snooze, but cavemen doing all the action (Old Woman lets our heroes go, caveman fights off jungle creature, two cavemen do battle, etc) kind of is. In the third and fourth episodes, our heroes spend a lot of time thrashing about without getting anywhere.
There's a certain realism to that. The companion formula is not in place. The Doctor chooses his companions for a reason, and that gets the ball rolling very quickly in NuWho, because he'll pick someone with fortitude, who asks the right questions, but who also demonstrates compassion and wonder (I think this is why most companions are young women, because they're less likely to respond aggressively to a threat, and the Doctor needs that counterbalance). The Doctor will also be the most competent, confident person in the room, allaying any likeliness of panic.
Here, he's just a desperate, misanthropic abductor who is valued by his "companions" only because he's the barely-competent pilot for their introductory spacecraft. And while they try to keep the Doctor alive, they are fighting absolute terror. They just wanted to stalk their student and moonlight as social workers, and now they're stuck in prehistory.
I can't say much about Barbara here, because she spends most of the episode in hysterics. Which, you know, is very understandable in the circumstances! Not very interesting, though. She gets better later.
What surprised me most is Susan. There is something really, really wrong in her behavior, but it's not what Ian and Barbara are on about. This girl has no confidence. She's frantic the second she thinks her grandfather is gone and goes tearing off to tackle cavemen while clearly scared out of her mind. She doesn't come across as a capable, space-faring adventurer. She comes across as someone who has been deeply traumatized. She says they've been in the 60s for five months and she's been happy. She's got no friends, she's laughed at by her peers, her teachers find her exasperating, half her classes bore her... and she's been really happy? What the hell happened to her when they ran from Gallifrey?
I don't want an answer to that, by the way. I know current trends lean toward overexplaining lore, and part of the reason I went to Classic instead of post-Moffat (besides availability) is because the Classic era promises more of the unexplained mysteries of which I am very fond. For instance, Susan appears to have a sense that her grandfather is in trouble. Does she have latent psychic abilities? It's common enough in NuWho. If she did have that power, would that go a ways toward explaining why the Doctor stopped traveling with her? Imagine the torment of sensing death and pain, and wandering around the universe with a magnet for death and pain!
It's a fun theory, anyway.
Other random observations:
1. Moffat apparently never met an allusion he didn't love. Coal Hill School and the "fear makes companions of us all" line are both callbacks, which of course I didn't realize.
2. Watching William Hartnell in this performance is just mesmerizing. The whole first episode is a great actor showcase. The Doctor being introduced in the antagonist role is so unexpected. It's a pity he is only the central focus during the first episode and then is kind of brushed aside.
3. It's also very interesting to note how old he is. He's clearly close to the end of his first regeneration, and he's reached it through simple passage of time, meaning he lived an exceedingly ordinary life on Gallifrey. A rubbish student, a bit eccentric perhaps, got into some trouble now and then, but ordinary. Started a family, lived a long Time Lord life, became a grandfather and then... something went terribly wrong. And he and his granddaughter fled, and they can't/won't go back. Did I mention I love mysteries?
4. What's most impressive is how much of what DOES qualify for early installment weirdness is fairly easy to headcanon. Susan claiming she invented the TARDIS acronym is said in such hurried tones, it's easy to say she's lying, either to go easy on her teachers' sanity, or because her grandfather is right there and he's really paranoid and hostile, so delivering some false information might be a way to soothe him. Or maybe TARDIS is not an acronym (or not an English acronym), and Susan was just being whimsical?
Meanwhile, the Doctor goes into a rant about how the "red Indian's savage mind couldn't understand the steam engine," which sounds weird as hell coming from him, but he's saying it to Ian, while Ian is flatly refusing to accept the TARDIS despite being in it, and it's very clear the Doctor has zero respect for this guy. It's also clear from his following line about "I tolerate the 20th century, but I don't enjoy it" that the Doctor is actually mocking the hell out of Ian, speaking to him in terms the Doctor thinks he'd understand. The Doctor is not a hero, he has no affection for Earth, he's here randomly (since he can't pilot the TARDIS) and has only stayed to please his granddaughter.
Not sure how to explain the pipe, though. I guess to blend in among the savages of the 20th century, he took up smoking? And getting attacked by cavemen for doing so probably put him off it thereafter? How to Quit Smoking, the Doctor Who Method! (*not recommended by actual doctors).
Anyway, this was much more fun than I expected.
no subject
Date: 2026-02-09 06:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-02-09 09:16 pm (UTC)A large percentage of the classic era has been uploaded to YT, so I figure I should take advantage of it! Barbara improves with each of the serials I have watched, so I'll look forward to 'The Aztecs.'