The story that started a legend

Thanks to the ABC in Australia choosing to repeat Doctor Who from the beginning, I now have the opportunity to watch the program right from the beginning, with every complete story, plus a few surprises to be screened over the next few years. Therefore, I am taking the opportunity to review every complete story as they air them, slotting in the missing audios and incomplete where appropriate.

The opening episode of 100 000 BC, An Unearthly Child gets the series off to an intriguing start. The title sequence is made up of mysterious 'howl around' patterns, accompanied by theme music unlike any other that has used previous or subsequent to Doctor Who. The episode opens on a Policeman doing his rounds past a junkyard, a junkyard that contains what appears to be an ordinary Police Box. This opening scene sets up an important later segment of the episode.

The action then switches to Coal Hill School, where teachers Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton discuss their problems with student Susan Foreman. These scenes establish the characters of Ian and Barbara, and show how much of a rapport actors Jaqueline Hill and William Russell have already developed, convincingly protraying a long term friendship between work colleagues.

These scenes also give our first view of Susan. These first scenes present Susan as a brilliantly minded, yet slightly disturbed student; with a mysterious grandfather who doesn't like visitors. Here, Carole Anne Ford gives an excellent performance of Susan, presenting her as having some aspects of a normal teenager, yet some things that set her apart from the rest.

When the action switches to the junkyard and the TARDIS that we are finally introduced to the Doctor. William Hartnell is wonderful as the Doctor, giving us a highly intelligent person that likes to act superior around others. I have to agree with the Doctor's motives for abducting Ian and Barbara; had he let them go, they would have no doubt talked of their experiences, forcing the Doctor and Susan to leave the Earth.

After the TARDIS leaves twentieth century London behind, we are treated to a sequence made up of footage from the excellent title sequence, overlaid over Susan and the Doctor's face, accompanied by the sounds of the TARDIS travelling through the vortex.

An Unearthly Child ends with the TARDIS landing on a deserted landscape, then the shadow a shadow slowly starts to cross the landscape...

The TARDIS console room set is the only set remaining from Peter Brachacki's designs for the pilot episode, as Barry Newberry reworked significantly the other sets for the remount of An Unearthly Child. Brachacki's design for the console room has served as the basis for every console room since, with a central control panel and indented walls; and is very impressive in its first appearance.

With the action switching to the past, the story takes a bit of a downward turn. The TARDIS scenes of The Cave of Skulls work well, still showing Ian and Barbara's disbelief as to their situation, and then their growing realisation that they have travelled into the past. The explorations of where they have landed works well, with Susan and the Doctor's puzzlement over the TARDIS not changing its form.

However, the majority of the tribe come of as very one note in The Cave of Skulls, with only Old Mother, Za, Kal and Hur making a impression on the viewer.

The caveman storyline pick up in The Forest of Fear, as Old Mother sets the TARDIS crew free, and Kal's true nature is revealed when he kills Old Mother and then tells the tribe Za and Hur comitted the crime.

We also get some scenes of team work between the TARDIS crew when stopping to help Za and Hur; and some tension, when Ian stops the Doctor from killing Za. As the episode ends, the TARDIS crew fail in their attempt to return to the TARDIS.

The Firemaker continues to pick up the pace. Kal and Za fight for the leadership of the tribe in a scene excellently directed by Warris Hussain, with Norman Kay's incidental music highlighting the action and the uneven light of the fire adding a slightly disorientated tone to events.

The TARDIS crew once more work together to escape, with Susan inspiring Ian's plans for their escape, an interesting deception that plays out well - the tribe's fear is played convincingly by all actors involved.

Unusally for a Doctor Who story, Coburn's script ends with the TARDIS crew fleeing for their lives back to the TARDIS, narrowly avoiding getting speared by the furious tribe. Once back in the TARDIS, the mistrust the crew have for each other begins again, as the TARDIS lands somewhere that could be anywhere.

Overall, 100 000 BC starts of with an excellent first episode, which is slightly let down by the second episode, before the pace and characterisation picks up again for the final two episodes.

7.5/10

Next time: The Doctor should have double checked that radiation counter, as the TARDIS crew visit Skaro and meet its inhabitants...

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