When it came to communicating with Hur and Za, this proved near impossible, instead resulting in a Stone Age version of Give Us A Clue. Of course, as many fans have pointed out, Ian and Barbara's initial experience strengthened them because they saw how primitive The Doctor regarded them. No sense of fun, just four people trying to escape from a terrifying plight. Like I said, the Trip Of A Lifetime on this occasion is about as enticing as an all-expenses paid trip to the local abattoir. There's that harrowing bit when Barbara falls over the carcass of a dead animal and starts screaming and crying in horror. However, they both prove to use their resources to make their escapes from the Tribe Of Gum, even when the odds are against them. They are both perfectly intelligent and resourceful, but when thrown into The Doctor's world, they're totally out of their depth, both in knowledge and in experience. Ian and Barbara are both likeable and realistic characters. William Russell and Jacqueline Hill are fantastic, both providing the identity figures for us humble peasants at home. Still, the other three regular actors are no slouches either. Hartnell's début is one of his best performances, and amazingly, there's hardly a fluff to be found throughout the story. Although put him next to The Doctor of An Unearthly Child, and suddenly Avon starts to resemble a cheery kids TV presenter by comparison. Last year, I reviewed nearly all the Blake's 7 stories for a website called Den Of Geek, which included sneering computer expert Avon. Hartnell is a commanding presence throughout the story, and makes for a perfect anti-hero, which may be just a bit too disquieting for the younger kids. Isn't William Hartnell brilliant though? An utterly arresting performance, which is totally at odds with his usual lovable grandfather persona of later stories. Never mind Nicotine patches, a quick trip to prehistoric Stone Age should stop smoking once and for all. Although he's probably put off the habit for life after hearing the sounds of "UHHHNGG! MAKE FIRE!" ringing in his ears for all time. Oh, and he's seen to be a smoker, something that would be met with jaw-dropping outrage today. As the episodes progress, he's even willing to bash a caveman's head in, just so that he and his unwilling companions can get back to the TARDIS. Heck, he's even not above booby trapping the TARDIS console, causing Ian to get an electric shock when he tries to get free. By the time they've blundered into the TARDIS, he's moved onto haughty, patronising disdain about their inability to grasp the concept of relative dimensions and time travel. In the first episode alone, he's rude and offhand while dealing with Ian and Barbara's enquiries about freaky Susan. And in this story, The Doctor is selfish, arrogant, vicious even. Imagine you're stuck next to him on a plane and you're listening to your iPod at reasonable volume, he'd still probably whip out a pair of scissors and cut your earphones in two just to prove a point, all the while, making that sinister little giggle as he does so. The Doctor in An Unearthly Child is not the ideal travelling companion. And rather than the reliable 'hero' tag that's commonly associated with The Doctor, the younger viewers can only identify with the luckless Ian and Barbara as they are catapulted into a terrifying new way of life. There's no real sense of fun or joie-de-vivre. For a show that's traditionally linked with Bug Eyed Monsters and alien planets, both are conspicuously absent. What makes the début adventure stand out is by how atypical it is. And yet, An Unearthly Child is utterly compelling TV, right from the outset. The Doctor isn't exactly Mr Smiles either. The pace of storytelling is a lot slower than most modern audiences are used to. The effects aren't quite as hot as nowadays. That's what happened way back in the cold Autumn months of 1963, when a crotchety old man tried in vain to stop two pesky teachers barging into a ramshackle police box that actually happened to be an impossibly bigger on the inside than on the outside time-space machine.Īctually, looking back on Doctor Who's recent revival, you kind of wonder what sort of reaction An Unearthly Child would have got from modern viewers. In the meantime, here is the review for the first Doctor Who tale, An Unearthly Child!
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