Story One: An Unearthly Child

While the first episode is an exception, this is a cave man story.  I think it's fair to say that with a story about time travel, cave men seem inevitable.  It's cliche, but I don't know if it was cliche in '63. Thankfully this is the only time in memory that the Doctor goes to cave man days.  It's not a horrible story, but certainly (first episode as exception) one of my least-favorite Hartnell-era stories.  It's the first historical Doctor Who as well.  Many of the first doctor's stories were historical (that is, they took place in a time of Earth's history)

You can find the synopsis in numerous places, and I'm not going to provide that here for many reasons.  If you haven't seen it, you shouldn't have everything spoiled for you, and if you have seen it, you already know.  If for some reason you did want a synopsis you can find them in numerous places online, including Tardis Data Core.  This said, there are and probably always will be spoilers in these posts.



Themes: There were three main themes here, and they are all common ones in Doctor Who.  We'll see them again and again.  Inprisonment of the other, fear of progress, and political conflict.  We also have a moral (morals are common too!) of community vs independence.  On the political side, the horde of cavemen are indecisive and are often swayed in the direction of Za or Kal (or even the old leader, sometimes), and this certainly represents humanity today.

Other Notes: Fire is really beautiful in black and white.  Also, this is as far as I am aware, in the Doctor's timeline the very first time humans enter the TARDIS.  He was dead-set against it, and in a struggle it just happened.

Episode Notes

 While most classic Doctor Who episodes are named something like this: "An Unearthly Child - Part One", instead with the earliest episodes, we have a different convention.  Each episode has a name, and the ends of the stories usually also have cliffhangers leading to the beginning of the next story.  We don't see a return to named episodes until the new Doctor Who episodes starting with the Ninth Doctor, where we lose the multi-episode story format.

An Unearthly Child: This episode alone is worth the set.  It sets the entire thing up.  We're introduced to so many significant concepts and people here, it's a must-see for any fan.  It's a charming episode, and the thing has an increasing tone of mystery and danger.  When the very first person enters the TARDIS for the very first time, it's executed brilliantly.  Barbara stumbles forward into the TARDIS and is overcome with its magnitude.  It is overwhelming, alien, malign and hits like a sledgehammer to the face.  The music plays eerily as the camera pans the walls and panel of the TARDIS.  Ian had just walked around the exterior only moments before.  It's a great moment.  The Doctor here is not as many know him today.  He is crotchety, with tinges of madness.  He has a very clear dark side.  He laughs at the plight of the companions, telling them he cannot let them leave now that they have seen the inside of the TARDIS.  The acronym TARDIS, we find, was devised by Susan herself (they are not all called TARDIS universally as is indicated much later in the series) for Time And Relative Dimension In Space.

The Cave of Skulls: The "yearometer" is broken, and they have no idea what year it is, though assumedly earth.  Susan and the Doctor are both genuinely concerned that when they materialize in the earliest days of humanity when they step out of a police box, and not, say, a tree or a rock.  What will later be named the Chameleon Circuit is faulty.  Also, for the first time ever, the Doctor and his companions are imprisoned.  It will definitely not be the last.  Imprisonment/detainment is a regular event in Doctor Who.

The Forest of Fear: After a brief foray in a beast-filled forest, they are imprisoned again! This time, for use as firemakers and not as prisoners to be executed.

The Firemaker: The one charming piece here is when Susan devises their escape, using skulls on torches to make the cavemen think they are dead.  Finally inside the TARDIS at the end, with spears being chucked as they dematerialize and materialize in a new environment.  Here for the first time we find that the TARDIS is unpredictable, not in proper working condition, and that the Doctor does not have full control over it.

Character Notes

The Doctor: William Hartnell is an amazing Doctor, and is probably my favorite.  He's pragmatic, often cold, and logical.  He shows himself in this episode to be a bit frail (when they run to escape [the first time] he gets out of breath).  He tells Ian at one point, "You're the strongest and you may have to defend us."  While never overt, he has a clear-cut dark side and an air of mystery.  He cackles, and once in a while appears to show his age mentally.

Companions: The originals!  
Susan 'Foreman': Susan, his granddaughter, is an interesting character from the start, when she's the topic of discussion between the two Coal Hill School teachers.  She's a bit screamy, but she's a good match for the doctor with her compassion.  While she's a Time Lord (not yet a known term) she's a teenager (at least in Time Lord years).  She's into music, etc.

Ian Chesterton: Heis role is a perplexing one in some ways.  While he's a science (chemistry?) teacher, he acts here and much more in later stories as a tough hero, similar to ones we see in many older films and tv series.  He's not a flat character though.  He has a somewhat scientific mind, and tries to do the right thing.

Barbara Wright: She's intelligent, with a caring, almost motherly role.  She's intellectually mature, often moreso than any others here.  She's the voice of reason often enough.  Of course, in this episodes, she did have one small emotional breakdown but in most episodes, she's a strong and resiliant character, at least from memory.  She's definitely one of my favorite companions.

Villains: The villain here is ignorance, lust for power, and desperation.  I suppose Kal could be the bad guy but the characters in this story are all fairly human, driven by common human desires.  Za and Kal are neither villains.

Others: The lead caveman female is just called 'Her' (at least, that seemed to be her name).  While she had no direct power, she was a great influencer over the powerful in this story.  I really enjoyed her character.  The old woman (she wasn't even that old, but they made her out that way) put on an excellent performance as well.  She was fear of technology personified.

Quotes

Ian Chesterton (when discussing Susan's grandfather): "He's a doctor, isn't he?"

Barbara Wright (as they are about to enter the scrapyard): Isn't it silly?  I feel afraid, as if we were about to interfere into something that is best left alone."

Susan (to Barbara/Ian, as they enter the TARDIS, with an ominous tone): "You shoudln't have come here."

The Doctor (when Ian refers to him as Doctor Foreman): "Eh? Doctor who? What's he talking about?"

The Doctor, to an unbelieving Ian: "If you could touch the alien sand and hear the cries of strange birds and watch them wheel in another sky, would that satisfy you?"

The Doctor: "It's still a police box!  Why hasn't it changed?  Dear, dear, how very disturbing."

Old Cavewoman: "Fire will kill us all in the end."

The Doctor, when offered to be carried: "Don't be so childish, I'm not senile!"

(when Za is injured - a first and often-repeated response by the Doctor)
Ian: "You're a doctor, do something!"
The Doctor: "I'm not a doctor of medicine."

Barbara (to the Doctor's unwillingness to help an injured caveman): "You treat everybody and everything as something less important than yourself!"

Ian (to Zal, as he wins over the rest of the cavemen): "Remember, Kal is not stronger than the whole tribe."

Ian (to the Doctor, at the end of the story): "You're saying you don't know how to work this thing?"

All for now.  I'll hopefully get better at this as I go along, determine what to document here and what to leave behind.