PLOT

The first episode of this serial has been praised a lot, and for good reason. It’s got a simple plot, but it does a really good job at being a character introduction. I have a whole section to talk about that later though. I like An Unearthly Child’s simplicity. It’s a really atmospheric first episode, especially once we leave Coal Hill behind and get into the junkyard and the TARDIS. It’s the audiences’ very first time seeing it, and its a wonderful introduction. It really just throws you right into the deep end alongside Ian and Barbara.

BARBARA: Is this really where you live, Susan?

SUSAN: Yes.

DOCTOR: And what's wrong with it?

IAN: But it was just a telephone box.

The rest of the story is pretty simple as well. While many people, including myself before this rewatch, cite the caveman section of the serial as a drop in quality. While I do think it’s hard to live up to the spooky and inventive first episode, they are not nearly as bad as I used to think. I did get a bit fatigued at the end, but this may have been due to me watching it all in one sitting. The cavemen portion of An Unearthly Child is another really interesting character study. I think that it probably could’ve been two episodes, not three, as everything after Kal’s exile feels a little pointless. I found myself a little confused as to why the cavemen brought them back to the Cave of Skulls. I mean, they had to make fire and all that, but it could have been really interesting to see the cavemen deciding to work with our TARDIS team to make fire, and turn it into a lesson of sorts for the whole tribe, after Ian and Barbara save Za.

CHARACTER

The true meat and potatoes of this serial is the character relationships. This is very important in a first adventure, and especially with the circumstances that Ian and Barbara come to join the TARDIS team. Ian and Barbara in the first episode are so easily loveable, spilling the tea together after class. It’s clear that they are really good friends, and William Russell and Jacqueline Hill knock it out of the park immediately.

IAN: Oh? Not gone yet?

BARBARA: Obviously not.

IAN: Right, ask a silly question.

BARBARA: I'm sorry.

IAN: That's all right. I'll forgive you this time.

BARBARA: Oh, I had a terrible day. I don't know what to make of it.

IAN: Oh, what's the trouble? Can I help?

Their care for Susan, trying to check up on her after her odd behavior, is really sweet, and yet tinged by that need for adventure that makes for a great companion.

BARBARA: Well, she doesn't seem to have arrived yet. I suppose we are doing the right thing, aren't we?

IAN: You can't justify curiosity.

Susan is also really great in this episode. Carol Ann Ford infuses her with such mystery and competence that unfortunately seems to vanish in the later part of the serial.

The Doctor also has that sense of mystery, but there’s a little bit of danger that seems to come along with this, especially in his interactions with Ian and Barbara in the junkyard.

DOCTOR: Don't you think you're being rather high-handed, young man? You thought you saw a young girl enter the yard. You imagine you heard her voice. You believe she might be inside there. It's not very substantial, is it?

BARBARA: But why won't you help us?

DOCTOR: I'm not hindering you. If you both want to make fools of yourselves, I suggest you do what you said you'd do. Go and find a policeman.

To Ian and Barbara, and even to us as an audience who don’t know this man (unless like me, you watched the revival first, or are rewatching the episode), and he could very well have Susan locked up in a little police box. Even once inside the TARDIS, Ian and Barbara believe Susan is playing some game, and her grandfather is feeding into her delusions. All they want to do is help, even if those of us with hindsight know it’s all real.

THEME

The overarching theme of this serial is compassion. It’s the one thing that sets our TARDIS team apart from the cavemen, and even Ian and Barbara from the Doctor. The power struggle occurring in the caveman society is mirrored in Ian and Barbara’s struggles with the Doctor.

HORG: I do not like what has happened.

ZA: Old men never like new things to happen.

The Doctor is rigidly stuck in his ways, not caring about people and only wanting to save himself and Susan. He kidnaps Ian and Barbara because he thinks they might blab, and that’s how they got into this mess. He is like the Old Mother (why didn’t they give her an actual name??), who doesn’t want the tribe to change and make fire, despite the fact that it would improve their lives in so many ways. The Doctor would rather bash someone’s head in with a rock (he was so obvious about it too? nobody believed you were going to have Za draw the way to the TARDIS my guy) than be the better person.

This is why Ian and Barbara will always be the blueprint. While I feel Barbara’s freakout in Episode 3 to be totally out of character for her (she’s the one who accepts the TARDIS while Ian is still totally confused), the way she snaps out of it so quickly the moment she hears Hur (again, could we give her a better name?) cry out is so compelling.

IAN: Quick, now's our chance. Let's get away. Run!

BARBARA: Look at them. We can't just leave them! I don't care what they've done.

Ian is also immediately on board. The way the two of them are so kind to Hur and Za despite everything– Ian introducing himself as a friend, and Barbara’s soft “Please, show me.” to Hur. Contrast this to the Doctor who goes off to the corner to sulk, refusing to help.

SUSAN: Grandfather, we can make friends with them.

DOCTOR: Oh, don't be ridiculous, child.

BARBARA: Why? You treat everybody and everything as something less important than yourself.

And she’s right. Yet, it seems that Ian and Barbara rub off on him later, when he uses logic to reveal Kal as the one who murdered the Old Mother. He and Ian also come to an agreement when they’re back in the Cave of Skulls making fire.

ZA: Hur said you were called Friend. I am called Za. You are the leader of your tribe?

IAN: No. He is our leader.

IAN: The whole tribe should be watching. Everyone should know how to make fire.

ZA: Everyone cannot be leader.

IAN: No, that's perfectly true. But in our tribe, the firemaker is the least important man.

ZA: Ha! I do not believe this.

DOCTOR: He is the least important because we can all make fire.

This is why I think that the cavemen should’ve ended up working with the TARDIS team instead of chasing them off– while the Doctor has learned to be a little less rigid by accepting Ian as an equal, the message falls a bit flat if compassion isn’t what saves them. It’s trickery, and Susan playing around with skulls. That’s where the cavemen episodes lose me.

LANGUAGE AND MUSIC

Here’s a compilation of some of my favorite lines I couldn’t work into the other sections:

DOCTOR: There's nothing in there.

IAN: Then what are you afraid to show us?

DOCTOR: Afraid? Oh, go away.

DOCTOR: 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?

KAL: Orb is for strong men. Orb has sent me this creature to make fire come from his fingers. I have seen it. Inside, he's full of fire. The smoke comes from his mouth.

ZA: As lies come out of yours.

IAN: It may only be a small opening. Don't count on it.

DOCTOR: Well you obviously are.

IAN: Of course I am. Any hope is better than none. Don't just lie there criticizing us. Do something. Help us all to get out of here. Oh, this stone's no good.

BARBARA: You're trying to help me.

DOCTOR: Fear makes companions of all of us.

Some of the cavemen dialogue was a bit difficult to understand without subtitles, but it wasn’t too bad. There are a lot of iconic lines from this serial, like the alien sand and fear making companions out of all of us, so it definitely deserves kudos despite some of the less than stellar cavemen dialogue.

The music was nice, although not entirely groundbreaking. The music in the first episode is really atmospheric, and helps set the tone well. There’s also some xylophones (?) when the Doctor is being kidnapped by Kal that was really fun, and I loved the clarinets (or other woodwind instrument) while the TARDIS team is escaping the Cave of Skulls for the first time. However, there was a really loud music sting when the Old Mother was revealed to be dead that threw me and it didn’t help that there wasn’t any other music in that scene.

SPECTACLE

I thought the sets were really great. Coal Hill looks awesome, and when Ian and Barbara are on the stakeout the car looks good. The junkyard is super atmospheric and dark, and of course the TARDIS is iconic. I also thought the sandy area that the TARDIS landed on looked great, the sand that they had in the studio really gave it a nice effect. I also loved that they could walk out of the TARDIS doors onto a little bit of outside set. The forest was all right, it was really obvious there that they weren’t working with a lot of space more with it for some reason.

I loved both of Susan’s outfits, and the Doctor’s was great as well, especially with the hat. The cavemen costumes looked pretty good too, although I was a bit confused why some of them didn’t even have so much as a loincloth, just sort of underwear. Za and Barbara were having a bob-off.

MISC.

• the whole first scene with the cavemen where Za was crashing out was (probably unintentionally) really funny
• there’s this child extra who is standing near the camera and I swear he looks right at it as if saying “can you believe this guy”
• Susan leaping onto Kal screaming bloody murder when they find the Doctor
• the Old Mother was fully for the drama
• Hur being the brains of the operation with Za

FINAL SCORE

Apparently I rated this a 2/5 when I first watched this which is crazy. I was using a different ranking system which was based more on enjoyment than analysis though, and I used to dislike the cavemen bit so. Anyway, I give this a 7/10, which makes it a 3.5/5! Congrats An Unearthly Child, you’ve moved up in the world.