Day One – January 1st 2021
An Unearthly Child and The Cave of Skulls
An Unearthly Child (An Unearthly Child — Episode One)
There’s not a great deal you can say about the first episode, without it being stuff that’s been repeated a hundred times. I mean, it’s perfect, isn’t it? Everything about it just works.
The characters — there’s only the four of them, realistically the ‘Ooh, yes’ kid doesn’t count — just work from the get go. The settings of the junkyard and the TARDIS Control Room are both beautiful in different ways, and contrast with each other so well. I’d never considered how clever it is to go from the dark, gloomy, crowded junkyard to the bright, minimalist interior of the ship before.
I love the way that the science fiction is slowly seeded into the story, going from a fairly everyday drama about two teachers with concerns about one of their students, to the mystery of Susan’s address, the mysterious old man, the police box, and finally the time machine. It feels designed to work with the original report from 1962 which investigated the feasibility of science fiction on the BBC, and was cautious about the public’s reaction.
And then there’s the dialogue, which is so lodged in my head that I could probably recite the whole episode by heart. Of course there’s the oft-quoted ‘Have you ever thought what it’s like to be wanderers in the fourth dimension?’, which is poetry in itself, but I think my favourite line from watching again today is from Ian; ‘I know that free movement time and space is a scientific dream I don’t expect to find solved in a junkyard!’
I’d also never thought about how much I love the idea that travel in the TARDIS is dangerous. Ian and Barbara are knocked unconscious, of course, but even Doctor Who seems to find it uncomfortable, gasping for breath and clinging onto the console as they take off. It wouldn’t work long-term — all the companions would be desperate to leave if time travel was this uncomfortable on a regular basis — but it’s a really interesting idea here, and lends some credibility to the idea that Doctor Who would be willing to remain in 1963 for a while despite his obvious dislike of it.
One last thought for this one; I’ve only just realised that all of the old-fashioned furniture in the Control Room, including the chairs and the eagle lectern, were probably things Doctor Who found in the junkyard on Totter’s Lane. I love the idea that these little bits of 1963 go with him in time and space for so long.
This episode is one of the very few t hatI can remember my score for from my first marathon. I was wary of starting off too high, because I hate it when people review things and swing from ‘10/10, best thing ever’ to ‘1/10, awful’ with very little inbetween. So I was cautious, and started fit of with an 8/10. Which is nonsense, and frankly I knew that at the time. So on this occasion, I’m going in properly and rating this episode 10/10.
The Cave of Skulls (An Unearthly Child — Episode Two)
It’s a fairly often repeated ‘fact’ that An Unearthly Child is a game of two halves. Or, at the very least, it’s a game of the first quarter, and then the rest. Episode One is television magic, perhaps the most perfect way to kickstart a programme that’s been running on-and-off for almost 60 years. And then Episodes Two, Three, and Four are are a bit rubbish.
I’m always desperate to fight against that and say that the whole story is a classic, and that received wisdom is wrong. But it’s not, is it? This episode isn’t as good as the first one, by a really long chalk. It’s telling that my interest perked up once our regulars arrive on the scene, and they get some great material between themselves, but whenever we cut to the cavemen having a row…
Let’s just say it’s lucky the programme has got the Daleks up it’s sleeve in a couple of episodes’ time because I’m not sure this story would have been enough to leave a lasting impression.
But, positives; there’s some cracking dialogue again. Of course today’s favourite has to be ‘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?’, but even some of the cavemen get a few nice lines in there!
One of the more interesting things about watching these two episodes together — although perhaps only interesting to me! — is that between them they act as a kind of history of the TARDIS prop’s evolution during the programme’s early days of production. These two episodes feature three distinct phases of the TARDIS prop’s life.
We get a glimpse of the prop’s first day before the camera at the end of An Unearthly Child; the arrival of the police box into the landscape of 100,000BC was recorded at Ealing Film Studios on September 19th, and it’s the earliest proper filming undertaken for the series. The prop as it appears for this scene is in it’s original clean state, with a wooden finish and the cleanest white window frames you’ll ever see.
Once the Pilot episode was viewed and notes given, the decision was taken to dirty the prop down a little, and this was done before filming returned to Ealing on October 9th. One of the scenes filmed in this session was the TARDIS travellers taking their first steps onto ‘the alien sand’.
Following this the prop was given another overhaul, coated with Artex — more commonly used for decorating ceilings — before studio recording took place for An Unearthly Child at Lime Grove on October 19th. The purpose of the Artex was to give the box a concrete look, rather than wood, as real police boxes were more commonly made of concrete (yes, yes, with wooden doors).
The images below — cribbed from the Old Testament update to my TARDIS History blog, which I’ve not finished writing yet, but one day! — give an indication of the different versions;
Like I say, that might be something that only I find interesting, but it’s worth noting all the same! If there is any interest in this kind of thing, I’ll try to note some more TARDIS info as I work my way through. Let me know on Instagram.
I think I’m going to have to go in a fair bit lower with my score for The Cave of Skulls; 5/10.
