Story #1 "An Unearthly Child"

Season

1

Writer

Anthony Coburn

Book/CD

 X

Episodes

4

Director

Warris Hussain

Vid

 X

Story code

A

Producer

Verty Lambert

DVD

X

Episode Details

Episode

DR MM:SS

TX dd/mm/yy

RPT TX dd/mm/yy

In BBC Archive

1

23:24

23/11/1963

Y

2

24:26

30/11/1963

Y

3

23:38

07/12/1963

Y

4

24:22

14/12/1963

Y

Cast Details

Regular Cast

William Hartnell (First Doctor) , Carole Ann Ford (Susan), Jacqueline Hill (Barbara), William Russell (Ian)

Guest Cast:

Derek Newark (Za), Alethea Charlton (Hur), Eileen Way (old Mother), Jeremy Young (Kal), Howard Lang (Horg)

Synopsis

An Unearthly Child (also referred to as 100,000 BC) is the first serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 23 November to 14 December 1963. Written by the Australian writer Anthony Coburn, it introduces William Hartnell as the First Doctor, Carole Ann Ford as Susan Foreman, Jacqueline Hill as Barbara Wright and William Russell as Ian Chesterton. The first episode deals with Ian and Barbara's discovery of the Doctor and his time-space ship TARDIS in a junkyard in contemporary London. The remaining episodes are set amid a power struggle between warring Stone Age factions.

Notes

The serial that became An Unearthly Child was originally commissioned from writer Anthony Coburn in June 1963, when it was intended to run as the second Doctor Who serial. At this stage, it was planned that the series would open with a serial entitled The Giants, to be written by BBC staff scriptwriter C. E. Webber.^[4] Webber had been heavily involved in the brainstorming meetings which had led to the creation of Doctor Who, and — with BBC Head of Drama Sydney Newman and Head of Serials Donald Wilson — had co-written the initial format document for the series.

By the middle of June, however, Wilson and Doctor Who's initial "caretaker producer" Rex Tucker decided to reject The Giants. This was partly because it was felt the serial lacked the necessary impact for an opener, and partly because it was felt that the technical requirements of the storyline — which involved the leading characters being drastically reduced in size — would be beyond the capacities of the young series at this point, given the facilities available.^[4] Due to the lack of scripts ready for production, it was decided to move Coburn's serial up to first place in the running order.^[4]

The unaired Pilot of the story exists in BBC Library and can be purchased via our BBC Videos page

It is very different from what was transmitted the character of the doctor is much darker almost evil and he is very much the anti-hero. It was re-shot on insistence of the senior managers who thought that the dark version of the doctor would prove too frightening

(Notes about unaired pilot thanks to Jenny Day)