Unearthly Child Review

Well, Doctor Who was only meant to last only 6 months and yet is now in the Guinness Book Records for being the longest running science fiction show. And also has a incredibly large fan base. The ratings for this serial weren’t fantastic but were okay at the time achieving around 6 million. But this was said to be because of the assassination of President Kennedy and power cuts.

And before I start there was some excellent direction by Waris Hussein who would also direct Marco Polo a few serial later in 1964.

Part 1 – An Unearthly Child - First impressions are quite good and well if you introduce a fan to a Doctor Who story then it would make sense to make them watch this one first as it’s the first ever Doctor Who story. The first part is a cracker with some excellent acting from all the cast, even the soon to be whiney Susan puts in a nice performance. William Hartnell is purely the star of the show despite the character of the Doctor starting off as ruthless and uncaring. The Tardis set is impressive and there’s also the clever idea of the Tardis being bigger on the inside than the outside.

And funnily enough a stroke of luck about the decimal system bit.

Part 2 – The Cave Of Skulls – While it is not as good as the last episode, the acting is still of a high class. And when the Doctor goes missing you can sense the danger and fear which is greatly helped by the incidental music. We are also introduced to a bunch full of cavemen/cavewomen, with two squabbling wannabe leaders and an old granny lol. Kal is far more likeable while Zal is bordering on insanity placing all his reliance on the Doctor” I saw fire come from his fingers”. While Susan starts whinging a little and the story has a spooky cliff-hanger.

Part 3 – The Forest of Fear – Barbara is perhaps the weakest aspect of this part spending most of the episode screaming and whining. I must admire the cameramen with the effective blurriness in the first episode and now the scenes were Kal gets attacked which is a wise move to not show the lion which attacked him. Even the elephant head looks quite real for the time. Other than Barbara, the acting is also great. And then there’s the Doctor holding the stone to kill Kal with so they could get away, the first time ever in Doctor Who that he had ever been so ruthless insensitive.

Part 4 – The Firemaker – There are a few tiny annoyances in this story, One. The flashing lights during the fight scene which weren’t exactly needed. Also the part where the regulars are running on the spot while the crew members hit branches at them. The tone seems dark as well with the death of Zal and the death of the guard. But, there are some nice moments with the tribe looking amazed with their eyes lit up as they see the fire.

And the nice cliff-hanger joins onto the next story with the Daleks.

Overall Verdict: It was a nice episode which has its moments and has a spectacular first part. With a good range of acting and some nice direction (for most of it) and perhaps a slightly boring script which is overcome. It lifts up to be one of Doctor Who’s greats.