1x1. 100,000 B.C. (a.k.a. "An Unearthly Child")
Writer: Anthony Coburn
Director: Waris Hussein
Script Editor: David Whitaker
Producers: Verity Lambert & Mervyn Pinfield
Synopsis: Schoolteachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright,
curious
about the strange behavior of their student Susan Foreman, follow her
"home"
only to stumble upon the Doctor and his TARDIS. Unwilling to let them
leave,
the Doctor transports them back in time to the Stone Age, where they
all
soon become captives of a tribe of cavemen. Rivals Za and Kal,
contending
for the tribe's leadership, have been trying and failing to make fire
and
are both convinced that the time travelers may possess the necessary
knowledge.
Review: The most important task for the first episode of a
television series is to introduce the premise and the characters in a
way that makes it clear to the audience what the show is about and
leaves them wanting to come back the next week. At that, "100,000 B.C."
(more commonly, but apparently
incorrectly, known by the title of its first part, "An Unearthly
Child")
is a success: by the time it's over, we know that the series will
center
around the adventures of the alien time traveler known as the Doctor,
his
granddaughter Susan, and their two unwilling human companions Ian
Chesterton
and Barbara Wright, and they're all interesting enough that we want to
see
more of them.
The Doctor as portrayed in "100,000 B.C." is not a particularly
likeable
or pleasant individual most of the time, more concerned with himself
than
with Ian and Barbara or the cavemen. He's willing to promise
either
fire or the lack thereof in order to bargain for his freedom, seemingly
indifferent
to how his decision might affect the tribe. Such a reaction is
understandable
coming from his frightened companions (who also seem willing to play
both
sides), and of course this is not Star Trek
and there is no Prime Directive, but one might expect the Doctor to
have
a little more consideration for the consequences of his actions.
At
one point it almost seems that he's about to kill or at least further
incapacitate the wounded Za with a sharp
rock rather than allow the others' concern for him to delay their
escape.
(When challenged by Ian, he claims that he had picked up the rock only
so
that Za could draw a map back to the TARDIS for them, but William
Hartnell
plays the scene so that we're not sure whether to believe him.) Still,
he
has his redeeming moments. By warning the tribe that he'll never give
them
fire if Ian is killed, he acknowledges that he's responsible for Ian's
and
Barbara's well-being now that he's brought them along on his travels,
and
his incitement of the tribe against Kal seems borne out of genuine
dislike
of his brutal tendencies.
Fortunately, Ian, Barbara, and Susan make for more accessible
protagonists,
and the conflict between the Doctor's selfishness and their more
compassionate
approach is refreshing for those of us who might find this early
version
of the Doctor a little hard to swallow. Ian and Barbara certainly do
not
want to be here, and Susan would prefer to have stayed in 1963 as well,
but
they can't bring themselves to just walk away when they find Za wounded
by
a confrontation with a wild animal. This humanitarian tendency is
particularly
strong in Barbara, who rightly takes offense when Ian, despite his
willingness
to help, makes a wisecrack that seems to compare Za to a stray animal.
The
only area where the script goes wrong with the companions is in having
Barbara
get so hysterical when they're out in the woods. Such a reaction might
be
understandable under the circumstances, but the fact that the equally
inexperienced
Ian is so much more composed makes it seem a bit dated and sexist.
The more noticeable shortcoming of "100,000 B.C." is its handling of
the cavemen and their situation. To put it simply, Doctor Who
can, and would, do a lot better than this when it comes to telling a
strong self-contained story. One might argue that these cavemen
represent the story of a society in transition, and the character of
the old woman who thinks fire will destroy the tribe adds a little
complexity to the situation, as
she gives a human face to the fear that inevitably accompanies
technological progress. But aside from her role, the conflicts are
mostly driven by a simple battle for power between Za and Kal: these
cavemen do not possess enough
depth or energy for the audience to get very invested in their
situation,
and there's no sense of potential human progress to accompany the
advance
in technology. (To illustrate my point, suppose that, instead of a
tribe
in which no one knows how to make fire, we'd been given one in which a
number
of different members, and not just the leader, had learned how to make
fire
and thus posed a challenge to the tribe's system of one-man rule.
Wouldn't
that have been more interesting and relevant, and more engaging on a
human
level?)
Moreover, it isn't clear to me that Za or anyone else actually learns
how to make fire without the help of the TARDIS crew. I'd say it's
fairly
likely that, before long, these people would be stuck right back where
they
were at the beginning of the story. The protagonists do not really
effect
any change for better or worse here (aside from maybe saving Za's life
and
exposing Kal's brutality, but others would probably soon fill both
their
places), and the script wraps things up by having them simply escape
and
go back to the TARDIS. The result is that the story doesn't really go
anywhere,
and the main characters' role amounts to a brief disruption in what
seems
to be an essentially static situation.
That said, there are no obvious plot holes, the story moves along at a
reasonable
pace, and it does at least provide an effective catalyst for some
interesting
interaction between the TARDIS crew. Although "100,000 B.C." does not
represent
the best that Doctor Who has to offer, it's an adequate
introduction
that at least occasionally shows hints of the imaginative and clever
storytelling
that we would eventually come to expect from the series.
Other notes:
- The question of whether or not the Doctor is really Susan's
"grandfather"
is one that, as far as I know, has never been completely resolved.
Obviously,
this will be something to watch for in future Hartnell episodes. My
impression,
though I can't swear to this, is that this was not part of the original
concept
for Susan's character; rather, the producers were worried that some
might
read unsavory implications into the idea of a 15-year-old girl and an
old
man traveling together and thought this would eliminate any such
concerns.
- For some reason, the idea that Susan invented the term TARDIS doesn't
seem
quite right. I can't place a specific example, but I'm pretty sure that
other
Time Lord characters will use the term later in the series. I suppose
one
could rationalize it by saying that she came up with the term before
she
and the Doctor left Gallifrey and that it was then adopted by the
others.
(Of course, the mythos surrounding Gallifrey and the Doctor's departure
had
not yet been developed, so it's not surprising that there might be some
incongruities.)
- Even in the very first episode, Doctor Who doesn't seem much
like a kids' educational show. I realize that television was probably
different in Britain in 1963,
but I doubt that many kids' shows would feature a lead character as
enigmatic
and stubborn as the Doctor, especially in this early incarnation.
Rating: *** (out of four)
"Who is he? Doctor who?"
-Ian Chesterton
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