Doctor Who: Countdown To 50- Week One

AN UNEARTHLY CHILD
Now we're here into Doctor Who's almighty 50th Anniversary year, each and every week here on the blog I'll be providing an exclusive retrospective on a story from one of the Eleven Doctors, focusing on the individual stars of the show as the months progress towards November 23rd. Today, it's the turn of the programme's very first ever story, An Unearthly Child (or 100,000 BC, as the pilot was originally named), to go under the proverbial radar.

Right from the off, the sense of drama and pace that keeps Who afloat at the top of TV rankings to this day is visible in the opening episode of the five instalments that make up the story. There's mystery within, as teachers Barbara and Ian follow their elusive student Susan into a junkyard called 76 Totter's Lane, discovering a strange police box and its possessive inhabitant, an old man who clearly has secrets to keep to himself. For long-term fans of the show, of course, it's understandable that the Doctor chooses not to allow his investigators to leave the TARDIS, instead taking them away from 1960s London and into the time where cavemen walked the Earth. The first journey in the ship is one of pure awe for the viewer, and the cliffhanger where a large shadow looms over the police box is certainly an iconic initial ending.

From Episode Two onwards, An Unearthly Child enters different territory altogether, focusing on the discovery of fire and the dangers that time travel revolution can have on the causal nexus. It's an unexpected turn of events, one that speaks wonders of the unpredictable nature of the show, and yet with hindsight it does detract somewhat from the immediate nature of Barbara and Ian's plight, something which wouldn't perhaps gel so well with viewers. Eventually, we know that these two new companions of the Time Lord will grow to love their travels through time and space, and yet for now it becomes something of a tiresome wait for such a transition even to begin.

Nevertheless, as a premiere story for the sci-fi drama, An Unearthly Child does a fantastic job of kicking things off with an almighty bang. Doctor Who remains one of the greatest television programmes available to this day, and with this first adventure, it's clear to see just where it all started, the roots of the greatness that was to come. For one thing was certain: from here on out, the TARDIS could take its crew through all of time and space, everywhere and anywhere, as soon as its latest inhabitants had answered one simple question..."Where do you want to start?"

NEXT WEEK: THE DALEKS