On the evening of November 23, 1963, the BBC aired An Unearthly Child, the very first episode of Doctor Who... and history was made.
Back in 2009, I convinced Rachel to watch this episode "to gauge her opinion of what I regard as one of the single, finest episodes of science-fiction ever screened".
Here's what I wrote at the time (with some mathematical adjustments):
I'm pleased to report that she enjoyed it; her only problems were the graininess of the image (well, it was filmed in 1963) and she couldn't accept Susan (Carole Ann Ford) as a 15-year-old. Rachel said: "She looked more like 30!"
Could anyone have imagined, when this episode was first screened [62] years ago, the infinite possibilities for storytelling that were being opened up?
Kicking off with a pitch-perfect first episode helped Doctor Who hit the ground running, dropping hints about the mysterious genius schoolgirl, Susan, and her enigmatic Grandfather (William Hartnell) and posing many questions that - to this day - remain unanswered!
Coal Hill School teachers Ian Chesterton (William Russell) and Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill), teachers of science and history respectively (the two subjects the series was initially most interested in), want to find out more about their star pupil and head to the address the school has for her.
It turns out to be a junkyard where they meet a strange, white-haired old man (The Doctor) who tries to drive them off and stop them poking around an old police box (where Ian thinks the man might be holding Susan prisoner!).
Instead Susan opens the door of the police box and the teachers walk in... to find themselves in the control room of the TARDIS... and nothing will ever be the same again, either for them or for the viewers.
How mind-blowing must it have been in 1963 to watch these people step through the doors of a 'normal' police box and find themselves in the vast, hi-tech expanse of a space and time ship?
William Hartnell's Doctor, at this stage, is still rather irascible and certainly doesn't appreciate the interference of two busybody teachers into his time on Earth (fixing the TARDIS and, we discover many years later, dealing with the Hand Of Omega).
Hence, his rather impetuous way of keeping his and Susan's secret - transporting the TARDIS away randomly, taking Ian and Barbara with them!
The TARDIS clearly isn't fully repaired as its first televised journey manages to knock Ian and Barbara unconscious and The Doctor and Susan appear rather strained by it as well.
They have travelled back to Earth's Stone Age and that is a story (called variously The Tribe Of Gum, 100,000BC, The Stone Age, The Cavemen etc) which I've always, rather cheekily, considered its own entity. I feel An Unearthly Child suffers if lumped in with this subsequent, less-than-enthralling adventure.
Of course, the main thing is that Rachel didn't fall asleep or wander off while An Unearthly Child was playing and allowed me to explain to her why this one episode is so important - because without it we wouldn't have over [60] years of Doctor Who and all the books, CDs, magazines, action figures etc
 |
| The TV listing in November 23's issue of the Daily Mirror. NB. The actual broadcast was slightly delayed because of the assassination of President Kennedy the day before. |
And this fan documentary looks at the return of Doctor Who after its extended hiatus through the "dark times":