Doctor Who (1963) 1.01.01.a

An Unearthly Child - Pilot

Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, two teachers at Coal Hill School, compare their experiences with Susan Foreman, one of their students. They are both impressed by her and somewhat puzzled. She seems to know both more and less than they expect that a student her age would know.

Ian and Barbara offer her a ride home. She declines the offer. They know where she lives. Barbara has even been there but it is odd because it isn't a home but an old junk yard. Ian and Barbra return to the address where Susan is supposed to live. They watch her enter the yard. They follow her in but she has disappeared.

Ian and Barbara look around the junk yard. They find a police box. It seems out of place and there's a humming sound coming from it. They are thinking about leaving when an old man enters the yard. They confront him. They think they heard Susan's voice calling to him from inside the police box. They ask him to open it but he refuses.

The door to the police box opens. Barbara and Ian force their way past the old man and find themselves in a large room. The police bos is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. Susan is in there. They talk to her and the old man, her grandfather, about the box. Susan calls it the TARDIS. Ian and Barbara can't believe what they are experiencing. They learn that the old man and Susan are not from Earth and that Susan was born in the 49th century.

The old man decides he can't let them go now that they know about the police box. Susan pleads with her grandfather but he refuses to let them go. He goes for the control panel. Barbara and Ian try to stop him but he throws a switch and the TARDIS takes off. 

Thoughts

Technically speaking this was not a pilot just the first filmed version of this episode. It is referred to as the pilot on the DVD.

This version of the first episode of the first Doctor Who story is slightly different from the broadcast version of this episode. The last 10 minutes of the pilot were shot twice. The studio recording version of the pilot includes both versions of the final scene of the pilot which takes place in the TARDIS.

There is a commentary track with producer Verity Lambery, director Waris Hussein, and Gary Russell. Russell was the editor of Doctor Who Magazine (1992-95) and executive producer of Big Finish Productions (1998-2006). Lambert and Hussein talk to Russell about their memories of making the pilot. It must have been recorded no later than 2006 but it is unclear to me approximately when it was recorded.

I enjoyed this quite a bit. It was is an interesting piece of history. I will be watching the broadcast version of this episode next. My expectations are tempered. I don't expect to be amazed or blown away by the quality of the early stories.