I'd like to pause a moment and think of these first thirteen episodes in isolation.
What if Sydney Newman had turned left instead of right? What might have tipped the balance in favour of cancellation? I think the latter three episodes of 'An Unearthly Child' are, if I'm honest, a bit boring and completely at odds with the modern, urbane and stunningly futuristic first episode. I can only imagine that people sat through them desperately hoping for another glimpse of the inside of that wonderful machine in the same way that they must have sat through the confusion of this episode revelling in the set and wishing the Daleks would come back.
That said, it's all too easy to see why Sydney took a chance and turned right (phew!)
The first episode of the series is staggering, the Daleks are a superb creation, the concept of the TARDIS is wonderful and its realisation fabulous, both inside and out. Terry Nation shows how to construct a script in a style and format which remained in use until 1989. And some of David Whitaker's dialogue in this current story is sublime. And then of course there's the wonderful cast. No wonder the show has lasted so long.
The Doctor is so darkly alien in these early stories. At times he comes across as a desperate fugitive. He clearly relishes exploring the cosmos, free of the constraints of the Time Lords. Only Susan, rather like Rose so many years later, can literally bring him down to Earth for a period of stability which he seems to detest. He seizes the excuse to set off into time and space again to explore even if it might mean kidnapping two humans, murdering a caveman and sabotaging his own ship to explore the Dalek city. Until Barbara stops him. In the same sublime way that, thinking about it, Polly stops Troughton, Jo stops Pertwee, Sarah stops Tom Baker's Doctor, Rose stops Ecclestone, Donna stops David Tennant's and Amy stops Matt Smith's.
I think this post is starting to resemble the episode itself in being all over the place, but with some very good bits! So perhaps it's time we moved on.
Which brings us to a fresh challenge. The next story is gone from the archives. Well in terms of being a television programme it's gone. So many bits of it still remain, crucially the soundtrack. Also production photographs, telesnaps, reconstructions, the script and the novelisation by the original author. It's going to be fun pulling all of this material together to try to get a sense of the story. Fancy a challenge?
Next episode: The Roof of the World
