An Unearthly Child
by Anthony Coburn
Originally Broadcasted: November 23rd-December 14th, 1963
School teachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright follow student Susan Foreman home, which for her is a dumpster on Totter's Lane. Little do they know that she really lives in a spaceship called the TARDIS with her grandfather, The Doctor. The Doctor kidnaps Ian and Barbara and they set off on their first adventure, desparately trying to avoid fire obsessed cavemen...
As you probably already know, An Unearthly Child is the first ever episode of Doctor Who. It's almost like two stories in one, with the first being a set-up of the whole series, and the second being the TARDIS crew's first adventure in time. Even though much of the lore of Doctor Who as we know today wasn't dreamt of at the time, Episode One really did perfectly start the series off. The Doctor's introduction is given a eery and creepy vibe, and we really don't know who this man is or what he's all about. I don't think the production team did either, as evidenced by the fact that he tried to kill a caveman and was shown smoking a pipe. The story gets a little weaker as we head back to 100,000 BC. If you look at it outside of the context of being the first Doctor Who story, it's not the strongest story. The threat is rather minimal to our heroes in comparison to most other stories, even the one immediately succeeding it. But as it's the first ever story, that brings a certain nostalgic element to it. Overall a fantastic introduction to Doctor Who, and one of the better First Doctor stories.
Luke's Rating: 7/10
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