First Doctor Who Impression

[PorthosShadow]

After all this time I finally got around to watching "An Unearthly Child" and I really liked it but then a question arose, did I like the episode because the story is solid or am I liking it because I know who The Doctor is, where he comes from and everything that is to follow.

So really, the question is if I went into the first episode knowing nothing of Doctor Who would I enjoy it as much if I didn't know what was going to happen next. I would like to say that I enjoyed the episode with no bias but that's impossible.

I think I liked it because it was good by it's self and because of what happens afterwards.

 

[Captain Pike]

Did you just watch the first episode, or did you watch the first story ?

Because if the former, I can agree that it's a good episode, but if the latter then I think it almost, but not entirely, fails miserably after the first part.

Anyway, whatever. Welcome to the nuthouse..

 

[23skidoo]

I remember hating episodes 2-4 of An Unearthly Child when I first saw them in the late 80s, but when I watched the DVD I found myself actually liking the story. Yeah, it was extremely low-key compared to what came after, but I thought it was surprisingly solid with lots of good character bits. I no longer am of the opinion that it fails.

All that said, I do think the first episode stands on its own as a classic story, even without any knowledge of what comes after. This was in 1963, the era of the Twilight Zone and its marvellous half-hour televised SF and fantasy short stories. An Unearthly Child would have worked perfectly as a Twilight Zone.

Imagine an exterior shot of the TARDIS fading away at the end of the episode, with the sound of Susan screaming "grandfather, no!" And then Rod Serling coming on giving one of his trademark: "Submitted for your approval, two average everyday schoolteachers, who went out one evening to check on the welfare of one of their students, but never returned home. Where did they go? No one ever found out back at Coal Hill School, where the story of Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright and the mysterious teenager who mysteriously disappeared became the stuff of legend. But of course WE know where they went... The Twilight Zone...."

Alex