Doctor Who Classics - An unearthly child
Added 2022-06-26 14:00:07 +0000 UTCSurprise :) Here is yet another Classic episode to enjoy. This was an adventure for me, a joyful, happy adventure. :)
Comments
Thank you Andrew :) Yes the color of the Thumbnail turned out beautiful, thank you for appreciating. :) It´s totally fine for me to see a different style of recording. :) It´s more fascinating to me, than anything else. But thank you for the warning :) I really liked seeing the TARDIS in this episode. I have never seen it in black and white before :) And I like the feeling all those throwbacks were giving me. A cozy, warm retro feeling :) Oh I liked that music. It was the best addition to the episode, and it sounded so oldschool. It reminded me of console games I was playing as a child :) Yes we do celebrate Verity... She really did a great job back then.
Nicologik
2022-07-05 14:56:58 +0000 UTCThat was fun. Happy you enjoyed it. And I like your monochrome thumbnail for the episode. As you watch the stories from this era, you should be aware that the episodes were recorded in a way that people who know how modern series are filmed would find astonishing. They would run scenes completely through from start to finish - and then on into the next scene - and onto the next scene - ... in one single take lasting many minutes and recorded it all with multiple cameras. If an actor made a slight mistake they would just keep going as if it were a stage play. So, for example when the Doctor is taking off his coat and scarf after he enters the TARDIS, William Hartnell accidentally drops the scarf and then stoops to pick it up from the ground. A small mistake - but everyone just keeps on acting. It's great how you pointed out things that have remained throughout the entire series. When they brought back New Who, the producers were very clear that there were not going to change the iconic features of the show that had been there from the beginning - the Police Box, a TARDIS console room with a central column, the TARDIS dematerialization sound, the Ron Grainer theme tune (although the actual music arrangement has changed over the years - as you heard in the 80's Kinda story) The theme music for these early stores was arranged - actually constructed note-by-note with electronic sounds - by Delia Derbyshire. It's an astonishing piece of sound engineering. And of course we celebrate Verity Lambert with her Producer credit for the very first Doctor Who episode - having just witnessed her memorial reference in the Christmas episode.
Andrew Vignaux
2022-06-27 09:43:35 +0000 UTCHaha you really don´t seem to like the pilot episode. I will watch it someday. But as you pointed out already, there are far more interesting episodes to watch before that :)
Nicologik
2022-06-27 07:21:25 +0000 UTCHaha yes, the more I get to know about the Who universe the more questions I have :D I´m glad you liked the reaction :) Yes I remember that line from "time crash" :D Haha thank you for those "answers". There are really interesting parrallels here, that I didn´t see. So thank you for pointing it out, without spoiling anything. :) I know that there are episodes that only exist in an audio version. I don´t know wether the comapany who provides those is "BigFish", but I have heard of those audio tapes before. :) Oh so I was right about the reason for chosing an older actor as the doctor. :)
Nicologik
2022-06-27 07:20:18 +0000 UTCThank you so much :)
Nicologik
2022-06-27 07:15:08 +0000 UTCOh I thought he didn´t let them leave so they couldn´t blow the doctors and Susans cover. But maybe I got it wrong. Your explanation makes sense, too. :) He is only 55? Oh I really thought he was a lot older. They did a good job making him look older then. I´ve never heard of him before though. I don´t know either :D That´s up to Andrew :D But I would really like to see how the story continues :)
Nicologik
2022-06-27 07:14:56 +0000 UTCThank you Andrew, I´m so glad you liked the reaction. :) Thank you for providing me with the original texts that do point out, that the doctor was indeed a grandfather. I knew it was already pointed out somewhere on the way, but I couldn´t recall the exact episodes and scenes, so thank you :)
Nicologik
2022-06-27 07:10:32 +0000 UTCOh,and that 'Pilot Episode'. It's not really worth bothering with, imo. It's the exact same thing as what you've just watched; but the dialogue isn't as sharp; The Doctor is written as a complete and utter psychopath; there are lots of visual mistakes; and there's a really quite bizarre scene with Susan which has absolutely no relevance to the story,and which goes absolutely nowhere. It's the sort of thing you could watch when you've seen absolutely everything else in the Whoniverse; and you're desperate for one last thing to react to :)
Ian Smith
2022-06-26 16:34:33 +0000 UTCSo many hypothetical questions! What a lovely surprise reaction :D Andrew has given some very good examples of where the Revived Series eludes to events in the Classic series - but do you member the line that the Doctor says to the Doctor ,in "Time Crash"? "Back at the start I was old and grumpy; like you are when you're young" It's always interesting to think that the First Doctor is hugely younger than the Tenth - and also hugely less experienced. It's implied that he's not been away from Gallifrey (or 'his home planet',as it was referred to back then) for too long. He and Susan are exiles- which means that they're on the run. It's an interesting parallel with the New series. The First Doctor can't go back home due to something bad that he seems to have done; the Ninth and Tenth Doctors can't go back home because it no longer exists - due to something bad he seems to have done. Answers; answers! :) I don't know if you're aware of Big Finish,the audio production company who have a license to make Doctor Who audio dramas? They recently put out a range of audio stories featuring Carole Ann Ford as Susan, where they tell the saga of what happened to Susan and the Doctor after they left Gallifrey; and how they came to settle on Earth at Coal Hill. It's far too soon for you to listen to them - but they may be worth seeking out at some point down the road. William Hartnell was chosen for the Doctor because (as you pointed out) the character was seen as an elderly humanoid male,knowledgeable about all things science. He was intended to be stern,and a sort of anti-hero...but Hartnell was a good comic actor, and he made his Doctor funnier over time; investing in the same sort of humour that you enjoy today. He was actually a big name at the time; having appeared in countless movies over the previous twenty years - but always as 'second lead'.
Ian Smith
2022-06-26 16:27:55 +0000 UTCSorry. I got so carried away with the facts and reminiscences that I forgot to say it was a fantastic reaction. I'm so glad you enjoyed it.
Stephen Males
2022-06-26 16:25:17 +0000 UTCIf I don't watch this for a while, I always wonder why The Doctor didn't let Ian and Barbara leave the Tardis before he and Susan left. Then i watch it again and remember that Susan was threatening to leave with them and he didn't want to risk losing her. But the Doctor was certainly a more severe character when the programme started. Even more so in the pilot episode. In fact William Hartnell insisted they should not use it as the broadcast version because it was making him to sinister. He does become more humorous later. Incidentally, he was only 55 when this was filmed but he did look older and they made him look a lot older. The actor who plays Ian was cast so that he could be more of an action hero that the Doctor himself. He had previously played Sir Lancelot in a British tv series. The actor is still alive now at the age of 97. He had a son quite late in life and he is also an actor. You may have heard of him. He's called Alfred Enoch. I don't know if you are going to watch the rest of this story. I very dimly remember it from the time and I was very scared by some parts. But that's only because I was only five (nearly six!) in Nov 1963. What I really hope is that your moderators have lined up the story after this one which is much better. I loved Susan when I was six. She was my second favourite celebrity after a young Jamaican singer called Millie!
Stephen Males
2022-06-26 16:22:38 +0000 UTCThat was wonderful! Back in the Series 1 episode "The Empty Child", set during the Second World War, the Ninth Doctor meets the (medical) doctor in the hospital and the dialogue between them includes this exchange: [Dr Constantine] "Before this war began, I was a father and a grandfather. Now I am neither. But I'm still a doctor." [Ninth Doctor] "Yeah, I know the feeling." Also, in "Fear Her" Rose and the Doctor have this conversation: [Rose] "I've got cousins. Kids can't have it all their own way. That's part of being a family." [Tenth Doctor] "What about trying to understand them?" [Rose] "Easy for you to say, you don't have kids." [Tenth Doctor] "I was a dad once." [Rose] "What did you say?!"
Andrew Gwilliam
2022-06-26 15:44:44 +0000 UTC
