FULL REACTION | CLASSIC DOCTOR WHO | 1x4 | An Unearthly Child: The Firemaker
Added 2022-03-21 13:33:30 +0000 UTCPlease no spoilers beyond this episode unless you see that later episodes have already been released. In that case, no spoilers beyond those episodes.
PLEASE NOTE: Full reactions will not include the full footage from the shows due to copyright/legal reasons. Some portions of the footage will either have video and no audio or audio and no video. The portions have been carefully selected in an effort to (hopefully) minimize the impact of the edits on the viewing experience.
Comments
There are interesting reasons why the picture quality of early Doctor Who is so poor and there are missing episodes. During the 1950’s, television was a live event, like a play or “Teleplay”. Shot live and broadcast simultaneously, never to be seen again! If a special effect failed or someone forgot their lines, you just had to carry on regardless, just like being on stage in a theatre. Back then, there was no practical way to record the television images, and if they wanted to repeat the program all the actors would have to perform it again live! However, there was one rather cumbersome and expensive way to record television images. But this was generally reserved for programs of significant cultural importance like the Queen’s Coronation etc. A 16mm or 35mm film camera would shoot the glass television monitor showing the live feed of the broadcast. However this meant the high quality, clean electronic television image at 50 frames per seconds was now trapped onto film at 25 frames per second along with typical film features such as grain, flicker, dirt and scratches. Owing to the curvature of the glass television monitors in those days, the geometry of the image would often end up distorted, resulting in straight lines appearing curved etc. The process was called “Telerecording”. In the 1960’s most broadcasters invested in the revolutionary new format… videotape. This allowed shows to be recorded and edited together using selected takes instead of have to perform the whole show in one go as a live event. Despite this, the BBC continued to make shows like early Doctor Who as if live, from start to finish, only stopping to retake if absolutely necessary. This was presumably because the producers and the directors of the day were stuck in their ways and slow to adapt to change. This ongoing “live” approach resulted in 1960’s Who seeming more like “Teleplays” rather than high production television drama, and I tend to appreciate them as live plays which allows one to forgive production mistakes and poor sets etc. Videotape was very expensive and by its very nature was not an archive format because you could erase it and use it again. Typically all the clean high quality videotapes of television shows in the 1960’s were wiped after one broad cast and one repeat within two years. This was all they were allowed due to Equity laws… the thinking being, that if you could keep showing repeats the actors are missing out on work. Also, there was no suggestion there would ever one day be a home video market. So you was left with a production that was unusable after its rights had expired.. and the expensive videotape it occupied could be reused for new programs… so it’s kind of a no brainer why all 1960’s and some early 70’s television programs were wiped and nothing exists today. The episodes that survive today, only do so because they had potential to sell to foreign broadcasters overseas. Luckily, Doctor Who was considered one of them and because overseas broadcasters for the most part still hadn’t made the jump to videotape, all 1960’s episodes were “Telerecorded” (as described above). These film recordings were sent to broadcasters all over the world with the following instructions: 1. Only one broadcast and one repeat permitted. 2. Following this, they had to return to the BBC, where the episode would either be sent on to another country or destroyed. However, quite often many of these episodes got shelved and forgotten about all around the world or people working for these stations nicked them for their personal collections! It’s thanks to this that some episodes survive today and have gradually all made there way back to the BBC archives. But it’s worth noting… we are only watching telerecordings (images filmed off a 1960’s television screen), a third generation copy too when you consider the original camera negative would have been destroyed after printing the positives to send out. The original videotape masters that were originally broadcast were wiped over half a century ago!
Darren Holmes
2023-06-01 12:21:19 +0000 UTCThe flubbed lines from Hartnell is a tell tale sign of his health problems while filming. They did seem funny at first but when you do get to An Adventure in Space and Time you’ll see :)
Jamie Dodds
2022-03-21 22:28:35 +0000 UTCSeeing you mentioned teeth: One of the actresses hired to play a cave woman misunderstood her part; she thought she was going to be modeling furs for Dr. No (1962), the first James Bond film, rather than wearing rags. Apparently, she had her teeth whitened for the film she thought she was going to be in, so when she learned she was to have some of her teeth blacked up, she left the set and never returned. With the deadline looming one of the stage crew quickly replaced her.
Malcolm Wolf
2022-03-21 15:20:12 +0000 UTCYes, like you said flubbed lines had to be basically ignored. At this stage the show was treated like a live theatre production. Keep in mind also back in those days' TVs were very low resolution with tiny screens so a lot flaws we see today were practically invisible. I'll hold back on going on too much about behind the scenes stuff that is covered later in the docudrama, apart from helping put things in perspective. It is fair to say the story of how it came to be is as great as the show itself, and too many spoilers will take away from that.
Malcolm Wolf
2022-03-21 15:12:09 +0000 UTCAside from the fight sequence,this story was recorded 'live' in a TV studio,with electronic cameras - hence the distorted flames,because b/w video cameras were highly light sensitive. The next story (The Daleks) is MUCH brighter,so you shouldn't have any problems. Three episodes of cavemen going on and on about fire is enough to try anyone's patience,including mine! I find the atmosphere quite effective,in a tale of survival kind of way - but this story was actually a quick substitute for one that had to be postponed due to production costs,and the caveman script was the only one that was ready to go! Very much looking forward to you watching the next - it has many iconic moments :)
Ian Smith
2022-03-21 14:54:48 +0000 UTC
