Classic Doctor Who- Story 1-1963

Doctor: William Hartnell

Assistant/Granddaughter Susan: Carole Ann Ford

Assistant Ian Chesterton:  William Russell

Assistant Barbara Wright: Jacqueline Hill

An Unearthly Child

The story starts at the Coal Hill School where Ian and Barbara work as teachers.  They discuss a strange student that they share.  A young girl called Susan who seems to be a genius and to know things that are beyond her years.  She also states that the history books are wrong and that the science isn’t right because it doesn’t consider the fourth and fifth dimensions, space and time.  Their suspicions guide them to check out where she is listed as living with her grandfather on Totter’s Lane.  They follow her into a police box after her grandfather tries to intimidate them.  He is an aloof old man who will not let them leave with the knowledge that they hold of the TARDIS and his granddaughter.  They travel back in time to the early ages of fire.  The tribe

that they come upon is one that is ruled by fire.  The one who can bring or make fire is the one who is the leader.  Two men fight over the position.  One of them is honest, Za, and the other is cunning, Kal.  Barbara proves herself as a humanitarian when she insists that they help the maimed Za who had been pursuing them.  This leads the party of time travelers to not be taken so lightly, but as a great curiosity instead.  It brings their usefulness longevity.   Za eventually is the one to regain power and Ian teaches him how to make fire, while stressing that the whole tribe should know how to do this for themselves.  Za refutes this idea and keeps them hostage.  They fool the tribe by taking skulls from the Cave of Skulls and placing them onto four flaming torches.  They get away and the story ends with them landing on an unknown planet where the radiation levels are dangerously high unbeknownst to them.

Notable Quotes

Za, “I will have to spill some blood; make people bow to me.”

Doctor, “Fear, it makes companions of us all.”

Doctor, “I won’t allow myself to be frightened out of my skin by mere shadows.”

Character Development

Doctor-thinker.

Ian-strength.

Barbara-caregiver.

Susan-the glue to bind them together.