Doctor Who: An Unearthly Child

Rogers Video Direct was kind enough to send me An Unearthly Child, the very first Doctor Who serial, starring William Hartnell. The First Doctor is quite a cranky old man, dismissive of human beings but also strangely passive at times. I quite liked the first part of this four-part serial, in which the Doctor's grand-daughter (Susan) is investigated by her teachers at school because she sometimes knows way too much in fields like science and history, and sometimes knows way too little (how many shillings are in a pound, etc.). It has a nice air of mystery, and when Susan's teachers eventually encounter the Doctor, quite a row develops. It's downhill after that, as far as I'm concerned, as a bit of a tussle results in the Tardis accidentally being sent back to caveman times where the last three rather boring parts of the serial are about the subtle nuances of caveman inter-group dynamics and the quest for fire. It's funny, because if you were to watch this serial and not know anything about what was going to happen next, you might think the male teacher (the one in the picture who is not the Doctor, is not the caveman, and is not a teenage girl) is the star of the show, as he makes most of the important decisions and seems to be the de facto leader of the group.