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The cave chords serial#
The cave chords series#

I really enjoy the group dynamic in this serial. The first half of the second episode, 'The Cave of Skulls' focuses on Ian and Barbara coming to terms with their newfound situation. It is, however, a fairly entertaining story which manages to hold one's attention despite some rather egregious pacing issues.

The cave chords serial#

This particular story formula of the Doctor coming between two warring tribal factions has been used many times in 'Doctor Who' including in the very next serial, the legendary 'The Daleks', and the serial 'An Unearthly Child' is not the finest example.

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The other three episodes that make up this serial focus on the foursome's first adventure together which sees them land on prehistoric Earth where they are seized upon by a tribe whose two potential leaders both want the Doctor to teach them how to make fire. A tense, tightly-written 25-minute mystery rich with atmosphere, tension, and twists and wonderfully acted by its four-person cast. All in all, the first episode of 'Doctor Who' is a corker in every way. As Susan puts it: 'Their minds reject things they don't understand'. The writer, Anthony Coburn, wisely doesn't have them go on about it being bigger on the inside than the outside but rather shows how they try to reason their way out of what they're seeing. Ian and Barbara are shocked by what they see but their reactions are entirely believable and in line with their character.

The scene of an innocent human wondering into the TARDIS and having to have the ship explained to him occurs in almost every season of 'Doctor Who' but it has rarely been done as well as here. The second half, in which Ian and Barbara come face to face with The Doctor who, afraid of being discovered and angered by Ian's disbelief at his alien nature, defiantly activates the TARDIS to prove a point, is an intense verbal match between three good actors which does a superb job of providing exposition to the viewers without ever becoming unconvincing or losing sight of the character's emotions. Carole Ann Ford is also terrific as Susan, though she gets very little to do, giving the character a sweet nature while hinting at her otherworldliness.

The first half, in which Ian and Barbara, try to get to the bottom of Susan's mysterious behaviour, is pacy and excellently acted by William Russell and Jacqueline Hill, a likeable pair of actors who generate tangible chemistry between their two characters. Knowing the outcome of 'An Unearthly Child', however, does little to undermine its effectiveness.

The cave chords series#

Of course, as all 'Doctor Who' fans know, once they get to the junkyard they stumble into the TARDIS and onto The Doctor, the mysterious but seemingly benevolent time traveller who whisks them away to a series of perilous but exciting adventures in time and space. Ian and Barbara decide to find out just what her secret is and follow her home with the hope of meeting her guardian, the austere and as of yet unseen Dr Foreman. We get curious glimpses into Susan's behaviour through quick but intriguing flashbacks - she doesn't know Britain uses the decimal system but she corrects mistakes in a history textbook, she can't solve a simple maths equation without introducing two further dimensions but she seems bored by chemistry problems which perplex her fellow students. It follows two schoolteachers, Ian and Barbara, who become intrigued by one of their students, the sweet but oddly knowledgable Susan who seems to have insights far beyond those of 20th-century science and history. 'An Unearthly Child' is an almost ideal teaser for the wonderful adventures to come, tight, atmospheric, and wholly engrossing.

And what a corker of a first episode it is. Watching the episode 'An Unearthly Child' it is incredible to think that how it all started, almost 60 years ago, with a moody opening shot of a policeman walking through the London fog next to a cluttered junkyard dominated by an out-of-place police box.