It's probably fair to say that Doctor Who's first ever episode is a masterpiece. In terms of building mood, atmosphere, mystery and intrigue it works almost perfectly. The title sequence alone is enough to capture interest, and the image of the policeman in the fog is striking, if a little plot irrelevant, before homing in on the now overly familiar but at the time undoubtedly bizarre, at least as the centrepiece of a science fiction show, image of the police box.
 |
| PC Plod was on a determined lookout for whatever illicit substances he could find. |
Ian and Barbara's immediate exposition dump builds a helpful picture of Susan and starts the intrigue expertly, even if you can hear the crew moving around in the background, but that's sixties telly for you. Probably. (I haven't watched much sixties telly apart from Doctor Who).
When Susan herself appears Carole Ann Ford plays her with precisely the right amount of normalcy and mystery. Her line after reading the French Revolution book Barbara gave her "That's not right" is a perfect example of how the mystery is built on throughout the episode, at this point focused on 'why is Susan so weird'.
Eventually they reach the junkyard, where Ian and Barbara find the TARDIS. The audience are as confused as they are - why is there a police box in a junkyard, why is it alive? The mystery turns here to add to an even bigger confusion - it's now more than Susan.
And then of course, her grandfather turns up. It's a little underwhelming that British TV's most famous character was introduced by a loud cough off screen, but Hartnell plays the role perfectly here - like Susan he acts like a normal person but with enough strangeness to warrant Ian and Barbara, and indeed the audience's attention.
 |
| "I've got the drugs you wante- oh, I'm sorry sir, I thought you were someone else." |
The reveal of the TARDIS itself is shot and edited brilliantly - it's brutually quick, to the point where the viewer takes a moment to click what has happened and immediately sympathises with Ian and Barbara's confusion. The original TARDIS design is fantastic design - both alien looking and reassuringly familiar science-fiction of the era.
 |
| "You know Barbara, I think I'm regretting that extra vodka and coke" |
The explanations given by the Doctor and Susan set up the premise of the show perfectly, explaining just enough so that the viewer understands, but leaving enough back to retain the atmosphere of mystery. Eventually the Doctor forces the TARDIS to take off - the 'time vortex' sequence is disconcerting and brilliant. And then the final image - the police box has moved, and a shadowy figure looks over it.
 |
| Shame nobody was watching because JFK got shot. |
The first episode is fantastic - it is atmospheric and mysterious, sets the perfect tone, and establishes our main characters - the sympathetic humans for the audience to identify with and the strange time travelling aliens.
It's therefore a giant shame the second, third and fourth episodes aren't very good. On the positive side, the character work between the four leads is just as good - the relationship between the Doctor and Ian is established, everyone's niche in the character dynamic is set up, and it's quite funny watching the Doctor make a complete arse of himself, trying to kill a caveman, being perfectly happy giving a prehistoric civilisation fire it may not discover yet in history to save his own skin, and of course, getting everyone into bother in the first place by carelessly lighting a fag and getting bonked over the head by a caveman for his troubles.
 |
| "i was bunning a spliff when the feds came and conked me init" |
Unfortunately, the central narrative about the cavemen is boring as shit, and get's so endlessly repetitive. If you've heard one crap actor in a caveman costume drone on about fire, you've heard them all, and this goes on for over an hour. It's not that it's necessarily bad - it's just so dull and unatmospheric, which is a stark contrast to that near perfect 23 minutes the story started on. Overall, it's difficult to keep interest, which is a bit of a shame, but there we are.
Final Score: 7/10. The near-perfect first episode elevates this, but the rest is below average fodder, and not indicative of what the show would grow into.
Next Episode: Arc of Infinity
Comments
Post a Comment