Review 1: Original Doctor Who Run Through and Review: An Unearthly Child

In the past 3 years I've become a huge Doctor Who fan. I'm a bit late to the game but, in fear of being an unholy-bandwagon-jumper-oner, I've decided to watch the original Doctor Who circa 1963 to the present and I figured the best way to stay on track is to document my journey!

I have absolutely NO EXPERIENCE giving reviews on things. But I have plenty of experience at having opinions. SO without further ado: Doctor Who!

From my research and for your information, Doctor Who used to be in a different format than the reboot has decided to take. While some of the more epic or complicated story lines in the new series can run more than one episode, it is not the norm. So the story that starts in the first episode of Doctor Who, spans 4 episodes. This review will cover those 4 which are:

1. An Unearthly Child

2. The Cave of Skulls

3. The Forest of Fear

4. The Firemaker

Disclaimer: I watched these 4 episodes over a month ago, this is not the freshest of perspectives but I am LOATHE to watch them again because they didn't quite hold my attention span. Every subsequent review will have a more reasonable watch to write time gap.

The first thing I notice is that the quality is not the greatest. Yes, it was 1963, but this was clearly not the greatest quality of filming even for 1963. It hurt my eyes a little to watch, not because of the black and white, but because the contrast was bad so I felt like I was watching it with my laptop screen brightness at the lowest setting. This will be difficult for me to get past. The sound quality was pretty atrocious as well.

We are introduced to 4 new characters:

Susan Foreman - The Doctor's Granddaughter

Barbara Wright - One of Susan's school teachers

Ian Chesterton - Another one of Susan's school teachers

The Doctor - self explanatory

Immediately some questions I had before the series are answered:

• Susan is the Doctor's granddaughter. Which means she is a Time Lord. In the reboot the Doctor has no living family or friends. This was before the Time War.
• Police Box's actually WERE common in the 60's. Ian and Barbara barely blink an eye!

The story itself is a bit slow and features Barbara and Ian being intrigued by Susan, who is in their class and entirely too smart for it. (This is kind of explained but I don't buy it). Ian and Barbara follow Susan home like total yuppie, do-gooders and discover the Doctor's TARDIS. He fears them revealing him and Susan so he whisks them away to the stone age where the plot line develops into a combination of Planet of the Apes (circa 1968) and the Time Machine (circa 1960). 

I was utterly bored with the next three episodes so I'll summarize it. They arrive, fight with cavemen, use their knowledge of fire to gain dominance, it backfires, they leave.

What I liked

• The Doctor. I think that I am going to like William Hartnell quite a bit. He is the face most often associated with being the Doctor from the old series, so maybe that softened my heart to him. But he was old and grumpy and clever and quite brilliant really.
• The reveal of the TARDIS. I mean... that's always good. You have to admit.

What I didn't

• The plotline after the initial reveal bored me, especially since it was stretched into 3 episdoes. Maybe I have an aversion to cave men. But it did not hold my interest in the slightest.
• Their teeth. Man that was pretty distracting. Really bad teeth.

What I'm on the fence on 

• Susan. She acts like an innately gifted child that is not unkind, but a bit spoiled and stuck up. But too polite to actually behave rudely. So far she kind of annoys me. We'll see.
• Barbara. She is standing in a box that is bigger on the inside and yet fervently denies it and tries to tell Susan that she is being tricked. Like... what? You've been in this situation for maybe 5 minutes and suddenly you're an expert? Drive me crazy
• Ian. He gets so angry at the Doctor and for not understanding. You basically assaulted an old man in order to gain entrance to his property. Your right to be outraged is pretty nonexistent.

I can't write them off that I hate them quite yet. But if they don't improve, I will.

Questions I have & the research I've done

• How old is Susan supposed to be? Indeterminate. She is either older than Ian and Barbara combines, younger than Carol Richmond, or 16. Maybe there was some show identity crisis in there.
• How old is the Doctor supposed to be? I did some research, this is his first incarnation, so he is the youngest doctor we've seen with the oldest physical appearance. He is already centuries years old. That's all I got
• Why is Susan's name Susan? The other Time Lords we've met in the reboot have had names with a "The" before it. Apparently she chose it. Her real name is Arkytior. Lovely.

Overall Ranking

Too boring of a story to have it stretched out as it was. But I didn't hate it. Definitely some good parts and I will watch more.