An Unearthly Child
In London, 1963, teachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright discuss their most problematic student at Coal Hill School, one Susan Foreman. Susan’s knowledge vastly exceeds that of her instructors in science, but she has also been known to challenge long-standing historical facts…yet she also has some things completely wrong, including one occasion where she notes that British currency isn’t on the decimal system “yet.” Ian and Barbara follow Susan discreetly when she walks home one night, and the teachers are puzzled when home seems to be a junkyard. When they follow her into the junkyard, Susan has disappeared, and the only place she could have gone is a police call box which is emitting a strange hum. Moments later, an elderly man appears, apparently determined to enter the police box himself. Ian and Barbara force their way in, along with the old man, and find that the police box is actually a time-space vehicle, bigger on the inside than out. They also discover that neither Susan nor her grandfather, a mysterious and irritable man known only as the Doctor, are human beings. The Doctor, worried that Ian and Barbara will draw unwelcome mass attention to the presence of his ship (called the TARDIS), hastily sets it into motion over everyone’s protests, and when Ian and Barbara next step out of the doors of the TARDIS, they are no longer on Earth as they know it.
Season 1 Regular Cast: William Hartnell (The Doctor), William Russell (Ian Chesterton), Jacqueline Hill (Barbara Wright), Carole Ann Ford (Susan Foreman)
written by Anthony Coburn
directed by Waris Hussein
music by Norman KayGuest Cast: Derek Newark (Za), Althea Charlton (Hur), Jeremy Young (Kal), Howard Lang (Horg), Eileen Way (Old Mother)
Broadcast from November 23 through December 14, 1963
LogBook entry & review by Earl Green
Cast: Martin Potter (Robin Hood), Diane Keen (Lady Marion), John Abineri (Sir Kenneth Neston), William Marlowe (Sir Guy of Gisbourne), Paul Darrow (Sheriff of Nottingham), Michael-John Jackson (Richard I), David Dixon (Prince John), David Ryall (Abbot of Grantham), Geoffrey Russell (Longchamp), Miles Anderson (Will Scarlet), Stephen Whittaker (Ralph Gammon), Anthony Garner (Earl of Huntingdon), Michael Fleming (Sir Cedric Usher), David King (Father Ambrose), Trevor Griffiths (John Hood), Geoffrey Greenhill (Norman Soldier), John Caesar (Norman Soldier), Geoffrey Jackman (Landlord), Tony Doyle (Norman Sergeant), Sheelah Wilcocks (Old Woman), Robert Russell (Robber Chief), Martin Duncan (Blondin)
Cast: Reb Brown (Steve Rogers / Captain America), Connie Sellecca (Dr. Wendy Day), Len Birman (Dr. Simon Mills), Christopher Lee (Miguel), Katherine Justice (Helen Moore), Christopher Cary (Professor Ilson), William Lucking (Stader), Stanley Kamel (Kramer), Ken Swofford (Everett Bliss), Lana Wood (Yolanda), Arthur Rosenberg (Doctor), Bill Mims (Dr. J. Brenner), Alex Hyde-White (Young Man), Lachelle Chamberlain (Young Girl), Susan French (Mrs. Shaw), John Waldron (Peter Moore)
Cast: Christopher Godwin (Mattocks), Carmen Du Sautoy (Foster), Barrie Rutter (Ackroyd), Bruce Boa (Beadle), and Bimbo (himself)
American astronauts to visit Skylab staged a mutiny of their own, bringing the schedule of scientific experiments to a halt to get NASA’s attention on the ground until a less grueling schedule could be agreed upon.
In the Museum of Aural Antiquities, preparations are underway for a broadcast in tribute to the late actor Visteen Krane, who died mysteriously on the eve of announcing his candidacy for the Presidency. But things begin to go wrong almost immediately. A man is found murdered in the Museum, and the only suspects without an alibi are two intruders who identify themselves as The Doctor and Peri. The Doctor is immediately suspicious of Beth Pernell, Krane’s theatrical agent and potential running mate, who is planning to supplant her late boss as a presidential candidate and use the tribute in his honor for her own publicity. But when another death occurs, the Doctor suspects an even greater danger – a bloodthirsty life form composed of sound waves, which can replicate and transmit itself through any sound-conducting channel…such as, for example, a tribute broadcast which will be heard by millions.
The Doctor and Frobisher are in deep trouble. The TARDIS has “gone on strike,” and the Doctor is forced to surrender control to the ship itself. It brings them to a castle whose occupants live by a bizarre set of rituals: their king isn’t just a monarch, but a living god to be worshipped by his subjects. However, whenever the king dies, the religion built around him is declared false, a select number of subjects are executed for heresy, the rest of the heretics much formally change their religion to follow the new god (the incoming king), and the bible must be rewritten from scratch. But by sheer bad luck, the arrival of the TARDIS is hailed as a miracle, as it occurs on the coronation/ ascension day of the new god-king – a timid man who doesn’t want the position at all. To avoid his fate, the new ruler abdicates and declares Frobisher to be the new god – and since Frobisher is a talking penguin who emerged from a “blue temple” which appeared out of thin air, most of the people have no qualms about worshipping him. To his credit, the well-meaning whifferdill tries to instill a sense of free choice upon his subjects, introducing them to concepts such as democracy and mercy. But deep within the castle, something else is brewing – a devastating evil which some think will be the new messiah. But its true destiny is to murder every last person in the kingdom until it finds one man – and there is nothing the Doctor or Frobisher can do to stop it.
Imbued with the energy of anti-time and possessed by the power-mad Zagreus, the Doctor wrestles for self-control and terrifies Charley into hiding within the TARDIS. A familiar face appears to Charley as she hides – the Brigadier, or, more precisely, a TARDIS-projected simulation of Lethbridge-Stewart intended to help her. Its method of doing so, however, is unorthodox to put it mildly: Charley must divine the true nature of the increasingly disastrous situation from a series of metaphors, ranging from her own childhood to a visit to Gallifrey’s past to an insane amusement park where animatronic cartoon characters are slaughtering one another. The Doctor, too, hears from some familiar voices in his own past, coaxing him to regain control of his own mind. But all too late, the Doctor realizes that his body and soul are not Zagreus’ only battleground, and the real battle for the fate of the entire universe is only now being joined.
The Doctor emerges from his trial a changed man – and a very melancholy one. Seeking a bit of refuge to contemplate recent events, he happens upon Bianca’s, an exclusive nightclub in World War II-era Berlin, but even as he tries to relax, he notices that things may not be as they appear. Worse yet, even as he tries to piece together what’s going on, Iris Wildthyme staggers into Bianca’s as well, shattering any hope the Doctor may have had of discreetly investigating the mystery.