An Unearthly Child
- Episode aired Nov 23, 1963
- TV-G
- 23m
IMDb RATING
8.1/10
2.2K
YOUR RATING
Two schoolteachers investigate the personal life of one of their brilliant students and her mysterious grandfather.Two schoolteachers investigate the personal life of one of their brilliant students and her mysterious grandfather.Two schoolteachers investigate the personal life of one of their brilliant students and her mysterious grandfather.
Leslie Bates
- Shadow
- (uncredited)
Francesca Bertorelli
- Schoolgirl
- (uncredited)
Reg Cranfield
- Policeman
- (uncredited)
Heather Lyons
- Schoolgirl
- (uncredited)
Mavis Ranson
- Schoolgirl
- (uncredited)
Frederick Rawlings
- Policeman
- (uncredited)
Peter Sallis
- Policeman
- (uncredited)
Brian Thomas
- Schoolboy
- (uncredited)
- Directors
- Waris Hussein
- Douglas Camfield(film inserts) (uncredited)
- Writers
- Anthony Coburn
- David Whitaker
- Sydney Newman(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaWhen this episode was first aired, parts of Britain were suffering a power failure. It was also the day after President Kennedy was assassinated. Both of these factors meant the program was only seen by a disappointing 4.4 million people. When repeated a week later, it was watched by 6 million.
- GoofsAfter entering the TARDIS the top of the set is visible above and behind Ian as he says "you can't keep us here."
- Quotes
The Doctor: We are not of this race. We are not of this earth. Susan and I are wanderers in the fourth dimension of space and time, cut off from our own people by distances beyond the reach of your most advanced science.
- Alternate versionsFour versions of this episode exist. Besides the final broadcast version there was also a trial pilot run-through that was not broadcast initially due to technical problems. The 2006 DVD release "Doctor Who: The Beginning" contains an unedited version of this pilot, with several different takes of the TARDIS sequence. A specially made re-edited version of the pilot is included for the first time in this set, using the best takes and digitally manipulating others to remove errors. Previously, an alternate edit of the pilot -- which included dialogue and prop errors -- was broadcast on the BBC and released on VHS.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Lively Arts: Whose Dr. Who (1977)
- SoundtracksThree Guitars Mood 2
(uncredited)
Composed by Derek Nelson and Arthur Raymond
Performed by The Arthur Nelson Group
(playing on Susan's radio)
Featured review
The very first serialized story in the long-running British TV series
High school teachers Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill) and Ian Chesterton (William Russell) are concerned about a strange student named Susan Foreman (Carole Ann Ford), who seems to have preternatural insight on many subjects, and yet is strangely ignorant on everyday things such as money. She's also very vague about her place of residence, so the two teachers decide to secretly follow her home one evening. They're led to what looks like a police call box (large telephone booth) in the middle of a junkyard. They then meet Susan's grandfather, a mysterious, cantankerous figure known only as the Doctor (William Hartnell). Susan reveals that she and the Doctor are aliens from another planet and another time, and that the call-box is actually a ship called the TARDIS capable of traveling through time and space. To prove it, they go back in time to the year 100,000 B. C., where they end up battling against hostile cave people who are trying to learn the secret of fire.
This is the first Doctor Who serial that I've watched from start to finish. It consisted of four half-hour episodes. I enjoyed it, and the theme music, which I've heard many times before, seemed eerie and compelling. The live-TV production values are limited, but the acting was good. The pilot premiered the day after the JFK assassination. I have quite a few other Doctor Who serials to watch in the future, although not all of them, by far.
This is the first Doctor Who serial that I've watched from start to finish. It consisted of four half-hour episodes. I enjoyed it, and the theme music, which I've heard many times before, seemed eerie and compelling. The live-TV production values are limited, but the acting was good. The pilot premiered the day after the JFK assassination. I have quite a few other Doctor Who serials to watch in the future, although not all of them, by far.
helpful•70
- AlsExGal
- Jan 27, 2023
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- An Unearthly Child (Pilot)
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime23 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
- 4:3
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What is the broadcast (satellite or terrestrial TV) release date of An Unearthly Child (1963) in Australia?
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