100,000 BC

This article is about the Doctor Who serial. For information about this year, see references at Centuries. 100,000 BC is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from November 23 to December 13, 1963. It is the first serial of the series and introduces William Hartnell as the Doctor.

Synopsis

Schoolteachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright become concerned about one of their pupils, Susan Foreman. Following her home, they discover that she appears to live in a junkyard with her grandfather. In fact, Susan and her grandfather are aliens, who travel through time and space in the TARDIS, a time machine disguised as a police box and which is much larger on the inside than it is on the outside. The four travel to back to the Stone Age and encounter a primitive tribe which has lost the secret of fire.

Notes

The four episodes of the serial had individual titles. They were, respectively, "An Unearthly Child", "The Cave of Skulls", "The Forest of Fear" and "The Firemaker".

As a test for the series, the first episode, "An Unearthly Child", was recorded as a "pilot" a month before full recording on the series began, in order to see where the series needed improvement. The pilot recording was bedevilled with technical problems and errors made during the performance. An especial problem occurred with the doors leading into the TARDIS control room which would not close properly, instead randomly opening and closing through the earl part of the scene. Two versions of the scene set in the TARDIS were recorded, along with an aborted first attempt to start the second version. During the weeks between the two tapings, changes were made to costuming, effects, performances, and the script. Changes made before the final version was filmed include a thunderclap sound effect was deleted from the opening theme music; Susan's dress changed to make her look more like a schoolgirl than the original costume which made her appear more alien and sensual; a reference to the Doctor and Susan being from the 49th Century was replaced by them being from "another time, another world" and the TARDIS door was repaired so that it closed properly.

In many ways, the serial consists of two stories; there is a strong discontinuity between the first episode, introducing the characters and establishing the premise of the series, and the three episodes set in the paleolithic. The first episode, in particular, is often seen as a classic of television science fiction (though the contemporary critical reaction was less positive).

The first episode was transmitted the day after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. There is a myth that the transmission was delayed by ten minutes due to extended news coverage, though in fact it went out just eighty seconds late.

Coburn's script for the very first episode was in fact heavily based on a draft originally prepared by BBC staff writer C.E. Webber, who had greatly contributed to the initial formatting of the programme and been present at many of the key development meetings. However, Head of Serials Donald Wilson felt that Webber was incapable of 'writing down' to the level required for Doctor Who, and none of his scripts ever made it to production. Nevertheless, he received a co-writer's credit for An Unearthly Child on internal BBC documentation, although not on-screen.

The second episode mentions the malfunction of the ship's ability to change its appearance to blend in with the background. Later stories would identify this as the chameleon circuit.

Alternative titles

As was usual at the beginning of the series' history, no overall title appeared on-screen, and each episode has its own title. 100,000 BC is the title that was used by the production team at the time of transmission. However, due to the absence of an overall onscreen title for the four episode storyline, reference works have titled the story as variously:

• The Tribe of Gum (an early working title which was again used when the teleplay was published by Titan Books in the 1980s)
• The Cavemen (a quick description of the story material)
• An Unearthly Child (the title of the first episode, the novelisation, as well as video releases of the story)

See: Doctor Who story title controversy

External links