Doctor Who Original Episodes - Year Zero:
An Unearthly Child Unaired Pilot
The Cave of Skulls
The Forest of Fear
The Firemaker
I'm a bit behind the times it seems, and I have a lot of Doctor Who to catch up on before I can join the rest of you in the present enjoying Matt Smith as the eleventh incarnation of the Doctor, and his cool Cowboy hat. So to that end I'm not only watching the modern relaunch, which I just watched the transition from Christopher Eccleston to David Tennant, and I can't wait to devour more. David Tennant was my first Doctor (besides watching Tom Baker along with my dad back in the day), so I'm eager to build up to Martha and Donna who I've both seen glimpses of, but it'll be nice to watch it all come together as their relationships develop.
But I'm here to talk about the older series, the original 1963 black and white series, where the doctor was a mad scientist alien, with a time travelling ship that could become whatever would be unsuspecting in various time periods, so as to be beyond notice, above suspicion. He travels with his granddaughter who just wants to be a regular kid from the 49th century and go to school in the swinging sixties. Her history and science teachers think something's up with her and her advanced knowledge but stunted common sense of the era, so they follow her to make sure she's okay, where they stumble upon the Time And Relative Dimension In Space (TARDIS) disguised as a police box. After harassing the grumpy old doctor, they stumble their way inside the ship where a lot of attitude is tossed around.
This leads to the ship accidently taking off and landing them into the year zero, where the perception field's been damaged so the ship still looks like a 60's London Police Call Box as it sits among the wasteland of cro-magnon man. The cavemen all speak English (the TARDIS translates as we see in later episodes, as long as the Doctor is up and about) but the way their dialogue is all written from the perspective of a savage and rudimentary thinking process.
All these cavemen want is to remake fire. Apparently it had been introduced with the previous generation, but now the son of the firemaker is unable to produce what his father did and so the position of leader of the tribe will most likely fall to the man who can hunt and bring meat. Here's the perfect example of chasing something etheric, something creative and will bring new comfort to the people, rather than doing what everyone else has done before, hunting and getting meat, skins, and protecting the tribe.
The Doctor and crew all get caught up in the caveman politics and in the process of producing fire for the tribe they also teach a man and woman caveman about friendship, compassion and care for one another. Basically they give mankind the push towards the human race as we know it today, and they did it by being a good example, by introducing friendship to their emotional lexicon.
The show was originally intended to be an educational family programme, and you can see here how it's dramatic, science fiction, and well put together with a subtle message delivered beneath good writing and solid performances. Plus, maybe it's just me but watching black and white science fiction really tickles my fancy.
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