Allow me to first
confess a little bit of writers block as I simply cannot think of a
fitting introduction for this momentous occasion, so rather the spend
the next several days deliberating on first impressions I think we
should just dive into the meat of the matter
It grabs you in its
incipient moment, right from the very beginning with that ominous,
otherworldly theme tune, and pared with a title sequence so strange
it is reminiscent of a black and white lava lamp it gives an aura of
oddity. Speaking of black and white visuals and the ominous tone the
two dovetail beautifully, especially looking at it in an age of high
definition and vibrant colours the video quality itself adds a
certain mystique which aids the program immensely
The year is 1963 and in
a school located in Hampshire Barbara Wright is voicing her concerns
about a particular student to her friend and colleague, Ian
Chesterton, who is having simmaler problems. The student is Susan
Foreman a 16 year old girl who while incredibly intelligent has gaps
in her knowledge and finds certain areas so obvious they simply don’t
interest her, also when Barbara tried to visit her at her home where
she lives with her grandfather but when she arrived at the address
she found a junk yard with no sings of human inhabitance. The two
teachers decide to follow the girl home and have a talk with her
grandfather.
When they arrive at the
address and enter the junk yard Susan is nowhere to be scene. They
are then interrupted by an old man in Victorian attire being very
irritable and asking them to leave. When they hear Susan's voice
calling out from a police box they barge there way in to discover a
great big chrome room far larger then what could be contained inside
the dimensions of the big blue box they entered. It is revealed that
Susan and her grandfather (known as the doctor) are infarct aliens
from another world and time and the police box is not a police box
but a ship capable of traversing all of time and space called the
Tardis (made from the initials Time and relative dimensions in space)
after much arguing with
Susan it is clear the doctor has no intentions of letting the school
teachers go as they would tell the world of there existence. The ship
takes flight ans lands in a barren land clearly untouched by modern
man. And as the shadow of a humanoid figure looms over the ground the
picture fades the theme starts and the credits role
this is the fourth time I have watched this episode in as many years and to this day it has never failed to captivate and enthral me. It is the foundation upon which 50 years of lore and story’s will be built around. The performances are quite good with the stand out being William Hartnell playing the crabby irritable doctor, he is ever so creepy and has a fire of superiority behind his eyes. The set design of the tar dis interior is serviceable with a nice control console in the middle and a very clean chrome aesthetic.
Now this is just one
episode and doctor who (at least in the classic era) is serialised
meaning episodes are separated into story's so one story contains
multiple episodes and I will normally be reviewing whole story’s
rather then individual episodes. The reason I reviewed this
separately is so it can act as a sort of trial run and the rest of
the story is fairly disconnect from the first episode
1 down, just under 800
to go
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