Holistic Review: A highly engaging first episode that captures the imagination; sadly, the rest of it is let down by a cast of unlikeable characters and a simplistic plot.

Before I start into the review itself, this seems like a good place to mention my motivation for doing these reviews (to which I'll gradually be adding). I resisted doing them for some time, since there are already any number of great reviews available online. (My personal favorites are Paul Clarke's reviews on Outpost Gallifrey, if anyone's curious.) Besides, reviews are a mammoth undertaking and I've had plenty of that with gadget and quote counting and fact collating. I also vaguely worried that if I cemented my opinions in a review, I'd only ever think of the review when rewatching an episode, so in a way, my feelings at the moment would turn into my feelings for all time. But then I figured, I've been watching this show for nearly twenty-five years now, so my opinions should be pretty consistent by this point; and besides, I can always edit them later, if I want to. Also, my purpose in writing them is not to engage in some impressive thematic analysis, or even necessarily to broadly cover everything good and bad about each episode. Like I said, plenty of people do that already. But the one unique thing I can offer is an insight into the sorts of things that go through my head as I watch these stories. These reviews are here so that I can share with you the things I've been thinking about over the past twenty-odd years but probably haven't ever mentioned to anybody. And I hope you'll find that enjoyable.

So, the very first Doctor Who story. As the pilot for the series, does it do what it sets out to do - namely, to intrigue the audience and keep them tuning in week after week? Well, yes and no.

This isn't something that hasn't already been said by every other reviewer of this story, but there's a world of difference between the first episode and the other three. The first episode does such a wonderful job of setting up the characters and the mystery surrounding Susan and her grandfather, that you can't help but be hooked for the remainder of the journey. In fact, I feel quite sure that, had I watched this story on its initial transmission, that first episode would have been enough by far to keep me hooked as long as the show ran (unless, of course, the producers completely dropped the ball with the rest of the series, which we know they clearly didn't). On one hand, you have to feel sorry for poor Ian and Barbara, who are so abruptly and unwillingly yanked away from their homes - not only have they been effectively kidnapped (a very real fear for a lot of people), they've been abducted from their planet! And their time! You can't get much more isolated than that. But on the other hand, the realization that they could turn up anywhere and anywhen is incredibly exciting. So, sure, this time they got stuck in a not-terribly-exciting runaround with some cavemen; who knows where they'll be for their next adventure? This has surely got to be one of the key reasons for Doctor Who's longevity - if you don't like the setting, or you don't like the characters, just wait a few weeks and you'll get almost a complete overhaul. It's not even as if the writers are the same for each episode.

The characters are certainly very interesting too. It occurs to me that as much as I love them both, I've always been a bigger fan of Barbara than Ian. But in this story, Ian is the one that the viewer really sympathizes with. He's the most upbeat and positive, the most proactive, and the one who seems to be thinking about things the most. His skepticism, as a scientist, is realistic (at least in today's post-Scully era) and a nice touch. And he's hip to the youth culture, which makes him seem rather charming and lively. In contrast, during the first episode, Barbara comes across as very strict, slightly rude, rather humorless, a self-confessed busybody, and she even recalls an occasion on which she humiliated Susan in front of the rest of the class. Not, one might say, the most likeable of people! But Barbara definitely improves, even by the opening moments of the second episode in which her intuition leads her to trust what the Doctor and Susan are saying. Her refusal to leave an injured caveman behind, even when he has tried to do them harm, also very much helps her cause. (It's funny, though, that Barbara is also at her most hysterical here, in episode three as they flee through the forest. It's understandable, given the trauma she's been put through, and she does show quite a lot of backbone here standing up to the Doctor, but I'm glad that in future episodes, she's somewhat less hysteria-prone. It feels atypical.)

Then we have the Doctor, who of course kidnaps our two schoolteachers, and is not only willing to abandon an injured caveman but might even kill him out of self-interest. Certainly not the heroic individual to which we are more accustomed! He does have his moments - grudgingly confessing to a bond with the schoolteachers, and acquitting Za of the old woman's murder. But by the end of this story, the Doctor is still very much a random variable. I have to say that I think it's a great performance, and makes his character extremely interesting. It was probably smart of them not to stretch it out too long, though, given audience reaction to this sort of thing 21 years later. I wonder why an unlikeable (and almost murderous) Doctor works here, but not as well for Colin Baker? Carole Ann Ford is great in episode one, although unfortunately her role in events dips considerably during the remaining three episodes, where she's mostly limited to the occasional comment or hysterical fit (sadly, not atypical). I like that Susan acts as sort of the Doctor's conscience (not that he pays much attention to it or her) and, at this point, is playing mediator between him and the teachers.

Watching it again for the first time, so to speak, it hit me just what a shock the TARDIS interior is. I mean, wow. The inside is huge, and you know nobody was expecting that, least of all poor Babs and Ian. And suddenly you realize, my goodness, there's a good reason why Susan was so odd - she's an alien! It's enough to make your head swim. I wonder if anybody tuned in, not even knowing what the show was supposed to be about. I bet they got quite a surprise.

Really, upon careful consideration, I think the first episode is just as good as any of today's pilots. It certainly sets up a much more interesting premise than many of today's pilots! And the ending is just fantastic - the humanoid shadow narrows it down a little, but basically, they could be anywhere!

It's not as if things are abysmal in the last three episodes. The cavemen are actually very amusing (intentionally, I feel sure, although it's possible some of them were just really hamming it up) and I think their culture was very nicely portrayed. Scenes like the one in which children play-kill a "tiger" and Barbara realizes that the cavemen are completely unfamiliar with the simple concept of unconditional friendship are very welcome, and give an intriguing glimpse into the mindset and lives of the people here. The sad thing is that there isn't a single one of them that's even slightly likeable, with the possible exception of Old Mother, who seems more creepy and selfishly helpful than likeable. It's kind of hard to work up any real concern for what happens to them; you don't get the feeling that the world would suffer if the beasts and the cold killed them all off. The cliffhanger to part 2 definitely redeems things somewhat - the sight of bashed-in skulls is a very vivid indication of exactly what fate the time travellers can expect, and it's chilling. The main fault, I thought, was that there were far too many long-winded scenes of squabbling. How many times must we argue over how one makes fire and who is going to do it? And the plot, such as it exists, is fairly barren: basically, some cavemen kidnap our group and put them in the cave of skulls; they escape, prove that they are friendly, but get dragged back again, where they devise a clever trick, escape a second time and finally get away. Oh, and they also reveal the secret of fire. So basically not a lot happens here except for some valuable moments of characterization throughout.

Now, a few other minor points that I'd like to bring up.

• I've always liked this theme music. It takes me back to when I was, ooh, pre-10 anyway, and the Hartnell episodes used to play on public television in West Virginia. PBS there quit showing Doctor Who either just before or just after I moved to North Carolina, and we never got the Hartnell episodes there as far as I remember, so the ones I caught in West Virginia were the only ones I saw for a long time. And I loved them, which is a nice memory since I don't generally expect children to put up with black-and-white things these days. I can still remember standing behind the table that divided the kitchen from the living room, and watching it over the back of the couch. Happy memories, and very good associations with this theme.

• Another enduring memory about this story: when I was younger, being a Doctor Who fan was difficult, because I didn't know a single other person aside from my cousin who even knew what it was, much less liked it. I kept hoping that I could get some school friends of mine interested, but overall I had terrible luck with it. The closest I got was my best friend in fourth and fifth grades, Peter Centofante (hello out there, Peter, if you ever run across this!), who was kind enough to watch a couple of stories with me. Unfortunately, his sleepovers were timed such that the stories I watched with him were An Unearthly Child and The Gunfighters. Amazingly, he didn't get completely turned off the series (I can also recall watching part of The Mysterious Planet with him at his house one weekend) but unsurprisingly, he didn't get hooked either! But the thing I remember most is that the morning after we'd watched this story, he told me that the night before he'd had a dream about the Doctor fighting with cavemen. So clearly it made some sort of impression!

• In the opening Coal Hill School scene, as Barbara is calling back to Susan in the classroom, a pair of girls walk through the hall talking until they're interrupted by a teasing boy who then runs off. Then a very interesting thing happens. The girl on the right, with long dark hair (we'll call her Girl 1... no, wait, I want to give her a name. Let's call her Cordelia!) mutters something, then leans over to her friend with shorter, lighter hair and way more eyeliner (we'll call her Harmony) and whispers something quickly in her ear. The boy needs a name too; I'll have to think of something. Anyway, Harmony giggles and moves away, and Cordelia gets this very mysterious look on her face before following. It's a look that seems to say "See, I told you I was right." but it's very enigmatic. So I got to wondering what exactly they were talking about. To my surprise, I managed to catch everything they were saying after Harmony starts talking, and I thought I'd take a wild guess at the rest of their conversation... just to see if I can piece together what exactly that strange look meant. Speculation is in purple:

  Cordelia: (scanning folded paper) "You know, sometime today we should really slaughter that annoying git who likes to follow us around. Speaking of which, have you read my ex-boyfriend's obituary yet?"
  Harmony: (looking at paper) "Oh no - oh, it's horrible!"
  Cordelia: "No it's not, it's fabulous."
  Harmony: "Only to you -"
  Xander: (walks up behind them, interrupting) "Oh, ooh, yes, yes."
  Cordelia: "Good grief." (whispers in Harmony's ear) "Kill him."

  I'm sure you can think up plenty more potential storylines the next time you watch this.

• I like the music Susan's listening to, quite a lot. Too bad John Smith and the Common Men don't apparently exist. I wonder what the music actually is? Something the Radiophonic Workshop whipped up, no doubt.

• An odd conversation:

  Barbara: "See you in the morning."
  Susan: "I expect so."

  Is that premeditated truancy I hear? Or is Susan just leaving open the slight possibility that one of them will wake up sick the next morning?

• Susan opens up a volume on the French Revolution, looks it over for two seconds, then says "That's not right!" By my reckoning, given that she was looking at one of the first couple of pages, she must have been complaining about the bit that said "This book is dedicated to my dear Aunt Katherine, without whom I would never have learned to make ginger soup."

• I like the directorial decision to portray Ian and Barbara's memories of Susan by having Carole Ann Ford talk directly to camera. That was nicely done.

• It's pretty cool foreshadowing that, when Ian drops his torch, Barbara tells him to use a match but he doesn't have any. Oh, how he's going to regret that, in about one episode's time. I wonder if it was a deliberate script addition for just that reason? It's delivered so naturally, I'd never even noticed it before.

• Probably my favorite line (well, my favorite delivery!) of the episode comes when the Doctor explains that the police box is, in fact, a vehicle of sorts: "Yes! Yes, ship!" which is followed by the amusing "This doesn't roll along on wheels, you know."

• Silly Ian. Susan screams at him not to touch a part of the console. Instead of jerking his hand away, what does he do? Apparently he listens to her rant, then considers his options, and goes ahead and touches it anyway! So what if he gets a shock, he asked for it.

• I'm tickled seeing Waris Hussein's name on screen these days. One summer, a group of us were having breakfast at the house of a man who was then my teacher, and one of the others brought in a photo they had found of his class from Queens College, Cambridge in 1960. She thought it would be fun to try to spot our professor in the crowd; lots of people were guessing and disputing guesses, and I decided to be silly, so I found the man in the photograph who looked the least like him and said "Oh! There he is." My professor leaned over to see who I was pointing at. "No, no," he said, "that's my roommate. His name is Waris Hussein." My jaw dropped. "He's a filmmaker," added my professor. I nearly fainted. And I think he was rather surprised to find that I knew of his roommate quite well by reputation.

• I'm a little perplexed that the Doctor and Susan (or, at least, Susan) don't immediately look to see what shape the TARDIS is in when they land on the prehistoric Earth. Surely that would be the first thing you wanted to know, what your ship looked like now? Of course, there's an easy answer to that - if Time Lords have some kind of symbiotic link with their ship, they probably know where and what it is instinctively. (Of course, the Doctor's been unable to find it often enough that that theory might be right out the window, but it's a notion.)

• I wonder what the average age of cavemen was? Old Mother looks like she's supposed to be around 60, but I find it hard to believe they could have lived that long, especially if they haven't had access to fire for years if not decades (as is implied by the older man who barely remembers the flavor of cooked meat). Maybe she's meant to be in her late 30s or early 40s but just looks old because of the conditions she lives in, which would also make sense (and would probably fit better with Eileen Way's actual age).

• Along those lines - why exactly is it that she's so afraid of fire? In a way, it makes perfect sense - she's superstitious and thinks fire will bring destruction to their tribe - but there are two little facts standing in the way of this line of reasoning. First: she's been around for a while (hence "Old" Mother!), so she surely was around when Za's father was making fire. Wouldn't she therefore have firsthand experience of fire and its benefits? What exactly makes her think it's such a threat to them? Second: it's repeatedly said that without fire, the whole tribe will die. So... she's more worried of potential death than certain death? (And how has the tribe survived this long without fire?)

• Watching Za try to move the stone in front of the Cave of Skulls is amusing (as is so much that he does). He makes some very funny faces.

• Something else I've never thought about, until my friend Andrew pointed it out: there's a very nice parallel theme running through this story, about the way people react when they're presented with the unfamiliar. We've got Ian and Barbara trying to deal with the TARDIS and time travel; the Doctor is unused to placing his trust in other people and prioritizing anything above his own self-interest; and then we have the cavemen, who don't understand friendship and giving. And gradually, everyone does change for the better (at least, we assume Za and Hur do. But maybe not.). It does actually make me appreciate this story more.

• I decided suddenly, when Kal was trying to convince the others that Za had killed Old Mother, that whenever the cavemen all go "Ohhh" or growl together, they sound very much like mindless zombies. I almost expect them to start shuffling toward the cave of skulls, moaning "Braaaaaaaains..."

• I really like the scene where the Doctor confronts Kal about his knife, particularly when he points out that Za's knife has no blood on it, and therefore does not say that it killed the old woman. Kal, in yet another of this story's frequent "dumb caveman" moments (well, after all, they are funny), stares at it for a moment, then grunts in disappointment and says "It is a bad knife!" before throwing it away. Well, I guess that'll show it, then.

• One of the most genuinely funny moments of the story, though, occurs after the Doctor makes grand boasts about how they can all make fire come from their fingers. Which would be true under normal circumstances, surely, but at the moment just seems unwise. Susan wonderfully echoes the feelings of the viewer when she mutters, "I hope he doesn't make Grandfather prove that."

• When Kal chokes the guard at the Cave of Skulls to death, right before he dies he crows like a rooster.

• The moment when Za tries awkwardly to make conversation with the TARDIS crew ("Is this the stone?") has always stuck with me as being painfully uncomfortable, ever since I read Terrance Dicks' novelization of this story years and years ago. I think it actually made me like that scene better, because it really does clearly accomplish what it's trying to do - we can see that Za wants to try to talk to them but he's really not at all sure how to get them to open up to him. As this episode amply demonstrates, cavemen do not possess the best social skills!

• Another slightly odd exchange.

  Susan: (placing a skull over her torch) "Hey Grandfather, look - it's almost alive!"
  Ian: (excitedly) "Not alive, Susan - almost dead!"

  Eh? Ian, my friend, it's a skull. Dead, by definition. Maybe you mean almost undead?

• I'm amused that, for all the talk of how commonly Susan trips and sprains her ankle, it's actually Barbara who gets the first-ever trip in Doctor Who while running from the Cave of Skulls.

Overall, it's enjoyable. The first episode is by far the best, and really makes the whole story worthwhile; the final three episodes are definitely on the substandard side, but if you can look past the endless squabbling and fighting and discussing fire, there are things to like. And the bottom line is, I'm so grateful that this episode was re-discovered, because for all its faults, it is the very first Doctor Who story, and its fighting cavemen undoubtedly make my world a much richer and happier place.