The opening half of the first episode is quite clearly a domestic tragedy, as two well-meaning schoolteachers follow a girl home to find her living in difficult circumstances. As is evident in the narrative of “An Unearthly Child,” the audience is encouraged to empathize with the adult authority figures as they attempt to solve the riddle that is the teenage Susan Foreman. A generation of parents who found they did not understand or connect with their children identified with the film. Beginning roughly around 1956, teenagers had shifted from trainee adults to a separate identity and subculture John Wyndham’s 1957 novel The Midwich Cuckoos, famously adapted as Village of the Damned in 1960, established this theme on film and set forth the model that all subsequent “creepy children” horror films would be based. The script of “An Unearthly Child” takes cues from a recurring theme in the 1960s regarding the suspicion of clever children.

Perhaps this was why, even though the title tune was so other-wordly that it was unlike anything else on television at that time, that the first episode of the program, “An Unearthly Child,” felt so far removed from science fiction television. Neither are we writing fantasy: the events have got to be credible to the three ordinary people who are our main characters Granted the startling situations, we should try to add meaning to convey what it means to be these ordinary human beings in other times, or in far space, or in unusual physical states. We shall provide scientific explanations too, sometimes, but we shall not bend over backwards to do so, if we decide to achieve credibility by other means. This is not space travel or science-fiction: avoid the limitation of such labels, and make for use of any style of category that happens to suit a story. We are interested in human beings reacting to strange circumstances. In an internal memo from May 15th, 1963, describing the approach to Doctor Who’s stories, Webber is clear: One of the pivotal figures in the development of the program was Cecil Edwin “Bunny” Webber, a writer based in the BBC’s Scriptwriting Department. In fact, its music-particularly its title tune-would prove crucial to the establishment of the sci-fi leanings of the program that are otherwise far-removed from the main storyline of the first episode.ĭoctor Who’s categorization as science fiction proved to be far removed from its initial conception. The program’s sound effects and compelling electronic and avant-garde scoring gave every indication to its audience that the spectacle would be a suspenseful science fiction drama. She stared, terrified, at the throbbing banks of equipment… Shrill and insistent, it cut into Barbara Wright's mind like a knife. An illustration of Susan Foreman based on her appearance in promotional imagery for “An Unearthly Child,” found in the first issue of “ Doctor Who: An Adventure in Time and Space” fanzine. The “buzzing,” “shrill” sound of the computer banks, “throbbing” and persistent, made an impact on those viewers that caught that first episode of Doctor Who back in 1963.įigure 2. The opening comment of that first issue addresses the sound design of the pilot episode. The Doctor Who fanzine “ Doctor Who: An Adventure in Time and Space” also pays mind to the unique aural signature of the program early on in its run. (Newman, ( Doctor Who BFI TV Classics), source) Later regenerations added colour, the faces of current stars or unfortunate semi-disco arrangements, but the first, simplest and strangest take remains the most evocative. The tone is set by the title sequence, which combines monochrome video distortion with music from Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Within the first page of his introduction to the series, Kim Newman pays attention to the fact that, The impact of the program's music is easily seen in the critical documentation on Doctor Who’s reception and history. “I know these Earth people better than you, their minds reject things they don't understand.” - Susan, “An Unearthly Child”Įven from its humble beginnings in 1963, the music and sound design of Doctor Who proved to be one of the most striking features of the program. Susan Foreman explaining the fourth and fifth dimensions to her Coal Hill School teachers in “An Unearthly Child.” ©BBC

Docxtor who an unearthly child