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were_lemurSpoilers!
Part One (An Unearthly Child) -- in which we are introduced to the eponymous Unearthly Child, her two Nosy Teachers, and a Grumpy Old Man.
First? The music goes on weirdly long, and there's this British Bobby who seems to have nothing to do with anything at all. At least, he hasn't shown back up yet.
Second? We go to school; not exactly something that is going to bring up fond memories for me. There, we're introduced to Barbara and Ian; she teaches history, he teaches science. They have a mysterious student named Susan, who's a genius and lives with her grandfather, and gives her address as a junkyard. So they go to see what's up with her.
They quickly realize that things are even weirder than they expected; first they find a police box, then they see Susan's grandfather about to enter it. They confront him, he says that Susan's not there, and though they repeatedly threaten to go get the police, they never follow through on it. You'd think they knew that he could just hop in his TARDIS and be three galaxies away before they could get back.
They argue, Susan opens the door and they get in, and they discover that the police box is bigger on the inside. Gramps is understandably Not At All Happy with this turn of events. Susan is upset because the past five months have been the happiest of her life and WAIT, WHAT!?
Police boxes that are bigger on the inside I can buy. Aliens, time travel, I'm right there with it. But my suspension of disbelief falls down and goes BOOM! at that exact moment. Because there is no way that anyone can convince me that someone who is probably either a student at or a graduate of the Prydon Academy would have any interest in pretending to be an ordinary ninth grader. It would be like a grad student going back to kindergarten for shits and giggles. Except kindergarteners are a lot less socially vicious than high schoolers.
But anyway. Grandpa isn't going to let Barbara and Ian go, because even if nobody believes them, they'll still know that police boxes that are bigger on the inside and can travel through space and time exist. (By that logic, he ought to have rounded up every Science Fiction writer on the planet. But I digress.) They try to get out, Ian tries the control panel and gets zapped, and then they dematerialize in freaky effects that remind you that this was, indeed, filmed in the sixties -- Groovy! -- and land rather off-kilteredly on a rock (setting a precedent of questionable piloting that will last for fifty years and beyond), with the two humans passed out.
Part Two (The Cave of Skulls) -- in which The Question is asked for the Very First Time, and other Precedents are Set.
The Emoest Caveman watches as the TARDIS arrives, and then flashes back to his humiliating failure to make fire, complete with prospective girlfriend, and elder who thinks that Fire Is A Dangerous New-Fangled Idea. Then he comes back to the present, and we go inside the TARDIS.
The unwilling guests are waking up, and the Doctor and Susan are flipping switches. The Doctor is annoyed that his "yearometer" isn't working right. (Which made me LOL at first, but then I had a brilliant idea. If the Doctor is speaking in either Gallifreyan or Technobabble, maybe the TARDIS translated the actual term to "yearometer" because that's what Barbara and Ian, who are presumably the audience identification characters, would understand?)
Anyway, everybody seems to have forgotten that this whole (mis)adventure started as a break-in/abduction and is excited to explore. During the proceedings, either Barbara or Ian refers to the Doctor as "Doctor Foreman." He looks blankly back and says "Doctor Who?"
Then there's some back-and-forth about Ian not believing all of this, and they go outside. Ian is convinced. The Doctor goes one way to check stuff out, while Team TARDIS goes the other. But none of them see the Emoest Caveman sneaking around. He, on the other hand, sees the Doctor lighting up, and upon realizing that his fire-making problems could be over, whacks him over the head and drags him back to the caveby the hair.
Susan suddenly realizes that she hasn't seen her grandfather in approximately thirty seconds. Cue hysterics and flailyness, which lets Ian be Manly and Take-Charge, and off they go to the rescue.
Meanwhile, back at the cave, the Angriest Caveman is monologuing about the Emoest Caveman's attempts to be leader. Emo comes back with the Doctor, and says that he can make fire come from his fingertips and breathe smoke, so he can make fire.
The Doctor wakes up, but oh noes, he's lost his matches, he can't make fire after all! (And here's where I have a serious disadvantage over people who would be watching this for the first time back in 1963; I know the Doctor as the guy who knows how to do all kinds of stuff, and I have a hard time believing that he wouldn't at least know the theory of making fire from sticks.) They're going to kill him, but then it's Team TARDIS to the rescue ... okay, not so much.
So everybody's captured, Cave-Gran is wailing about how fire will bring doomy doom to everybody, and the Doctor and Team TARDIS are dragged off to the Cave of Skulls to await execution.
Part One (An Unearthly Child) -- in which we are introduced to the eponymous Unearthly Child, her two Nosy Teachers, and a Grumpy Old Man.
First? The music goes on weirdly long, and there's this British Bobby who seems to have nothing to do with anything at all. At least, he hasn't shown back up yet.
Second? We go to school; not exactly something that is going to bring up fond memories for me. There, we're introduced to Barbara and Ian; she teaches history, he teaches science. They have a mysterious student named Susan, who's a genius and lives with her grandfather, and gives her address as a junkyard. So they go to see what's up with her.
They quickly realize that things are even weirder than they expected; first they find a police box, then they see Susan's grandfather about to enter it. They confront him, he says that Susan's not there, and though they repeatedly threaten to go get the police, they never follow through on it. You'd think they knew that he could just hop in his TARDIS and be three galaxies away before they could get back.
They argue, Susan opens the door and they get in, and they discover that the police box is bigger on the inside. Gramps is understandably Not At All Happy with this turn of events. Susan is upset because the past five months have been the happiest of her life and WAIT, WHAT!?
Police boxes that are bigger on the inside I can buy. Aliens, time travel, I'm right there with it. But my suspension of disbelief falls down and goes BOOM! at that exact moment. Because there is no way that anyone can convince me that someone who is probably either a student at or a graduate of the Prydon Academy would have any interest in pretending to be an ordinary ninth grader. It would be like a grad student going back to kindergarten for shits and giggles. Except kindergarteners are a lot less socially vicious than high schoolers.
But anyway. Grandpa isn't going to let Barbara and Ian go, because even if nobody believes them, they'll still know that police boxes that are bigger on the inside and can travel through space and time exist. (By that logic, he ought to have rounded up every Science Fiction writer on the planet. But I digress.) They try to get out, Ian tries the control panel and gets zapped, and then they dematerialize in freaky effects that remind you that this was, indeed, filmed in the sixties -- Groovy! -- and land rather off-kilteredly on a rock (setting a precedent of questionable piloting that will last for fifty years and beyond), with the two humans passed out.
Part Two (The Cave of Skulls) -- in which The Question is asked for the Very First Time, and other Precedents are Set.
The Emoest Caveman watches as the TARDIS arrives, and then flashes back to his humiliating failure to make fire, complete with prospective girlfriend, and elder who thinks that Fire Is A Dangerous New-Fangled Idea. Then he comes back to the present, and we go inside the TARDIS.
The unwilling guests are waking up, and the Doctor and Susan are flipping switches. The Doctor is annoyed that his "yearometer" isn't working right. (Which made me LOL at first, but then I had a brilliant idea. If the Doctor is speaking in either Gallifreyan or Technobabble, maybe the TARDIS translated the actual term to "yearometer" because that's what Barbara and Ian, who are presumably the audience identification characters, would understand?)
Anyway, everybody seems to have forgotten that this whole (mis)adventure started as a break-in/abduction and is excited to explore. During the proceedings, either Barbara or Ian refers to the Doctor as "Doctor Foreman." He looks blankly back and says "Doctor Who?"
Then there's some back-and-forth about Ian not believing all of this, and they go outside. Ian is convinced. The Doctor goes one way to check stuff out, while Team TARDIS goes the other. But none of them see the Emoest Caveman sneaking around. He, on the other hand, sees the Doctor lighting up, and upon realizing that his fire-making problems could be over, whacks him over the head and drags him back to the cave
Susan suddenly realizes that she hasn't seen her grandfather in approximately thirty seconds. Cue hysterics and flailyness, which lets Ian be Manly and Take-Charge, and off they go to the rescue.
Meanwhile, back at the cave, the Angriest Caveman is monologuing about the Emoest Caveman's attempts to be leader. Emo comes back with the Doctor, and says that he can make fire come from his fingertips and breathe smoke, so he can make fire.
The Doctor wakes up, but oh noes, he's lost his matches, he can't make fire after all! (And here's where I have a serious disadvantage over people who would be watching this for the first time back in 1963; I know the Doctor as the guy who knows how to do all kinds of stuff, and I have a hard time believing that he wouldn't at least know the theory of making fire from sticks.) They're going to kill him, but then it's Team TARDIS to the rescue ... okay, not so much.
So everybody's captured, Cave-Gran is wailing about how fire will bring doomy doom to everybody, and the Doctor and Team TARDIS are dragged off to the Cave of Skulls to await execution.
