An Unearthly Child...
The beginning of an era...
William Hartnell is more active in this than I expected. I particularly liked some of his more Time Lord-y bits in the unaired pilot. He comes across as arrogant, absent-minded and very alien. Unlike later Doctors, we have no clue what this guy is thinking about or who he even represents. This mystery quality is one I favor.
Carole Ann Ford does a much better Susan here than in The Daleks(which I saw before this). In the unaired pilot, I was shocked by how intelligent she appeared(as opposed to the schoolgirl personality they eventually went with). You could really see parts of the Doctor shining through her in that one. It's worth a watch, I tell you.f
Ian, as played by William Russell is a strong character and his introduction works very well. I like how he and Barbara are just acquintances and how their curiosity gets the better of them.
Barbara(Jacqueline Hill) doesn't get too much development til the latter part of the serial, where she has a mental breakdown, unable to accept what's happening, a perfectly understandable thing... if the budget were bigger :D.
The story is split into two. The first part deals with the schoolteachers discovering Susan living in a junkyard in a box that's bigger-on-the-inside, with a very authoritarian man ordering things around. The duo tries to convince Susan that something is wrong, but before ya know it... whooosh... whooosh... sssshhh, dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun, dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun... and they're away.
The second part takes place in prehistoric times, which isn't nearly as gripping, but clearly proves the dangers that time travel can have with the characters returning as rags of their former selves, clearly a near escape. Unlike most later stories, the companion Ian takes charge of the group, being the strongest and the coolest. He hasn't yet grown into the hero he'll become, but the traits are starting to show... yes, hmmm....
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