I've watched "An Unearthly Child" about a million times, but for some reason I've never gone beyond that. Mostly because of the received wisdom that this first serial is pretty dull and stupid.
RECEIVED WISDOM WAS WRONG.
I mean, yes, it was a bit of a culture shock going from Community to HELLO 1963, and I sort of had to set aside everything I learned in Anthropology 101. But it was a nice, tense character drama, and I liked that. The stylised dialogue of the cave people worked for the most part, although I got a bit tired of hearing "I, Kal".
Mostly the biggest surprise was how much Barbara screamed and panicked. She's such a dignified presence in the first episode that it's almost shocking how she falls apart and has to slowly pull herself back together.
One thing I noticed, that I never spotted before: "She can't be foreign," says Ian in regard to Susan's unfamiliarity with the currency. In "Remembrance of the Daleks", Ace's Fascist Boyfriend of the Week assumes she's foreign for the same reason.
Also, Barbara's hair is magnificent. Once I'm done here, I'm planning to go off and craft my own bouffant.
That was interesting, especially as I'd only seen partial clips of it before.
-- The Doctor left Earth with Ian and Barbara on board because he didn't want Susan to leave him! I'd never known that.
-- As I'd been warned, it's a pretty dire episode once we get to the cavemen. There's absolutely no mystery, and no clear evil to be fought. It's just, "how do we get away from the cavemen?" At least the cavemen did have some warring factions going on, which became another hallmark of the show.
-- The TARDIS materialization noise sounds exactly the same! Of course, why change perfection?
-- Just why did they individually name all the episode parts back then? Anyone know? And when did that change?
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2011-10-23 02:39 am (UTC)RECEIVED WISDOM WAS WRONG.
I mean, yes, it was a bit of a culture shock going from Community to HELLO 1963, and I sort of had to set aside everything I learned in Anthropology 101. But it was a nice, tense character drama, and I liked that. The stylised dialogue of the cave people worked for the most part, although I got a bit tired of hearing "I, Kal".
Mostly the biggest surprise was how much Barbara screamed and panicked. She's such a dignified presence in the first episode that it's almost shocking how she falls apart and has to slowly pull herself back together.
One thing I noticed, that I never spotted before: "She can't be foreign," says Ian in regard to Susan's unfamiliarity with the currency. In "Remembrance of the Daleks", Ace's Fascist Boyfriend of the Week assumes she's foreign for the same reason.
Also, Barbara's hair is magnificent. Once I'm done here, I'm planning to go off and craft my own bouffant.
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2011-10-23 08:57 pm (UTC)But I love the cavemen episodes if only because I think cranky, useless antihero One is wonderful.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-24 02:42 am (UTC)Both the Doctor and Ian ask "Doctor Who?" in the second episode. Also, Susan and the Doctor both wonder about the TARDIS not changing shape.
So, are these cavemen on Earth in the distant past, or on another planet? I've never been clear about that.
I love what a total bastard One was sometimes.
OK, Susan is still a bit weird with the whole putting-a-human-skull-on-a-burning-stick thing. Awesome.
And the Doctor doesn't know how to drive. Heh.
Next time: FUCK YEAH DALEKS!
no subject
Date: 2011-10-24 05:52 am (UTC)-- The Doctor left Earth with Ian and Barbara on board because he didn't want Susan to leave him! I'd never known that.
-- As I'd been warned, it's a pretty dire episode once we get to the cavemen. There's absolutely no mystery, and no clear evil to be fought. It's just, "how do we get away from the cavemen?" At least the cavemen did have some warring factions going on, which became another hallmark of the show.
-- The TARDIS materialization noise sounds exactly the same! Of course, why change perfection?
-- Just why did they individually name all the episode parts back then? Anyone know? And when did that change?
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2011-10-26 02:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From: