Today is not just any day for you all see today is a very special as i'm writing this review on the exact day that Doctor Who first premiered on British TV screens all the way back in 1963 and well I couldn't think of a better thing to review. Then something that's from this truly iconic franchise however since the son of the first episodes original writer is keeping that entire first episode for himself I thought that i'd take a look at a Doctor Who episode that predates that one and so then join me as I review the pilot version of the episode that started it all with the pilot being called simply just "An Unearthly Child" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is when her two school teachers become concerned about of their students they go to look for her only to stumble upon something that's truly out of this world. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honest I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad as it's quite literally the exact same plot as the version of the episode that would eventually air but seeing how different plot beats play out in both versions of the episode and what things about the plot both big and small was interesting to say the least in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is William Hartnell as The Doctor , Carole Ann Ford as Susan Foreman and William Russell as Ian Chesterton. Also starring in this episode is Jacqueline Hill as Barbara Wright what's interesting is that this pilot only features how would go into become the four main leads with all of the other characters being unnamed school students and while the same thing is also true for the aired version as well here as it wasn't leading onto anything at that point it felt like it was the BBC just trying to to save some money but that oddly works in this episode favor as it only kept the characters that were relevant to the plot of the episode whereas in more modern Doctor Who they would fill the first episode out with characters that aren't that essential to the plot of the episode.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. With alot of the cast turning in the exact same performance that they would later turn in the aired version of this episode while there are some changes to certain characters that does effect the acting alot of the performances in this episode match that of the original aired episode which just goes to show you just how good this cast was as they pretty much really nailed there character performance wise on the first go.
As someone who has the first serial in it's entirety several times it was weird seeing this unaired version of this classic episode. This is because it was so obviously a classic episode and so to see it what it was like before the episode had all of it's changes made to it be it from a performance point of view or a story point of view or even a lore point of view for that matter it felt weird as it was like I was watching a new episode of the show for the very first even tho it's quite literally the oldest ever episode of Doctor Who and yet it was also fascinating seeing a version of the show that might have been had there not been any changes forced on to the show changes which ultimately made the show the show that we all know and love to this very day.
There are alot and I mean alot of errors to be found n this very episode with the studio lights showing up on several occasions. On top of that we have actors flubbing lines which are kept in the episode we also have camera men bumping into the set and pieces of the set falling over and that's just the tip of the ice berg and all of which make it no wonder why this episode was filmed again as it makes the show overall look even cheaper then what it already is and while alot of the faults in this episode could be blamed on the BBC for giving the episode a very small studio to film in alot of the blame has to also go to the crew for not really working with what they had on the day as that would have made a huge difference.
Perhaps the biggest change made to the episode is how The Doctor himself is both written and performed as in the original episode he comes across and being grumpy yet childlike and understanding. All of which aren't present in this episode as in this version of the episode he comes across as being both grumpy and borderline abusive all of which is due to how the character was written in this episode and this s something that i'm glad that the Sydney Newman demanded be changed as The Doctor is meant to be of the main heroes of the show and as such he has to be somewhat likable and if the film "An Adventure In Space In Time" is anything to go by the character was sold to William Hartnell as having a twinkle in his eye and it's that twinkle in his eye that sadly isn't present in this version of the episode.
I'm not going to lie and say that this was a rough episode to get through because it really wasn't infact it was still a rather enjoyable episode to get through. As it has alot of potential to be a really good story and heck even some of the things that are add like Susan doing a Rorschach Test only to be horrified by it's results which was interesting as it seemed like that she knew that her grandfather wasn't a kind person and would try to do something to do her school teachers which is something that could have been explored if that idea was kept in the aired version of the episode and yet for some reason it was cut from the aired version which is weird as it would have given Susan an extra dimension to her character and it would have given her something to do other then just stand there and scream alot like she would eventually end up doing.
Now then this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly twenty five minuets and six seconds. With this being the shorter version of this pilot episode as there is also a thirty six minuet version of this version of the episode as well with this version really having the really better running time as when you get right down to it there's no need to this episode to be anywhere even close to being forty minuets in length as the episode doesn't really have alot their interms of story to cover that large of amount of running time and while the extra long version might just be with alternate takes it doesn't mean that the episode has to be that long and to this episodes credit it does have some really good pacing to it.
So now then as this is a drama that means that I have to actually talk about the actual drama thats actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual drama that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. As alot of the drama in this episode was really done and really built but at the same time time tho it was still strange seeing The Doctor act as this person who is at times borderline abusive to his granddaughter yes it comes from a good place but seeing him out right yell at her for something that she didn't know was going to happen in the first place just felt wrong in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall while it was strange seeing a version of the shows very first episode that was never meant to air in the first place it was still interesting seeing what could have been in the show had this version of the episode been allowed to air in the first place in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as as well as all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very review and as such that means that this very episode earns itself a grand old score of exactly a 7 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page , Wikipedia and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from these very episodes that I used in this very review being Google Images simply just due to the fact that alot of the images that are on Google Images are all really fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition and a very happy sixtieth birthday to Doctor Who and here to many more years of fun , adventures and dangers all across time and space.