So that was the first story. Or was it? Perhaps the first episode was a story on it's own, followed by a three-parter? There's nothing on screen to tell us, so who decides?
There's been a lot of debate over the years about names for the stories up to The Gunfighters, and not much about story boundaries. I think that's mostly due to production codes; it seems pretty straightforward, after all. Every serial was given a code by the production team - in this case, simply "A". So surely that must indicate the creators' intended story boundaries? Mostly that's true, and they certainly provide a good estimate, but to see why they are not completely reliable we must fast-forward to Colin Baker's time, and 1986's The Trial of a Time Lord. There's plenty of documented evidence that this was intended to be a single season-long story and the episodes are even numbered 1 to 14, but for many people it doesn't feel like that. Instead they break it down into four stories: The Mysterious Planet, Mindwarp, Terror of the Vervoids, and The Ultimate Foe. Debates still occasionally spring up between these two positions - one story or four? - but production codes provide another answer: three. Terror of the Vervoids and The Ultimate Foe share the same code. Now, I've never seen anyone seriously claim that the season should be divided like this, so I treat a production code like the pirate code: as more of a guideline.
Therefore we need to look at other things as well. The first four episodes share the same director, but then so do Delta and the Bannermen and Dragonfire. They have the same author, too - Anthony Coburn. Or do they? On-screen, yes; but C.E. "Bunny" Webber is credited as co-author for the first episode on BBC documents. This is because he was originally going to provide the opening story, with The Tribe of Gum coming second, and when things changed several aspects of the original opening episode were carried over.
So, the prehistory part was originally conceived separately from the introductory episode, and indeed there's less time spent in episode one after time-travelling than there is spent on Skaro in episode four. That's not conclusive, but it does help explain the different tone. To me, it just feels like two stories and that's all that matters. The conventional answer is perfectly valid too; make up your own mind.
I mentioned the naming controversies above, but I'm going to leave that subject until the end of the next serial. Suffice to say that this story has been most commonly referred to as An Unearthly Child (at least since 1973) with 100,000 BC the only rival candidate, used mostly by Doctor Who Magazine. Other names included The Tribe of Gum, Coburn's original title; The Paleolithic Age; and The Stone Age. Phew!
What about the story/stories as a whole, then? I find I've nothing much to say that I haven't already covered. It was written, directed and performed well for the most part, with good-enough sets, costumes and effects. While episode 1 is the standout the rest provide better entertainment than they are sometimes given credit for - including by me. All in all, the show is off to a good start.
Rating:
Mine: 8/10 for all four episodes, 5.5/10 for just the final three.
DWM Mighty 200: 74.64%, 61st.
2010 Gallifrey Base Non-Dynamic Rankings: 7.44, 74th out of 211.
Since this is a short entry, I'll take a bit of time to explain my ratings. First of all, they are based purely on how much I enjoyed each episode or story. I can admire something and still not enjoy it much, in which case I would give it a poor rating; and conversely, something fairly naff can entertain me and win higher marks than it "deserves". I don't try to filter out the effects of nostalgia, chilhood memories, or other bias. In short, I accept that my ratings will be subjective and that there's not much I can do about it.
For stories I have a fairly solid marking scheme. Prompted by the DWM Mighty 200, I have ranked all the stories I've seen and rated them after doing so. This means new ones can be slotted in fairly efficiently. My median score is currently 6.5, but I have seen and rated far more of the most popular stories than the least (48 of the top 50, but only 27 of the bottom 50 - and only 5 of the bottom 20). If my tastes are similar to DWM readers', adding the rest should bring the median down to a low 6 - which by my calculation actually matches the magazine poll.
I've never rated individual episodes before, so I am going much more by gut feeling here. They should be treated with more caution.
Next Time:
The Dead Planet.
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