A. An Unearthly Child

TRANSMISSION DETAILS:

   Unused Pilot ^          Mon   26.08.91   2.15pm - 2.45pm   1.7M/-----/---

1. An Unearthly Child      Sat   23.11.63   5.15pm - 5.40pm   4.4M/114th/63%
2. The Cave of Skulls            30.11.63   5.30pm - 5.55pm * 5.9M/ 85th/59%
3. The Forest of Fear            07.12.63   5.15pm - 5.40pm   6.9M/ 61st/65%
4. The Firemaker                 14.12.63   5.15pm - 5.40pm   6.4M/ 70th/55%

^ - on BBC2      * - scheduled for 5.15pm - 5.40pm

An Unearthly Child      Sat   30.11.63   5.05pm - 5.30pm   5.9M/----

An Unearthly Child      Mon   02.11.81   5.40pm - 6.05pm  ~4.6M/ 8th
The Cave of Skulls      Tue   03.11.81   5.40pm - 6.05pm  ~4.3M/13th
The Forest of Fear      Wed   04.11.81   5.40pm - 6.05pm  ~4.4M/10th
The Firemaker           Thu   05.11.81   5.40pm - 6.05pm  ~3.9M/15th

~ - as part of the BBC2 "Five Faces of Doctor Who" season (positions just for that channel)

HORG: Howard Lang (2-4); KAL: Jeremy Young (2-4); ZA: Derek Newark (2-4); HUR: Alethea Charlton (2-4); OLD MOTHER: Eileen Way (2-3). UNCREDITED: POLICEMAN: Fred Rawlings (unused pilot), Reg Cranfield (1); SCHOOLCHILDREN: (all 1) Francesco Bertorelli, Carole Clarke, Heather Lyons, Mavis Ransom, Cedric Schoeman, Brian Thomas, Richard Wilson; SHADOW OF ZA: Leslie Bates (1-reprise2); TRIBE: (all-4) Leslie Bates, Elizabeth Body, Al Davis, Billie Davis, Roy Denton, Jean Denyer, Veronica Dyson, Diane Gay, Bob Haddow, Margot Maxine, Bill Nicholas, Brenda Proctor, Lyn Turner, Doreen Ubells, Frank Wheatley; TRIBE CHILDREN: Janet Fairhead (3-4), Antonia Moss (2), Julie Moss (2), Timothy Palmer (3-4), David Rosen (2-4), Trevor Thomas (2), Elizabeth White (3-4); DOUBLE FOR KAL: Billy Cornelius (4); DOUBLE FOR ZA: Derek Ware (4)

STORY:

Two school teachers are perturbed by one of their pupils, Susan Foreman. In some cases she is exceptionally bright, sometimes to the point of overshadowing her teachers. But on occasion she has shown a lack of knowledge of the basics, such as the currency that England was using.

Worried by this the two teachers, Ian and Barbara, decide to follow her to her home in order to talk to her grandfather. Instead they see her enter a junkyard. When they follow her inside there is no sign, although there is a strange, vibrating police telephone box.

They hear Susan inside, and when her grandfather returns they barge past him and into the police box - where they find a large, brightly lit, room with a mushroom shaped console in the centre. The Doctor is not happy at the intrusion, and says that if he lets them go free they will inevitably tell someone about what they saw. Before anyone can stop him the Doctor dematerialises the TARDIS.

It re-materialises around 100,00 B.C. where they have to battle to escape from primitive man. The Doctor attempts to take the teachers back to their own time, but materialises on an unknown world.

STUDIOS:Lime Grove Studio D, Ealing Television Film Studios

ALTERNATIVE TITLES: (2-4): The Tribe of Gum, The Firemakers, 100,000BC

WORKING TITLES: 2-4 - Doctor Who in 100,000BC, Doctor Who and the Tribe of Gum, Part 4: The Dawn of Knowledge

NOTES: Bernard Lodge was the uncredited designer of the original title sequence, which was accompanied by Delia Derbyshire's arrangement of Ron Grainer's theme tune. Grainer would be credited for virtually every subsequent episode, even after drastic rearrangements of the theme

NOVELISATION: An Unearthly Child Terrance Dicks

VIDEO: An Unearthly Child