“Fire will kill us all…”
I suppose you could call that prophetic.
So, for all those of you that were worried this was going to be 700-odd episodes of me going “That was brillllllliant”, here’s where you can put those fears to rest.
And I guess this is why I try and separate out the pilot from the 3 episodes that follow. I’ve never known what to think of this story. I guess I want to like it because it’s the first ever Doctor Who serial. But I really rather can’t.
I think this story was influenced by the fact that original producers wanted the show to be educational as well as fun. So in order to do that we started off with a strong vein of historical episodes, a concept upon which the show largely gave up a few years later. The producers never wanted “bug-eyed monsters” (a principle that was pretty much killed about three episodes down the road) and that was a noble idea.
I like the idea of historical stories, I really do. I am always very genuinely disappointed every time nuWho does a story involving Shakespeare or Van Gogh and then sticks an arbitrary monster in the middle of it all just to remind us all this is science fiction. I really think Doctor Who and historical stories has potential. But when it comes to this particular story, I get the feeling that the producers of the show rather overestimated the storytelling capability of monosyllabic neanderthals. I mean, that’s what we have the north for, right?
It doesn’t help that the character names are all fairly similar. I appreciate they didn’t have Brian or Dave in the caveman days but after a while I can’t remember my Za from my Cal. And the fact they have similar facial hair and similar monosyllabic grunts also doesn’t help either.
I think my biggest problem with this is that there simply seems to be no story to it. Yes, there is an ongoing dispute between the potential leaders of the caveman and yes, there are ongoing attempts to make fire. But it just seems to do a bit of running around, getting captured, running around again. A cynic might say that set a pretty good formula for the 49 years that followed but every time I watch this I just feel like it’s kicking the arse out of something that was a tedious point in man’s history. Let’s be honest, as a race when we were cavemen, we were dull. We sat around, hit things with rocks, occasionally painted (very dull) things on walls and then hit other things with rocks. I would suggest there’s a reason the show never really bothered focusing on this period in history again.
The main highlight of this story is the interaction of our heroes. I’ve always preferred Who when the Doctor has a proper ensemble around him, or at least more than just the single companion. Jamie and Zoe, Sarah and Harry, Captain Jack and Rose and, of course, The Ponds. So seeing the start of the Susan/Ian/Barbara thing is good fun.
That being said, of our ensemble the only one who really does anything is Ian. HE drives the story, he comes up with all the ideas and he’s the one leading the group (until the Doctor grumpily points out he should be leader). What do the others do? The Doctor just complains, Barbara screams at anything that moves (and several things that don't) and Susan’s sole contribution to the story is to put a skull on a stick. A move that gives our real hero, Ian, an improbable idea that works bizarrely well.
In short, this isn’t my favourite serial. Very little story to speak of, dull-witted enemies and only one character who doesn’t irritate the hell out of me.
Thank God the bug-eyed monsters came next…
I suppose you could call that prophetic.
So, for all those of you that were worried this was going to be 700-odd episodes of me going “That was brillllllliant”, here’s where you can put those fears to rest.
And I guess this is why I try and separate out the pilot from the 3 episodes that follow. I’ve never known what to think of this story. I guess I want to like it because it’s the first ever Doctor Who serial. But I really rather can’t.
I think this story was influenced by the fact that original producers wanted the show to be educational as well as fun. So in order to do that we started off with a strong vein of historical episodes, a concept upon which the show largely gave up a few years later. The producers never wanted “bug-eyed monsters” (a principle that was pretty much killed about three episodes down the road) and that was a noble idea.
I like the idea of historical stories, I really do. I am always very genuinely disappointed every time nuWho does a story involving Shakespeare or Van Gogh and then sticks an arbitrary monster in the middle of it all just to remind us all this is science fiction. I really think Doctor Who and historical stories has potential. But when it comes to this particular story, I get the feeling that the producers of the show rather overestimated the storytelling capability of monosyllabic neanderthals. I mean, that’s what we have the north for, right?
It doesn’t help that the character names are all fairly similar. I appreciate they didn’t have Brian or Dave in the caveman days but after a while I can’t remember my Za from my Cal. And the fact they have similar facial hair and similar monosyllabic grunts also doesn’t help either.
I think my biggest problem with this is that there simply seems to be no story to it. Yes, there is an ongoing dispute between the potential leaders of the caveman and yes, there are ongoing attempts to make fire. But it just seems to do a bit of running around, getting captured, running around again. A cynic might say that set a pretty good formula for the 49 years that followed but every time I watch this I just feel like it’s kicking the arse out of something that was a tedious point in man’s history. Let’s be honest, as a race when we were cavemen, we were dull. We sat around, hit things with rocks, occasionally painted (very dull) things on walls and then hit other things with rocks. I would suggest there’s a reason the show never really bothered focusing on this period in history again.
The main highlight of this story is the interaction of our heroes. I’ve always preferred Who when the Doctor has a proper ensemble around him, or at least more than just the single companion. Jamie and Zoe, Sarah and Harry, Captain Jack and Rose and, of course, The Ponds. So seeing the start of the Susan/Ian/Barbara thing is good fun.
That being said, of our ensemble the only one who really does anything is Ian. HE drives the story, he comes up with all the ideas and he’s the one leading the group (until the Doctor grumpily points out he should be leader). What do the others do? The Doctor just complains, Barbara screams at anything that moves (and several things that don't) and Susan’s sole contribution to the story is to put a skull on a stick. A move that gives our real hero, Ian, an improbable idea that works bizarrely well.
In short, this isn’t my favourite serial. Very little story to speak of, dull-witted enemies and only one character who doesn’t irritate the hell out of me.
Thank God the bug-eyed monsters came next…
“…the things Doctor Foreman said”
“That’s not his name, who is he? Doctor Who?”
“That’s not his name, who is he? Doctor Who?”