Season 1 - Days 1 to 42

Broadcast Dates: 23rd November 1963 - 12th September 1964

Relative Dates: 23rd November 2011 - 3rd January 2012

A Legend Begins...

On the 23rd November 1963, as the country still reeled from the shocking assassination of President Kennedy the previous day, a new television show was being broadcast.

The opening scene, with the now famous theme playing over the top, began as the camera panned through a deserted alley before entering the junkyard of I M Foreman before settling on an old and battered police box that emitted a gentle hum.

I can honestly say that the first episode of Doctor Who is brilliant! Two teachers, Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton become suspicious of one of their students, Susan Foreman who seems to posses knowledge beyond her years and beyond her time. Following her home one night they see her entering the old junkyard and, after a brief discussion, decide to follow her in.

Barbara: "I feel scared. As though we are about to interfere with something that is best left alone"

Here they meet an old stranger known only as The Doctor. Worried that Susan is imprisoned inside the Police Box and when Susan opens the door to call out to her grandfather, Ian and Barbara force their way inside and from here on their life will never be the same again.

Susan begs with her grandfather to let the two teachers go, but the Doctor, terrified that their cover will be blown now that the teachers have seen the inside of the TARDIS decides instead to kidnap them and the TARDIS dematerialises.

It's interesting to note that at this time in the shows history, the Doctor was incapable of correctly steering the TARDIS and as such where they landed was completely up to chance. This of course meant that even if the Doctor decided to take Ian and Barbara home then there was no little chance that he would actually be able to do so.

Ian "Who is he Barbara? Doctor who? Perhaps if we knew his name we might have a clue to all this"

Here follows a summary of the highlights of the first series:

An Unearthly Child

The Doctor "It's still a police box. Why hasn't it changed? Dear me, how very disturbing.."

The TARDIS has landed in stone age times where a leadership ship struggle in going on in a nearby tribe. The main deciding factor being which man can create fire. This is a reasonably good story but not one that I would watch again and again. The Doctor is very much an anti hero in the first season and the main characters could be considered to be Ian and Barbara who have been forced into this strange life. Indeed there seems to be a distinct separation of Ian and Barbara on one side and the Doctor and Susan on the other.

One of the most shocking moments occurs halfway through this story when the team have a chance to escape back to the TARDIS. On the way they come across an injured cave man whom Barbara insists they help. The Doctor is far from happy at being held up in their escape attempt. Whilst everyone is tending to the injured man, the Doctor picks up a sharp rock and heads towards him, only for Ian to stay his hand. Clearly the Doctor intended to bludgeon the caveman to death so that they can make their escape! Can't imagine David Tennant's Doctor doing something like that!!

The Daleks

Sidney Newman (the head honcho of the Doctor Who production) saw the show as an educational show for children and as such insisted that in should not contain any "bug eyed monsters". It's funny that this rule was broken as early as the second story and even though Newman was far from happy, this story essentially saved the whole series. The Daleks were super popular with children and Dalek-mania swept the country.

The cliffhanger for the first episode of this story is represented by the picture shown above. It's difficult to watch now without knowing what the sucker arm is attached to but it still gives me chills to see it. The rest of the Dalek is not seen, but Barbara's terrified reaction to what she is seeing sells the horror perfectly!

The Edge Of Destruction

This is a very strange story. I've watched it many times (it's only a 2 parter so doesn't take too long to watch) and to be honest I'm not too sure of what is going on..

The ship starts acting strangely and so do the people in it. There is a worrying moment were Susan goes crazy with a large pair of scissors (Children's television???) and then it all turns out there is a button stuck in depressed position on the TARDIS console because of a broken spring...yeah..not great.

However this story does help to examine the Doctor's relationship with Ian and Barbara. The relationship, usually cold anyway, now sinks to new lows as the Doctor becomes convinced that the two humans are responsible for what is going on and that they have somehow sabotaged the ship.

As the story is resolved the Doctor has a lovely heart to heart with Barbara and it's clear that they have found a new understanding with each other as they step out of the TARDIS hand in hand ready to start another adventure ...

Marco Polo

I absolutely adore this story! The time travellers come across another set of travellers, Marco Polo, on his way to Cathay. Believing the TARDIS to be a "flying caravan" Marco decides to take it to present is a give to the mighty Kublai Kahn in the hope that he might finally allow Marco to return home.

This kind of makes Marco sound like the villain of the piece but this couldn't be further from the truth. He has a friendly relationship with the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan and insists he will help them to get home by other means. He is of course unaware that this is quite impossible since Ian and Barbara are from the future.

This is a huge 8 part story which plays out over several months of Marco Polo's journey. One of my favourite moment is when Ian decides to lay all his cards on the table and tell Marco the truth about the TARDIS being a time machine in the hope that Marco will give them the key back. Marco unfortunately finds it all too hard to believe but before leaving the scene turns to Ian and says "If I believed you Ian, I'd give you the key". All parties are just doing their best to get home.

The only bad thing about this story... it doesn't bloody exist!!. I'm into my first reconstruction. The BBC unfortunately have lost several episodes of Doctor Who from the 60s era and as such these reconstructions are essential. The show was broadcast before the days of home video recorders but fans would record the audio on tapes so fortunately the audio for all these missing stories does exist. With the use of pictures from the episodes reconstructions have been put together and for the most part they are not all that bad.

Another magical moment occurs at the end when the team finally do escape in the TARDIS. Marco looks on as the ship materialises and ponders to himself "I wonder where they are now? In the past? Or the future?" He finally believes..and it's awesome. Love love love this story!!

The Keys Of Marinus

I won't lie, this one is not great.

Anyway the main theme is that the Doctor and his companions are forced to travel the world of Marinus to find components of some kind of machine that is the mind of Marinus.. I think. I'm a little vague on this one.

As such each episode is like a mini story in itself as the team attempt to locate each key. After some of the shocking scenes from earlier in the series it's even more shocking to note that this story contains an attempted rape of Barbara! Bloody hell! Children's TV was very different in the 60s it seems!

The Aztecs

The show returns to form with this brilliant 4 part story.

Barbara is mistaken for a resurrected God (like you do!) and decides to use her new influence to attempt to turn the Aztecs away from the barbaric way they sacrifice people to the rain gods..

For a show about time travel, this story addresses one of the key issues. Can time be rewritten?

The Doctor "You can't rewrite history!! Not one line!!!"

OK Doctor, calm down. His stance is pretty firm. Time can not be changed. This doesn't stop Barbara trying. As a history teacher she knows all about the Aztecs and that without some of their barbaric and superstitious ways that they could have gone on to be a great people.

Meanwhile the Doctor somehow manages to get himself engaged. Which is rather amusing and quite touching in places to, especially when the Doctor has to leave his "bride to be" behind so that he can continue his travels.

The Sensorites

Again, I'm drawing a bit of a blank here too I'm afraid...but I know I enjoyed this story.

There are some racist conotations when one person claims that all Sensorites look the same. Tut tut!

Susan starts to practise with some psychic abilities, Ian gets poisoned, the woman who plays Barabara went on holiday so she doesn't do very much... Honestly this story is much better than I'm making it out to be!

Theres some political intrigue as the Sensorites compete for leadership.

The Sensorites have round feet, like big plates...nope that's all I've got I'm afraid.

The Reign Of Terror

So the first season of Doctor Who finishes with this historical story set during the French Revolution. Unfortunately I know very little about the French Revolution (or any revolution for that matter!) so I struggled a bit with this one.

It's a 6 part story with episodes 4 and 5 missing so reconstructions were necessary. My main memory was the hilarious over use of the surviving footage of a door opening that was used every time (and I mean EVERY time) a character entered the scene. In fact I think they even played the footage backwards occasionally to show the door closing.

This story has just been released on DVD with episodes 4 and 5 now animated so it will definitely be work a revisit.

The series ends with the Doctor looking off into the sky..

The Doctor: "Our destiny is in the stars, so lets go and look for it"

The first 42 days of my challenge were complete. Come back soon for my summary of season 2 which took me from Day 43 to Day 81.