Dr.Who CSP English Media AQA

An Unearthly Child (sometimes referred to as 100,000 BC)[2] is the first serial of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC TV in four weekly parts from 23 November to 14 December 1963. Scripted by Australian writer Anthony Coburn

The show was created to fill a gap between children's and young adult programming

The show's launch was overshadowed by the assassination of American President John F. Kennedy the previous day, resulting in a repeat of the first episode the following week. The serial received mixed reviews, and the four episodes attracted an average of six million viewers. Retrospective reviews of the serial are favourable. It later received several print adaptations and home media releases.

The programme was originally intended to open with a serial entitled The Giants, written by Webber,[20] but was scrapped by June 1963 as the technical requirements of the storyline—which involved the leading characters being drastically reduced in size—were beyond their capabilities, and the story itself lacked the necessary impact for an opener. Due to the lack of scripts ready for production, the untitled second serial from Coburn was moved to first in the running order.[21] The order change necessitated rewriting the opening episode of Coburn's script to include some introductory elements of Webber's script for the first episode of The Giants; as a result, Webber received a co-writer's credit for "An Unearthly Child" on internal BBC documentation.[22] Coburn also made several significant original contributions to the opening episode, mostly notably that the Doctor's time machine should resemble a police box, an idea he conceived after seeing a real police box while walking near his office.[22]

The show was granted a budget of £2,300 per episode (equivalent to £51,200 in 2021), with an additional £500 for the construction of the TARDIS (equivalent to £11,100 in 2021).

• Music spooky/sci-fi synthesiser

• Intro is black and white, spooky graphics

• Scene 1 police officer haunting music building atmosphere, shing light, handheld camera, darkness, shadows, looking around, isolation, building tension, opening door and entering a merchant yard (foretelling) first view of TARDIS, enigma 

• Weird high pitch noise, title, flashing light behind TARDIS, “zooms in on “free use for public”, 

• Scene 2, school 1960#s outfits haircuts, 2 teachers talking to each other, female + male, “I’ve had a terrible day ; I don't know what to make of it” - enigma, sci-fi, mystery, uncertainty “one of my students, Susan Forman” - first introduction to the main character. “She lets her knowledge out a bit at a time so as not to embarrass me” - super smart, is a problem for the teachers, unusual pupil, seems to know too much.. “Knows more science than I’ll ever know” - said by the science teacher, Susan is only 15 - “She’s a genius”... “i know you’ll think…