OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 003
STORY NUMBER: 001
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 07 December 1963
FIVE FACES OF DOCTOR WHO REPEAT: Wednesday 04 November 1981 WRITER: Anthony Coburn (and CW Webber - Uncredited)
DIRECTOR: Waris Hussein
SCRIPT EDITOR: David Whitaker
PRODUCER: Verity Lambert
RATINGS: 4.4 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD - The Beginning Boxset
"Fear makes companions of us all!"
As the tribe sleeps the time travellers struggle with their bonds in the Cave of Skulls, sealed with a heavy stone. The Old Mother steals Za's flint knife and sneaks into the Cave of Skulls via a hidden back route through the forest. She commands them not to make fire but is unaware her theft has been observed by Hur who wakes Za. They overhear the woman talking to the travellers in the cave but are unable to move the stone until after the travellers have fled into the forest. Za strikes the old woman down then he and Hur pursue the travellers. Barbara stumbles over a recently deceased animal and screams, giving their position away to their pursuers but Za is attacked by an animal and severely injured. Barbara and Susan attempt to aid Za, forcing Ian and the Doctor to help. The Doctor argues that the tribesmen are all but animals but the others still insist on helping treat Za. Kal finds the Old Mother and reasoning she aided the escape kills her. The travellers fashion a stretcher for Za and promise to show Hur how to make fire in exchange for her showing them the way back to "their cave", The Tardis. The The Doctor picks up a stone to strike Za, but is restrained by Ian making a poor excuse to explain his actions. Kal rouses the tribe and they discover body of the old woman. Kal blames the death on Za, and blames Za for taking away fire before taking the leadership as his own. The travellers near the Tardis but as it comes into sight Tribesmen emerge from hiding taking them prisoner once again.
25 minutes of running around in a forest: it's the first time, it won't be the last!
For the time travellers this episode effectively ends where it begins: as prisoners of the tribesmen. But it so nearly was so very different, you could almost see how the story ends a minute from the end: They get back to the Tardis leaving Hur and the injured Za as outcasts and Kal in charge of the tribe. That's partially why the ending *IS* so good with the Tribesmen rising up out of the wilderness surrounding the Tardis to capture them, it's a shock and it completely changes where you thought this episode was going.
By far the most shocking thing in this episode is the Doctor's willingness to kill the injured Za to aid their escape. You get the feeling he would have genuinely done so if it wasn't for Ian's intervention.
Although the first Doctor is generally a grumpy so and so this is very different behaviour from the Doctor we know from later stories. It takes a few stories, and a little time with human companions for the Doctor we know to start to emerge.
Ian's intervention does save Za and prevents him from becoming Doctor Who's first onscreen death. That honour now goes to the Old Mother, slain by Kal his greedy power bid.
Doctor Who's first producer Verity Lambert is both the only female and youngest producer at the BBC. For 1963 this is a huge change from the norm at the BBC and, as the recent An Adventure in Space and Time showed, she faced some hostility and rumours about how she got the job from the male dominated establishment. There's an excellent biography of Lambert that was available from the now sadly defunct MIWK publishing.
Likewise Waris Hussein is the youngest and only Asian director on the staff at the BBC. Hussein would only direct one more story, though he was invited back to direct the 1983 anniversary special, and Lambert would be gone in two years to an illustrious television career including Euston films, Minder and Jonathan Creek.
The writer, Anthony Coburn, makes his only broadcast contribution to the series with this story. He would submit other stories, including the abandoned The Masters of Luxor, which has been recorded for audio by Big Finish.
We saw in the last episode how designer Barry Newbery worked on the show until the eighties: two other members of the production team for this episode also have lengthy connections to the series.
David Whitaker script edits the first production block of Doctor Who fro Unearthly Child to The Dalek Invasion of Earth. After leaving his post he would write for the program many times creating The Rescue, Power of the Daleks, Evil of the Daleks, The Wheel in Space and Ambassadors of Death.
The uncredited production assistant, Douglas Camfield. Camfield serves as Hussein's production assistant here and on Marco Polo before being elevated to director for the final part of Planet of Giants. He then directs The Crusade, The Time Meddler, The Dalek Masterplan, The Web of Fear and The Invasion before suffering a heart attack while directing Inferno. He recovered and later returned to direct Terror of the Zygons and Seeds of Doom.For his last story Camfield's production assistant was Graeme Harper who in turn directs for both the old and new series of Doctor Who providing a behind the scenes link from the first story through to the present day.
Camfield would, like many BBC directors at the time (see also: Michael E Briant) has a habit of reusing actors he feels happy working with. With Camfield it becomes such a habit that he almost evolves his own little company with the likes of Walter Randall, Ian Fairbairn, Kevin Stoney and Sheila Dunn (later to marry Camfield) cropping up many times on his cast lists. But his reuse of actors starts right here in the very first Doctor Who story.
A few of the uncredited Tribespeople in this episode have later Who form. We'll start with the men:
Leslie Bates becomes the first actor to undertake two roles in the series - he was the Shadow at the end of An Unearthly Child: see that episode for his other roles which include a Man at Lop and a Mongol Bandit in Hussein's Marco Polo, and an IE Guard in Camfield's The Invasion.
Bob Haddow is the Idol in Keys of Marinus episode 3 The Screaming Jungle, while Bill Nicholas is a Soldier in the last two episodes of The Reign of Terror and Frank Wheatley is a Man in Market in The Romans episode 1 The Slave Traders.
Roy Denton was scheduled to be used by Douglas Camfield in episode 3 of The Dalek Masterplan: he was taken ill & replaced but later appears in Camfield's The Invasion as the window cleaner at the end of episode 6. He was booked as a Space Corp Technician in The Space Pirates 4 but didn't appear on screen. He is then one of the many passengers/plague victims in the location sequences in The Silurians episode 6.
Billy Davis & Al Davis don't reappear in Doctor Who but I've been unable to find them on IMDB.
Onto the Tribeswomen:
Lyn Turner is later a Saxon in The Time Meddler Episode 2: The Meddling Monk (director D Camfield), the Charlady in the Invasion (ditto!) and is one of the passengers in the Silurians: Episode 6
Doreen Ubels returns in The Myth Makers Episode 2: Small Prophet, Quick Return as a Trojan Woman and The War Machines: Episode 4 as a Fleeing Woman (both uncredited).
Jean Denyer,Brenda Procter, Elizabeth Body, Veronica Dyson & Diane Gay don't reappear in Doctor Who.
David Rosen is the only one of the Tribe's Children seen in the second episode to return for this & the last episode. He is now joined by Elizabeth White & Timothy Palmer, who I've not seen in anything else, and Janet Fairhead who plays Ruth Baker in the existing first season Out of the Unknown episode Thirteen to Centaurus which you can see on the Out of the Unknown DVD Set,
You might think it odd now, but the first Doctor Who book wasn't the first Doctor Who story - that honour belongs, perhaps unsurprisingly, to Doctor Who and the Daleks. It would be many years before An Unearthly Child was novelised, in 1981, as a tie in to the Five Faces season. Similarly it's not the first story on video (Revenge of the Cybermen) or DVD (The Five Doctors). Non fans (and some actual fans) struggle with Doctor Who not being released in order......
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