Trivia / Doctor Who S1 E1 "An Unearthly Child"

• Actor-Inspired Element: According to the DVD info text, Susan’s costume was created by Carole Ann Ford after not liking her original and more suit-like look in the original version of the episode. According to the commentary, Ford's outfit also had black leggings and boots, but were replaced with jeans for being "too sexy".
• Bury Your Art: The original version of the first episode was shelved by the BBC and fully recreated from scratch by order of Sydney Newman, both due to various technical errors and because he found William Hartnell's performance as the Doctor himself too abrasive. A mislabeled routine telerecording of this version (which was commonly known as "the Pilot Episode") miraculously survived the routine wiping policy from BBC, and after it ended, discovered in the archives in 1978. It wasn't until 1991 where it was released on home video for the first time as part of the compilation The Hartnell Years.
• The Cast Showoff: Carole Ann Ford was a trained dancer, which is exploited in her Establishing Character Moment of her doing a very peculiar dance to some chart pop music.
• First Appearance: Of the Doctor (duh), Susan Foreman, Ian Chesterton, and Barbara Wright, as well as Coal Hill School and the TARDIS. Indeed, the Ship appears before any of the regulars do. The final part is also the first appearance of Skaro, though the native pepperpots themselves don't show up until the next episode.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: On 17 October 2023, thanks to a truly bizarre campaign by Anthony Coburn's son Stef Coburn, the BBC announced that the story would not be included in their upcoming iPlayer upload of every Doctor Who story and as such makes this story the very first Doctor Who story to have been made missing despite the BBC being in possession of all of the tapes. This also had many a knock-on effect, including the removal of scenes from the story that were recreated in An Adventure in Space and Time.
• Rerun: Episode 1 was rebroadcast a week later, immediately before the second episode, due to the double whammy of a major blackout across a good swathe of the United Kingdom, and many people not tuning in, instead listening to news of US President John F. Kennedy's assassination which had happened the previous day. In fact, the first broadcast of Episode 1 was delayed for 90 seconds to accommodate a late-breaking bulletin about the assassination.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: The reason behind the episode's absence on BBC iPlayer alongside the rest of the classic series in late 2023. Equity, the UK's performing arts union, requires that any contract involving copyright or royalties be renegotiated when a production is released in a new medium (in this case, streaming). This episode's copyright is partially held by the estate of writer Anthony Coburn, represented by his son Stef Coburn. Stef has refused to approve the episode's release on iPlayer ostensibly due to disagreements around financial compensation, but he has also been outspoken against the BBC and Doctor Who for its accused progressivism, including the casting of Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor, and he is widely-seen as holding this episode hostage almost entirely out of spite.
• Troubled Production: Episode One had to be re-recorded, after the initial recording was beset by numerous technical and production errors, including a light problem causing William Russell's face to be hidden in shadow, Ian falling over in the scrapyard and dropping his torch, a camera running into a piece of scenery in the scrapyard, the doors to the TARDIS set falling open when they weren't supposed to, and the studio ceiling being visible in the TARDIS set. The episode also incurred the displeasure of Sydney Newman for its overly harsh characterisation of the Doctor. He described it as "the worst piece of work I've seen in a long time." Ironically, the full version of the unaired initial recording still exists in the BBC archives, even as 97 episodes that were actually transmitted have been lost.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Hugh David was the first candidate for the role of the First Doctor before William Hartnell was cast, but was turned down by Verity Lambert for being "too young" at the age of thirty-eight. David would later become a director and helm “The Highlanders” and “Fury From The Deep”.
    • Geoffrey Bayldon was also offered the part of the First Doctor, but turned down the offer due to the fact that production was scheduled for fifty-two weeks and required him to play an old man. Bayldon would eventually go on to portray Organon in "The Creature From the Pit", and an alternate version of the First Doctor for Big Finish in "Auld Mortality" and "A Storm of Angels".
    • Alan Webb, Cyril Cusack and Leslie French were approached for the role of the First Doctor as well before the casting of Hartnell. French would later go on to play Lady Peinforte's mathematician in “Silver Nemesis”.
  • Ian and Barbara's relationship was much more romantic, but also more tense in the original script.
  • Episode 4 originally ended with the Doctor and co. peacefully going, but was changed to have more action.
  • Originally, the Episode 4 cliffhanger would've seen the TARDIS materialise near a Frank Lloyd Wright-style house floating in the air. This would have led into "The Masters of Luxor", a six-part story that was abandoned and replaced with "The Daleks".
• Working Title: The Tribe of Gum and Nothing at the End of the Lane.

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