Doctor Who S1 E1 "An Unearthly Child" / YMMV

Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Za. Is he really that competent a leader for the tribe, considering he's spending his time trying to make fire instead of helping his people? Also, he seems content to keep the TARDIS crew imprisoned even though he's apparently the "good guy" among the cavemen.
- Horg. Is he just trying to ensure his survival by offering his daughter to the Chief? Or is he a cunning power-player and the cause of dissent, as shown by him encouraging the rivalry between Za and Kal over who should be leader, knowing that he'll win out?
- The Doctor not knowing how to make fire without matches might seem odd, but given the benefit of what we learn in future episodes, he's likely spent his whole life in the safe environments of Gallifrey, and has probably never experienced such a dangerous situation before. In retrospect, his lack of knowledge makes perfect sense.
Broken Base: Most fans agree that the first episode of the serial is a very impressive opener, but after this episode, the fandom is split about how good the next three are. Some say it's just running around with cavemen, while others think it continues the themes of Episode 1 by putting the modern characters in a primitive setting, just as the Doctor was in their era, and enjoy the political intrigue going on among the cavemen.
Genius Bonus: A chalkboard in Ian's classroom has the quadratic formula written on it. Though the denominator is written as "2ab" when it should be "2a".
Heartwarming in Hindsight: At the end of the fourth-and-final episode of the serial, the Doctor mentions that he isn't a miracle worker, although that instance is in reference to getting the TARDIS properly operational, as he will continually be unable to do, driving later plots. In reference to everything else, though, when the series gets into the modern era, as River Song later puts it, the billions-to-trillions of people in the cosmos that he/she's saved and helped over his many lifetimes (and 60 years of media as of 2023) would gladly beg to differ:
River: Those reports of the sunspots and the solar flares, they're wrong. There aren't any. It's not the sun, it's you. The sky's full of a million, million voices saying "Yes, of course we'll help!" You've touched so many lives, saved so many people, did you think when your time came you'd really have to do more than just ask? You've decided that the universe is better off without you, but the universe doesn't agree!
The Doctor: River, a fixed point has been altered, time is disintergrating!
River: I can't let you die!
The Doctor: But I have to die—
River: Shut up! I can't let you die without knowing that you are loved... by so many and so much! And by no one more than me!
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- When Ian and Barbara are discussing Susan's mysteriousness, Barbara remarks on how Susan didn't know how many shillings were in a pound, and Susan's excuse was that she forgot that "the decimal system hadn't started yet." The United Kingdom did eventually switch to a system of 100 pennies to a pound in 1971.
- At this point in time, the Doctor does not like humans, isn't overly fond of Earth, and is a mere "observer" who gets dragged into events against his will, having no desire to get involved in major historical events. Yeah, about that...
- In the pilot, Susan draws a weird, six-sided glyph, which today looks like a precursor to modern Clockwork Gallifreyan.
Never Live It Down: Some fans will never forgive the First Doctor for being a Jerkass in the first episode, nor for the bit when Ian caught him apparently about to bash a caveman's brains in with a rock. The fact that he soon gets some Character Development, Took a Level in Kindness, and quickly develops into a funny, giggly trickster with a pronounced belief in justice and a backbone of solid Dalekanium is ignored by many people, with the Hartnell version of the Doctor popularly known as "the Grumpy Old Man who once tried to kill someone with a rock". This tends to be exacerbated by people sometimes conflating the unaired pilot — in which the Doctor practically borders on being a Villain Protagonist — with the actual broadcast story.
Special Effect Failure: Bizarrely, Barbara's first entrance to the TARDIS is much more convincingly realised in the original version of Episode 1. The broadcast version is a lot more jarring by comparison, as Barbara pushes her way into the TARDIS prop but in the very next shot she, Ian, and the Doctor are suddenly stood right next to the console, a good distance away from the doors.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The first episode is beloved by many, the next three... not so much. This is unfortunate because the story is built on solid ideas: a tribe of primitive humans starving to death because they lost the secret of fire; scheming politicos in different tribes who make power plays with hostages who know the secret. In more capable hands, this could've rivaled "The Aztecs" or even "The Caves of Androzani".
Values Dissonance: The Doctor explains the humans' disbelief of the TARDIS to Susan thusly - "Remember the Red Indian. When he saw the first steam train, his savage mind thought it an illusion too." As though the "savage mind" business wasn't enough, "Red Indian" is generally considered a seriously racist epithet these days.
What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: The story has some very sinister sequences, with someone having their chest torn open and a cave of broken skulls. There's also the implication that Ian and Barbara think the Doctor is molesting Susan.

YMMV / Doctor Who S1 E1 "An Unearthly Child"

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