Talk:The Pilot Episode

Policeman

On the BBC Production paperwork for this episode Reg Cranfield is credited as the policeman but some websites say Fred Rawlings. Which one should we put?--GingerM 20:03, 2 Dec 2005 (UTC)

Reg Cranfield is probably correct, though to be safe you could include the above in the "Story Notes."

--Freethinker1of1 23:04, 3 Dec 2005 (UTC)

Done.--GingerM 16:52, 6 Dec 2005 (UTC)

Third page

I see no need for a separate page treating differences between this and "An Unearthly Child." They can be covered both here and on the other story's page in the Story notes. --Freethinker1of1 17:00, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Cast and Crew

The pilot episode is just the first episode of the first serial. Why does it have a long list of names of cavemen actors? The only name there should be the stand-in who played the shadow of Kal.

Additionally, there are names of people not linked to on the An Unearthly Child page. Margot Maxine has her name linked a few more places as an extra who walked off to avoid blacking her teeth, which is an interesting note for the serial's page, but if she didn't act, we can't really write a Doctor Who actor page for her. --Nyktimos 03:24, December 14, 2009 (UTC)

Removed the names. I'm putting them on Talk:An Unearthly Child#Cast and Crew --Nyktimos 20:11, March 22, 2010 (UTC)

Enemy

Why is the First Doctor considered the enemy on this page? TheTARDIScontroller 20:33, November 14, 2010 (UTC)

Because if you look at this as a self-contained story, which this page does, he is the enemy. That's sort of the point of the narrative. Barbara, Ian and Susan are our heroes, and the Doctor is set clearly against them.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍ 02:13: Sun 13 Nov 2011 

Pilot, Why Not.

If this is not considered a pilot, why isn't it? Its not meant to be the first ep proper as it has no next episode caption, something that would have been present surely? What do you call it? a try-out for the first episode? That's what a Pilot often is of course, or is it just thought of as a poor attempt to record the first episode? Some explanation would be welcome rather than that dopey line about you believeing something I don't nonsense.81.111.124.190 22:17, August 30, 2011 (UTC)

It's not a pilot for a number of reasons, the biggest being that there weren't pilots in the UK in 1963. It just wasn't done. Doctor Who was commissioned for I think it was 12 episodes initially. So it got a budget for a series without any episodes having been filmed. The point of a true pilot is to illustrate the series for potential buyers, something that just wasn't the case with Doctor Who Or, incidentally, The Sarah Jane Adventures or Torchwood or K9. All four major programmes of the DWU went to series production without pilots.

You're right to say that it was a "poor attempt to record the first episode". I personally don't know of anything remotely like it. If it were theatre, you'd call it the "dress rehearsal", because even if you have a bad dress rehearsal the show still goes on the next night. In other words, the show was already "sold". The first episode was important to getting a good audience going, but it had nothing to do with convincing execs to make the series. The rest of the serial called An Unearthly Child was going to be made, regardless. Producer Verity Lambert just got a "do-over". Well, she was ordered to do it again by her boss, Sydney Newman.

Finally, the absence of the "next time" caption for "The Cave of Skulls" means only that they didn't put it on. That's it. Nothing fancier than that. Doctor Who was already definitely on the schedule and they weren't getting pulled. It's not like these days, where a show can get pulled early if it's really crap.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍ 02:49: Sun 13 Nov 2011 

Strangely, the final "Unearthly" script (for the episode as broadcast) numbers the episode "No. 1./Pilot", and the OED gives the first use of "pilot" in that meaning (i.e. "a test episode of a projected television series used to gauge audience reaction") as 1955, with a British example (from The Listener) in 1962. Looks like this was an early use of the term, though not necessarily as we know it. --xensyria^T 13:01, December 7, 2013 (UTC)

"Not of this earth"

The second point in the Continuity section is currently:

• Susan says she and the Doctor come from the 49th century and makes no reference to being from another world; this was removed from the broadcast version and replaced with "I was born in another time, another world," establishing her and the Doctor's alien origins.

However, in the pilot (at least in removing video link per Tardis:Video policy), the Doctor says:

• "We are not of this race, we are not of this earth. We are wanderers in the fourth dimensions of space and time, cut off from our own planet and our own people, by aeons and universes that are far beyond the reach of your most advanced sciences." (19:08)
• "I tell you, before your ancestors turned the first wheel, the people of my world had reduced movement through the farthest reaches of space to a game for children." (20:54)

So the alien origins of the doctor were present in the original. Susan's quote "I was born in the forty-ninth century." (20:03) may not directly state that she's not from Earth, but it's implied to at least the same degree that "the Doctor come[s] from the 49th century". --xensyria^T 00:46, November 24, 2013 (UTC)

Have changed this sentence to:

• Susan says she comes from the 49th century, but, unlike the Doctor, doesn't directly state that they were from another world; this was removed from the broadcast version and replaced with "I was born in another time, another world," making her and the Doctor's alien origins clearer."

--xensyria^T 01:09, January 9, 2016 (UTC)

Actually, still not convinced that the change from:

• "I was born in the forty-ninth century"

to:

• "I was born in another time, another world"

was to make their alien origins clearer (though it does in practice clarify Susan's alien origin); it seems more like a way to avoid the geeky, over-specific "49th century" to make it appeal to a wider audience, and "born in another time" wouldn't make it clear enough what she was saying. Have updated again to:

• Susan says she was born in the 49th century, but, unlike the Doctor, doesn't directly state that they were from another planet. This was removed from the broadcast version and replaced with "I was born in another time, another world", avoiding giving a specific century and making her alien origins clearer.

--xensyria^T 02:02, January 9, 2016 (UTC)

P.S. I think I won this argument. --xensyria^T 02:31, January 9, 2016 (UTC)