Season 1 (Doctor Who 1963)

Season 1 — 1963-64
Doctor:	First Doctor
Companions:	Susan, Barbara, Ian
Key crew
Producer(s):	Verity Lambert
Script editors:	David Whitaker
Series details
Start date:	23 November 1963
End date:	12 September 1964
Premiere network:	BBC1
Typical episode length:	25'
More info
Main DWM coverage in issues:	113, 138, 209, 466
Main DWMSE coverage in issues:	7, 12, 34
Key reference books about the season:	The Discontinuity Guide, The First Doctor Handbook, The Sixties, Wiped!, About Time 1
Key documentaries about the season:	Jacqueline Hill - A Life in Pictures
Relevant Myth Makers interviews:	Carole Ann Ford, William Russell, Verity Lambert, Raymond Cusick, William Hartnell, Barry Newbery, Tristram Cary, Waris Hussein
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You may wish to consult Series 1 for other, similarly-named pages.

Season 1 of Doctor Who ran between 23 November 1963 and 12 September 1964. It starred William Hartnell as the First Doctor, Carole Ann Ford as Susan Foreman, the Doctor's granddaughter, and William Russell and Jacqueline Hill as the companions Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright.

Overview

It consisted of eight serials (listed below) and 42 episodes, and a pilot episode which was never aired on television until 1991. (More accurately, the production team made several versions of the pilot episode.) The inaugural season established many of the concepts that continue to the present day, and also introduced the hugely popular Daleks. Two of the three historical stories of this season are presently considered lost, in total (as is the case of Marco Polo) or partially (The Reign of Terror), although audio recordings of all episodes remain.

Television stories

#	Title	Writer	Episodes	Notes
1	An Unearthly Child	Anthony Coburn	4	First appearances of the First Doctor, Susan Foreman, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright and the TARDIS.
2	The Daleks	Terry Nation	7	First appearance of the Daleks.
3	The Edge of Destruction	David Whitaker	2	First and only story set entirely within the TARDIS, with no other cast apart from the regular actors.
4	Marco Polo	John Lucarotti	7	First storyline based around a historical figure.
5	The Keys of Marinus	Terry Nation	6	First story by Terry Nation not to feature the Daleks until The Android Invasion in 1975.
6	The Aztecs	John Lucarotti	4	Introduces the concept of changing history.
7	The Sensorites	Peter R. Newman	6	First story clearly stated to be set in the future.
8	The Reign of Terror	Dennis Spooner	6	First story to feature location filming.

Notes

• Unseen by the public, an early version of the episode "An Unearthly Child" was produced, but was not broadcast until 26 August 1991 (Bank Holiday Monday) when it was shown on BBC2 as part of The Lime Grove Story — a special day of programming to mark the closure of Lime Grove Studios.
• Stories consisted of between two and seven episodes, with each episode having a distinct title. Some stories have been given different titles over the years; see individual articles for details.

Cast

Recurring

• The First Doctor - William Hartnell
• Susan Foreman - Carole Ann Ford
• Ian Chesterton - William Russell
• Barbara Wright - Jacqueline Hill

Guest

• Kal - Jeremy Young
• Za - Derek Newark
• Hur - Alethea Charlton
• Alydon - John Lee
• Ganatus - Philip Bond
• Temmosus - Alan Wheatley
• Marco Polo - Mark Eden
• Tegana - Derren Nesbitt
• Arbitan - George Coulouris
• Altos - Robin Phillips
• Sabetha - Katherine Schofield
• Eyesen - Donald Pickering
• Autloc - Keith Pyott
• Ixta - Ian Cullen
• Tlotoxl - John Ringham
• Carol - Ilona Rodgers
• John - Stephen Dartnell
• Commander - John Bailey
• Jules Renan - Donald Morley
• Léon Colbert - Edward Brayshaw
• Lemaitre / James Stirling - James Cairncross

Production

Creation

The series was essentially the creation of a committee, with the following amongst the many who created the various parts that went into the series: Donald Wilson (time travel), Sydney Newman (the First Doctor and Susan), C. E. Webber (Ian and Barbara, scenario for the first episode), Anthony Coburn (Susan's name, the TARDIS looking like a police box), and David Whitaker (Susan as the Doctor's granddaughter).

Production overview

Verity Lambert was chosen by Sydney Newman as producer of the series and Mervyn Pinfield was assigned as associate producer, picking up on the mainly technical side of the series such as dealing with the in-camera SFX.

Initially, the series was only ordered for the first four episodes that made up 100,000 BC and came close to going no further. This was extended to thirteen episodes, but the production team had either eleven (100,000 BC and The Mutants) or eighteen (100,000 BC, The Mutants, Marco Polo). To solve this problem, David Whitaker wrote the two episode Inside the Spaceship, something that normally wouldn't have happened due to an existing rule that prohibited script editors writing for the series they were editing. (Otherwise they could simply have "hired" themselves and deprived other script writers of work.)

The first to third season story titles have been a contentious issue. For more information, see Disputed story titles.

Stories considered during this season, but ultimately unmade, included:

• The Masters of Luxor (a.k.a. The Robots) by Anthony Coburn
• The Hidden Planet (a.k.a. Beyond the Sun) by Malcolm Hulke
• The Red Fort by Terry Nation
• Farewell Great Macedon by Moris Farhi
• The Miniscules by C. E. Webber (a variant on this idea appeared as Planet of Giants, aired during Season 2)

Stories set before this season

• The Big Finish audio story The Beginning recounts the TARDIS' maiden voyage.
• The Big Finish audio stories The Alchemists and The Sleeping Blood and the Puffin eshort A Big Hand for the Doctor are set during the travels of the First Doctor and Susan Foreman.
• The Big Finish audio story Quinnis is set immediately before the First Doctor and Susan's arrival on Earth in 1963.
• The AudioGO and Big Finish Productions joint production Hunters of Earth is set during their stay on Earth in 1963.
• The Telos Publishing novel Time and Relative relates the events leading up to An Unearthly Child.

Stories set during this season

• A segment of The Eight Doctors in which the First and Eighth Doctors meet occurs during "The Forest of Fear".
• The Virgin Missing Adventures book The Sorcerer's Apprentice is set after Marco Polo.
• The audio story The Transit of Venus (between The Sensorites and The Reign of Terror)

Ratings

• Average: 8.1 million
• Highest: 10.4 million (five-way tie)
• Lowest: 4.9 million (An Unearthly Child episode 1, due to a widespread power cut)

Adaptations and merchandising

Home media

VHS

• An Unearthly Child (1990/2000)
• The Daleks (2-part version) (1989)
• The Daleks [Remastered] (2001)
• The Edge of Destruction and Dr. Who: The Pilot Episode (2000)
• The Keys of Marinus (1999)
• The Aztecs (1992)
• The Sensorites (2002)
• The Reign of Terror (2003) (with linking narration of missing episodes, also includes The Faceless Ones episodes 1 and 3 & The Web of Fear episode 1)
• The Hartnell Years (1991) (Pilot Episode)

See episode articles for full details.

Loose Cannon VHS releases

• Marco Polo (2002)
• The Reign of Terror (2000) (episodes 4 and 5 only)

DVD releases

Serial name	Number and duration of episodes	R2 release date	R4 release date	R1 release date
The Beginning: An Unearthly Child (4 episodes) The Daleks (7 episodes) The Edge of Destruction (2 episodes) Marco Polo (reconstruction)	13 × 25 min. 1 × 30 min	30 January 2006	2 March 2006	28 March 2006
The Keys of Marinus (6 episodes)	6 × 25 min.	21 September 2009	7 January 2010	5 January 2010
The Aztecs (4 episodes)	4 × 25 min.	21 October 2002	2 December 2002	4 March 2003
The Sensorites (6 episodes)	6 × 25 min.	23 January 2012	2 February 2012	14 February 2012
The Reign of Terror (6 episodes, 2 animated reconstructions)	6 × 25 min	28 January 2013	6 February 2013	12 February 2013

Download/streaming availability

Serial name	Amazon Video	BBC Store	Google Play	Itunes
An Unearthly Child (4 episodes)	✓		✓	✓
The Daleks (7 episodes)	✓	✓		✓
The Edge of Destruction (2 episodes)		✓
Marco Polo
The Keys of Marinus
The Aztecs (4 episodes)	✓	✓		✓
The Sensorites (6 episodes)		✓
The Reign of Terror

Until 31 January 2016, The Aztecs was available for streaming from Netflix in the US. Until early 2016, all stories of the season except for Marco Polo, The Keys of Marinus and The Reign of Terror were available for streaming on Hulu Plus.

Novels

• Doctor Who and an Unearthly Child
• Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks
• Doctor Who – The Edge of Destruction
• Doctor Who - Marco Polo
• Doctor Who and the Keys of Marinus
• Doctor Who - The Aztecs
• Doctor Who – The Sensorites
• Doctor Who – The Reign of Terror

Audiobooks

• Marco Polo
• The Reign of Terror

Theatrical film

• Dr. Who and the Daleks - based upon the second serial, The Daleks.

External links

• BBC Website Guide to Season 1