The Pilot Episode
'The Pilot Episode is a name used to market the first recording of the individual episode, "An Unearthly Child". The term is not strictly accurate, however, as pilots did not exist in the British television industry of 1963. It is sometimes imprecisely called "the first episode of Doctor Who", but this suggests a difference to "An Unearthly Child" which can't fairly be said to exist. It is merely a different version of the first episode of Doctor Who. which was not broadcast because Sydney Newman thought it had too many technical flaws and misjudged characterizations.
Five different editions of this initial take on "Unearthly" have been made available to the public through the years, creating some ambiguity over what is meant by "the pilot".
The actual plots of the two recordings of "Unearthly" are insignificantly different. Nevertheless, all of "the pilot"'s subsequent edits had obvious differences with "An Unearthly Child" as broadcast, especially in performances and technical recording flaws. Only a handful of lines of dialogue are actually different between the pilot and "Child", but they suggest things about the character and back story of the Doctor which would be hard to reconcile against the general characterization which later obtained. Consequently, it's not generally believed to be canonical by most fans.
No edition of "the pilot" was broadcast until 1991, and fans could not easily compare the various editions of "the pilot" until multiple versions were released on a single DVD in 2006.
Synopsis
School teachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright are curious about their student Susan Foreman, who is brilliant in many areas of science and history but is ignorant of such mundane matters, such as how many shillings make a Pound Sterling. They follow her home one evening to discover that she seems to live in a police box in a junkyard. Soon after meeting the girl's irascible grandfather, they find that the police box is in fact a fantastic vessel, the TARDIS, capable of travelling through space and time. Fearful that the schoolteachers will tell others of what they have seen, the mysterious old man, The Doctor, activates the machine's controls and whisks them away from the world they know...
Plot
The Pilot is made up of two sections.
- Section 1 is the near-identical scenes of An Unearthly Child set in the School, Ian's car and the Junkyard. They are very similar to the broadcast version but with a few minor differences. For example, rather than reading the book Barbara has loaned her, Susan plays with dropping ink on a sheet of paper, creating a Rorschach pattern, then doodling with the resulting inkblot, creating a hexagonal image. (the same shape as the TARDIS control console) The resulting image alarms Susan. Some dialogue and technical problems occur during this section, including Ian knocking over a dummy on the junkyard set. This section ends with the teachers attempting to enter the TARDIS. Ian holds onto the Doctor as Barbara enters the ship, the actors freeze as someone says "hold it there" and the screen goes blank.
- Section 2 is made up of 3 parts:
Part 1 - Begins with Barbara, then Ian and the Doctor entering the TARDIS. A noticeable difference between this and the final version is that the interior of the TARDIS is visible as Barbara forces her way through the doors. This effect was not used in the final transmitted version or any stories of the original series though it has become standard in the new series. This take continues to the end, complete with end credits.
Part 2 - is a short aborted second attempt to record the secondnd half of the episode. Barbara crashes through the TARDIS doors, looking around the ship, the radiophonic sound of the TARDIS interior cuts off and the take is abandoned.
- Part 3 - is the successful third attempt to record the second half of the episode and runs from the teachers and the Doctor first entering the TARDIS to the end of the episode. One difference between this and the successful first take is that The Doctor calls Ian "School Teacher" instead of "School Master". This take is also complete with end credits
- .
- Neither of the two complete takes that make up section 2 has a Next Episode caption.
Alternate versions
Several versions of the pilot have been circulated.
The version initially broadcast in August 1991 incorporates several of the dialogue and technical errors that occurred during filming (Carole Ann Ford muffing her line about John Smith and the Common Men, Jacqueline Hill getting caught in the door, William Russell knocking over a prop, the TARDIS doors banging, etc.
Two alternate edits were released to home video on The Hartnell Years in June 1991 and as a bonus with the UK VHS release of DW: The Edge of Destruction in May 2000.
When the episode was included in the DVD release The Beginning, two versions were prepared: a raw unedited version containing all takes, errors and footage shot during production, and a newly edited version that minimizes and in some cases eliminates some of the dialogue and technical errors that occurred during production, resulting in a somewhat more polished-looking production than the edit broadcast in 1991. Both DVD versions were put through the VidFIRE process, which restored the film recordings back to their original videotape appearance.
The 36-minute version on the DVD included not just all available recorded material, but also a commentary by Verity Lambert and other key personnel, which detailed the reasons why certain elements of "the pilot" were changed for "An Unearthly Child".
Cast
- The Doctor - William Hartnell
- Ian Chesterton - William Russell
- Barbara Wright - Jacqueline Hill
- Susan Foreman - Carole Ann Ford
- Policeman - Fred Rawlings
- School Children - Carole Clarke, Mavis Ransom, Francesca Bertorelli, Heather Lyons, Cedric Schoeman, Richard Wilson, Brinn Thomas
- Stand-In - Leslie Bates
Production crew
- Associate Producer - Mervyn Pinfield
- Story Editor - David Whitaker
- Designer - Peter Brachacki
- Incidental Music - Norman Kay
- Writer - Anthony Coburn
- Director - Waris Hussein
- Producer - Verity Lambert
Story notes
- A copy of this episode exists on 16mm telerecordings. It was discovered in 1978 in a mislabeled film can and is currently held in the BBC's Film and Videotape Library.
- Version 2 of the Pilot was broadcast on BBC Two on 26th August 1991 as part of The Lime Grove Story, a series of programs marking the closure of Lime Grove Studios where the episode had first been recorded. It consisted of Section 1 and Section 2 part 1.
- After viewing the original pilot Sydney Newman decided that the episode needed to be remade. He even described this version as "...the worst piece of work I've seen in a long time." (In Their Own Words Volume One) As well as numerous technical and dialogue problems, changes were also made to the story. These primarily consisted of changing the characters of the First Doctor and Susan. The Doctor was made more likeable and less confrontational, while the character of Susan is made less alien (notably her costume was made to look more childlike and less adult in the second version). Sydney Newman acknowledged Captain Nemo as a major influence in his original concept for the Doctor's character and personality.
- Fred Rawlings was the actor who played the Policeman in the pilot, he was replaced by Reg Cranfield when the episode was remounted.
- In this version, the TARDIS interior is briefly visible as Barbara forces her way through the doors. Curiously, this effect was not used in the final transmitted version, and would not become a standard effect until the series revival in 2005.
- A slight difference exists in the Doctor Who theme in the pilot, with the incorporation of a thunderclap sound effect which was removed for the televised version.
Filming locations
- The entire episode was filmed at Lime Grove Studio D.
Continuity
- The Pilot differs in a few key points from the broadcast episode, "An Unearthly Child". As it contains numerous discrepancies from the broadcast version, it is generally not considered canonical.
- The Doctor shows genuine anger towards Susan rather than the affection he showed in the broadcast version. At one point he refers to her as a stupid child.
- 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.
- The Doctor is seen wearing a suit and tie, rather than his Edwardian costume.
- Susan is depicted as being more sensual and adult in both her appearance and her behavior. The original script emphasized her sexuality even more, before things were scaled back in order to make Susan more identifiable to children in the audience. (INFO: An Unearthly Child)
- Rather than become engrossed in, and then correcting, the book on the French Revolution, Susan instead draws a mysterious, hexagonal ink blot pattern, then quickly crumples the paper once she realises.
- Other than the above points, other continuity-related details are similar to the broadcast version.
Production errors
Though Sydney Newman's displeasure with the characterizations of Susan and the Doctor are well known, the plethora of technical errors was the primary justification for re-recording the episode. Among the many things that went wrong behind-the-scenes were:
- For reasons not clear on screen, Jacqueline Hill and William Russell are seen having difficulty getting through the doorway leading into the classroom where Susan is listening to the radio, forcing Carole Ann Ford to extend her "dance" for a few additional moments. This is the earliest known recorded "blooper" of the Doctor Who franchise. This error is edited out of some versions of the pilot, including the "The Beginning" DVD version.
- Depending on the edit viewed, Susan says John Smith and the Common Men went from 2 to 19 in the hit parade before correcting herself and saying 19 to 2. The version in the Beginning set digitally removes the error.
- There is a lighting problem while Ian and Barbara discuss Susan in the car, with William Russell's face being completely obscured by shadow for much of the scene, which is retained in all versions of the pilot.
- During the exploration of the scrapyard, Ian trips and falls down, dropping his flashlight. Although this was scripted, the subsequent loud crash as a junk prop also falls over was not. This error is retained in all versions of the complete pilot.
- During the scrapyard sequence, a camera runs into a piece of scenery (this error was common in early live-to-tape productions of the era, including Newman's other series, The Avengers).
- During one of the takes of the initial TARDIS control room scene, the doors leading into the room fall open and bang against the scenery several times. Unlike the errors above, this disrupted the scene sufficiently that the take had to be abandoned and started over, a rare occurrence in those days.
- During the console room scene the studio ceiling can be seen 1 or 2 times.
- While Ian and Barbara are sitting in Ian's car outside I.M.Foreman's junkyard , a stagehand can be seen moving behind them.
- After Ian and Barbara enter the TARDIS, you can see a shadow moving along the TARDIS doors.
- The TARDIS doors don't shut.
- During a tracking shot of the TARDIS, the cameraman stumbles and a clatter is heard.
- You can hear the PA calling the shots on some sections if you listen carefully (one example is when the Doctor is operating the TARDIS console, shortly before Ian is electrocuted).
DVD, Video, and Audio Releases
- Version 1 of the Pilot, released June 1991, was included on The Hartnell Years Video. It consists of Section 1 and Section 2 part 3. It has never been broadcast on television.
- Version 3 of the Pilot, released May 2000, was included on The Edge of Destruction Video. It consists of Section 1 and Section 2 parts 1, 2 and 3.
- The DVD Box Set "The Beginning" (released January 2006) included both the complete 36 minute film of all recorded footage for the pilot (in other words the above listed various 'takes'), as well as a new 25 minute edit using the best takes.
- Version 2 of the Pilot, broadcast on BBC2 26th August 1991, has never been released to home video. It consisted of Section 1 and Section 2 part 1.
- Remastering for both VHS (2000) and DVD (2006) releases completed by Doctor Who Restoration Team.
