I sometimes wonder why I like the people of this miserable planet so much: 100,000 BC
It is 100,000 BC. There is no number one single. There is no music industry. Indeed, there is no industry period. There’s not even really a humanity, period, with the great leap forward of behavioral modernity still lurking 50,000 years in the future. The peak of the ice age currently being enjoyed is about 80,000 years in the future. On a hillside, a blue box appears with a strange wheezing, groaning sound.
More usefully, it is the 30th of November, 1963. The Beatles recapture #1 with “She Loves You,” the biggest selling single of the 1960s, which is charting for the second time. It will hold that chart position for two weeks, before giving way in the final weeks of the year to “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” The Kennedy assassination has long since turned to farce with Lee Harvey Oswald himself being murdered two days later. Now the world waits uncomfortably, aware that the progress of history has been diverted, but not knowing where, or towards what.
In later episodes, the disparity between the internal and external sizes of the TARDIS will be explained in terms of the interior being a different dimension. But last week, in the first episode, it was instead explained by analogy, with the Doctor referring to the way in which television allows a much larger world to be contained in a smaller space. It is an odd analogy, in no small part because, in the context of a fictional TV show, it appears to suggest that the interior of the TARDIS is fictional even within Doctor Who. Still, it is an explanation of sorts. We were invited to leave our world via the television. Who can blame us for doing so?
Escape is treated by the captives as an end in itself. It is not until you escape that you quite realize that escapes are not merely exits but entries. When last we left them, Ian and Barbara have fallen out of the world. Now we come to see where they have landed, and it is terrifying. Almost immediately, everything goes wrong. The Doctor is kidnapped by cavemen, sending Susan into a panic such that Ian and Barbara, skeptical and afraid as they are, go to help him.
The rescue is a complete disaster, and the four of them quickly find themselves tied up in the Cave of Skulls, named for its primary decorative feature, a large number of skulls that have been split open by an axe. From here the story is a fairly staid and at times repetitive sequence of escapes and recaptures. But over time, the reality of all of this sinks in. The three episodes’ most striking feature, in many ways, is Barbara’s nervous breakdown as the four leads wander through a forest (having escaped from the Cave of Skulls).
The breakdown is stunning in its realism. Eventually the show will get to the standard of people being absolutely thrilled by the adventure and excitement that traveling with the Doctor entails. But here, as she collapses, screaming in anguished confusion and wondering what has happened to her, there is none of that wonder. Falling through a hole in the world is not an easy proposition.
Just ask the Doctor. We don’t know yet where he came from, or why. In one telling sequence, Ian speculates that if only we knew his name, we might understand him better. Aside from being an excuse to work the words “Doctor who?” into the actual episode, this question is one of the episode’s central dramatic tensions. Prior to Barbara’s breakdown is what is, in many ways, an even more interesting moment of breakdown – the Doctor’s. As the party sits, tied up and terrified in the Cave of Skulls, he apologizes, saying that this is all his fault. He has not learned to be the Doctor yet. He’s just escaped. We first see him having fallen through a hole in his world, and now he, like Barbara, is left to figure out what this means.
In many ways, we know more than he does, although that is perhaps not clear yet. After all, on one level, nobody knows anything about the Doctor yet. The words “Gallifrey” and “Time Lord” have not been thought of yet. William Hartnell doesn’t know that he’s playing a Time Lord. He doesn’t know why he fled his homeworld. But most of this is irrelevant. He’s escaped. He’s not there anymore. What matters more is where he is now, and who he is.
It is telling that the first adventure in which he needs to become the Doctor is set… well, that’s the funny bit. It’s not clear where it’s set. The production materials suggest the title of 100,000 BC. History-wise, the date is tricky. The episode talks as though the major problem facing the tribe of cavemen is the looming ice age. They display behavioral modernity, by and large, with a religious system centered on the sun. That would suggest a later date. The question of where, on the other hand, is even trickier, as the range of dates is right along the periods of early human migrations. But the implications are telling. Historically, somewhere around 100,000 BC, a small family of humans crossed the Red Sea, exiting Africa and going on to populate the planet. And the Doctor gave them fire. The Doctor will not actually defend present-day Earth from evil threats for almost three years. But here we see, in his first adventure, the Doctor brings us fire. In this regard, we are his creation.
Strange, then, how little regard he pays us, being perfectly willing, at one moment, to bash a man’s head in simply because it would make his escape more convenient. As with much in these episodes, it feels wrong. This is not the Doctor, but an old man every bit as scared as Barbara. Or, perhaps more accurately, despite being played by the oldest actor to take the role, this is a young man in over his head.
At the end of the story, he is still not quite the Doctor yet. Much of the story is about the conflict between him and Ian over which of them should be the leader. In time this matter will be settled, but for now the conflict is, roughly, between Ian’s good nature and the Doctor’s actual competence. The Doctor wants to be leader in this story more because he does not want to follow and be imprisoned than out of any actual good naturedness. (This story is paralleled in the conflict between Kal and Za for leadership of the tribe, with each of them being pale and less sympathetic versions of the Doctor and Ian, helping further establish the theme of the Doctor as lover and protector of humanity even though that theme is not needed for years to come)
And yet in the Cave of Skulls, he comforts Barbara. And later, it is he who is inventive enough to engineer an escape from the cavemen via some clever manipulation. Already in this story he is learning to be the Doctor. But he’s not there yet. In part because he does not trust any of his traveling companions save Susan. (Crucially, his traveling companions trust Susan and not him, establishing and sustaining Susan’s role on the TARDIS) And in part because he still has only escaped. He has not realized where he is yet. This is made literal in the closing moments, where the Doctor explains that he can’t simply return Ian and Barbara home, as he has to first land somewhere he knows where is.
But perhaps most importantly, the Doctor cannot be the Doctor yet because there is something he doesn’t know about the universe. Something he won’t learn until the next story.
Monsters are real.
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January 26, 2011 @ 4:49 am
"at times repetitive sequence of escapes and recaptures"
This goes for every single episode for the first 20 seasons or so.
I finished watching all the Dr. Who episodes in order a couple of years ago. I'm looking forward to your blog.
Elizabeth Sandifer
January 26, 2011 @ 5:53 am
Nah, only the first 6 or so. As of Jon Pertwee, the show swaps escape/recapture with military guys listen to the Doctor/military guys ignore the Doctor.
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January 26, 2011 @ 11:31 am
Ah yes. You are correct sir. I just have a very prominent recollection of many a Patrick Troughton episodes in which this happens too many times (of course it didn't help that I watched them as 4 or 6 episode blocks instead of 30 minutes a week).
wwhyte
July 8, 2011 @ 8:45 am
"This is not the Doctor, but an old man every bit as scared as Barbara. Or, perhaps more accurately, despite being played by the oldest actor to take the role, this is a young man in over his head." — yes yes yes! He's completely out of his depth in the first season, in particular, and only holding it together so as not to lose face in front of Susan.
Henry R. Kujawa
April 1, 2012 @ 9:02 am
Philip Sandifer:
""She Loves You," the biggest selling single of the 1960s"
REALLY? Wow. didn't know that.
"it was instead explained by analogy, with the Doctor referring to the way in which television allows a much larger world to be contained in a smaller space"
Try comparing that to how Roberta Tovey explained it in ther 1st movie, or how Peter Cushing explained it in the 2nd. (He was B.S.ing, and enjoying it.)
"From here the story is a fairly staid and at times repetitive sequence of escapes and recaptures."
One big reason I wish this had been 2 parts instead of 3.
"paralleled in the conflict between Kal and Za for leadership of the tribe, with each of them being pale and less sympathetic versions of the Doctor and Ian"
Amazing! Another one of those I never noticed before.
WWhyte:
"yes yes yes! He's completely out of his depth in the first season, in particular, and only holding it together so as not to lose face in front of Susan."
It finally changes in "THE RESCUE, Part 2", when The Doctor single-handedly confronts the villain of the piece. Susan was no longer around to be looked after. He was able to come out of his shell. In THAT moment, he became the show's hero.
brownstudy
May 27, 2012 @ 4:24 pm
Just finished reading your book on my Kindle and loved it! Can't wait for the next parts to come out.
I just finished the "Unearthly Child/100,000 BC" serial and one thing that struck me about its resolution was how every member of the team has a key idea: Barbara to tend to Za, Ian to tend to Za and create fire and remind Za about the power of majority rule (kinda), Susan is the one who puts the skull over the torch and puts together an idea no one had had before, and the Doctor is the clever chap who unmasks Kal as the murderer and convinces the others to run him out of the cave. It took all 4 of them to get out of trouble. Later on, I think, the Doctor is the one who would get all 4 ideas, or maybe 3 out of 4 of them. Why burden the plot with more characters than you need when the Doctor can prove to be the clever one, over and over?
Much as I love the Moffat/Smith series, it's not often enough that Amy or Rory help contribute to the resolution of the plot.
Andrewstep1234
October 1, 2012 @ 7:51 pm
I have your first book and I love it. I think there are some people who have criticized it because it does not address the story lines in a fan based manner or provide 100s of factoids for the connoisseur but I think that is the whole point. This is a book which has addressed the hereto untold story of how DW has affected it's viewers since it began. Thank you. I will be buying the second book shortly and hunt you down if you don't get a move on with the others. You are a valuable Whovian asset sir.
John Seavey
June 24, 2014 @ 2:47 pm
But it's not a staid series of escapes and recaptures. The Doctor and company don't escape in Part Three–they're released by a member of the tribe who wants them gone. They're not exactly recaptured, either; when they return, it's as allies of Za, albeit tentative ones. And it's the collapse of that alliance that drives Part Four.
I really feel like these three parts could be the most underrated episodes of the series ever–it's basically a political thriller, set at the dawn of humanity. People get so caught up in the question of "Will the Doctor get back to the TARDIS?" (which is obviously yes) that they miss what's really going on.
Nathan Laws
March 11, 2020 @ 9:16 pm
Completely agree with this. An Unearthly Child (entire serial) is one of the best structured stories of the entire series, which is why I don’t split it up like this. You need part one and the Doctor’s reaction to Ian and Barbara to have the dichotomy between how the Doctor treats Ian and Barbara to how Ian and Barbara treat Za and Hur. The Doctor doesn’t stop cooperating with Ian and Barbara until he sees what happens when the tribe is made to cooperate “remember Kal is not stronger than the whole tribe”. You might as well say that “Za is not stronger than the whole TARDIS team”.
Nathan Laws
March 11, 2020 @ 9:24 pm
I have a friend who references Eruditorum, so I wanted to check it out. I like the way that these entries try to put each story in historical context. I also like some of your ideas, such as the meta-level thinking about the TARDIS interior as fiction even within the universe of Doctor Who. There are a few things in this one that I disagree with.
“The episode talks as though the major problem facing the tribe of cavemen is the looming ice age.” This can’t be possible, because Horg was “leader of many men” who “all died when the last great cold came”. They must be talking about winter, since there’s no way that an ice age has come and gone within Horg’s lifetime and is coming back again.
“But here we see, in his first adventure, the Doctor brings us fire. In this regard, we are his creation.” Are we though? Za’s fire had already created fire before the story even starts. It’s likely that other tribes developed fire independantly. It’s also quite possible that Za’s tribe all died out for some reason or other. We know that Scaroth also brought a tribe fire, so unless we say that Scaroth is Za’s father then there must have been at least two tribes out there that had fire and if that’s the case the sum total of modern humanity can’t be said to be exclusively the Doctor’s creation.
“And later, it is he who is inventive enough to engineer an escape from the cavemen via some clever manipulation.” It’s actually Susan who starts the plan and Ian who comes up with the full plan. The Doctor had nothing to do with the “skulls on sticks” idea other than to come up with the vague idea that they had to spook the tribe somehow.