>I really, really need to get my hands on An Unearthly Child,
>just to see how it all started. Is it pretty good, as "Doctor Who" (I
>keep forgetting it's not abbreviated) goes?

It's a typical pilot, and a typical BBC programme from the early 1960s - which is to say it has terrible pacing and the sound quality ranges from bad to abysmal. The early shows bear relatively little resemblance to what the show had become by the time it became famous - it was originally developed as a children's show, and it shows in the production design and the writing.

That said, they're interesting as examples of the way the show evolved. I recommend seeing if you can track down one of the early Dalek episodes, like The Daleks, The Chase or The Dalek Invasion of Earth, and then comparing it to a later one, like Revelation of the Daleks (if you can stand the Sixth Doctor) or Remembrance.

My interest in the First Doctor era is mainly historical - I don't really like that version of the show much. I don't really start to like it on its own merits until Tomb of the Cybermen (and if a fan really wants to suck up, I hear a fully restored version of Tomb is out on DVD now, and my address is on my online résumé :), which is a Second Doctor episode.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor in Chief, Netadmin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/