Doctor Who (Season 1)
From Iwe
| Doctor Who season 1 | |||
| DVD box | |||
| Country of origin | United Kingdom | ||
| No. of episodes | 42: 8 serials | ||
| Broadcast | |||
| Original channel | BBC One | ||
| Original run | 23 November 1963 – 12 September 1964 | ||
| Season chronology | |||
| Next → Season 2 | |||
| List of Doctor Who serials | |||
The first season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 23 November 1963 with the first ever story An Unearthly Child and ended on 12 September 1964 with The Reign of Terror.
Contents |
[edit] Casting
- See also List of Doctor Who cast members
Prolific actor William Hartnell was cast as the Doctor, a mysterious alien traveller; his interpretation of the character has since come to be known as the First Doctor. In the series, the Doctor is accompanied by three companions: his granddaughter Susan Foreman (Carole Ann Ford), and her schoolteachers Ian Chesterton (William Russell) and Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill).
[edit] Serials
Verity Lambert was producer with David Whitaker serving as story editor and Mervyn Pinfield as associate producer.
Season 1 is one of the more complete seasons of Doctor Who from the 1960s, as all but two of the serials are complete in the BBC archive. The only serials that have episodes missing are Marco Polo (all 7 episodes) and The Reign of Terror (2 episodes). Marco Polo is one of three serials that has no surviving footage at all from any source (the others are "Mission to the Unknown" and The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve, both from Season 3). The Reign of Terror has had its two missing episodes reconstructed using animation for its release on DVD.
| Story | Serial | Title | Directed by | Written by | UK viewers (million) | AI | Original air date | Production code |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 001 | 1 | An Unearthly Child "An Unearthly Child" "The Cave of Skulls" "The Forest of Fear" "The Firemaker" | Waris Hussein | Anthony Coburn | 4.4 5.9 6.9 6.4 | 63 59 56 55 | 23 November 1963 30 November 1963 7 December 1963 14 December 1963 | A |
| Schoolteachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright are concerned about one of their pupils, Susan Foreman, who seems to have a very alien outlook on England. They have come to her listed address to investigate. They arrive in a junkyard and find a police box, which proves to be no ordinary police box. When Ian and Barbara enter, they discover it to be much bigger on the inside than the outside. In the TARDIS is Susan and her grandfather, the Doctor. Fearing that Barbara and Ian will give away the secret of the TARDIS, he kidnaps them and takes the machine to the Stone Age, where they will have to fight for their lives. | ||||||||
| 001 | 2 | The Daleks "The Dead Planet" "The Survivors" "The Escape" "The Ambush" "The Expedition" "The Ordeal" "The Rescue" | Richard Martin and Christopher Barry | Terry Nation | 6.9 6.4 8.9 9.9 9.9 10.4 10.4 | 59 58 63 63 63 63 65 | 21 December 1963 28 December 1963 4 January 1964 11 January 1964 18 January 1964 25 January 1964 1 February 1964 | B |
| The TARDIS lands in a petrified jungle, where they find an advanced city and decide to explore it. Barbara becomes separated from her colleagues, threatened by an unseen creature. Before long, the entire crew is captured by the Daleks, and learn they are in the middle of a war between the Daleks and the Thals. | ||||||||
| 003 | 3 | The Edge of Destruction "The Edge of Destruction" "The Brink of Disaster" | Richard Martin & Frank Cox | David Whitaker | 10.4 9.9 | 61 60 | 8 February 1964 15 February 1964 | C |
| The Doctor, while attempting to correct the TARDIS's faulty navigation circuits, causes a small explosion. The Doctor, Barbara, Ian and Susan are all temporarily rendered unconscious. After they awake, Ian and Susan appear to have slight cases of amnesia and everyone begins to act strangely. | ||||||||
| 004 | 4 | Marco Polo "The Roof of the World"†[1] "The Singing Sands"†[2] "Five Hundred Eyes"†[3] "The Wall of Lies"†[4] "Rider from Shang-Tu"†[5] "Mighty Kublai Khan"†[6] "Assassin at Peking"†[7] | Waris Hussein and John Crockett | John Lucarotti | 9.4 9.4 9.4 9.9 9.4 8.4 10.4 | 63 62 62 60 59 59 59 | 22 February 1964 29 February 1964 7 March 1964 14 March 1964 21 March 1964 28 March 1964 4 April 1964 | D |
| Arriving in Central Asia in 1289, the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan accompany Marco Polo on his journey to mighty Kublai Khan. | ||||||||
| 005 | 5 | The Keys of Marinus "The Sea of Death" "The Velvet Web" "The Screaming Jungle" "The Snows of Terror" "Sentence of Death" "The Keys of Marinus" | John Gorrie | Terry Nation | 9.9 9.4 9.9 10.4 7.9 6.9 | 62 60 61 60 61 63 | 11 April 1964 18 April 1964 25 April 1964 2 May 1964 9 May 1964 16 May 1964 | E |
| After arriving on a island of glass surrounded by a sea of acid, the TARDIS crew are forced to find and retrieve the five keys of Marinus. | ||||||||
| 006 | 6 | The Aztecs "The Temple of Evil" "The Warriors of Death" "The Bride of Sacrifice" "The Day of Darkness" | John Crockett | John Lucarotti | 7.4 7.4 7.9 7.4 | 62 62 57 58 | 23 May 1964 30 May 1964 6 June 1964 13 June 1964 | F |
| The TARDIS crew arrive in Mexico in the 15th Century. With the TARDIS trapped in a tomb, Barbara is mistaken for a female reincarnation of the ancient high priest Yetaxa, and assumes her guise and identity. From her new position of power, Barbara sees her chance to bring an end to human sacrifice. | ||||||||
| 007 | 7 | The Sensorites "Strangers in Space" "The Unwilling Warriors" "Hidden Danger" "A Race Against Death" "Kidnap" "A Desperate Venture" | Mervyn Pinfield and Frank Cox | Peter R. Newman | 7.9 6.9 7.4 5.5 6.9 6.9 | 59 59 56 60 57 57 | 20 June 1964 27 June 1964 11 July 1964 18 July 1964 25 July 1964 1 August 1964 | G |
| The TARDIS travellers land on a spaceship and find the crew apparently dead. However, other crew members regain consciousness and Ian Chesterton fully revives them. These two tell the travellers that they are on an exploration mission from Earth and are orbiting Sense-Sphere. However, its inhabitants, the Sensorites, refuse to let them leave the orbit. | ||||||||
| 008 | 8 | The Reign of Terror "A Land of Fear" "Guests of Madame Guillotine" "A Change of Identity" "The Tyrant of France"†[8] "A Bargain of Necessity"†[9] "Prisoners of Conciergerie" | Henric Hirsch and John Gorrie | Dennis Spooner | 6.9 6.9 6.9 6.4 6.9 6.4 | 58 54 55 53 53 55 | 8 August 1964 15 August 1964 22 August 1964 29 August 1964 5 September 1964 12 September 1964 | H |
| The Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan arrive in what they believe to be England. However, it is soon clear that they have travelled back into Earth history yet again, this time to 18th Century France, during The French Revolution. | ||||||||
| ^† Episodes are missing | ||||||||
