100,000 BC
- This article is about the Doctor Who serial. For information about this year, see references at Centuries.
100,000 BC was the very first serial in the BBC television series Doctor Who. It features William Hartnell as The Doctor.
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.
Synopsis
Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, two schoolteachers, become concerned about one of their pupils, Susan Foreman. Visiting her home, they discover that she appears to live in a junkyard with her grandfather. In fact, Susan and her 'grandfather' are aliens, who can travel through time and space in the TARDIS, a spaceship disguised as a police box which is notable for being much larger on the inside than it is on the outside.
The four travel to the paleolithic era (presumably on Earth, though this is never stated) and encounter a primitive tribe which has lost the secret of fire.
Writer
William Hartnell
Notes
- In many ways this is a two-part story; there is a strong discontinuity between the first episode, introducing the characters and establishing the premise of the series, and the three episodes set in the paleolithic. The first episode, in particular, is often seen as a classic of television science fiction (though the contemporary critical reaction was less positive).
- The first episode of Doctor Who was transmitted the day after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. There is a myth that the transmission was delayed by ten minutes due to extended news coverage, though in fact it went out just eighty seconds late.
Alternative titles
As was usual at the beginning of the series' history, no overall title appeared on-screen, and each episode has its own title. 100,000 BC is the title that was used by the production team at the time of transmission. However, due to the absence of an onscreen title, reference works have titled the story as variously:
- The Tribe of Gum (an early working title)
- The Cavemen (a quick description of the story material)
- An Unearthly Child (the title of the first episode)
Which title should be used is a subject that has generated deep controversy amongst fans of the series.
