Doctor Who - The Beginning
This DVD box set, of which whispers were heard for nearly two years before its release, presents on DVD for the first time the first 13 episodes of the original Doctor Who. The four-part An Unearthly Child introduces two hapless humans to the world of the mysterious alien Doctor and his granddaughter Susan, and then plunges the four into a stone-age misadventure where they have to try not to interfere with the moment that fire was discovered. The four travelers depart in the TARDIS for a seven-episode meeting with The Daleks, metal-encased creatures who at first seem to be pitiful and helpless but then turn out to be murderous beings hell-bent on enforcing a final ethnic cleansing on their already-ruined world. In The Edge Of Destruction, an unusual two-part story, the Doctor and friends are trapped inside the TARDIS, assailed by forces unknown and nearly driven mad while they try to find out more about what’s happening to them. Each story is on its own disc, and - at least in the UK edition - each individually-cased disc sports stellar cover artwork of which there ought to be huge posters available if there’s any justice in the world. (As usual, the North American release will feature entirely different art, but the same content on the discs themselves; everything mentioned below will be included on the American/Canadian release.)
It’s a remarkably different beginning than the fast-moving premiere of the new series, but in a way, the B&W murkiness of it all lends An Unearthly Child a hint of sinister, atmospheric danger that the new series has seldom achieved. Commentary for An Unearthly Child is spread across two key episodes (parts one and four), plus the full studio recording of the rejected pilot. Stars Carole Ann Ford and William Russell, producer Verity Lambert and director Waris Hussein alternte across these commentaries, with Gary Russell moderating and occasionally helping to jog the guests’ memories. There’s also a text commentary offering tidbits of production trivia, some of which I’ve never heard or read before.
Ford, Russell, Russell (no relation) and Lambert also offer commentary on The Daleks, though here again only they only talk viewers through three 25-minute episodes (parts two, four and seven), joined by directors Christopher Barry and Richard Martin; I can’t even imagine trying to keep everyone talking through all seven episodes. One gets the sense, from The Daleks commentary, that everyone involved felt the tingle of something extraordinary in the making, even though there’s also some talk of breaking from one of the studio sessions to watch news of the assassination of President Kennedy unfold. Surprisingly, Edge Of Destruction is the first Doctor Who DVD I can think of since the original UK release of The Five Doctors to feature no commentary, the likely participants having gotten a chance to say their piece in the commentary for the other stories.
The documentary and bonus material, for the most part, is on the third disc, taking up the ample space left by Edge Of Destruction, a mere two-parter. Doctor Who: Origins is a 55-minute in-depth piece that wouldn’t be the tiniest little bit out of place on a classy major cable network. With new interview material with producer Verity Lambert, directors Waris Hussein and Richard Martin, actors Carole Ann Ford and William Russell, Radiophonic Workshopper Brian Hodgson, and archival interviews with series creator Sydney Newman, Origins covers much ground about the dawn of Doctor Who that even I had never heard before, and manages to be engrossing and exciting all at the same time, even if you don’t know much about the show itself. The interviewees’ shared sense of invention and momentum keeps the documentary from sagging at any point.
The Radiophonic Workshop gets its own documentary as well on this disc, featuring archived interviews with 
the Workshop’s Dick Mills and Brian Hodgson, and the late Delia Derbyshire, who created the original version of Ron Grainer’s immortal theme music. The interview material was shot in 1993 for inclusion in Kevin Davies’ outstanding Thirty Years In The TARDIS documentary, but didn’t make the cut due to time. Again, an overwhelming sense of sheer inventiveness flows over everything being discussed here, and it’s a rare treat to hear Delia Derbyshire discussing the theme music in person. Another short documentary focuses on the origins and the physical set design of the TARDIS itself.
The Daleks features a brief, episode-specific featurette tracing the origins of the Daleks, specifically their unique appearance, while Edge Of Destruction is analyzed to an almost surprising degree in the featurette “Over The Edge”, which looks in-depth at the origin of, and possible interpretations of, the oddball two-part story which had to be written to feature only the four series regulars on the show’s sole standing set, the TARDIS. There are abundant clips, not only from Edge itself but from as far forward as Christopher Eccleston’s era, demonstrating how remarkably consistent the series’ mythology is, however haphazardly it may have fallen together. If there was a feature I was surprised to not see, it was an isolated music track for The Daleks. The original recordings still exist, and in digitally restored form no less (as part of the 40th anniversary soundtrack CD Devils’ Planets), though perhaps the sparseness of the music in a seven-part adventure, and the degree to which the same cues were tracked into the action repeatedly, wouldn’t have made for a listening experience worth the effort of putting it together for DVD.
Also on the fourth disc is, for all intents and purposes, another whole story. Completely lost from the BBC TV archives, the fourth Doctor Who story, Marco Polo, is recreated here with a combination of excerpts from the surviving audio of the story (which has been released in its entirety on CD), archival production photos, and narration. The entire seven-part story is condensed into about half an hour, with most of the salient plot points preserved. Much of the detail is missed, but it provides a bonus story that is satisfying in and of itself.
The Unearthly Child DVD also includes some comedy sketches by Mark (League Of Gentlemen, Doctor Who: The Unquiet Dead) and David Walliams (Little Britain) and a sketch produced by Reeltime Features starring a number of well-known names in the fan scene; if these seem like unusual things to include here, the sketches lovingly poke fun at Doctor Who’s decidedly lo-fi beginnings. Philip Frey has already reviewed one of the three Gatiss/Walliams sketches here; it’s worth noting that their comedy pieces do not appear as originally aired, as they were edited slightly at the writers’ and performers’ request.
It almost goes without saying anymore that the picture and sound quality are top-notch - these are probably the best-looking 43-year-old British television shows you’re ever going to see preserved in any medium. The third disc includes some PDF documents, including clippings from the Radio Times promotion of the then-new series and the Unearthly Child script in its entirety.
The meticulous restoration work and the labors of love that are the bonus features make this set more than worth the price of admission. The sheer amount of research and scholarship that went into the writing of the documentaries, especially Origins, is staggering when held up against the show’s humble beginnings. I give this set a very strong recommendation.