Day 1: An Unearthly Child

And so we begin. It's a cracker of an opening episode here, full of mystery and intrigue. As an audience, we're drawn to this little mystery, with the girl who would seem to know things that she shouldn't, and her odd grandfather. It's interesting to note that the Doctor is not the protagonist here. He continually places himself against the two normal people who we've followed through the episode, and indeed is the instigator of trouble when he sets the TARDIS into flight. It's interesting because we know the Doctor as kinder, and more caring, so to see him like this is a bit disconcerting, and it'll be interesting to see his character develop over the course of the series.

It's also interesting to note the TARDIS. It must have come as a hell of a shock when it's revealed that inside a perfectly ordinary police box, is a time machine. It's something that is lost on newer audiences, because this concept of a TARDIS, has become ingrained in our society. When we see Amy or Tegan enter the police box, the audience implicitly knows what's coming, and so the shock that they receive when they discover what's inside is lost on the audience. It's also lost because we have to face the fact that the police box is no longer as commonplace as it once was, and so the general weirdness of seeing an ordinary object turning out to be extraordinary is also lost.

And when the TARDIS dematerialises, we get something else that has been sadly lost. When we see the ship in flight today, there's an element of excitement, of going off to have an adventure. This isn't as obvious here, with excitement being replaced with fear. We've got no idea what's happening. Weird patterns are appearing on our screens, as the faces of this odd young girl and her grandfather look on at us. It's terrifying, and as we see a police box standing in the middle of nowhere, we realise that this series is scary, and intriguing. Are we going to tune in for the next episode? Yes, I think we are.