The child from the stars
| Episode of the Doctor Who series | |
|---|---|
| title | The child from the stars |
| Original title | To Unearthly Child |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| length | 4 x 25 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| classification | Season 1, episodes 1–4 1st - 4th episode in total ( list ) |
| First broadcast | November 23, 1963 to December 14, 1963 on BBC |
| German-language first broadcast |
April 27, 2018 (DVD) |
| Rod | |
| Director | Waris Hussein |
| script |
Anthony Coburn C. E. Webber (episode 1; not listed) |
| production | Verity Lambert |
| music | Norman Kay |
| camera | Robert Sleigh |
| cut | David Whitaker |
| occupation | |
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| chronology | |
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Successor → |
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The child of the stars (An Unearthly Child) is the first story arc of the British science fiction - television series Doctor Who . It consists of 4 episodes that aired between November 23, 1963 and December 14, 1963.
action
The first episode begins in a junkyard in - then - present London and introduces the four main characters of the series' first year of production: the Doctor, his granddaughter Susan, and Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, Susan's teachers at Coal Hill School, who Worrying about her student, who has an unusually high level of knowledge of the history of the world.
When searching for Susan, who has the address of the junkyard as her home address at school, Ian and Barbara find a police emergency call booth , from inside of which they can hear Susan's voice. When the two enter the emergency call cell, however, they discover that it is not a conventional police emergency call cell. It is much larger inside and equipped with a lot of scientific and futuristic looking equipment.
Susan lives there with her grandfather, the mysterious doctor, who does not reveal any further details about himself. He is a grouchy, hostile, and suspicious old man who makes a very fleeting impression on the teachers. Fearing that Ian and Barbara could reveal the secret of the police emergency call cell, known as the TARDIS , and thereby jeopardize his life and that of his granddaughter in London, the doctor travels back to the Stone Age with the three companions.
With the beginning of the second episode, the location of the action shifted to the Stone Age, where he also until the end of the serial remains. In the Stone Age, the four time travelers meet the Gum tribe, a group of cavemen who take the four prisoners in a cave. After several failed attempts to escape, Ian is able to light a fire with the help of his knowledge as a history teacher. With this he wins the respect and fear of the tribe and the small group can leave the cave.
Back in the TARDIS, the doctor sets course for the London of the present, but already in the next episode you learn that the group is instead going to an unknown alien planet.
production
The serial that was to become An Unearthly Child was originally written by writer Anthony Coburn in June 1963 and was intended to be the second storyline in the series. At this point the series should begin with the story arc The Giants , written by author CE Webber. Along with Sydney Newman and Donald Wilson , Webber was present in the early meetings when the concept of the series was being formed.
In mid-June, the Giants script was turned down by Wilson and producer Rex Tucker . According to Turner, it sometimes did not have the strength required to start series production. This was also due to the technical requirements of the story, in which the main characters should be drastically shrunk. This could not be financed with the budget set for the series. Since no further scripts for the series had been completed, Corburn's script was preferred.
An early version of the first episode was taped on the evening of September 27, 1963 at Lime Grove Studios . Due to several mishaps during the shoot, the first episode was re-recorded on October 18th and the remaining 3 episodes between October 25th and November 8th. As was customary at the time of British television, the episodes were filmed "live" with as few cuts as possible, which meant that some errors and glitches crept in, but the episodes could be recorded and completed in a very short time.
Alternative title of the serial
As was customary at the beginning of the series, each individual episode got its own episode title instead of a title for all episodes of the series.
- The Tribe of Gum (to German Strain the gum ): An early working title which was to record the history used by the production team.
- 100,000 BC (in German 100,000 BC ): Was used during the recording of history in public documents.
- The Palaeolithic Age (in German The Paleolithic ): From Verity Lambert used in letters to fans in the 1964th
- The Stone Age (in German The Stone Age ) used was in commercials for the series.
Audience ratings
| episode | Original title | German title | running time | UK premiere | Audience |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | To Unearthly Child | The child from the stars | 23:24 minutes | November 23, 1963 | 4.4 million |
| 2 | The Cave of Skulls | The cranial cavity | 24:26 minutes | November 30, 1963 | 5.9 million |
| 3 | The Forest of Fear | The forest of fear | 23:38 minutes | 7th December 1963 | 6.9 million |
| 4th | The Firemaker | The fire maker | 24:22 minutes | December 14, 1963 | 6.4 million |
Cast and dubbing
The German synchronized version of the series was produced by Metz-Neun Synchron Studio- und Verlags GmbH. The dialogue book was written by Manuel Karakas, who was also responsible for directing the dialogue.
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| The doctor | William Hartnell | Michael Schwarzmaier |
| Ian Chesterton | William Russel | Marcus Off |
| Barbara Wright | Jacqueline Hill | Gundi Eberhard |
| Susan Foreman | Carole Ann Ford | Demet Fey |
| Za | Derek Newark | Michael-Che cook |
| Whore | Alethea Charlton | Andrea Dewell |
| Old Mother | Eileen Way | Monika Müller-Heusch |
| Cal | Jeremy Young | Thomas Balou Martin |
| Horg | Howard Lang | Dirk Hardegen |
Publications
The serial was first released on video in 1990 and the unsent pilot version followed in 1991 as part of the video box The Hartnell Years . In January 2006 the serial was released together with The Daleks and The Edge of Destruction in the DVD box The Beginning . The series was published again in 2014 in a special edition of the film An Adventure in Space and Time in America and Canada.
The serial appeared in Germany in the 1990s in the form of a novel by Goldmann Verlag under the title Doctor Who and the Child from the Stars . The episodes of the series were originally due to be released on DVD on April 28, 2017, and the episodes should be in their original version with German subtitles. After several requests from fans regarding a possible German dubbed version, the release was put on hold for an indefinite period, before Polyband announced on November 8th, 2017 that the serial with a German dubbed version, which should be produced exclusively for the release, would be released on November 23rd. March 2018 on DVD under the title The Child from the Stars should appear. The DVD was finally released on April 27, 2018.
Web links
- An Unearthly Child on the official BBC website with Photonovel with Telesnaps to illustrate the episode
- 100,000 BC - Detailed summary in the Doctor Who Reference Guide .
Individual evidence
- ↑ https://www.synchronkartei.de/serie/17557
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento from November 9, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/polyband/photos/a.128597740491073.22726.116646728352841/1718163284867836/?type=3
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/polyband/posts/2125805110770316
- ^ André McFly: Review - Doctor Who - The Child from the Stars - DVD. April 20, 2018, accessed on June 8, 2020 : "The British first broadcast was on November 23, 1963 and now, officially on April 27, 2018, almost 55 years later, we are finally getting this episode to see in German."
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