The "unearthly" strains of Ron Grainer's soon-to-be-famous title music announced the arrival of Doctor Who to British TV screens on Saturday, November 23, 1963. It must have been quite a baffling experience for first-time viewers: the swirling abstract graphics, the weird electronic sound effects courtesy of the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop, the very oddity of the show's title. This really was groundbreaking TV. "I think you'll find there's a very simple explanation for all of this", says schoolteacher Ian Chesterton (William Russell) condescendingly, shortly before being taken on board the TARDIS and transported to an alien planet. For audiences, too, this was something entirely unfamiliar, yet obviously appealing: Doctor Who ran for almost 30 years and remains one of the BBC's most popular shows. His later incarnations were all eccentric in their different ways, but William Hartnell's original Doctor is an irascible and distinctively alien character, not at all happy having to put up with ignorant 20th-century humans. The "Unearthly Child" of the title is his granddaughter Susan (Carole Ann Ford), temporarily attending school on Earth. She is conspicuously different from her classmates and attracts the attention of two of her teachers who resolve to find out why. After an encounter with her mysterious grandfather they are whisked away on an adventure to a different time and place where angry cavemen are trying in vain to learn the secret of fire. Thus the show's trademarks are established from the outset: the Doctor and his more or less reluctant human companions, the mechanical unreliability of the TARDIS, the cliffhanger ending of each episode. It was a formula that rarely changed but that allowed apparently limitless variation, the only constraint being the BBC's budget. In later years the show tried vainly to compete with blockbuster special effects movies; but its original low-key incarnation relied more on inventive scenarios and good writing--qualities that are just as important now as then. --Mark Walker

The Daleks (sometimes called "The Dead Planet") is the second-ever Doctor Who serial. First broadcast between December 1963 and February 1964, the seven-episode story ensured the program's success by introducing the Doctor's most iconic enemies. Five hundred years after a nuclear war has devastated the planet Skaro, the Doctor (William Hartnell), Barbara, Ian, and Susan materialize in a petrified forest where the pacifist, and decidedly camp, Thals face starvation. Our heroes visit a nearby city, the home of the last remaining Daleks, terrifyingly cold-blooded mutants encased in armed, pepper-pot-like shells, and become involved in a desperate battle for survival. Given a nightmarish atmosphere by Tristram Cary's surreal electronic score, The Daleks proved the template for many a future Doctor Who adventure. Hartnell's Doctor is a surprisingly self-serving hero and the ambitious storytelling, which reflects the Cold War fears of the time, belies a tiny budget. The remastered picture sometimes looks digitized, but this story, remade for the cinema as Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965) and starring Peter Cushing, is still both an effective, if at times unintentionally hilarious, entertainment and an essential piece of television history. A superior sequel, The Dalek Invasion of Earth, was screened in late 1964. --Gary S Dalkin

Back to where it all began.

With Doctor Who back on our screens after a long rest, it's highly appropriate that BBC Video have taken the opportunity to remind everyone where it all started with this DVD package. However, if you've fallen under the spell of Christopher Eccleston & David Tennant's portrayals of the mysterious Time Lord in the new adventures, you may find the roots of the long running show a little bit on the dull side! It certainly serves as a reminder as to how TV production has changed in forty plus years!

The Beginning Collection takes us all the way back to November 1963 when Doctor Who first aired on Britain's BBC TV in its traditional Saturday evening slot. This set of three discs (in two cases) brings the first four stories from the show's forty-two year history back to life and explains the origins of the format that led to the world's longest running sci-fi TV show.

Not that it was all sci-fi based. The first story - An Unearthly Child aka The Tribe of Gum otherwise aka 100,000 BC - features the original crew of the TARDIS going back into ancient Earth history to deal with a tribe of cavemen desperate to rediscover the secret of fire. But that was always the intention of the show; to educate as well as to entertain and for the first four years of it's life, the stories regularly took the time travelers back in time as well as way into the future and into other worlds. The second story - The Daleks aka The Mutants - was the first story to be set in outer space on an alien world and was the kick start to the ratings phenomena that lasted for twenty six years; introducing the evil Dalek race who in many ways became as popular in their own right as the Doctor himself. The third installment is the two part adventure featuring only the original four-handed cast and set entirely within the Doctor's space and time machine - The TARDIS - variously known as Inside the Spaceship, The Edge of Destruction and Beyond the Sun. Alas, the fourth installment in the show's history, an adventure featuring Marco Polo's trek across Cathay, has long been wiped from the video archives. Thankfully, the soundtrack still exists, as do many still photographs, and the disc producers have put together a montage of the two to recreate a thirty minute version of the story on these discs. In view of the systematic wiping of tapes carried out by the BBC in the 1970's, this recreation is probably the closest we'll ever come to the real thing.

Indeed, as almost always with the Doctor Who releases, it's the extras and the restoration work that makes these discs so worthwhile. The two surviving members of the original cast, Carole Ann Ford and William Russell Enoch (who played the Doctor's grand-daughter Susan and her science teacher Ian Chesterton) both have come together once more to provide fascinating commentary on several of the episodes, along with the show's original producer Verity Lambert and directors' Waris Hussein, Christopher Barry and Richard Martin. Despite how long ago it all took place, their memories are quite sharp and very clear, although they only commentate on selected episodes, thus avoiding any embarrassing silence as the thoughts dry up! There are several documentaries regarding the creation of the show, the original design elements, music, special sound and effects and some comedy sketches from the Little Britain team to enjoy amongst many other special inclusions. Also added is an Arabic soundtrack of episode two of the third story!

Possibly the most interesting `extra' is the inclusion not just of the pilot episode of the show, but also the alternative takes that all miraculously still exist. More than anything, this exceptional look at what `might have been' gives real insight into the creation of Doctor Who and how it developed before being broadcast to the unsuspecting UK audience. The pilot is actually included twice on the disc. Immediately preceding episode one in its `final' format and again separately in its first take with all the alternative filming, narrated by Verity Lambert and Waris Hussein. Overkill perhaps, but worth it for the fans. It's true that all the episodes (including the pilots) have been released on VHS tape in the last decade or so, but here they been meticulously restored, remastered and "VidFired" to bring them back to almost original broadcast quality. Some of the footage in The Daleks isn't quite up to the standard of the other episodes, but that's understandable based on the quality of the remaining tapes.

Just as Christopher Eccleston brings the ninth Doctor to life on US TV and David Tennant begins his reign as the tenth in the UK, it's great to see William Hartnell's original Doctor making its first tentative steps into the TV world. As noted in the commentaries, Hartnell was almost alone in having enormous faith in the show, believing it would run for five years. How wrong can you be?

rule of threes and twelves

I would like to see ALL Doctor Whos released(minas the 1970's vendetta distructo totalitarianio el nino bastardo pyro my fat cousin burns tapes of course). I would like to see them released in order from start to finish(Hartnel to Esleston + #10 who ever). This is a good way if your too cheap to buy the whole set of a season. The three here are two full stories and a short story(Edge of Distruction). I would release in threes and twelves for us who want to get that collective going before we turn 912. right now(as since 1984) Doctor Who releases have been molassus slow I am, to be frank, sick of waiting. Some people like Daleks some like Time Meddler some don't like anything but Tom, I think everyone should see what they like. I like Meglos, Nimon, and Curses Heladon(eh Peladon) does that count for anything at ('tall) all? Why not release Master Plan(in entirety) in a single DVD set alone. E-space Trilogy and Regenpratoion trilogy in a epoch or a two-fer-one, watevea! The flow of continuety has never been as good as the six story ordeal of C V E.

The beginning is a good title for this trilogy(Begining Tri) Hartnel has never been better(The Daleks is a moving story and he is incredible as the deepest thinking of all Doctors Who). I hope we get a follow up before I hit 40 and I hope Pat Throughton's epich regenoration first story is uncovered from the pyromaniacs who distroyed it in thier ferinehiet 451 mentality of conscieous thinking.

Worth The Price for the Extras Alone

Most who buy this set will do so because they are, after all, the first three stories of this series, and classics for that fact alone more than the actual content. Others have said a great deal about the stories themselves better than I might, so all I'll add is that the one of the great triumphs of this set is the brilliant work done by the BBC Restoration Team (VidFIRE is just amazing). I've never seen these stories look and sound so clean before; in fact, I don't think I've ever seen a video production (vs film) from this time period look so good.

But the real hidden treasures on these discs are the EXTRAS. There are hours of specials and interviews in this set that dig into the origins of the series and these stories in a way that has only been done before in books by the likes of Jeremy Bentham, Howe-Stammers-Walker and so on. Of particular note is the absolutely fantastic and engrossing special, "Doctor Who Origins". Steve Roberts is to be commended for this unprecedented look behind the the scenes at the year leading up to the production of the first serials. The absolute wealth of photos, footage, BBC memoes and interviews that exist in this special alone are worth the price of the entire set. I've loved and followed this show since the 70s, but this was the first time I felt that I'd really been taken back to 1962-63 and given a glimpse of the wonderful people and unsung heroes that brought this show to our screens. This special was almost immersive, and had me at times giggling like a child, feeling a chill up my spine, and at one or two points almost tearing up. It's not just a DVD extra, it's a historical archive, and I feel so fortunate to have it as a permanent addition to my library. Attentive viewers will also see a remarkable amount of similarity to the choices made in the original series, and the new series now about to begin its second season.

Another extra is a wonderful 5.1 remix "music video" of the original Doctor Who theme by Ron Granier as realised by Delia Derbyshire and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. The theme has never sounded so good, and kudos to Mark Ayres for breathing new life into this immortal theme tune once again. There's also a wonderful special -- "Masters of Sound" -- on the Radiophonic Workshop itself, which did so much in terms of sound effects and music for DW over the years. Again, a real historical document, and brilliantly written and directed.

Scattered throughout the extras are interviews with and great insights from those who were there: Verity Lambert (who steals my heart when I see her at the age of 27!), Sydney Newman, directors Waris Hussein (who is a delight to listen to) and Richard Martin, and of course actors Carole Ann Ford (Susan) and William Russell (Ian). I'm sure all of these people must have tired over the years of talking about the show, but you'd never know it watching this. I'm amazed everyones' memories are so sharp 43 years later!

One disc has a set of very funny comedy sketches, including a few with actor/writer (DW and "League of Gentlemen") Mark Gatiss. Do not miss the hilarious "The Pitch of Fear" and "The Kidnappers"!

There's even a audio/still photo recreation of the story "Marco Polo", one of the sadly "lost" episodes of DW. So you're not just getting 3 stories plus extras; more like 4 stories plus history! This release, possibly more than anything else in my collection, is what the DVD format is all about. It will be a hard one for BBC Video and the Restoration Team to ever top.