Transported back to the dawn of time, with the cloaking 'chameleon mechanism malfunctioning, much to the delight of the BBC's accountants, the Doctor and his unwilling companions are watched closely by a prehistoric witness to their arrival. With the 'yearometer' not giving accurate readings, whilst collecting samples to determine the exact date of their new environment, the Doctor is attacked and hauled away.
This second episode is the first in which the Doctor's identity is discussed beyond the knowledge that he is Susan's grandfather. When Mr Chesterton refers to him directly therefore as Doctor Foster, Hartnell's character responds 'Doctor Who?'. Later when his teaching colleague, Miss Wright, repeats the mistake, it is the confused Chesterton who now states 'Doctor Who?' and that his identity is a mystery. For avid fans, this would be the one and only episode where The Doctor is seen smoking a pipe, an aide to his need to strike a match and thus fall foul of his prehistoric assailant.
William Hartnell was not first choice to play The Doctor, with, amongst others, Welsh actor, and future director of a couple of episodes of the franchise, Hugh David, being an early front-runner for the role. Yet, founding producer of the show, and the only female producer at the BBC at that time, Verity Lambert, wished for an older actor to incarnate the time-traveller. It would be Hartnell's performance as the old club scout in 'This Sporting Life' which would draw Lambert's attention to offer him the part. As for Hartnell, he relished an opportunity to break with being typecast as military characters and a chance to play a role which would appeal to his own grandchildren.
At the point of our time travellers' arrival, there is a power struggle to lead a Palaeolithic tribe between the 'firemaker's son, Za, and the Doctor's assailant and tribe outsider, Kal. The former is desperately attempting to replicate his father's treasured, but not-passed-down, life-saving skill, which it is revealed led to his own killing at the hands of the tribe. Worse, as Za's intended female, Hur, reveals, the elders of the tribe now question his leadership, stating, whilst he futilely rubs bones together over branches and dead ashes: 'The old men see no further than tomorrow's meat'.
At this juncture, it should be noted that the bones in question were obtained from an abattoir by long-term production designer and history buff, Barry Newbery, and accordingly gave off a terribly unpleasant smell under the hot studio lights. On another point, so central is the lost skill to the plot of this episode that they should have stuck with the alternative title of 'The Firemaker'.
The cast of mostly unknowns playing the cave people provide convincing performances, thanks to the work of the young and reluctant director, Waris Hussein. This is particularly the case of Jeremy Young, playing Kal, who having witnessed The Doctor strike a match, believes this strangely dressed creature has been sent to him by their indeterminate deity, 'the Orb', so that he may emerge victorious as the new leader. Quizzed in the BBC Canteen as to which actor would befit his rival Za, Young, husband to Kate O'Mara, suggested his friend, Derek Newark.
In interview upon celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of this first quartet of episodes, the 'Unearthly Child' herself, Carole Ann Ford, revealed her frustration at not being given the license to play Susan as an otherworldly being. Accordingly, it was Sidney Newman himself who coaxed her to play the part much more as someone who the teenage audience could relate to. Thus she remains garbed as a Sixties youth with a haircut specifically designed by Vidal Sassoon. According to the director, he offered Ford the part having seen her performance in a BBC play, though the actress herself recalls that Hussein spotted her in an episode of the aptly named TV series 'Suspense'.
Having been openly distressed at her grandfather's disappearance, heightened when she realises his notebook with all the Tardis codes and notes on all their travels has been left behind, Susan is aided by her tutors to track him down, arriving in the nick of time to save him from being killed by Kal for not having reproduced the making of fire.
As an interesting aside, having kidnapped Mr Chesterton and Miss Wright to prevent their knowledge of Gallifreyan technology changing the course of history, The Doctor was so prepared to save his life by striking a match to make fire, had he not dropped them when attacked.
Our time-travellers are soon overpowered, and Za orders them taken to the 'Cave of Skulls'. The shop dummy with the pulverised head in the junkyard in the pilot episode now appears to have sinister bearing on our protagonists' fate as every skull in their new place of confinement has been caved-in.
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