Doctor Who season 1

This article is about the 1963/64 season. For the 2005 series, see Doctor Who (series 1).

Doctor Who (season 1)
Starring	William Hartnell Carole Ann Ford Jacqueline Hill William Russell
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	42 (9 missing) 8 stories
Release
Original network	BBC One
Original release	23 November 1963 (1963-11-23) – 12 September 1964 (1964-09-12)

The first season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 23 November 1963 with the first ever story An Unearthly Child and ended on 12 September 1964 with The Reign of Terror.

Casting

See also: List of Doctor Who cast members

Main cast

• William Hartnell as the First Doctor
• Carole Ann Ford as Susan Foreman
• Jacqueline Hill as Barbara Wright
• William Russell as Ian Chesterton

Prolific actor William Hartnell was cast as the Doctor, a mysterious alien traveller; his interpretation of the character has since come to be known as the First Doctor. In the series, the Doctor is accompanied by three companions: his granddaughter Susan Foreman (Carole Ann Ford), and her schoolteachers Ian Chesterton (William Russell) and Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill).

Serials

Verity Lambert was producer with David Whitaker serving as story editor and Mervyn Pinfield as associate producer.

A full years of production was recorded but it was decided to hold over last two stories for transmission as the start of season 2.

Season 1 is one of the more complete seasons of Doctor Who from the 1960s, as all but two of the serials are complete in the BBC archive. The only serials that have episodes missing are Marco Polo (all 7 episodes) and The Reign of Terror (2 episodes). Marco Polo is one of three serials that has no surviving footage at all from any source (the others are "Mission to the Unknown" and The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve, both from Season 3). The Reign of Terror has had its two missing episodes reconstructed using animation for its release on DVD.

Story	Serial	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	Prod. code	UK viewers (millions)	AI
1	1	An Unearthly Child "An Unearthly Child" "The Cave of Skulls" "The Forest of Fear" "The Firemaker"	Waris Hussein	Anthony Coburn	23 November 1963 30 November 1963 7 December 1963 14 December 1963	A	4.4 5.9 6.9 6.4	63 59 56 55
Schoolteachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright are concerned about one of their pupils, Susan Foreman, who seems to have a very alien outlook on England. They have come to her listed address to investigate. They arrive in a junkyard and find a police box, which proves to be no ordinary police box. When Ian and Barbara enter, they discover it to be much bigger on the inside than the outside. In the TARDIS is Susan and her grandfather, the Doctor. Fearing that Barbara and Ian will give away the secret of the TARDIS, he kidnaps them and takes the machine to the Stone Age, where they will have to fight for their lives.
2	2	The Daleks "The Dead Planet" "The Survivors" "The Escape" "The Ambush" "The Expedition" "The Ordeal" "The Rescue"	Richard Martin and Christopher Barry	Terry Nation	21 December 1963 28 December 1963 4 January 1964 11 January 1964 18 January 1964 25 January 1964 1 February 1964	B	6.9 6.4 8.9 9.9 9.9 10.4 10.4	59 58 63 63 63 63 65
The TARDIS lands in a petrified jungle, where they find an advanced city and decide to explore it. Barbara becomes separated from her colleagues, threatened by an unseen creature. Before long, the entire crew is captured by the Daleks, and learn they are in the middle of a war between the Daleks and the Thals.
3	3	The Edge of Destruction "The Edge of Destruction" "The Brink of Disaster"	Richard Martin and Frank Cox	David Whitaker	8 February 1964 15 February 1964	C	10.4 9.9	61 60
The Doctor, while attempting to correct the TARDIS's faulty navigation circuits, causes a small explosion. The Doctor, Barbara, Ian and Susan are all temporarily rendered unconscious. After they awake, Ian and Susan appear to have slight cases of amnesia and everyone begins to act strangely.
4	4	Marco Polo "The Roof of the World" "The Singing Sands" "Five Hundred Eyes" "The Wall of Lies" "Rider from Shang-Tu" "Mighty Kublai Khan" "Assassin at Peking"	Waris Hussein and John Crockett	John Lucarotti	22 February 1964 29 February 1964 7 March 1964 14 March 1964 21 March 1964 28 March 1964 4 April 1964	D	9.4 9.4 9.4 9.9 9.4 8.4 10.4	63 62 62 60 59 59 59
Arriving in Central Asia in 1289, the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan accompany Marco Polo on his journey to mighty Kublai Khan. Witnessing many incredible sights and surviving dangers along the way.
5	5	The Keys of Marinus "The Sea of Death" "The Velvet Web" "The Screaming Jungle" "The Snows of Terror" "Sentence of Death" "The Keys of Marinus"	John Gorrie	Terry Nation	11 April 1964 18 April 1964 25 April 1964 2 May 1964 9 May 1964 16 May 1964	E	9.9 9.4 9.9 10.4 7.9 6.9	62 60 61 60 61 63
After arriving on an island of glass surrounded by a sea of acid, the TARDIS crew are forced to find and retrieve the five keys of Marinus. Each key is scattered across the island and must not come into the wrong hands of the Yartek and Voord Warriors.
6	6	The Aztecs "The Temple of Evil" "The Warriors of Death" "The Bride of Sacrifice" "The Day of Darkness"	John Crockett	John Lucarotti	23 May 1964 30 May 1964 6 June 1964 13 June 1964	F	7.4 7.4 7.9 7.4	62 62 57 58
The TARDIS crew arrive in Mexico in the 15th Century. With the TARDIS trapped in a tomb, Barbara is mistaken for a female reincarnation of the ancient high priest Yetaxa, and assumes her guise and identity. From her new position of power, Barbara sees her chance to bring an end to human sacrifice.
7	7	The Sensorites "Strangers in Space" "The Unwilling Warriors" "Hidden Danger" "A Race Against Death" "Kidnap" "A Desperate Venture"	Mervyn Pinfield and Frank Cox	Peter R. Newman	20 June 1964 27 June 1964 11 July 1964 18 July 1964 25 July 1964 1 August 1964	G	7.9 6.9 7.4 5.5 6.9 6.9	59 59 56 60 57 57
The TARDIS travellers land on a spaceship and find the crew apparently dead. However, other crew members regain consciousness and Ian Chesterton fully revives them. These two tell the travellers that they are on an exploration mission from Earth and are orbiting Sense-Sphere. However, its inhabitants, the Sensorites, refuse to let them leave the orbit.
8	8	The Reign of Terror "A Land of Fear" "Guests of Madame Guillotine" "A Change of Identity" "The Tyrant of France" "A Bargain of Necessity" "Prisoners of Conciergerie"	Henric Hirsch and John Gorrie	Dennis Spooner	8 August 1964 15 August 1964 22 August 1964 29 August 1964 5 September 1964 12 September 1964	H	6.9 6.9 6.9 6.4 6.9 6.4	58 54 55 53 53 55
The Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan arrive in what they believe to be England. However, it is soon clear that they have travelled back into Earth history yet again, this time to 18th Century France, during The French Revolution.

^† Episode is missing

Supplemental episodes

Story	Serial	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	Prod. code	UK viewers (millions)	AI
–	1	An Unearthly Child "Pilot"	Waris Hussein	Anthony Coburn	26 August 1991	A	1.7	–
The original recording of the first episode of An Unearthly Child. It was rerecorded following problems with the scenery and issues Sidney Newman had with the performance of William Hartnell. For the summary of this episode, see above.
–	–	The Daleks "The Dead Planet"	Christopher Barry	Terry Nation	N/A	B	–	–
The original recording of the first episode of The Daleks. For the summary of this episode, see above.

Missing episodes

See also: Doctor Who missing episodes

• Marco Polo - All 7 episodes
• The Reign of Terror - Episodes 4 & 5 (of 6 total)

DVD releases

See also: List of Doctor Who home video releases

Serial name	Number and duration of episodes	R2 release date	R4 release date	R1 release date
The Beginning: An Unearthly Child (4 episodes) The Daleks (7 episodes) The Edge of Destruction (2 episodes) Marco Polo (reconstruction)	13 × 25 min. 1 × 30 min	30 January 2006	2 March 2006	28 March 2006
The Keys of Marinus (6 episodes)	6 × 25 min.	21 September 2009	7 January 2010	5 January 2010
The Aztecs (4 episodes)	4 × 25 min.	21 October 2002	2 December 2002	4 March 2003
The Aztecs - Special Edition Includes Galaxy 4: Airlock	5 x 25 min.	11 March 2013	20 March 2013	12 March 2013
The Sensorites (6 episodes)	6 × 25 min.	23 January 2012	2 February 2012	14 February 2012
The Reign of Terror (episodes 1-3 & 6 of 6, animation of 4 & 5)	6 × 25 min	28 January 2013	6 February 2013	12 February 2013

In print

Main article: List of Doctor Who novelisations

Serial name	Novelisation title	Author	First published
An Unearthly Child	Doctor Who and An Unearthly Child	Terrance Dicks	1981
The Daleks	Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks	David Whitaker	1964
The Edge of Destruction	The Edge of Destruction	Nigel Robinson	1988
Marco Polo	Marco Polo	John Lucarotti	1985
The Keys of Marinus	Doctor Who and the Keys of Marinus	Philip Hinchcliffe	1980
The Aztecs	The Aztecs	John Lucarotti	1984
The Sensorites	The Sensorites	Nigel Robinson	1987
The Reign of Terror	The Reign of Terror	Ian Marter	1987

See also

• List of Doctor Who serials