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Doctor Who: An Unearthly Child
Updated
Faneditor Name:
Original Movie Title:
Genre:
Franchise:
Fanedit Type:
Original Release Date:
1963
Original Running Time:
85
Fanedit Release Date:
Fanedit Running Time:
54
Time Cut:
31
Subtitles Available?
Additional Links:
Brief Synopsis:
In this edit, the Doctor and the gang initially meet in the same way, but when we land in the cavemen era, the story pushes forward a lot more. Major plotlines with no payoff are gone and we see how they learn to work together to escape their situation.
Intention:
The First Doctor adventures have a charm about them, but they are VERY slow. With love for the franchise, I wanted to make it a little more palatable for first time and repeat viewers but moving things along. The core of the stories are there, but now with some added music and better pacing.
Other Sources:
Lost in Space 50th Anniversary Soundtrack Set
Special Thanks:
BionicBob and LastSurvivor
Release Information:
Digital
Cuts and Additions:
In our first adventure with the Doctor, I tried to play up some more on the mystery of him but starting at the school instead of the junkyard. Most of the initial episode is the same, but the later part of the story has been heavily trimmed to push along the back and forth about who rules the tribe as well as cutting the gang's first escape attempt as they helped their captor which was never referenced again or had any weight on the rest of the story.
I also added the TARDIS materializing because surprisingly that was not shown.
I also added the TARDIS materializing because surprisingly that was not shown.
User reviews
3 reviews
Overall rating
8.7
Audio/Video Quality
8.3(3)
Audio Editing
9.3(3)
Visual Editing
9.0(3)
Narrative
8.3(3)
Enjoyment
8.7(3)
Overall rating
9.6
Audio/Video Quality
9.0
Audio Editing
10.0
Visual Editing
10.0
Narrative
9.0
Enjoyment
10.0
I've always loved the first episode of Unearthly Child and hated the rest of the story. This keeps most of that first episode intact while restructuring the rest to make a coherent story. A vastly more enjoyable introduction to Classic Who than the original.
User Review
Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
T
Overall rating
8.8
Audio/Video Quality
8.0
Audio Editing
9.0
Visual Editing
9.0
Narrative
9.0
Enjoyment
9.0
Moves along at a nice clip, all edits done well and as far as I can see there is nothing in that aspect to give away the fact that half an hour has been removed.
Watched small file size version, quality seems as good as it could be considering the videotape source it’s derived from, thanks MusicEd!
Watched small file size version, quality seems as good as it could be considering the videotape source it’s derived from, thanks MusicEd!
User Review
Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
P
Overall rating
7.8
Audio/Video Quality
8.0
Audio Editing
9.0
Visual Editing
8.0
Narrative
7.0
Enjoyment
7.0
Here's where it all began: An Unearthly Child. It's 1963, a pair of schoolteachers, concerned for and intrigued by their new enigmatic young student, Susan, follow her 'home' only to discover a Police Box standing in the middle of a junkyard. Who is this girl and her mysterious grandfather?
This story covers the pilot episode and the first adventure. Most of the pilot episode is left intact, whereas the companions' encounter with the cave tribe has been considerably cut down and restructured, providing for a much more straightforward plot and resolution. The way that MusicEd has manipulated the available footage to tighten this story is quite clever, and just about works. The added incidental music is subtly incorporated, and for the most part complements the dialogue and action.
If you just want an introduction to The Doctor and the first companions, but aren't so keen to sit through 4 parts of a somewhat plodding serial, then this a pretty decent alternative, running under an hour. That said, I will caution that what I consider the Doctor's best bit is totally gone from this edit since the entirety of the related plot has been cut. A number of main character interactions are gone too, for better or worse. And while the original plot isn't all that gripping, this edit results in a lot more focus on the tribal leadership struggle, meaning we spend less time with the Doctor and companions overall.
Most of the edits are well done, and closely match the techniques used in studio. The new episode titles look convincing, too. One apparent liability for editing early Who is there are very long studio takes and the near absence of B-roll. So having this down by about half, without totally losing coherence is quite ambitious. The edit does succeed in removing a lot of sideplot and some filler and cringe elements, including some inferior treatment of women, (but that means there's scant left about the women in the tribe at all.) Finally, in terms of quality, I was surprised to see this is in 720 resolution whereas the best source video I'm aware of would be PAL 576 video and it's not clear how the upscale was accomplished (I own only the NTSC transcode for reference).
Overall, I enjoyed this edit about the same as the original story, but as I mentioned previously, there are things that I definitely missed when seeing this edit. We still get a good feel for the early, almost wholly unlikable, Hartnell Doctor and the beginnings of a gradual cohesion of the TARDIS crew over the next few stories.
This story covers the pilot episode and the first adventure. Most of the pilot episode is left intact, whereas the companions' encounter with the cave tribe has been considerably cut down and restructured, providing for a much more straightforward plot and resolution. The way that MusicEd has manipulated the available footage to tighten this story is quite clever, and just about works. The added incidental music is subtly incorporated, and for the most part complements the dialogue and action.
If you just want an introduction to The Doctor and the first companions, but aren't so keen to sit through 4 parts of a somewhat plodding serial, then this a pretty decent alternative, running under an hour. That said, I will caution that what I consider the Doctor's best bit is totally gone from this edit since the entirety of the related plot has been cut. A number of main character interactions are gone too, for better or worse. And while the original plot isn't all that gripping, this edit results in a lot more focus on the tribal leadership struggle, meaning we spend less time with the Doctor and companions overall.
Most of the edits are well done, and closely match the techniques used in studio. The new episode titles look convincing, too. One apparent liability for editing early Who is there are very long studio takes and the near absence of B-roll. So having this down by about half, without totally losing coherence is quite ambitious. The edit does succeed in removing a lot of sideplot and some filler and cringe elements, including some inferior treatment of women, (but that means there's scant left about the women in the tribe at all.) Finally, in terms of quality, I was surprised to see this is in 720 resolution whereas the best source video I'm aware of would be PAL 576 video and it's not clear how the upscale was accomplished (I own only the NTSC transcode for reference).
Overall, I enjoyed this edit about the same as the original story, but as I mentioned previously, there are things that I definitely missed when seeing this edit. We still get a good feel for the early, almost wholly unlikable, Hartnell Doctor and the beginnings of a gradual cohesion of the TARDIS crew over the next few stories.
User Review
Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
H