10. The First Doctor And The Red Indian - An Unearthly Child
No, that's not the title of some unproduced first season story or a bit of fanfic - that's the first moment that many of us look back upon from the 1960s and cringe at. And for once, it's not Hartnell misdelivering a line - he's spot on. In An Unearthly Child, when Susan is befuddled over why Ian and Barbara can't accept the TARDIS' existence, the Doctor draws her aside and very kindly explains it by making what is in hindsight the most racist analogy he can. He says that she must remember 'the Red Indian' confronted for the first time with a steam train and how his 'savage mind' would have treated it as an illusion the same way that Ian and Barbara's... um, savage minds are reacting to the TARDIS. It's tempting, given what we know about Hartnell, to blame the racism of the line on him, but this phrase was hardly considered racist at the time. Besides, it's right there in bold print in our handy copy of Titan's reprint of the script for The Tribe of Gum (same story, different title). Ian's reaction is to say they're being treated like children. No, sweetie, you're being treated like half-naked savages who wear feathers and do rain dances. If anything, that's worse.
Tony Whitt has previously written TV, DVD, and comic reviews for CINESCAPE, NOW PLAYING, and iF MAGAZINE. His weekly COMICSCAPE columns from the early 2000s can still be found archived on Mania.com. He has also written a book of gay-themed short stories titled CRESCENT CITY CONNECTIONS, available on Amazon.com in both paperback and Kindle format. Whitt currently lives and works in Chicago, Illinois.
