10 Doctor Who Stories That Had Troubled Productions
6. The Pilot (1963)
The Episode: The original version of An Unearthly Child. The Problem: Constant technical errors. Although it was exaggerated for dramatic and comic effect in the Mark Gatiss biopic An Adventure In Space And Time, the original pilot for Doctor Who was fraught with errors to such an extent that producer Sydney Newman called it The worst piece of work Ive seen in a long time. As well as a number of bloopers from the cast; there are constant mistakes by the production crew that are incredibly obvious on the raw footage of the episode released on DVD. Most recognisable are a production assistant calling out cues being present on the soundtrack, cameramen stumbling and crashing into parts of the set, and the infamous problem of the Tardis doors opening and closing of their own accord during scenes inside the Tardis. But while this could have easily been the turkey that rendered Doctor Who completely stillborn, Sydney Newman offered it a reprieve. Despite the expense, he ordered a reshoot of the pilot with dialogue and story changes to give the Doctor more mystery (such as removing the reference to him being from the 49th century) and make him less abrasive. Perhaps one of the best decisions of his entire career.
JG Moore is a writer and filmmaker from the south of England. He also works as an editor and VFX artist, and has a BA in Media Production from the University Of Winchester.
