Media Audiences GapFill

In order to analyse 'An Unearthly Child' in relation to media audiences, it is important to consider how responses to the episode have changed over time. Television critics initially had  hatefulmixedpositiveoverwhelming responses to the show. Most critics were enthusiastic about the soundtrack, the camerawork and the effective use of  enigmabiaspropagandaintertextuality at the end of the episode. However, certain news publications (particularly   The GuardianThe SunThe Independentthe TV Guide) felt that the characters were thinly sketched, the rules of the fantastical world were confusing and that the episode crucially lacked  enigmamysterythrillsintelligence. Very few reviewers were able to predict that Doctor Who would become such a cultural phenomenon. Numerous retrospective reviews of 'An Unearthly Child' can be found online and they are noticeably more positive. Audiences can now admire the ways in which the episode shaped the series to come. It is now widely considered to be an atmospheric opening, comparable to literary classics such as  The Time MachineBrave New WorldStar Wars1984 by H G Wells.

The pleasures and rewards offered by 'An Unearthly Child' are very different now than they would have been in the year of its initial broadcast. In  1943195319931963, the serial was broadcast on Saturday evening directly between children’s and adult’s programming. This offered audiences  social commentarydiversionknowledgesocial interaction as it enabled them to be distracted from the stresses of day-to-day life and social interaction as it also played at a time in which communal family viewing was popular. There were also many ways in which the show offered  social commentaryreflectiondiversionentertainment for its audience – the camerawork was effective, the characters were well written, the  castingsoundtrackrunning timeBBC was groundbreaking and the show quickly became celebrated for capturing a quintessential sense of ‘Englishness’.

Modern audiences watch the episode for very different reasons. Watching 'An Unearthly Child' is a brilliant way of learning more about the history and mythology of what is now a huge television franchise. There is a certain charm to watching television with a limited production budget in which the settings are intimate and the story is told mainly through  subtitlesdialoguesign languageediting. Even so, many of the episode’s technical elements (script, acting, cinematography) hold up surprisingly well compared to other television shows of the period. The episode is now watched by an audience that is already  apatheticsadboredenthusiastic about the series and is willing it to do well.