The Escape (The Daleks Episode 3)

The one where we (sort of, almost) get to see what's inside a Dalek...

Blimey, what a dull episode title! I mean, there must be an escape of some kind almost every week in Doctor Who!

Susan ventures out of the Ship into the storm-lashed forest outside and straightaway spots an imperious Aryan figure looming over her. And what's the first thing Susan does? She sinks to her knees, almost in supplication and awe. It's one way of placating potential aggressors during your interplanetary travels, I suppose...

And so we meet the Thals, the other race which inhabits this desolate irradiated world. But they must be the good guys because they are white, blond, beautiful and don't have scary, monotone voices. But these are supposed to be the "dis-gusssstingly mutated" creatures the Daleks spoke of. In a wonderfully ominous line, Alydon says: "If they call us mutations, what must they be like?"

The Survivors (The Daleks Episode 2)

The one where the Daleks appear for the very first time...

Considering Terry Nation's episode titles would later become so ostentatious, the individual titles for The Daleks are magnificently dull! Proceedings in The Survivors, however, are far from dull, as this is where Doctor Who went from being a run-of-the-mill Saturday teatime adventure serial to a runaway phenomenon - and all because of the Daleks!

We're sadly not treated to a reprise of Jacqueline Hill's glass-shattering scream, but instead follow the Doctor, Ian and Susan as they explore the city in search of Barbara. They try various doors (some of which slide open seamlessly, others only half-open; some of them with the relevant opening mechanism sound effect, others not!) until they find a starkly lit laboratory where they learn they've been exposed to radiation poisoning on the planet's surface. They also learn that the people who inhabited the city must have been intelligent, and Ian wonders what form their intelligence took. "What does it matter?" snaps the Doctor, obviously not thinking about the safety of the group, merely the excitement of scientific discovery. Again, the Doctor shows a critical lack of judgement.

The Dead Planet (The Daleks Episode 1)

The one where Ian and Barbara have J62-L6 for supper...

Right from the outset, The Dead Planet is disconcerting and strange. After the fairly run-of-the-mill explore-capture-escape shenanigans in prehistoric times with the first serial, the first episode of the second story seems intentionally strange and alien. The negative effect on the picture makes the jungle look, well... dead. Toxic, even. And the spooky score by Tristram Cary adds to the unsettling atmosphere.

And like Waris Hussein before him, director Christopher Barry slaps his youthful ambition right up there on screen. The negative effect lasts well into the first scene when the TARDIS lands and the travellers venture outside, slowly mixing back to positive almost like it's the viewer's perspective adjusting to this weird new planet.

The Firemaker (100,000 BC Episode 4)

The one where Susan actually has a good idea for an escape...

The Firemaker is probably the least of the three prehistoric episodes of this serial, with Waris Hussein's so far wonderful, imaginative direction faltering somewhat at the final hurdle. But we still have the ingenious characterisation of Anthony Coburn's script, and here we see the Doctor using his cunning to turn the tables on their captor Kal.

The Doctor tricks Kal into showing the tribe his knife, with Old Mother's blood on it ("This knife shows what it has done", he asserts), and the tribespeople realise their new leader killed an elder to steal his power. This is the first time we see the Doctor topple somebody from their lofty tower, the first in a very long line of overthrown governments and fascist leaders.

The Forest of Fear (100,000 BC Episode 3)

The one where the Doctor is caught planning to murder an injured man...

At the top of this episode the Doctor apologises for getting them all into this mess, claiming it's all his fault. But when you think about it, it's not his fault at all. All he did was go exploring and he was violently abducted and imprisoned. This isn't like his recklessness in the next serial, when they visit Skaro and he purposefully sabotages the TARDIS so that they're forced to explore the alien city. This time he is purely a victim of circumstance and has had little active part to play in getting them into trouble.

Eileen Way, who plays Old Mother, was only 52 when she recorded this serial, but make-up supervisor Elizabeth Blattner does a great job of ageing her up and making her look much older than she is. As she grabs Za's stone and stares impassively into camera we're treated to another example of how director Waris Hussein likes to focus closely on faces to sell the story and dialogue.

The Cave of Skulls (100,000 BC Episode 2)

The one where the Doctor lights a pipe and gets abducted by cavemen...

After waiting an entire week (or in the case of those watching back in 1963, just a few moments since the repeat of episode 1), the story resumes by reminding us where the police box has landed, and that a hirsute stranger is watching. But then our curiosity is deprived of more as we cut to a bunch of well-spoken cave dwellers trying to light a fire.

Director Waris Hussein populates the cave set with an awful lot of extras (18 uncredited supporting artistes, in fact) to create the idea that this is quite a large tribe of pretty desperate people (ten men, nine women and four children). Za is trying to conjure fire, as his late father did before him, but when the tribe turned against his father and killed him, the secret of firemaking was lost. Za is hoping to become undisputed leader of the tribe by sparking up again, but his methods range from the amusing (shouting at a stack of twigs) to the desperate (rolling a bone between his palms and sprinkling dust over it).

An Unearthly Child (100,000 BC Episode 1)

The one where two curious school teachers interfere in something best left alone...

It's been said before, and it'll be said every time somebody new sees An Unearthly Child for the first time - this has to be one of the finest first episodes of any television programme, ever. We all know that the first attempt at filming it wasn't up to scratch (but isn't it lovely we can see that too?), but for saying it was produced by an inexperienced 27-year-old and directed by a 24-year-old, the achievement stands the test of time considerably. A lot of the success has to go to writer Anthony Coburn too. He was 35, but not exactly an old hand either.

Right from the very first second, An Unearthly Child is astonishing. Those opening visuals and that theme music would have knocked the socks off the audience back in 1963 - the looping, undulating, ever-so-slightly-threatening score by Delia Derbyshire and Ron Grainer perfectly matches Bernard Lodge's ethereal, mesmeric, hypnotic "howlaround" graphics. In 1963, it was like nothing ever seen before, and even today, it remains almost unique, its bewitching power undiminished.