Doctor Who and an Unearthly Child

'Where do you live, Susan? I'm giving Miss Wright a lift home, and there's room for one more in the car. Since we've kept you late, it seems only fair you should get a lift as well. It'll soon be dark.'

'No thank you, Mr Chesterton. I like walking home in the dark.

It's mysterious.' Susan put the radio and the book in her bag and turned towards the door.

'Be careful, Susan,' said Barbara. 'It looks as though there'll be fog again tonight. See you in the morning.'

'I expect so. Goodnight.'

The two teachers waited till her footsteps died away and then Ian took Barbara's arm. 'Right - car park, quick! We are about to solve the mystery of Susan Foreman!'

2

Enter the Doctor

As Ian's car turned slowly into Totters Lane, Barbara said,

'Park just over there, Ian. We'll have a good view of the gates, without being too close. We don't want her to see us.'

Ian couldn't help smiling at her unthinking bossiness.

Obediently, he parked the car on the spot she'd indicated, put on the handbrake, and switched off lights and engine. 'You'd better hope she doesn't! Sitting in a parked car like this might be a little hard to explain.'

Barbara gave him a disapproving look. 'She doesn't seem to have arrived yet.'

'Luckily, the fog wasn't too bad, or I'd never have found the place myself.'

Barbara pulled her coat collar higher around her neck, and said hesitantly, 'I suppose we are doing the right thing - aren't we?'

'You mean it's a bit hard to justify - indulging our idle curiosity?'

'But her homework...?'

'Bit of an excuse really, isn't it? The truth is, Barbara, we're both curious about Susan Foreman, and we won't be happy until we know some of the answers.'

'You can't just pass it off like that! If I thought I was just being a busybody, I'd go straight home. I thought you agreed there was something mysterious about her?'

Ian yawned. He'd shared Barbara's concern earlier, but now he was feeling increasingly doubtful about the whole thing. 'I suppose I did... Still, there's probably some perfectly simple explanation for it all.'

'Like what?'

'Well...' said Ian rather feebly. 'To begin with, the kid's obviously got a fantastically high IQ, near genius, I imagine.'

'And the gaps? The things she doesn't know?'

'Maybe she only concentrates on what interests her, ignores the rest.'

'It just isn't good enough, Ian. How do you explain an exceptionally intelligent teenage girl who doesn't know how many shillings there are in a pound?'

(At this time, the early 1960s, Britain was still sticking to her uniquely complicated monetary system - four farthings, or two halfpennies to the penny, twelve pence to the shilling, and twenty shillings to the pound.)

Ian stared at her. 'Really?'

Barbara nodded, remembering. Susan hadn't even seemed particularly put out by her ridiculous mistake.

'I'm sorry, Miss Wright, I thought you were on the decimal system by now.'

'Don't be silly, Susan. The United States and most European countries have a decimal system, but you know perfectly well we do not.'

Susan frowned for a moment then said, 'Of course, the decimal system hasn't started yet. You'll change over in a few years' time!'

Ian looked at Barbara in astonishment. 'Decimal system, in England? That'll be the day! I suppose she could be a foreigner.

There's something about the way she talks...'

'Oh, come on, Ian, admit it. It just doesn't make sense.'

'No, it doesn't,' Ian agreed. 'Nothing about that girl makes sense. You know, the other day I was talking about chemical changes. I'd given out litmus paper to show cause and effect.'

'I suppose she knew the answer before you'd even started?'

'Yes, but it was more than that. The answer simply didn't interest her.'

Ian could see Susan now, looking impatiently up at him. 'Yes, I can see red turns to blue, Mr Chesterton, but that's because we're dealing with two inactive chemicals. They only act in relation to each other.'

'That's the whole point of the experiment, Susan.'

'Yes, I know, Mr Chesterton. But... well, it's a bit obvious, isn't it? I mean, I'm not trying to be rude, but couldn't we deal with two active chemicals. Then red could turn to blue all by itself, while we all got on with something more interesting.' She sighed. 'I'm sorry, it was just an idea.'

Returning to the present, Ian said. 'She meant it, too, Barbara.

These simple experiments are just child's play to her. It's maddening.'

'I know how you feel. It's got to the point where I want to trip her up deliberately!'

'Something else happened in maths the other day,' said Ian suddenly. 'I'd set the class a problem, an equation using A, B, and C

as the three dimensions...'

Ian's mind went back to the scene in the classroom. Susan had been standing at the blackboard, studying the equation. 'It's impossible to do it using just A, B and C,' she'd protested. 'You have to use D and E as well.'

'D and E? Whatever for? Do the problem that's set, Susan.'

There had been something like desperation in Susan's voice. 'I can't, Mr Chesterton. You simply can't work using only three of the dimensions.'

'Three dimensions? Oh, the fourth being Time, I suppose.

What do you need your E for? What do you make the fifth dimension?'

'Space,' said Susan simply.

When he'd finished telling her of the incident, Ian looked despairingly at Barbara. 'Somehow I got the impression that she thinks of Time and Space as being much the same kind of thing - as if you could travel in one just as well as in the other!'

'Too many questions, Ian, and not enough answers.'

'So,' said Ian summing up. 'We have a fifteen-year-old girl who's absolutely brilliant at some things and excruciatingly bad at others...'

Barbara touched his arm. 'And here she is!'

Outside the junk yard, Susan came hurrying along the street.

She paused for a moment, looked round, pushed open the small entry-gate and disappeared inside.

'Hadn't we better go in, Ian? I hate to think of her in that place alone.'

'If she is alone!'

'What do you mean?'

'Look, she's fifteen, remember. She might be meeting a boyfriend. Didn't that occur to you?'

Barbara laughed. 'I almost hope she is, it would be so wonderfully normal.' She looked uneasily across at the junk yard. 'I know it's silly, but I feel almost frightened. As if we're about to interfere in something that's best left alone.'

Ian Chesterton fished a torch out of the glove compartment and opened the car door. 'Come on, Barbara, let's get it over with!'

They got out of the car and crossed the road to the junk yard gates.

Barbara hesitated for a moment. 'Don't you feel something?'

'I take things as they come,' said Ian cheerfully. 'Come on.'

He pushed open the little gate and they went inside.

Even in the semi-darkness, they could see that the tiny yard was so cluttered there was scarcely room to move.

Ian shone his torch around them. He jumped as the torch beam picked out what seemed to be a human body, but it was only an old shop-window dummy with a shattered head.

'What a mess!' muttered Ian. 'I'm not turning over this lot to find her!'

He took a few paces forward and stepped on a piece of loose rubble. His foot twisted under him, he staggered to keep his balance, and the torch shot from his hand. It went out as it hit the ground and rolled away somewhere out of sight.