An Unearthly Child and the Captain Nemo connection
HG Wells is often cited as an influence on the origins of Doctor Who, but the impact of his work on An Unearthly Child or indeed on most of the rest of the series is minimal. Obviously An Unearthly Child shares a time machine with… er, The Time Machine but, aside from their function, the two machines have nothing in common. Terry Nation draws heavily on the future world of The Time Machine (albeit probably via the film) in the next story, but nothing else from that novella is seen in An Unearthly Child.
The TARDIS itself, and Ian and Barbara’s discovery of the miraculous amongst the mundane (a junkyard in this case), owes as much to any number of children’s fantasy stories featuring variations on the magic door that leads to adventure or wondrous places. Most obvious of these are the Narnia books of CS Lewis (who, despite what fan-lore may say, didn’t die on 23 November 1963 but the day before). Equally, Ian and Barbara’s side-step from normal life into a world where objects can be bigger on the inside and all of time and space is accessible via a police box, recalls Lewis Carroll’s adventures of Alice and Wonderland, where nothing is what it first appears and concepts are turned on their heads.
Jules Verne is another influence often cited, but rarely for the right reasons, though his is the greatest single influence. The debt that Anthony Coburn’s script, and indeed the concept of the series as a whole, owes to Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is not often acknowledged. For those unfamiliar with the novel (published 1870), it is the story of a wondrous undersea voyage in the super-advanced submarine Nautilus, commanded by Captain Nemo. Aside from Nemo, the main characters are Ned Land, Professor Aronnax, and Aronnax’s servant Conseil, all accidental passengers on the voyage.
Famously, Nemo means ‘nobody’ in Latin and it is more a placeholder than a name, highlighting the character’s mystery. Captain Nemo’s combination of a title and a word emphasising mystery or the unknown is identical to the Doctor’s, bearing in mind that at this point in the series he was intended to be known as Dr Who (an early series outline document stating that this is what his companions nickname him as he doesn’t know his real name, and this aborted idea is briefly alluded to by Ian’s “Doctor… who?” in part two).
As with the Doctor, the reader learns little about Nemo’s background, bar that he’s in some sort of exile, possibly self-imposed, from his own people. Although it was left unsaid in both cases, both men were originally planned to be refugees from conflict. This was a feature of the original character outline of the Doctor, who had been involved in a galactic war and feared pursuit, and Verne removed references to Nemo being a Polish victim of Russian oppression for reasons of commercial expediency (with a wholly new background being given in a later work).
Similarly, Nemo and the Doctor have unwanted companions thrust upon them and share the same motivation for ‘kidnapping’ them. Nemo takes Land, Aronnax and Conseil aboard when they are at risk of drowning, saving their lives as a humanitarian obligation but then refuses to release them to protect the secret of his amazing craft. When Ian and Barbara force their way into the TARDIS, it’s for exactly the same reason that the Doctor locks them in and then takes off (plus, admittedly, denying Susan the option of staying behind).
Like the Doctor comes to do, Nemo supports those he believes oppressed on periodic stops in his voyage, albeit with either finances or force of arms in his case. Though initially forced into their fantastic voyage, Ian and Barbara, like Aronnax and Conseil (if not so much Land), come to appreciate the amazing experience, only seeking to leave again after many months. But now the similarities start to become tenuous. Even so, the main parallels between the characters of the Doctor and Nemo, and their actions in ‘kidnapping’ their companions, are remarkable.
How far this was deliberate on the part of Anthony Coburn and how far coincidental, we’ll never know…
Images © BBC
This is a (very slightly) revised version of an article published in Panic Moon in December 2013.