The Pilot Episode " The Pilot Episode " is a name used to market the first recording of the individual episode , " An Unearthly Child " . The term is not strictly accurate , as pilots did not exist in the British television industry in 1963 . It is sometimes imprecisely called " the first episode of " Doctor Who " " , but this suggests a difference from " An Unearthly Child " which can ' t fairly be said to exist . It is merely a different version of the first episode of " Doctor Who " , which was not broadcast because Sydney Newman thought it had too many technical flaws and misjudged characterisations . Five different editions of this initial take on " Unearthly " have been made available to the public over the years , creating some ambiguity over what is meant by " the pilot " . The actual plots of the two recordings of " Unearthly " are insignificantly different . Nevertheless , all of " the pilot " ' s subsequent editions had obvious differences with " An Unearthly Child " as broadcast , especially in performances and technical recording flaws . Only a handful of lines of dialogue differ in the pilot and " Child " , but they suggest things about the character and back story of the Doctor which would be hard to reconcile with the general characterisation which was later obtained . No edition of " the pilot " was broadcast until 1991 and fans could not easily compare the various editions of " the pilot " until multiple versions were released on a single DVD in 2006 . Synopsis . School teachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright are curious about their student Susan Foreman . She is brilliant in many areas of science and history but is ignorant of mundane matters , such as how many shilling s make a Pound Sterling . They follow her home one evening to discover that she seems to live in a police box in a junkyard . Soon after meeting the girl ' s irascible grandfather , they find the police box is in fact a fantastic vessel , the TARDIS , capable of travelling through space and time . Fearful that the schoolteachers will tell others what they have seen , the mysterious old man , the Doctor , activates the machine ' s controls and whisks them away from the world they know . . . Plot . The Pilot is made up of two sections . Neither of the two complete takes that make up section 2 has a Next Episode caption . Alternate versions . Several versions of the pilot have been circulated . The version first broadcast in August 1991 incorporates several of the dialogue and technical errors that occurred during filming : Carole Ann Ford muffing her line about John Smith and the Common Men ; Jacqueline Hill getting caught in the door ; William Russell knocking over a prop ; the TARDIS doors banging ; etc . Two alternate editions were released to home video on " The Hartnell Years " in June 1991 and as a bonus with the UK VHS release of " The Edge of Destruction " in May 2000 . When the episode was included in the DVD release " The Beginning " , two versions were prepared : a raw , unedited version containing all takes , errors and footage shot during production , and a newly edited version that minimises and in some cases eliminates some of the dialogue and technical errors that occurred during production . This resulted in a more polished - looking production than the edition broadcast in 1991 . Both DVD versions were put through the VidFIRE process . This restored the film recordings to their original , videotape appearance . The 36 - minute version on the DVD included not just all available recorded material , but also a commentary by Verity Lambert and other key personnel , which detailed the reasons why certain elements of " the pilot " were changed for " An Unearthly Child " . Story notes . Production errors . Though Sydney Newman ' s displeasure with the characterisations of Susan and the Doctor are well known , the plethora of technical errors was the primary justification for re - recording the episode . Among the many things that went wrong behind - the - scenes were : DVD , video , and audio releases . Remastering for both the VHS ( 2000 ) and DVD ( 2006 ) releases was completed by Doctor Who Restoration Team . BritBox availability . The Pilot is available for streaming through BritBox ( Canada , US ) as " An Unearthly Child Pilot " within " Doctor Who Extras " .