In stark contrast to the fast-paced Season 4 opener Partners in Crime, I ended up watching some of “The Beginning” DVD boxset over the weekend.

While I’d seen An Unearthly Child before, I’d never actually watched the other three episodes in the story (of course, while they’re often lumped together, its really a 1 episode pilot, followed by 3 episodes with cavemen shouting “FIRE!!!” a lot). I followed it up with the Edge of Destruction DVD from the set, as I’ve already seen the Daleks a good few times.

I’m not normally a big fan of the Hartnell stuff. While I do enjoy some of his stories, I do think they’ve probably dated the worst of the classic Who’s, largely down to the differences in programme-making between then and now. Of course, another aspect is that these days we’re invariably trying to sit down and watch a while story in one go. These programmes were episodic in nature, so are probably best enjoyed with a break between episodes.

Anyway, I really enjoyed these stories. An Unearthly Child is a lot better than I previous remembered. Carole Ann Ford really brings the right level of alien-ness to Susan in the initial scenes, which helps you get why Ian and Barbara are so curious as to what her background is. The Doctor is well introduced as an untrustworthy figure, someone to be feared more than anything else, as he is reluctant to let Ian and Barbara go once they’ve seen the TARDIS (and sets the ship in flight, thus stranding them together - something Ian and Barbara let him off with a bit too easily). The contrast in the Doctor’s character in these early episodes, versus the character we’re more used to now is marked. Its only as the years went on that he became the Earth-loving, defender of the innocent we’re used to.

The Caveman 3-parter is fun although seems a very sharp change of pace to the alien wierdness of the first episode.

Edge of Destruction sees the 4 travellers come together as a proper team, as they are forced to face their distrust of one another and work together. I love TARDIS-based bottle episodes (which are very rare), and its always nice to see the TARDIS itself spotlighted. I’d love to see something similar to this or say, the first two episodes of Castrovalva, in the new show.

I’ve been reading discussions online regarding the recent Secret Invasion. Needless to say, a lot of the discussions are of the “Who is a Skrull” variety. Regardless of the big shocks in issue 1, you know there’s got to be a few other big names lurking in the wings to be revealed later on.

A lot of the speculation is centering around the ship of Marvel characters from the first issue. Most people seem to be agreeing that its unlikely that they’re all genuine or all Skrulls, and it’ll be a mix. So who’s likely to be a Skrull and who’s real?

Well, one big name being floated around that I agree with is Luke Cage. Luke Cage has been Brian Bendis’ pet project for the last few years, building him from a D-list to A-list character. Having him turn out to be a Skrull (and the one from the ship the real deal) would be high on the shock list, and I think quite likely as a result. Granted it throws a lot of Brian Bendis work on the character out of the window, but there’s some big story points as a result. Jessica Jones must suddenly deal with the fact that her husband wasn’t who she thought he was. Their child is half-Skrull (presumably), and, most importantly to the post-Civil War Marvel Universe. The leader of the biggest anti-Registration names (The New Avengers) turns out to be a Skrull. That’d be huge.

Captain America from the ship has to be a Skrull. Anything else would throw a spanner into Ed Brubaker’s story and that’s just not on. I’ve mentioned before how good his run is, and to ruin it for the sake of a big crossover would be unthinkable. Can’t see it happening.

Indeed, with a lot of characters from the ship, revealing them to be the genuine article would be a nightmare. You’d wreck havok with past stories going back 20/30 years.

So (while I think its unlikely) I’d like to see Spider-Man from the ship revealed as the original. Think about it. His continuity is already a mess thanks to One More Day. He’s (effectively) been retconned back to his 70s incarnation anyway. Plus you’d have the advantage of a 70s Spider-Man unencumbered by any dodgy, satanic deals.

The other suggestion I read which I thought was interesting was Hawkeye. Have the Clint from the ship the original, but have the current one not a Skrull. Basically the Skrull-Hawkeye was killed during Avengers Dissassembled, and when Wanda resurrected him during House of M, as she didn’t know he was a Skrull sleeper agent, that part got left out.

So you’d then have two Clint Barton’s running around. One of whom as Ronin, which would be quite appropriate given the backstory to that identity.