My thoughts are, when I watch again, that it was really splendid work. Because the script and the production allowed us to act. And we had so much time and space to present the characters. It was all done in a great rush but I think it was quite an achievement. When I sit back and watch it now, I feel very pleased about it. It was a good piece of work, the acting was good and there was time somehow, and I think that’s a quality I really liked, because in a sense this kind of production allowed and awoke the imagination of the viewer. They could fill in where we didn’t have great special effects…but this allowed the imaginations to be stimulated and they had the time to get excited about it…and I think that was part of the success.
William Russell (An Unearthly Child commentary)