We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives…” The 1959 film Plan 9 from Outer Space is widely derided as the schlockiest of all Hollywood B movies, but there’s no denying the central truth of this line from its solemn pre-titles sequence.
Doctor Who started four years after Plan 9 was foiled, and initially seemed more interested in showing us alien worlds and glimpses into Earth’s history than making predictions that might have impacted on the lives of its viewers. Exceptions to this rule included a devastated London in The Dalek Invasion of Earth (1964), sub-zero calamity in The Ice Warriors (1967) and the near-extinction of humanity itself in The Ark (1966).
