Which brings me back to my point. There's a widespread belief amongst Doctor Who fans that the cavemen seen in this story are a Neanderthal tribe. This is also a "popular myth" by Howe's and Walker's criteria, since it's not stated anywhere in the three episodes, and yet you never see this challenged. Except here. Anyone who thinks the tribe are Neanderthals really doesn't understand what the story is about.
A few simple facts first. We know that Neanderthals were not very efficient hunters, and generally suffered from malnutrition. That's not the case here. The tribe appear to be successful hunter-gatherers. They've got enough food to be able to feed their prisoners for instance - and when challenged, Za seems quite confident of being able to slay many beasts for food the next day. These people are quite clearly early homo sapiens, perhaps on the verge of making the evolutionary jump to modern man. And that fundamentally is what the story is about. Doctor Who may have an alien as its lead character, but it's always been more concerned with the human race. So what more important event to show us right at the beginning of the series, than the birth of humanity itself? There's a scene in The Firemaker where Za suddenly grasps the logic of what Ian has told him ("Kal is not stronger than the whole tribe"). This contradicts the Doctor's earlier statement that the tribe are not capable of reason or logical thought. It's an important moment. Here, we the viewers are witnessing the birth of man as an intelligent, reasoning creature. Za is the ancestor of us all.
It's been reported that one of Anthony Coburn's working titles for these episodes was The Dawn of Knowledge. I think this makes the true intent of the script clear, so much so that there's no point arguing about it.
Adventures of the first Doctor Who
William Hartnell, the first Doctor Who
