November 6, 2009
Who is the Original Doctor Who — William Hartnell
The hit Sci-Fi show “Doctor Who” is more succesful than it ever has been, but a lot of newer converts to the show don’t know much about the history of the show, which first aired in the early 1960s.
The mystery of Doctor Who was first brought to the screen by first Doctor William Hartnell from September 1963 until October 1966.
The Doctor originally was an old man who never revealed his name, a mysterious traveller who described himself as an exile, who traveled through time and space in a time machine which it almost seemed he didn’t understand, and which was stuck in the shape of a police box.
William Hartnell’s Doctor was irritable, forgetful, rude, and sometimes untrustworthy, or at least, he was at first deeply distrustful of Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton, a pair of schoolteachers who followed the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan home from school, hoping to solve the mystery of her mysterious and peculiar behavior.~The first Doctor was irritable, forgetful, rude, and sometimes untrustworthy, at least from the perspective of Ian and Barbara, two of the first people to travel with him after they stumbled into his ship.
He was an elderly man with no name, a traveller who spoke of being an exile, who traveled through time and space in a time machine which it almost seemed he didn’t understand, and which was disguised in the shape of a police box.}
To stop Ian and Barbara from running to the authorities about what they’d found, the Doctor takes them from not just their home planet but their home time as well, dematerializing the TARDIS and sending it many thousands of years into the past, not even revealing to them that he might never be able to find their home in his battered, old and malfunctioning time machine.
The Doctor’s morals seem much more questionable in the earliest episodes of the show, and in fact at one point in the first story, he appears ready to smash the skull of a man to aid in his and his companion’s escape. The Doctor nearly killing a man in cold blood would seem completely out of character to newer viewers.
In the second story, The Daleks, he covertly sabotages the TARDIS to make an excuse to venture into the unknown dangers outside, putting everyone in danger. This overpowering desire to gain knowledge, regardless of the consequences is established here as a central part of the Doctor’s character. that led him to run away from his own planet in the first place, and which leads to the end of his third regeneration, many centuries later.}
Bill Hartnell’s final story was The Tenth Planet, which was broadcast in 1966. His love for the part and the show stayed strong even as his health faded and he had to retire.
He was able to make a limited appearance again for an episode celebrating the tenth anniversary of the show, The Three Doctors..
The character of the first Doctor would appear in one more story: The Five Doctors — in this case played by Richard Hurndall.
Of the 29 stories starring William Hartnell, just seventeen are still complete due to a misguided practice of the BBC in the early 1970s. Unfortunately the final episode of The Tenth Planet. The first three parts of this four-part story still exist, merely a few clips are still around from the fourth part of this final Doctor Who story to star William Hartnell as the first Doctor.
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