| “ | Our lives are important, at least to us. But as we see, so we learn... Our destiny is in the stars, so let's go and search for it. | „ |
| ~ The First Doctor |
The First Doctor is the first incarnation of the Doctor to appear in Doctor Who and the main protagonist of the series from Seasons 1 to 3 and the overarching protagonist in Season 4, in which he regenerated into the Second Doctor. He returns as a minor character in the 10th Anniversary Special, The Three Doctors , a major character in the 20th Anniversary Special, The Five Doctors, and the deuteragonist of the Series 10 finale Twice Upon a Time.
He was portrayed by the late William Hartnell in Seasons 1-4 and in his reappearance in "The Three Doctors." In his reappearance in "The Five Doctors," he was portrayed by the late Richard Hurndall. In his reappearance in "Twice Upon a Time", he was portrayed by David Bradley. Bradley reprised the role on audio in Big Finish's First Doctor Adventures range, along with Stephen Noonan.
Biography[]
The First Doctor originally grew up on the planet Gallifrey, home of the Time Lords. At university he was colleagues with the Time Lords who would go on to take up the names of "the Master" and "the Rani."
Eventually, growing discontent with the stagnant society of the Time Lords, the Doctor and his granddaughter stole a TARDIS to use to travel the universe. The two eventually wound up on Earth, where they took up the aliases of "the Doctor" and "Susan Foreman" respectively. Susan pleaded with her grandfather to be able to attend school on Earth, to which the Doctor reluctantly allowed her to do so.
However, Susan's unusually high intelligence and strange behavior drew the concern of two of her teachers, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, leading them to follow her home one night out of curiosity. This led to them discovering the TARDIS, much to the Doctor's chagrin. This set of a chain of events which saw the Doctor whisking them away to prehistoric times, where they encountered cavemen. While attempting to bring Ian and Barbara back to Earth, the Doctor encountered the planet Skaro and decided to take a detour to explore it instead. There, the Doctor encountered the Daleks, a race of xenophobic mutants in metal casings who sought to exterminate the other species on the planet, the peace-loving Thals. The Doctor and his companions wound up teaming up with the Thals against the Daleks and helped them to defeat them.
The Doctor would continue to explore space and time with his human companions, jumping between different periods in Earth's history and various alien worlds. Eventually, the Doctor made it to Earth in the 22nd century, where he discovered an invasion force of Daleks had invaded and occupied the planet, turning many humans into mindless Robomen who did whatever the Daleks ordered them to. Teaming up with the human resistance, the Doctor thwarted the Daleks' plan to convert Earth into a superweapon. The Doctor also saw that Susan had fallen in love, and rather than make her choose between him and David, locked the TARDIS doors, and bade an emotional farewell to her, promising to see her again someday.
He, Ian and Barbara travelled alone for a while, with the Doctor feeling his granddaughter's absence, but after a confrontation with "Koquillion", in reality the murderer Bennet, the Doctor invited the orphaned Vicki aboard, his first "true" companion. He and Vicki shared a close friendship, with both bringing out a mischievous side from each other. The repeated defeats of the Daleks by the Doctor led to the Supreme Dalek identifying the Doctor as a threat and dispatching specialized "Pursuer-Daleks" after his TARDIS. After Ian and Barbara found a way to return home, the Doctor and Vicki had gained a new companion in Steven Taylor, with whom the Doctor had a relatively uneasy relationship. Vicki eventually left the Doctor's company as well, during the Siege of Troy.
Shortly after this however, the Doctor, Steven and Katarina, a Trojan handmaiden, were embroiled in a lengthy battle with the Daleks, where Katarina gave her life to protect them, and they would take on security agent Sara, who also died ensuring the Daleks were defeated. This led Steven soon became bitter towards the Doctor, but would forgive him. They were then joined by Dodo Chaplet. Ultimately, Steven decided to stay to help a civilisation they had encountered, while Dodo later decided to remain home, while the aging Doctor found himself joined by Ben Jackson and Polly Wright.
Eventually, the Doctor's adventures would take him to Mondas, the twin planet of Earth, where he encountered the Cybermen, who were plotting to invade Earth. By that point however, the Doctor's health was failing him and so, after the Cybermen were stopped, the First Doctor succumbed to his old age and regenerated into the Second Doctor. Initially frightened of the change, as seen in the 2017 Christmas Special Twice Upon a Time, he encountered a later incarnation, and was assured his future was in safe hands. Afterwards, the Doctor headed off to face his regeneration.
Personality[]
Initially after his departure from Gallifrey, the Doctor was highly arrogant and selfish, looking down upon humanity. Although he sought to explore the universe, he sought to keep himself distant from the lifeforms he was observing and not get involved in their affairs. However, the Doctor's personality began to change as a result of his adventures, in particular his encounter with the Daleks on Skaro, which caused him to realize "the Doctor was not the Daleks". From then on, the name of "the Doctor" went from being a simple alias to a creed the Doctor strove to follow and the Doctor himself became a much more heroic character, always going out of his way to help whoever he could. He was somewhat more protective towards his friends, and began to show off a mischievous, tricksy side to him, who enjoyed outwitting the opposition. The Doctor grew a moral centre, becoming morally outraged when he saw great injustice being done.
Quotes[]
| “ | One day, I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs, and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine. | „ |
| ~ The Doctor's iconic farewell to Susan in The Dalek Invasion of Earth. |
| “ | If you like adventure my dear, I can promise you an abundance of it! | „ |
| ~ The Doctor to Vicki, The Rescue. |
| “ | You know, I am so constantly outwitting the opposition, I tend to forget the delights and satisfaction of the gentle art of fisticuffs. | „ |
Trivia[]
- A lot of the First Doctor's backstory is filled in by the decades of stories after his era, for instance the concept of the Time Lords would only come to exist at the end of his successor's run.
- As a result of his advancing age, late into his run William Hartnell had the tendency to go off-script and say random lines, which led to the writers incorporating it as a character quirk.
- His declining physical health also caused them to create the idea of regeneration.
- The First Doctor was the only incarnation to regenerate due to old age until the War Doctor.
- The Eleventh Doctor was "reset" by being granted more regenerations; otherwise he would have died of old age/Daleks.
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The Doctor The Doctor's companions UNIT Torchwood Institute Bannerman Road Gang Investigators of Infernal Incidents Paternoster Gang Coal Hill defenders Other Allies | ||
