- 6/11/2025
Step back in time to the very beginning of Doctor Who with this deep dive into the First Doctor, played by William Hartnell. Discover how the legendary Time Lord began his journey in 1963, bringing mystery, wisdom, and a touch of grumpiness to our screens. From the eerie first episode “An Unearthly Child” to his final appearance in “The Tenth Planet,” explore how Hartnell shaped one of the most iconic characters in science fiction history. Learn about his era, companions, classic enemies, and the lasting legacy he left behind in the Whoniverse.
Whether you're a lifelong Whovian or new to the TARDIS, this is the perfect place to meet the Doctor who started it all!
Whether you're a lifelong Whovian or new to the TARDIS, this is the perfect place to meet the Doctor who started it all!
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00:00Coming to the First Doctor after seeing his later incarnations is a shock.
00:20The First Doctor was a citizen of the universe and a gentleman to boot.
00:25Played by William Hartnell, he first appeared out of a foggy London night in November 1963.
00:32William Hartnell's Doctor was very sort of stiff-collared and frock-coated and very much the sort of Edwardian, I suppose, gentleman.
00:43He was from another era.
00:46As a kid, I found the Doctor terrifying. He was like, he was your grandpa.
00:54He wasn't, but he wasn't a nice grandfather figure. He was prickly, he was crusty, he was grumpy.
01:01You knew he'd kind of sorted out, but you didn't love him.
01:05I think he's probably the one a modern audience would recognise least, funnily enough.
01:10Although, clearly without him, there would be no subsequent Doctor Who of any kind.
01:16When you first see him in An Unearthly Child, he is quite different from the man you're used to.
01:21Excuse me.
01:22What are you doing here?
01:24We're looking for a girl.
01:25We?
01:26Good evening.
01:27What do you want?
01:28One of our pupils, Susan Foreman, came into this yard.
01:31Really?
01:32In here?
01:33Are you sure?
01:34Yes.
01:35We saw her from across the street.
01:36One of their pupils, not the police then.
01:38I beg your pardon?
01:39Why were you spying on her?
01:40Who are you?
01:41I think it's possibly quite surprising to an audience that knows the show now, to look back
01:46and see that that's how the Doctor started.
01:48I think, also, that there is something a bit frightening about him.
01:56I don't understand your attitude.
01:58Yours leaves a lot to be desired.
02:00You open the door.
02:01There's nothing in there.
02:02Then what are you afraid to show us?
02:04Afraid?
02:05Oh, go away.
02:07He's not nice in any way at all.
02:09Not remotely the genius hero you're used to.
02:11I think we'd better go and fetch a policeman.
02:13Very well.
02:14And you're coming with us.
02:15Oh, am I?
02:17I don't think so, young man.
02:19He's so unexpected, you don't know who he is.
02:22And I think that he gives a real sense of gravitas and a real sense of mystery to that character.
02:27Why won't you help us?
02:29I'm not hindering you.
02:30If you both want to make fools of yourselves, I suggest you do what you said you'd do.
02:34Go and find a policeman.
02:35This sort of seems, when you first see it, like a shocking continuity error, that the
02:40first Doctor wasn't anything like the other ones.
02:42But in fact, you see him change as he gets to know his companions.
02:46He becomes humanised.
02:47He gets smarter in his adventures.
02:49He starts to know how to deal with the life he's taken on.
02:52He definitely does soften up.
02:53And I suppose that's, perhaps that's inevitable in any long running show where it's difficult
02:59to keep your central character that remote and that difficult.
03:03Oh, wonderful feast, my dear.
03:05I don't know when I've enjoyed a meal more.
03:08What was it?
03:09Well, the main course was breast of peacock.
03:12Delicious.
03:13With an orange and juniper sauce.
03:15Oh, exquisite.
03:16He created something very unique and something that people took to in their millions.
03:23And yet, the character of the first Doctor is quite different to what came after.
03:3050 years ago, viewers watching that first episode would have been amazed to discover
03:35the Doctor's secret.
03:37Hidden inside his tiny police box was a vast time machine.
03:42I wish I could have my memory wiped and watch that first time you step into the TARDIS.
03:47What are you doing out there?
03:49She isn't there.
03:50Who's the TARDIS?
03:51Barbara.
03:52What are you doing?
03:53It must have been such a shocker.
03:56It was absolutely bewildering.
04:01If you went through a little telephone box and suddenly found yourself in an enormous
04:07space with a lot of machines that you couldn't recognize, you would be confused.
04:16The TARDIS can go anywhere.
04:18TARDIS?
04:19I don't understand you, Susan.
04:21Well, I made up the name TARDIS from the initials time and relative dimension in space.
04:26The idea that this time machine with technology beyond anything we could begin to dream of
04:33should be cloaked in a battered wooden box.
04:37And that, in some way, it's malfunctioning from the start.
04:40Oh, no, Grandfather!
04:42No!
04:43No!
04:44Get back to the ship, child!
04:45Hold it!
04:46I cannot imagine what it must have been like in 1963 to have the treat of watching that
04:51happen for the first time and realizing you were watching a quite different kind of show
04:55anything you'd watched before.
04:58In a series about time travel, it wasn't long before the show dealt with the problem
05:02of changing history.
05:04There's a great problem when you tell stories about time travel, because to have any kind
05:10of dramatic jeopardy, you have to remove the notion that you can just go back and sort
05:14it out before it happened.
05:15What is it?
05:16What's happened?
05:17There has to be a human sacrifice today at the rain ceremony.
05:20Oh, no!
05:21And you have to establish quite early on what the rules of that are.
05:25And you must not interfere.
05:27Do you understand?
05:28I can't just sit by and watch.
05:30No, Barbara!
05:31Quite early on in the story with the Aztecs, the Doctor kind of sets out the stall for what
05:38the rules are in this world.
05:40There'll be no sacrifice this afternoon, Doctor, or ever again.
05:45Barbara has been made a god by the Aztec people.
05:49And she thinks, well, if I'm a god, I'll stop them making human sacrifices.
05:53That's something useful I can do.
05:54And the Doctor warns her that she mustn't do that.
05:56The reincarnation of Ytaxa will prove to the people that you don't need to sacrifice
06:01a human being in order to make it rain.
06:04Barbara, no.
06:05She's in this privileged position of walking through these different times and places,
06:10and she has a responsibility not to alter them, because who knows how things might unravel.
06:16If I could start the destruction of everything that's evil here, then everything that is
06:21good would survive when Cortes lands.
06:23But you can't rewrite history!
06:25Not one line!
06:26Barbara, the high priests are coming.
06:28That allows the drama to have a structure, that allows you to go into history and look
06:35at it and investigate it, but not dabble with it.
06:41Barbara, one last appeal.
06:45What you are trying to do is utterly impossible.
06:48I know.
06:49Believe me.
06:50I know.
06:51That's the first time it's stated.
06:54And that's kind of the principle that Doctor Who has abided by ever since.
06:59That you can go into history, but you mustn't change it.
07:02William Hartnell goes to the O.K. Chorale.
07:05And then all of them end up going off and having a big kind of singer-long around a piano.
07:10That's the weirdest thing that ever goes on in the world of Doctor Who.
07:13Whatever's in your wallet at the last chance.
07:21Ian and Barbara are our way into the story.
07:23They're where the story begins, in fact.
07:27The Doctor's first companions were London's school teachers, Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton.
07:33They didn't choose to travel with him.
07:35The Doctor kidnapped them.
07:37Thankfully, their relationship improved over the course of their travels.
07:41They're very much the audience's eyes.
07:46Susan?
07:47Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry to hear you coming in.
07:50Aren't they fabulous?
07:51Who?
07:53It's John Smith and the Cumbermen.
07:54They've gone from nineteen to two.
07:55Who?
07:56John Smith is the stage name of the Honourable Aubrey Waits.
08:01He started his career as Chris Waits in the Carolers, didn't he, Susan?
08:04You are surprising, Mr Chesterton.
08:06I wouldn't expect you to know things like that.
08:08I have an inquiring mind.
08:09We have Ian Chesterton, who's sort of the most heroic form of school teacher you could ever imagine.
08:16He's a teacher you'd want to have.
08:18Brave and brilliant and resourceful.
08:20Ian, being the character he was, would feel very indignant at times and very cross and want to take charge and get things in the right order and that sort of thing.
08:36It's all so ridiculous, Ian.
08:39Barbara, we must concentrate on getting back.
08:43Just forget how absurd things are.
08:46Concentrate on getting back.
08:48Do you understand?
08:49Yes, all right.
08:50And Barbara is both, in this rather special way, terribly sensible and really rather sexy.
08:59And so it's rather perfect.
09:00You've got these two schoolteachers like you would really like them to have.
09:03Is that the book you're promising?
09:04Yes.
09:05Thank you very much.
09:06It will be interesting.
09:08And of course you have, again, talk about shocks.
09:12There, travelling in the TARDIS, is the Doctor's granddaughter.
09:15See you in the morning.
09:16I expect so.
09:17Good night.
09:18Good night.
09:19Good night, Susan.
09:20Good night.
09:21Good night, Susan.
09:43That's not right.
09:45Susan's a big mystery.
09:46We never really find out who Susan is.
09:50She says she's the Doctor's granddaughter, so we've no reason to doubt her.
09:54And yet we never find out any more about that particular family tree.
09:59She's such a striking character and she's also got that real kind of...
10:03You kind of really want to love her and to put your arm around her,
10:06but she's also got that slightly distant alien quality that he does as well.
10:10And I just think in those first episodes,
10:12it really gives them a hugely compelling quality, I think,
10:15to see her and the Doctor together in 60s Britain.
10:20That's another sort of a blow to the traditional view of Doctor Who.
10:24He was at one time, who knows what happened, a family man.
10:27The Doctor was originally more of an eccentric scientist,
10:32with Ian Chesterton the heroic leading man.
10:36It's interesting, in those early years, there was definitely...
10:39Clearly, it was felt there was a need for a leading man
10:42and that that wasn't what the Doctor was there for.
10:45The replacement leading man is very, very important.
10:47The first time they changed that part.
10:50And they sort of went for it.
10:52They went for Steven Teller, who's from the future.
10:54With Ian and Barbara heading off into the sunset,
11:01a replacement action hero was needed.
11:04He arrived in the form of dashing astronaut of the future, Steven Teller.
11:10I mean, my character was so different from Bill Russell or Jackie Hill.
11:15I mean, they were school teachers and they were very straight, laced on it.
11:18And I was a much more adventurous guy, I suppose.
11:23England? Hmm.
11:26Well, there you are, young man. What do you think of that now, eh? A Viking helmet?
11:32Oh, maybe.
11:33What do you mean, maybe? What do you think it is, a space helmet for a cow?
11:36Don't it could just as easily be part of a costume, you know, a toy left here by a child.
11:40Oh, rubbish, rubbish.
11:41No more so than your theory.
11:43He's not the sort of wise, mature Ian Chesterton, your ideal, brave, heroic, resourceful school teacher.
11:49He's sort of an angry young man with a spaceship who was always sort of as of arguing with the doctor and getting really quite cross with him.
11:56Though your ship is, to say the least, a little unusual.
11:58Oh, I see. So you've changed your ideas now, have you?
12:01If it is a time machine, I'm not saying it is, mind you, but if it is, shouldn't you know where we are? You know, your control panel?
12:07Yes, yes, yes, but unfortunately we have a slight technical hitch at the moment. Excuse me.
12:13One of the oddest moments for, I think, any Doctor Who viewer, okay? Sorry guys, girls, this is it.
12:22You have William Hartnell who goes to the OK Corral to, uh, and he has a toothache.
12:32It's the Wild West with a difference. The doctor's dentist is none other than gunfighter Doc Holliday.
12:39Things are about to get very strange indeed.
12:43What's the matter, Doctor?
12:48Oh, I've got the most ghastly toothache.
12:51So he goes to the gunslinging OK Corral to be taken care of by a dentist, who happens to be a gunslinger himself, right?
12:59But then, what happens? You've got Peter Purvis, the character of Steven, and all of them end up going off and having a big kind of singer-long around a piano,
13:07and that's the weirdest thing that ever goes on in the world of Doctor Who.
13:12I'll hold them for you. Hey now, come on, what do you think?
13:14Shut up and sing, Fran. You wait till I see that Doctor, he got us into this.
13:19What's the trouble?
13:20Nothing, we just choosing a song.
13:22Then here's one. Let's hope the piano knows it.
13:25The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon.
13:27Play, maestro.
13:28Didn't embarrass me too much, the singing, because I'd been a singer in an earlier career, but I didn't particularly sing very well. It wasn't in my key.
13:39With rings on their fingers and bells on their toes, the girls come to tombstone in their high silk hose, they'll dance on the tables or give you a tune for whatever's in your wallet at the last chance.
13:54The Gunfighters is just such a remarkable episode, and that silhouette of William Hartnell as the kind of almost cowboy wearing the western hat is just, it's really memorable for Doctor Who. It's a striking episode, I think.
14:09When Stephen left, it was time for the Doctor to be brought right up to date. The TARDIS landed on present-day Earth. It was 1966, the height of the swinging 60s, and the Doctor's life changed forever with the arrival of the thoroughly modern Polly and Ben.
14:27By the time we get to Polly and Ben, it's almost the beginning of the traditional companions as we know them now. Younger, of the moment, much more of the time, not the sort of grown-up school teachers, but very much being young to allow the Doctor to know be the senior man in charge of the show.
14:46Quite an arctic storm blowing out there. Hmph. Come along, Polly, my child, with my cloak.
14:51Hey, Doctor, you've got the most fantastic wardrobe.
14:53Yes, well, I'm glad you approve, my child.
14:55You look gorgeous. Where do you shop? Can't let me street you?
14:58Where do you think you are? They're no good enough or something.
14:59No, no, no, no. Ch-ch-ch-ch. Stop being so flippant. We don't know what we're in for outside there.
15:04Ben and Polly being more modern in their outlook were less deferential to authority, possibly. So that starts to impact on the way that the Doctor can behave, because those around him treat him slightly differently.
15:18Come along, come along, come along. Here you are, Doctor. Are you sure you're going to be warm enough?
15:23Oh, like toast, my dear. Now, will you find everything you want?
15:26Yes, thanks.
15:27All right, well, let's go outside and investigate. Go along.
15:30From the point that they come up, well, there's no doubt about who's in charge. There's no doubt about who the major heroic figure in Doctor Who is. It's the Doctor himself. He's no longer sharing the screen. So he's got, it's the Doctor and the kids from that point on.
15:42The first time it appears you don't see a full Dalek, you just see a sucker and a stick. People are very excited and asking each other what that was and the rest, I suppose, is history.
15:53The Dalek's the first monster that shows up in Doctor Who. You know, Doctor Who's become famous for its monsters. But the Dalek's the first one.
16:06The Dalek's are the first aliens we see the Doctor encounter. Hideous mutations trapped in metal armour with a brutal urge to exterminate all other life.
16:19The Dalek's, of course, showed up quite early on and their popularity was such that you could argue there why the show has continued to this day. They became almost bigger than the show that spawned them.
16:35The first time it appears you don't see a full Dalek, you just see a sucker and a stick.
16:49People were so intrigued as to what that was that it sort of, it started a frenzy of people. I don't know, how did people do it then? They certainly didn't Twitter about it.
17:10But people were very excited and asking each other what that was and there was much speculation until the Dalek was revealed the next week.
17:18And the rest, I suppose, is history.
17:28You will move ahead of us and follow my directions. This way. Immediately.
17:39Daleks, in this original story, are a one-off monster. Like all successful Doctor Who monsters, they began as a very definitive one-off.
17:45They weren't supposed to be universe conquering demons. They were just supposed to be the survivors of a terrible nuclear war.
17:51And they were so mutated and injured by this war, they had to build tanks in which they lived.
17:57It's a little creature inside a metal pepper port with a gun.
18:03I said immediately! Fire!
18:07My legs! My legs!
18:13The original intent was that they were the battle-scarred survivors of a terrible conflict.
18:18And that makes them, in that particular story, in a way just so much more spooky and interesting.
18:24What you have is this brilliant piece of design, you know, ridiculously small budget created this very simple but very brilliant thing which caught on and which became something that's recognised even now around the world.
18:41You know, you'll have people who've never seen Doctor Who, who know what a Dalek is.
18:51We've had the Daleks on their home planet. The next obvious thing to do is to bring them to Earth, which is exactly what happens.
18:56The point at which modern Doctor Who again starts to be born is actually the beginning of, I think it's probably episode two of the Dalek invasion of Earth, where the Doctor Who, up until this point, has mostly been concerned about running away and getting back to the TARDIS and being selfish and slightly malignant.
19:13Having discovered that the Daleks have invaded Earth, announces he's going to pit his wits against them and defeat them.
19:31We are the masters of the Earth.
19:34Not for long.
19:35Obey us or die.
19:36Die? And just who are you to condemn us to death? Hmm?
19:41I think we better pit our wits against them and defeat them.
19:45So suddenly he's changed his, er, his MO entirely. He's now officially, er, recognised as the enemy of the Daleks and the enemy of invaders.
19:54And that's a sort of key moment. You think, oh yes Doctor, you can do it.
19:59I warn you, resistance is useless.
20:03Resistance is useless? Surely you don't expect all the people to welcome you with open arms?
20:08We have already conquered Earth.
20:11Conquered the Earth, you poor pathetic creatures, don't you realise? Before you attempt to conquer the Earth, you will have to destroy all living matter.
20:20Take them! Take them!
20:23We talk about William Hartnell being the first Doctor, but there was no sense when he got the job that he was anything other than the only Doctor, that there would ever be any others.
20:33There was no suggestion that the Doctor, at that point, would or could or should be anything else.
20:38No sense that the show would run for 50 years.
20:41But there was something peculiar and unique about this show and about this man in a magic box.
20:49Without him doing what he did, we wouldn't be sitting here now, in the 21st century, talking about a futuristic man from 50 years ago.
20:59Top Gear's James May has been tasked with choosing the definitive car of the people.
21:05It's awful, brutally diabolical. It also smells funny. It's cumbersome, it's crude, it even looks a bit like a butter.
21:14Wow! The views and opinions expressed by Mr. May do not necessarily reflect the official position of Top Gear or BBC America.
21:19Top Gear cars of the people, premieres next Monday at 9, only on BBC America.
21:26We're almost positive there exist much more suitable methods to evaluate cars than using rocket launchers.
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