Who Was the First Doctor Who?

William Hartnell: The Original Doctor

William Hartnell was born on 8 January 1908 in St Pancras, London. He was a character actor with a long career in British film and television, often playing authority figures and military types, most notably Sergeant Grimshaw in the BBC series The Army Game. By the early 1960s he was becoming concerned that this typecasting was limiting his career and was looking for an opportunity to demonstrate his range.

When BBC producer Verity Lambert and story editor David Whitaker were developing Doctor Who in 1963, Hartnell was cast in the central role at the recommendation of director Waris Hussein. The character was initially conceived as a mysterious, crotchety old man — an alien who had stolen a time machine and was on the run from his own people for reasons not immediately explained. Hartnell brought tremendous dignity, occasional warmth and an air of genuine unpredictability to the role, making the Doctor fascinating rather than simply heroic.

The Creation of Doctor Who

Doctor Who was conceived in the early 1960s by a BBC committee tasked with developing a family science-fiction drama series. The Head of Drama Sydney Newman, Canadian producer Verity Lambert and story editor David Whitaker were the key creative figures behind its development. Newman specified that the show should be educational in intent — using time travel to teach children about history — and that it should not use monsters or bug-eyed aliens, a stipulation famously ignored almost immediately with the introduction of the Daleks in the second serial.

The show premiered on BBC One on 23 November 1963, the day after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas. The first episode was actually repeated the following week before Episode 2 aired, as the news coverage of the Kennedy assassination was felt to have overshadowed the debut. Despite the difficult timing, Doctor Who quickly found an audience and became one of the BBC's most popular programmes within its first year, largely due to the enormous impact of the Dalek serial.

The concept of regeneration — which allows the Doctor to change appearance and personality while remaining the same character — was not part of the original plan. It was developed as a practical solution to the problem of replacing William Hartnell when his health deteriorated in 1966. The solution, devised by script editor Gerry Davis and producer Innes Lloyd, proved to be one of the most creative and durable concepts in television history, allowing the show to continue indefinitely with different lead actors.

Hartnell's Doctor: Character and Legacy

The First Doctor as portrayed by Hartnell was quite different from the more consistently heroic and morally upright Doctors that came later. He was initially presented as secretive, morally ambiguous, and sometimes genuinely dangerous — in the very first story, he considered killing an injured caveman to prevent the group from being slowed down. He was proud, occasionally pompous and not always kind to his companions. Over time, travelling with human companions softened him, and by the end of his era he was clearly a more benevolent and protective figure, though never losing a certain haughtiness.

Hartnell's era introduced many of the show's most enduring elements: the Daleks, the TARDIS's distinctive appearance (locked in police box form after the chameleon circuit broke), the Doctor's granddaughter Susan, and the show's fundamental premise of exploring all of time and space. He set the template for every Doctor who followed, even when later actors deliberately moved the character in very different directions.

The Daleks and the First Doctor

The single most important event of Hartnell's era — arguably of the entire show's history — was the introduction of the Daleks in the second serial, The Daleks (December 1963 to February 1964). Written by Terry Nation and designed by Raymond Cusick, the Daleks became an immediate cultural phenomenon. Children were terrified of them, parents wrote to newspapers about them, and the BBC was flooded with requests for merchandise. The Daleks saved Doctor Who from cancellation after its initially modest ratings and established the show as a genuine cultural institution.

The relationship between the First Doctor and the Daleks established the template for all subsequent Doctor-Dalek conflicts: the Doctor initially unwilling to get involved, then reluctantly engaging, then committing fully to opposing their plans not from heroism but from moral clarity about what the Daleks represent. That fundamental dynamic has remained unchanged across six decades and fifteen Doctors.

Frequently Asked Questions

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