HomeTVRevisiting William Hartnell and the origins of 'Doctor Who'

Revisiting William Hartnell and the origins of ‘Doctor Who’

It’s only the first three stories in which the Doctor can be called ‘crotchety’

Doctor Who William Hartnell
Credit: BBC

Tom Baker played it ‘Bohemian’, Pat Troughton was ‘Chaplinesque’, Pertwee a ‘dandy’ and Hartnell ‘crotchety’. These epithets are universally applied to the first four Doctors according to established Who lore. And yet… just how ‘crotchety’ is the First Doctor? Certainly in the first episode he kidnaps two teachers – Ian and Barbara. He later threatens to use violence against cavemen. In the second story, which introduces his deadliest foe the Daleks, the Doctor lies to his companions, concocting a wheeze so that he can see the Dalek city. His curiosity then endangers all of their lives. In the third story, the Doctor turns against the teachers, blaming them for strange and frightening occurrences aboard the TARDIS. After that, Hartnell undoubtedly mellows, and his unreliable and crotchety streak rarely shows itself again. Although he dotes on Susan, his granddaughter, he is perhaps even more protective over Vicki, the young orphan who joins his travels after Susan stays behind on earth. The playfulness and silliness he displays around Vicki in ‘The Romans’ in 1965 would have been unimaginable in the Doctor we first get to know in late 1963. Once he’s mellowed, he stays that way. ‘Loveable’ is just as accurate an epithet to describe the First Doctor.

Greg Jameson
Greg Jameson
Book editor, with an interest in cult TV.

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