William Hartnell - the Doctor who began it all

As everyone who is reading this already knows, William 'Bill' Hartnell was the first actor who played the Doctor. Seriously, if you're not interested in Doctor Who, why are you reading this? Of course, you might just as well ask what does this guy have to say about Bill Hartnell that hasn't been said before?

I have a strange relationship with both Hartnell and Patrick Troughton. I haven't seen a lot of their serials. However, I have read every last adaptation of them. Heck, I'm pretty sure I've read every single Target book back when I was in middle school and high school.

Looking back, it was definitely a second rate way of experiencing the serials. Most of the books were basically just the scripts in book format. More than that, a lot of the earlier written ones simplified the scripts. Or, in a couple cases, flat out were different. They didn't give me a real appreciation or understanding for the craft or work of the actors. And, let's be honest, that is a huge gap.

Still, the Target books let me get a taste of the history of Doctor Who and some insight into the early years of the show.

Let's get back to Hartnell.

No matter how you look at it, it all got started with Hartnell. No Hartnell, you got no Doctor Who. And many of the elements that define Doctor Who were introduced from the beginning. Time Travel, the TARDIS, the Daleks, all sorts of the things that are a part of the Doctor Who mythology.

At the same time, Doctor Who was still being invented. A lot of ideas that are now part of the bedrock of the franchise didn’t even exist back then. After all, the BBC had no idea that they were creating a multi-generational dynasty.

Gallifrey, Time Lords, regeneration, the whole idea of the Doctor definitely not being human, none of that had been dreamed up yet. In fact, instead of being a renegade or happy-go-luck rambler, there was more of a sense that the Doctor was a refuge from some sort of catastrophic disaster that had killed his entire family except his granddaughter.

(Come to think of it, the Time War of the second Doctor Who series that seemingly destroyed Gallifrey and all the Time Lords is exactly that kind of disaster. I guess some ideas will come around again if you give them enough time.)

Compared to later eras of Doctor Who, the Hartnell serials definitely have their own feel. Many of the fundamental ideas just hadn’t gotten around to being thought up yet. The idea that the Doctor was the hero and protagonist took a while to catch on. The two humans he shanghaied were the ones doing the heroics at the start. The Unearthly Child practically had the Doctor as a villain.

The idea that Doctor Who was going to be an educational show, by golly, was struggling against it becoming a science fiction action show. While the Doctor has never stopped visiting the past and messing around with historical figures, the Hartnell era had the historical stories, where the only fantastic element was the TARDIS and company. Honestly, that’s an idea that has never been revisited. (Yes, Black Orchid from Peter Davidson’s time didn’t have any fantastic elements but it also wasn’t trying to teach any history lessons)

The idea of the historical stories is neat and part of me wonders what it would have been like if the BBC had explored them more. On the other hand, the Daleks being a smash hit from the get go really pointed at how the real future of the show was in the fantastic.

Since the show was still defining itself, the Hartnell era was also surprisingly experimental. Stories like the Web Planet or the Feast of Stephen or the Gunfighters or the Celestial Toymaker pushed the boundaries of what the series could do in ways that later eras wouldn’t. (Clearly, not always successfully but they tried.) I’m not sure if Doctor Who got so far out of its comfort zone again until Delta and the Bannermen. (After decades of pondering, I still can’t decide if that one was brilliant or just insane)

Bill Hartnell isn’t my favorite doctor. His era isn’t what I think about when I think about Doctor Who. But it was the cornerstone of something that ended up being so much bigger than anyone in 1963 could have ever guessed.