FIRST DOCTOR

Doctor Who was born on November 23rd, 1963, with the airing of the very first episode, "An Unearthly Child". The producers were hoping for a good 3 year run. The show's star, William Hartnell, although initially skeptical about the character and the series, became increasingly more confidant that the show would succeed to five years. The rest of the cast, however (Jacqueline Hill, William Russell and Carol Anne Ford), were sure that the show would not complete its first season.

And they were almost right. The first episode aired less than 24 hours after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The ratings were terribly low, as most people were either watching the news from America or had been all night. The producers pleaded with the BBC to let them re-air the episode the following week. The Beeb agreed, and "An Unearthly Child" was screened a second time, just prior to the first screening of the second episode. The ploy worked, and Doctor Who found its audience. Ratings were respectable for the remainder of the 4-part serial.

Everything changed in the 5th week though. "The Dead Planet", the first episode of a 7-part serial, ended with what is unquestionably the most important cliff-hanger in the history of the series. Barbara, separated from her friends and lost in an apparently dead city, is backed up against the wall, and something is advancing towards her. As the scene fades to black, Barbara lets out a terrified scream...

The next day, the show was the talk of England, with everyone speculating what the something was. Terry Nation, writer of the story, said that within 5 minutes of the episode's completion, his phone began ringing with all of his friends demanding to know "What the hell was that??" Doctor Who had caused a buzz!

The following week, the ratings were almost doubled as all of Britain tuned in to find out the answer to the question. The sensation caused by the "Dead Planet" cliffhanger put Doctor Who on the map. But in the second episode, "The Survivors", when the Daleks were first revealed...a mania was born. Ratings soared, and the Daleks were an unqualified success. More over, the success of that 7-parter kept the audience tuning in for the remainder of the first season.

One of the purviews of the series was that it be educational. For that reason, the Hartnell era would put great emphasis on doing stories set in Earth's history, and the original cast included a History and a Science teacher. The first true historical serial was "The Aztecs." In it, the TARDIS lands inside an Aztec ziggurat. When the Crew emerges, the Aztec assume Barbara to be a manifestation of their god Ytaxa. They set her up as a figure of worship. Barbara, who's area of special study was the Aztecs, seizes her opportunity: she plans to use her new position to persuade the Aztecs to do away with the practice of human sacrifice, so that when Cortez lands, the eradication of the Aztecs will be averted. The Doctor argues with her that what she wants to do is utterly impossible, but she stubbornly defies him and attempts to convince the Aztecs that bloodshed is unnecessary.

The First Doctor's era was one of imagination, freedom, creativity, and experimentation. The stories ranged from historicals to expansive and complex space operas, dark drama to whimsical humour, introspection to action, laced with colourful historical characters and outlandish alien persons and monsters. Cast members came and went, the nature of the lead character changed over time. The Daleks made 4 more appearances during Hartnell's time, and in his final story, "The Tenth Planet", the series' second most popular adversary, the Cybermen, were introduced.

At the beginning of the fourth season, it was clear that Hartnell was too ill to continue in the role. The second serial of that season, "The Tenth Planet", would be his last. The producers came up with the notion of bodily regeneration to explain the Doctor's transformation into a new actor

 

Episode List

Season	Story Title	# of Eps	Companions	Avg Rating	Main Threat
1	"An Unearthly Child"	4	Susan, Barbara, Ian	5.9 million
1	"The Daleks"	7	Susan, Barbara, Ian	9.0 million	Daleks
1	"Edge of Destructino	2	Susan, Barbara, Ian	10.2 million
1	"Marco Polo"	7	Susan, Barbara, Ian	9.5 million	historical
1	"The Keys of Marinus"	6	Susan, Barbara, Ian	9.1 million	the Voord
1	"The Aztecs"	4	Susan, Barbara, Ian	7.5 million	historical
1	"The Sensorites"	6	Susan, Barbara, Ian	6.9 million	the Sensorites
1	"The Reign of Terror"	6	Susan, Barbara, Ian	6.7 million	historical
2	"Planet of Giants"	3	Susan, Barbara, Ian	8.6 million
2	"The Dalek Invasion of Earth"	6	Susan, Barbara, Ian	11.9 million	Daleks
2	"The Rescue"	2	Barbara, Ian, Vicki	12.5 million	Koquillion
2	"The Romans"	4	Barbara, Ian, Vicki	11.6 million	historical
2	"The Web Planet"	6	Barbara, Ian, Vicki	12.5 million	the Animus, the Optera, the Zarbi, the Menoptera
2	"The Crusade"	4	Barbara, Ian, Vicki	9.4 million	historical
2	"The Space Museum	4	Barbara, Ian, Vicki	9.2 million
2	"The Chase"	6	Barbara, Ian, Vicki	9.4 million	Daleks
2	"The Time Meddler"	4	Vicki, Steven	8.4 million	the Meddling Monk
3	"Galaxy 4"	4	Vicki, Steven	9.9 million	the Rills, the Drahvin
3	"Mission to the Unknown"	1		8.3 million	Daleks
3	"The Myth Makers"	4	Vicki, Steven, Katarina	8.4 million	pseudo-historical
3	"The Dalek Masterplan"	12	Steven, Katarina, Sara Kingdom	9.4 million	Daleks, Mavic Chen
3	"The Massacre"	4	Steven, Dodo	6.4	historical
3	"The Ark"	4	Steven, Dodo	6.5	the Monoids
3	"The Celestial Toymaker"	4	Steven, Dodo	8.3 million	the Toymaker
3	"The Gunfighters"	4	Steven, Dodo	6.3 million	pseudo-historical
3	"The Savages"	4	Steven, Dodo	5 million
3	"The War Machines"	4	Dodo, Ben, Polly	5.2 million	WOTAN
4	"The Smugglers"	4	Ben, Polly	4.5 million
4	"The Tenth Planet"	4	Ben, Polly	6.6 million	Cybermen

 

Recommended Viewing

Listed below are some of the standout stories from the First Doctor era, hand selected by members of the Atlanta Gallifreyans. The titles are listed in order of most votes.

"The Aztecs" (1964)
Starring William Hartnell (the Doctor), Carole Ann Ford (Susan), William Russell (Ian), Jacqueline Hill (Barbara)

In the fifteenth Century civilisation is hardly civilised, as the Doctor discovers when the TARDIS materialises in an ancient Aztec temple. When Barbara is mistaken for the reincarnation of the Aztec's High Priest, Yetaxa, she seizes the opportunity to put an end to the ceremonial rites of human sacrifice and save the Aztecs from self-destruction. The Doctor must somehow convince Barbara to let history follow its natural course and return to the TARDIS before their real identities are discovered. Can they escape before they become the next blood sacrifices?

 

****

 

"The Time Meddler" (1965)
Starring William Hartnell (the Doctor), Maureen O'Brien (Vicki), Peter Purves (Steven), and Peter Butterworth (the Monk)

The TARDIS lands on a beach in England. The Doctor, Vicki and new companion Steven discover a Viking helmet, and deduce they have arrived in the past. Whilst Steven and Vicki scale the cliff, the Doctor opts for a far more gentle path. In the woods above the cliffs, Steven and Vicki find an abandoned modern wristwatch. Meanwhile, the Doctor investigates a nearby monastery, discovering even more anachronisms. As the local villages are attacked by invading Vikings, the Doctor realises that they are a few weeks away from the famous battle of Hastings in 1066. Who is the Meddling Monk, and what is his interest in the time travellers?

 

****

 

"The Daleks" (1963)
Starring William Hartnell (the Doctor), Carole Ann Ford (Susan), William Russell (Ian), Jacqueline Hill (Barbara)

The TARDIS lands on a seemingly dead world with high levels of radiation. Seeing a deserted city, the Doctor deliberately sabotages his TARDIS in order to force Ian, Barbara and Susan to explore further. But the city is not as dead as it first appears. The TARDIS crew are captured by sinister metal creatures that silently glide through the corridors and walkways—Daleks! Survivors of a deadly nuclear war with their enemies the Thals, the Daleks have mutated into creatures dependent on their travel machines to keep them alive. One by one, the time-traveller captives succumb to the effects of Skaro's radiation, leaving Susan their only hope in retrieving life-saving medicine from the TARDIS. Outside the city, the peaceful Thal survivors are running out of food and supplies—but can they trust the Daleks to aid them? With the TARDIS stranded, the Doctor and his companions are caught up in a battle for survival between the two species. And time is running out—the radiation-dependent Daleks plan to explode another neutron bomb, killing all life on Skaro...

 

****

 

"The Sensorites" (1964)
Starring William Hartnell (the Doctor), Carole Ann Ford (Susan), William Russell (Ian), Jacqueline Hill (Barbara)

The TARDIS crew arrive on a seemingly deserted spaceship, only to find what appears to be the dead bodies of the ship's original crew. But the crewmembers are far from dead—instead they are under some form of mental attack that keeps them prisoners in space. The ship is trapped in orbit around the Sense-Sphere, home world of the alien Sensorites. The Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan are warned to leave, but before they can do so, the TARDIS is attacked, and its lock is stolen. The Sensorites are using their telepathic powers against the human visitors to their world. And the TARDIS crew now find themselves helpless captives of the the Sensorites, and their mental powers...

 

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