The First Doctor

The First Doctor is the original incarnation of the Doctor and the initial protagonist of the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by actor William Hartnell.

Within the series' narrative, the Doctor is a centuries-old alien Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey who travels in time and space in the TARDIS, frequently with companions. At the end of life, the Doctor regenerates; as a result, the physical appearance and personality of the Doctor changes. The concept of regeneration, initially referred to as a "renewal," was introduced when Hartnell needed to leave the series, and consequently has extended the life of the show for many years.

Hartnell's portrayal of the character was initially a stubborn and abrasive old man who was distrustful of humans, but he mellowed out into a much more friendly, grandfatherly figure who adored his travels with his companions. The First Doctor's original companions were his granddaughter Susan (Carole Ann Ford) and her schoolteachers Ian Chesterton (William Russell) and Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill). In later episodes, he travelled alongside 25th-century orphan Vicki (Maureen O'Brien), space pilot Steven (Peter Purves), Trojan handmaiden Katarina (Adrienne Hill), and sixties flower child Dodo Chaplet (Jackie Lane). His final on-screen companions were the sailor Ben (Michael Craze) and the posh and sophisticated Polly (Anneke Wills). Of the 134 episodes Hartnell appeared in as a regular, 44 are missing.

Biography
The First Doctor is a mysterious character and little is known about him at the outset except that he has a granddaughter, Susan Foreman, and that they come from another time and place. He has a ship that travels through time and space, the TARDIS, which is currently disguised as a police box (Susan notes that it used to be able to change to blend in with its surroundings), and is bigger on the inside. The Doctor describes himself and Susan as "exiles" without specifying why or even whether their exile is self-imposed. It would not be until the last adventure of the Doctor's second incarnation that the name of the Doctor's people (the Time Lords) would be revealed, and the third incarnation before the name of his home planet (Gallifrey) was first spoken.

The series' first episode opens with a pair of schoolteachers in contemporary (1963) London, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, investigating the mystery of Susan, a student who seems confused and even frustrated at how what she is learning in history and especially mathematics seems to be wrong. Following Susan to her supposed home, they discover the TARDIS in a junkyard, surprising both Susan and her grandfather the Doctor, who launches the ship in response to the discovery. Ian and Barbara are involuntarily taken on a journey back to the year 100,000 BC and spend two years adventuring through time and space with the Doctor, who at this point in the series has no control over the navigation systems of the TARDIS.

It was as this incarnation that the Doctor first met the Daleks and the Cybermen, races that would become his most implacable foes. The TARDIS crew also observed many historical events such as the Reign of Terror in revolutionary France, meeting Marco Polo in China and The Aztecs in Mexico. When Susan fell in love with the human resistance fighter David Campbell, the Doctor left her behind to allow her to build a life for herself on 22nd century Earth (The Dalek Invasion of Earth), although he promised to return some day. The Doctor, Ian and Barbara were then joined by Vicki, whom they saved in The Rescue from the planet Dido.

At the conclusion of a chase through time by Daleks, Ian and Barbara used the Dalek time machine to go home (The Chase), and their place in the TARDIS was taken by a future space pilot named Steven Taylor, who had been captured by the robot Mechanoids but escaped due to the Dalek attack. The Doctor met another member of his own race for the first time in the form of the Meddling Monk and had an adventure in Galaxy 4. During the siege of Troy, Vicki decided to leave the TARDIS to stay with Troilus, adopting the name Cressida. The Doctor and Steven were next briefly joined by Trojan slave Katarina and a security agent from 4000 AD Sara Kingdom, but both were killed during the events of The Daleks' Master Plan, where the Daleks plotted to invade Earth's Solar System in 4000 AD, before being destroyed when the Doctor activated their weapon the Time Destructor. Due to this he was aged significantly; the effects on Sara were enough to reduce her to dust.

After narrowly missing the Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve, the Doctor and Steven took on board a young girl named Dodo Chaplet. Dodo brought a cold virus to the far future, which nearly annihilated the humans and Monoids travelling on The Ark. It was cured and when the TARDIS arrived on the Ark 700 years later the TARDIS crew helped the humans reach their destination, the Monoids having taken over the Ark. One of the First Doctor's most deadly foes was the Celestial Toymaker, who forced him and his companions to play deadly games and briefly made the Doctor invisible and mute. Eventually, the Doctor managed to win the Trilogic Game allowing them all to escape the Toymaker's domain.

Eventually, Steven and Dodo left the Doctor as well, Steven remaining on an alien planet as a mediator (The Savages) between two races, and Dodo deciding to remain on Earth in 1966 to recover from being hypnotised by the supercomputer WOTAN. The Doctor was then joined by upper-class secretary Polly and sailor Ben Jackson.

The toll of years put strain on the Doctor's elderly frame. After defeating the Cybermen at the Antarctic Snowcap Station (The Tenth Planet), the Doctor was fearfully reluctant to regenerate when he crossed paths with one of his future incarnations ("Twice Upon a Time"), who is similarly reluctant to regenerate. The events of the episode convince both Doctors to go through with their regenerations. After returning to his TARDIS and helping Polly and Ben back inside, the Doctor collapsed and regenerated for the first time.