The Doctor (The Brain of Morbius)

Incarnations of the Doctor before the First Doctor were seen during the Fourth Doctor's mindbending contest with Morbius. (TV: The Brain of Morbius, PROSE: Doctor Who and the Brain of Morbius, PROSE: Cold Fusion, AUDIO: Cold Fusion)

Behind the scenes

 * According to Philip Hinchcliffe, who produced TV: The Brain of Morbius and himself appeared as one of the faces, "We tried to get famous actors for the faces of the Doctor. But because no one would volunteer, we had to use backroom boys. And it is true to say that I attempted to imply that William Hartnell was not the first Doctor." The faces included directors Christopher Barry and Douglas Camfield, script editor Robert Holmes, production unit manager George Gallaccio, producer Philip Hinchcliffe, writer Robert Banks Stewart, and production assistants Chris Baker and Graeme Harper. They all wore stock costumes.
 * Robert Holmes, who wrote The Brain of Morbius and appeared as one of the faces, would later introduce the idea of a twelve regeneration limit in TV: The Deadly Assassin. Assuming that the last face shown was the true first incarnation of the Doctor, that would have meant that the Fifth Doctor had no regenerations left. In Holmes' story TV: The Caves of Androzani, the Doctor said before his regeneration, "Is this death?" and "It feels different this time."
 * Later stories would suggest that William Hartnell's Doctor was, in fact, the first. (TV: The Five Doctors, The Time of the Doctor) However, the novels Cold Fusion and Lungbarrow proposed possible solutions: the former showed the Doctor remembering seeing his early faces in the mindbending contest and established Patience's husband as an important figure in Gallifreyan history and a previous version of the Doctor who resembled at least two of the Morbius faces; the latter established that the Other was that important figure and the grandfather of Susan.