First Doctor

The First Doctor was the first known incarnation of the Time Lord known as the Doctor. Most accounts of him were drawn from close to the end of his life.

Initially, he had as companions his granddaughter Susan Foreman and her kidnapped teachers, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright. He bade Susan farewell to let her live a happier life with a man with whom she had fallen in love. Later, during a confrontation with the Daleks, the Doctor used one of their time capsules to return Ian and Barbara to their proper time - something he had been unable to manage with the TARDIS.

After Susan's departure, the Doctor gained a new companion in Vicki Pallister. She reminded him of Susan and the Doctor saw her as a surrogate to fill her spot in his travels with Ian and Barbara. Vicki left the Doctor's company, feeling her time with him was over and she needed to move on.

Soon after the departure of Ian and Barbara, the Doctor gained a new companion in Steven Taylor, with whom he had a relatively uneasy relationship. Steven was bitter towards him, blaming him for the deaths of Katarina and Sara Kingdom, but forgave him. Companion Dodo Chaplet later joined them on their travels.

Ultimately, Dodo became injured in an adventure and decided to remain home in her own time, while Steven decided to stay to help a civilisation they had encountered.

Right before his battle with the Cybermen of Mondas, the Doctor had gained two new companions in Ben Jackson and Polly Wright, to whom he was much more kind; he hoped to prevent them from leaving as Steven had.

He met his end after battling the Cybermen for the first time on Earth. He was forced to regenerate into his second body from exhaustion and a loss of strength to maintain his ancient body.

Childhood
The Doctor was born on Gallifrey, home planet of the Time Lords. He was born under "the sign of crossed computers," the symbol of the maternity service there. (DW: The Creature from the Pit) The infant Doctor slept in his cot under "the Doctor's first stars" as Amy Pond pointed out. (DW: A Good Man Goes to War)

The Doctor had parents, (DW: The Sound of Drums) and one source stated that the Doctor's father was called Ulysses. (PDA: The Infinity Doctors) His mother may have been a Victorian Era human called Penelope Gate. (EDA: The Gallifrey Chronicles) A later incarnation of the Doctor once claimed that he was half-human, (DW: Doctor Who) The Doctor lived in a house on the side of a mountain named Mount Cadon. (DW: The Time Monster) His home was called the House of Lungbarrow. He lived there along with his cousins, who were produced by the Looms, and with his brother, Irving Braxiatel. (NA: Lungbarrow, BNA: Tears of the Oracle)

In his childhood, the Doctor once watched a meteor storm on Gallifrey with his father. (DW: Doctor Who) At the age of eight, the Doctor stared into the Untempered Schism as part of a Time Lord initiation rite. He reacted by running away. (DW: The Sound of Drums)

The Doctor and his friend the Master used to play in the estates of the Master's father. (DW: The End of Time) The Master would often hypnotise others, and the Doctor would un-hypnotise them. (MA: The Dark Path) The Doctor and the Master were bullied as children and the Doctor found himself forced to kill the bully Torvic to save his friend's life. He was later confronted by Death, who insisted he become her disciple. The Doctor refused and asked for Death to take away his guilt, causing her to transfer the memory of committing the crime to the Master instead. The Doctor forgot he had ever made the deal. (BFA: Master)

Academic career
As Romana later noted, the Doctor did not have an impressive career at school, passing his qualifying exams to become a Time Lord with only 51% - the lowest possible pass mark - on the second attempt. (DW: The Ribos Operation) He attended the Time Lord Academy under the tutelage of Borusa and was a member of the Prydonian Chapter. (DW: The Deadly Assassin) When he was ninety he visited the Medusa Cascade, later describing himself as "just a kid" then. (DW: The Stolen Earth)

At the Time Lord Academy, the Doctor belonged to a clique of ten young Time Lords with the collective name of the Deca, a group which included Koschei, later known as the Master, and Ushas, later known as the Rani. (PDA: Divided Loyalties) The Doctor spent "centuries" at the Academy. (DWM: Mortal Beloved) He was expelled for a time and relegated to traffic control for five centuries after his first encounter with the Celestial Toymaker in an act of youthful rebellion resulted in the 'deaths' of his friends Rallon and Millennia, but he returned to the Academy after receiving his doctorate in his spare time. (PDA: Divided Loyalties)

Sometime later in his life, the Doctor was considered a 'superior' on Gallifrey. On one instance, he saved a glowing life form from being killed by other Gallifreyans, including his old friend Magnus. (DWMS: Flashback)

Before leaving Gallifrey, the Doctor learned of the existence of the miniscopes and was outraged by their cruelty to the specimens within. He campaigned to have them banned and, despite the non-interference policy of the Time Lords, was successful. His role in banning the use of miniscopes is known throughout nine galaxies. (DW: Carnival of Monsters, MA: The Empire of Glass)

Family life
At various times, the Doctor indicated that he had at one point had a family. (DW: The Tomb of the Cybermen)

The Doctor was a father at one point in his life (DW: Fear Her), of both "sons and daughters". (PDA: The Eleventh Tiger) The Doctor had three known grandchildren, Susan, John and Gillian. (DW: An Unearthly Child, TVC: The Klepton Parasites)

Leaving Gallifrey
The Doctor broke the Time Lords' law on non-interference and faced being erased from history by his brother Braxiatel. Braxiatel allowed the Doctor to run, giving him the chance to steal a Type 40 TARDIS and escape Gallifrey. He took with him the Hand of Omega and his granddaughter, Susan. (NA: Lungbarrow, BFG: Disassembled, PDA: Legacy of the Daleks, DWM: time & Time Again) He grew a bond with this TARDIS that would last for centuries. When the Doctor first entered the TARDIS, he described it as "the most beautiful thing I ever saw". (DW: The Doctor's Wife)

Early Travels
The first time that the Doctor left Gallifrey, he took a short hop across the Constellation to visit his parents' summer house. (PDA: The Infinity Doctors)

Shortly after leaving Gallifrey, the Doctor assumed his alias of "the Doctor," because he described it as an honourable profession amongst his own people. (TN: Frayed)

After several adventures in time, in which he met Henry VIII and visited the French Revolution, among other things, the Doctor settled in 20th century London. For five months, the TARDIS was parked in a junk yard belonging to I.M. Foreman. Susan and he lived in 1963 London to allow her to complete her education and let him build missing components for the TARDIS. (DW: An Unearthly Child, TN: Time and Relative) Meanwhile, he found a hiding place for the Hand of Omega. (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks)

At an unknown point after his arrival in 1963, the Doctor had his first encounter with River Song, who would become his wife centuries later. But he was unaware of her identity. (VG: Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock)

Soon after the time of his arrival, a Dalek had discovered him. The Doctor's seventh incarnation also appeared in his past self's life on a mission from the White Guardian to steal the TARDIS Instruction Manual. (DWM: Time & Time Again)

Meeting Ian and Barbara
Whilst Susan attended Coal Hill School, the Doctor and she lived at 76 Totter's Lane. Two of Susan's teachers, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, followed her home and confronted the Doctor. He kidnapped them so they couldn't tell anyone about Susan and him. They went to 100,000 BC.

The TARDIS experienced faults at this point in its chameleon circuit and its ability to indicate its space/time coordinates. Kidnapped by a tribesman named Kal, the Doctor was brought to the Tribe of Gum. Susan, Ian and Barbara saved the Doctor, but Za caught them and placed them all in the Cave of Skulls. The Doctor thanked Old Mother when she freed them, but grew miserable whilst trekking through the Forest of Fear. When Za was wounded by a tiger, the Doctor initially refused to help him and considered killing him so the rest of the travellers wouldn't slow their escape trying to help Za. (DW: An Unearthly Child) However, a meeting with his eighth incarnation in a time bubble - created when the two Doctors met - convinced him otherwise. (EDA: The Eight Doctors) Recaptured and placed back in the cave, he tricked Kal into revealing he had killed the Old Mother. The Doctor helped Ian with an escape plan to get back to the TARDIS. (DW: An Unearthly Child)

Further adventures
The Doctor was unable to return Ian and Barbara to their original place and time. When the TARDIS landed on Skaro, he lied about the fluid link needing mercury, when there was nothing wrong, so he could explore a nearby city. The Daleks imprisoned the Doctor and his companions inside the city, confiscating the fluid link they brought along.

Having escaped, they assisted the Thals in their attack on the Dalek city. The Daleks' power supply was damaged in the attack. The Daleks died and their plans to flood the atmosphere with radiation failed. (DW: The Daleks)

With the fluid link retrieved, the Doctor left Skaro for Earth, using the Fast Return Switch. The spring in the switch was damaged, causing it to be stuck. The TARDIS was sent to the beginning of a solar system and everyone was knocked out in the trip. The TARDIS tried warning the crew about the atoms forming around them when they came to, but the Doctor assumed that this was Ian and Barbara's sabotage of the ship. Once Barbara figured out what was going on, the Doctor fixed the spring, ending the fault. (DW: "The Rescue", The Edge of Destruction)

The TARDIS, still heavily damaged and malfunctioning, landed in the Plain of Pamir in 1289. There, he and his companions met Marco Polo, who took the TARDIS and its keys on his caravan the breadth of Cathay to hand to Kublai Khan as part of a bargain for his return to Venice. Along the way, the Mongol warlord Tegana, also part of Polo's caravan, tried to take the TARDIS for Nogai as part of his plan to assassinate Kublai. In the chaos of Tegana and Polo's duel in Peking, the Doctor and his companions escaped in his repaired TARDIS. (DW: Marco Polo) Over the next few months, the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan had adventures that took them to different planets, (DW: The Keys of Marinus, The Sensorites) and to different periods in Earth's history. (DW: The Aztecs, The Reign of Terror) The Doctor and his companions also travelled into Earth's future; in London during the time of the 22nd century Dalek invasion, Susan met David Campbell, a young resistance fighter against the Daleks. Realising she would be better off not facing the dangers of travel, and recognising she was no longer a child, the Doctor reluctantly left her behind. (DW: The Dalek Invasion of Earth) Although he later reunited with her briefly for an adventure on Gallifrey, (DW: The Five Doctors) he continued to regret this decision for centuries to come (IDW: The Forgotten) and even slept through a materialisation because of his sorrow. (DW: The Rescue)

Soon after leaving Susan, the Doctor gained a new companion in Vicki Pallister, who immediately became a surrogate for Susan. (DW: The Rescue) The Doctor and his companions continued to explore alien worlds and Earth's past. On one occasion they landed on Xeros, only to find their future selves exhibits in display cases. They then began trying to avoid this version of the future. The Doctor was taken by the Moroks to be prepared for the exhibit but he was rescued by Ian. They were recaptured but the Xerons rebelled and freed them. Thus they prevented their own future. (DW: The Space Museum)

Following another encounter with the Daleks, the Doctor successfully programmed a Dalek time machine to take Ian and Barbara back home. Around the same time he gained another new companion in Steven Taylor. (DW: The Chase)

While his relationship with Vicki remained warm, the Doctor's relationship with Steven tended to be stressed at times. After Vicki's departure, a young woman from Troy named Katarina joined the Doctor and Steven. (DW: The Myth Makers)

Soon after, the Doctor entered into an epic struggle against the Daleks that saw the deaths of two of his companions, Katarina and Space Agent Sara Kingdom. (DW: The Daleks' Master Plan) This added additional strain to his relationship with Steven, who briefly left the TARDIS following a subsequent bloody adventure. (DW: The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve) Steven almost immediately returned however, and with new companion Dodo Chaplet, the Doctor continued their travels. Together they encountered humans from the far future, (DW: The Ark) the Celestial Toymaker, (DW: The Celestial Toymaker) and famous characters from the American Wild West. (DW: The Gunfighters)

It was after this struggle with the Toymaker that the Doctor felt he was nearing the end of his first life, and became increasingly unwell. (MA: The Man in the Velvet Mask)

Steven eventually left the Doctor, albeit on better terms. (DW: The Savages) Soon after, the Doctor was forced to leave an injured Dodo on modern-day Earth, where he picked up the final companions of his first incarnation, Polly Wright and Ben Jackson. (DW: The War Machines) His travels eventually led him to Earth in the late 20th century and his first encounter with the Cybermen. (DW: The Tenth Planet)

Death
With his ancient body wearing thin, the increasingly frail Doctor matched wits with the Cybermen for the first time, an encounter which physically drained him. Hurrying back to the TARDIS he collapsed, having lost the energy needed to keep such an old body going. Before the astonished eyes of his companions, the Doctor regenerated for the first time, transforming into a new man. (DW: The Tenth Planet)

Undated Adventures

 * The Doctor camped out on Mars, but had to leave the camp material there when the TARDIS had a malfunction and almost left without him. (ST: Please Shut the Gate)
 * The First Doctor visited Mondas long before his death there. (PDA: Byzantium!)
 * The First Doctor attended the funeral of Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. (ST: The Gift)

Alternate timeline
In an alternate timeline created by the Black Guardian as revenge on the Doctor, the First Doctor never left Gallifrey, and eventually became Lord President. However, it also left Earth to be invaded by countless aliens, who were then in war over the planet. The actual Seventh Doctor, Benny, and Ace, with instructions from the White Guardian, were able to retrieve the Key to Time to set the timeline straight. (DWM: Time & Time Again)

Personality
The Doctor was adamant that he and Susan would one day return to Gallifrey. He saw himself as an exile, "without friends or protection", as he put it.

When he first met Ian and Barbara, he abducted them and set the TARDIS console to shock Ian into unconsciousness. He justified this by claiming he was keeping himself and Susan safe. He regarded humans as primitives and, arguably, even contemplated killing the mortally wounded Za so that he would not slow down the Doctor's party. When Ian caught him apparently ready to bludgeon the man with a rock, the Doctor explained he merely wanted Za to draw him a map. However, this explanation seemed somewhat improvised. Despite Ian's apparent hostility towards him, the Doctor was quick to bargain for his safety. (DW: An Unearthly Child)

The Doctor deliberately removed the TARDIS' fluid link so that he would have an excuse to explore the Dalek City on Skaro. He went so far as to offer the Daleks the secrets of the TARDIS in return for Susan's safety and took it upon himself to ensure the Thals were not threatened with extinction. (DW: The Daleks)

After the TARDIS became faulty, the Doctor took Ian and Barbara to be saboteurs and accused them as such. They refuted his claim but he insisted they were trying to blackmail him into returning them home. Barbara confronted him, saying "gratitude is the last thing you'll ever have or any sort of common sense either". When proven wrong, the Doctor apologised and spent some time trying to win Barbara over. (DW: The Edge of Destruction)

The Doctor refused to bend his knee to the Kublai Khan, giving rheumatic knees as his excuse. He seriously suggested that, faced with a bandit raid, he and his companions, along with Tegana, should leave in the TARDIS. (DW: Marco Polo)

On Marinus, he belatedly only agreed to help Arbitan restore the Conscience of Marinus after he was blackmailed. Despite earlier claims that he never gave advice, the Doctor took Sabetha aside and told her only man could preserve justice, and therefore could never be ruled by machines. (DW: The Keys of Marinus)

The Doctor came to the defence of established history when Barbara attempted to alter the nature of the Aztec civilisation. Nevertheless, he was not averse to having a personal relationship with one of its respected female elders. (DW: The Aztecs)

The Doctor would, when pressed, resort to hand-to-hand combat with an effectiveness which belied his age. (DW: The Romans, The Crusade, The Chase, The Daleks' Master Plan) A professional wrestler, the Mountain Mauler of Montana, had taught him some effective moves. (PDA: Byzantium!, DW: The Romans)

At other times, however, the Doctor revealed age-related vulnerabilities. For example, he suffered from rheumatism that flared up if he was exposed to cold. (DW: The Space Museum)

The Doctor was quick to comfort Vicki when she expected him to abandon her. Despite his earlier lectures against altering history, he used first aid - including drugs - upon the injured de Tornebu. He proceeded to justify stealing clothes based on the fact they were already stolen and found his shoplifting abilities hilarious. Although he knew that it wouldn't work, the Doctor tried to convince King Richard to carry out his peace plan. (DW: The Crusade)

Together with Vicki, he admitted that he would miss Ian and Barbara after they had left. (DW: The Chase) He would get particularly snappish with those who doubted the TARDIS could actually travel through space and time. (DW: An Unearthly Child, The Time Meddler)

The Doctor was frequently sarcastic towards those around him, seemingly to elevate himself above lesser intellects. (DW: The Time Meddler, The Chase) He once stated his belief that there was a reason for everything in the universe and claimed to have "the directional instinct of a homing pigeon". (DW: The Chase)

When he met the Monk, the Doctor quickly labelled him a "time meddler" and continued to uphold his belief that history could not be changed. (DW: The Time Meddler)

The Doctor was quick to help the Rills in their fight against the Drahvins on a doomed planet, noting that bias based on appearance was unwelcome. He allowed the Drahvins to die when the planet exploded. (DW: Galaxy 4)

The Doctor did not associate himself with a specific culture. When a policeman asked if he was British, he replied:

"I am a citizen of the universe, and a gentleman to boot!"

- First Doctor

He negotiated the release of the Monk from the Daleks, despite peace not being brokered between the two Time Lords, and could not explain his motives for having done so. (DW: The Daleks' Master Plan)

In 16th century Paris, the Doctor again backed up his previous ideal (DW: The Aztecs) that it was okay to save people who were not directly contributing to historical events. (DW: The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve)

Upon witnessing the persecution of the so-called "savages", the Doctor was quick to ally himself with them against the Elders. He defied their suggestions that progress was based on exploitation, branding it murder. Despite this, the Elders recognised him as a man of infinite wisdom. (DW: The Savages)

Several of his future incarnations had a noticeably profound respect for the first incarnation, so much so that they dared not question his judgment. The Time Lords used this to their advantage when the second and third incarnations were found to be incapable of working together. (DW: The Three Doctors)

In another meeting, the Doctor again showed his position of authority over his future selves by deducing the truth about Rassilon's gift of immortality before the others and taking action without their input or objections. (DW: The Five Doctors)

Habits and quirks
The First Doctor punctuated his speech with, "Hmmmm...?", exasperated sighs and snorts and the occasional mangled phrase or word. He would address young women as "child" and younger men as "my boy", or in Ian's case by his name. However, he found it difficult, or pretended to find it difficult, to remember Ian's surname. He later used Ian's surname frequently when addressing him. (DW: The Keys of Marinus) The TARDIS required expert piloting and guidance by the Doctor. Its systems often broke down, including the navigational systems. This, combined with the fact the TARDIS was designed for six pilots, (DW: Journey's End) would explain the difficulty the Doctor encountered in returning Ian and Barbara to their lives in 1963 London.

The Doctor never even hinted at the nature of his own origins, other than to state that he and the Monk originated on the same world and to hint that Susan and himself were exiles from the same place and time. (DW: An Unearthly Child)

Mysteries and discrepancies

 * One account explains that the Doctor rescued Larna, a young Time Lady from the Doctor's own time, whom he later called Susan. (RT: Birth of a Renegade) However, another account states that the Doctor had gone back in time to the Dark Times of Gallifrey to pick up both the Other's granddaughter and the Hand of Omega from that time period. (NA: Lungbarrow) The majority of accounts, however, support the notion that the Doctor had once been a father and that Susan was his actual biological granddaughter.
 * This incarnation of the Doctor seemed unfamiliar with the Daleks, and demonstrated eagerness to explore their homeworld Skaro. (DW: The Daleks) However, he revealed in his seventh incarnation that he had already, by this time, hidden away the Hand of Omega on 1963 Earth, as part of an ongoing plan to defeat them. (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks) In addition, the Eleventh Doctor revealed that as a child, he was fond of a children's story called The Emperor Dalek's New Clothes among others. (DW: Night Terrors)
 * His hiding the Hand of Omega was never said to be directly related to the Daleks, it was only said that the seventh incarnation knew that was what the Daleks were after, but not that he had known as such to begin with.


 * For some reason, the First Doctor attended the funeral of Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, even though his encounter with him was erased from his memory. (ST: The Gift, DW: The Five Doctors)

Other matters

 * This Doctor was one of only two incarnations ever known to smoke, (DW: An Unearthly Child) the other being the Eighth Doctor (although this only took place when the Doctor's mind and personality were briefly 'mixed up' with traits from his companion Fitz Kreiner). (EDA: Halflife)
 * When the Doctor, Vicki Pallister, Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton were being chased by the Daleks through time, he claimed to have built the TARDIS. (DW: The Chase) This statement stands in stark contrast with later incarnations and Time Lord authorities who claimed that the TARDIS was "borrowed" and "stolen" respectively, (EDA: The Gallifrey Chronicles, DW: Planet of the Dead) an account the TARDIS itself agrees with, except with respect to who stole whom. (DW: The Doctor's Wife) It has also been suggested that the TARDIS was grown, rather than built. (DW: Rise of the Cybermen, The Impossible Planet)
 * Susan had made the claim that she coined the acronym TARDIS, (DW: An Unearthly Child) leading to the possibility that the Doctor was somehow involved with the development of the TARDIS. The eighth incarnation revealed that he had made various additions to the TARDIS to replace the need for a direct symbiotic link to control the TARDIS and thus make it harder for the Time Lords to find him, suggesting that, while the Doctor did not build the TARDIS from the beginning, he made significant alterations to it after it came into his possession. (EDA: The Taking of Planet 5)
 * The computer WOTAN referred to the Doctor as "Doctor Who". Exactly why the computer would give the Doctor this name when he was never referred to as such is unknown. (DW: The War Machines)
 * See separate article.


 * The matter of this incarnation's age and how long this incarnation lived was unclear, although Susan once called him an adolescent by Time Lord standards; (CC: Here There Be Monsters) shortly after his regeneration, his next incarnation stated that he was around 450 years old (DW: The Tomb of the Cybermen)
 * See separate article.


 * At one point the Doctor had his photograph taken and was issued a library card, which was mistaken for psychic paper by his eleventh incarnation. (DW: The Vampires of Venice)
 * Technically, this Doctor's first encounter with the Cybermen took place on the Death Zone on Gallifrey, where he encountered a small group of them in the tower. (DW: The Five Doctors)
 * One account states that the Doctor was loomed into the House of Lungbarrow, and that he was a genetic reincarnation of the Other. (NA: Lungbarrow)

Appearance
In his later life, the Doctor had shoulder length, greyish-white hair. He had piercing brown eyes. The Doctor affected a slightly eccentric Edwardian dress sense, wearing a frock coat and tartan trousers. Occasionally he wore an Astrakhan (DW: An Unearthly Child, The Tenth Planet) or a Panama hat. (DW: The Chase, The Daleks' Master Plan) He sometimes wore a cape. (DW: Planet of Giants, The War Machines). He also used a smoking pipe on at least one occasion. (DW: An Unearthly Child)

Like his fifth incarnation, he sometimes used half-moon reading glasses, (DW: The Time Meddler, The Daleks' Master Plan, The War Machines) although a later incarnation would call into question whether he actually needed them. (DW: Time Crash) He occasionally employed a walking stick (DW: The Five Doctors) made of ebony (ST: Nothing at the End of the Lane) which sometimes made an effective weapon. (DW: The Rescue, The Chase) He wore a blue signet ring which had special, if ill-defined, powers. (DW: The Web Planet, The Daleks' Master Plan, The Power of the Daleks) On one occasion, the ring appeared to both facilitate hypnotism and protect the Doctor from electrical shock. (DW: The War Machines) On one occasion, he did not wear his ring, and wore fingerless gloves on his hands. (DW: The Five Doctors)

When adventuring in Earth's past, this incarnation of the Doctor, in contrast with most that followed, sometimes made significant changes to his wardrobe in an attempt to blend in with the local population. (DW: The Romans, The Reign of Terror, The Crusade) He usually made at least a token alteration to his "standard" outfit wherever he went in Earth's past, as when he wore a cowboy hat in 19th century Arizona. (DW: The Gunfighters) More rarely, he would gladly accept the vestments of extraterrestrial societies, as when he proudly wore the ceremonial garb of the Elders. (DW: The Savages)

Behind the scenes

 * According to The Brilliant Book 2011, a non-narrative based book, the First Doctor met Winston Churchill in 1911, stepping out of the TARDIS to tell Churchill it was an honour to meet him. When Churchill informed the Doctor they had met before, the Doctor chuckled and said, "That's the trouble with time travel".

Casting
Actors considered for the role of "Doctor Who", as he was then known, included Geoffrey Bayldon, Cyril Cusack, Hugh David and Alan Webb. Leslie French was also considered for the role. William Hartnell had, up until that point, mainly played small-time thugs and other unsympathetic parts in crime films and humourless military men in comedies. Producer Verity Lambert was inspired to ask him to accept the role after seeing him in his well-known role in This Sporting Life, which convinced her that he could play a tough, yet shaded and sympathetic character.

When the time came for the First Doctor to appear in the 1983 Children in Need anniversary special DW: The Five Doctors, actor Richard Hurndall was hired to play the role, standing in for William Hartnell, who had died in the mid-1970s. A clip of Hartnell as the Doctor from The Dalek Invasion of Earth preceded the opening titles, and Hartnell's name appeared amongst those of his fellow Doctors in the end credits.