First Doctor

The First Doctor was the first incarnation of the Time Lord known as the Doctor. Most accounts of him were drawn from a period of time close to the end of this incarnation's life.

Youth

 * Little is known for certain about the Doctor's early life. What accounts of this period exist are incomplete. Some other accounts do exist which appear to be contradictory to the little which is known. No attempt to resolve the conflicts is made here.

The Doctor was born and lived his early life on Gallifrey, home planet of the Time Lords. He lived in a house on the side of a mountain. (DW: The Time Monster) Once, to Sarah Jane Smith, the Doctor said his birth had occurred near Karn, a planet which had a history intertwined with that of the Time Lords. (DW: The Brain of Morbius) On another occasion, he further said he was born "at the sign of crossed computers", which is the name given to the maternity service on Gallifrey. (DW: The Creature from the Pit) Later, the Doctor indicated to Grace Holloway that he knew and had a relationship with his father (DW: Doctor Who). One other account states that the Doctor grew in the House of Lungbarrow along with Cousins, other Gallifreyans also produced by Looms. (NA: Lungbarrow) This account further states that he was Loomed into the House of Lungbarrow, possibly as a genetic reincarnation of sorts of the Other, one of the ancient and powerful Gallifreyans who had, with Rassilon and Omega, founded the Time Lords. One instance says that Time Lords of this era were Loomed as fully formed adults (NA: Lungbarrow), though another account has shown Time Lords as children. (DW: The Sound of Drums)
 * The Other may have been Loomed previously, before the Doctor, and taken a bride who, much later and after her time married to him, became known as Patience. (MA: Cold Fusion)
 * The statement of the Doctor that he was half-human may have been a ruse to fool The Master into using the chameleon arch (IDW: The Forgotten) Alternative speculation on this point also exists.

The Doctor related to Martha Jones and Jack Harkness that he, at the age of eight, like the Master, had stared into the Untempered Schism as part of a Time Lord initiation rite. He reported that he reacted by running away. He believed that staring into this "rip" in the fabric of reality is what drove the Master insane. It was later discovered that this was, in fact, true, due to the manipulations of Rassilon. (DW: The Sound of Drums, The End of Time)

Another account claimed that both he and the Master had been mercilessly and viciously bullied as children. The youthful Doctor found himself forced to kill the bully in order to save his friend's life. He was later confronted by Death, who insisted he become her disciple. The Doctor refused and instead suggested Death make the Master her champion instead, to which she agreed. The Doctor said that, because of this, he always felt partly responsible for the carnage the Master would later cause. (BFA: Master)
 * In a later incarnation, the Doctor would take on the role of Time's Champion.

Academic career
As his companion, Romana would later note, the Doctor did not have an impressive career at school. (DW: The Ribos Operation) He attended the Time Lord Academy, and was a member of the Prydonian Chapter (DW: The Deadly Assassin) When he was 90 he visited the Medusa Cascade. The Doctor described himself as "just a kid" then. (DW: The Stolen Earth)

One account states that 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, among others. (PDA: Divided Loyalties) The Doctor spent "centuries" at the Academy. (DWM: Mortal Beloved)

Family life
At various times, the Doctor indicated that he had at one point had a family. (DW: The Tomb of the Cybermen) Although it is never directly stated, it is assumed that this period of the Doctor's life occurred during his first incarnation while he lived on Gallifrey.

In his tenth incarnation he mentioned to his companion that he had been a father once (DW: Fear Her), one of his children being presumably the parent of Susan Foreman, and implied having had a brother at one time. (DW: Smith and Jones) A woman from Gallifrey who appeared and aided the Doctor and Wilfred Mott in defeating Rassilon's plans to end Time itself, had an unknown but strong connection with the Doctor. When Donna asked his tenth incarnation about Jenny, he confirmed that he had been a father before, but that part of him was long gone. (DW: The Doctor's Daughter)

Exile
At some point the Doctor broke the Time Lords' law on non-interference in the time line and/or culture of an alien race. Rather than face his punishment, he stole an outdated and possibly run-down Type 40 TARDIS and fled Gallifrey, taking with him the Hand of Omega and his granddaughter, Susan. (NA: Lungbarrow)

After several adventures through time in which he met Henry VIII and visited the period of the French revolution, among other things, the Doctor eventually settled in 20th century London. For five months, Susan and the Doctor lived in 1963 London to enable Susan to complete her education and so that the Doctor could build missing components for the TARDIS out of 20th century earth equivalents. (DW: An Unearthly Child) During this time he was also finding a hiding place for the Hand of Omega. (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks)

By this time, a Dalek had already 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
The Doctor and Susan stayed in 1963 London. Whilst Susan attended Coal Hill School, they lived at 76 Totter's Lane. Two of Susan's teachers, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, followed her home and confronted the Doctor. After they entered the TARDIS, the Doctor kidnapped them, so that they wouldn't tell anyone about him and Susan. Together, they all arrived in 100,000 BC. Susan began to take the teachers' side over the Doctor's, irritating him. The TARDIS experienced a fault at this point in both its chameleon circuit and it's ability to indicate their space/time coordinates. As the Doctor set about determining when and where they were, he lit a pipe and was suddenly knocked unconscious. Kidnapped by a tribesman named Kal, the Doctor was brought to the Tribe of Gum. Susan, Ian and Barbara managed to save the Doctor, but not before Za caught them and placed them all in the Cave of Skulls. The Doctor thanked Old Mother when she freed them, but became quite miserable whilst trekking through the Forest of Fear. When Za was wounded by a Tiger, the Doctor initially refused to help him, and may have even considered killing him so that the rest of the travellers wouldn't slow their escape trying to help Za. They were all recaptured and placed back in the Cave. He tricked Kal into revealing that Kal had killed the Old Mother. The Doctor helped Ian with an escape plan to get back to the TARDIS. As they did so, Za fought and killed Kal. (DW: An Unearthly Child)

Further adventures
The Doctor soon realised Ian and Barbara bore him no threat, but being unable to accurately pilot the TARDIS, he was unable to immediately return them to their original place and time. When the TARDIS landed on Skaro, he sabotaged it in order to study the planet more closely, a decision he later regretted. This led him to his first contact with the race called the Daleks. (DW: The Daleks)

After escaping Skaro, and over the next few months, the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan experienced a number of adventures that took them to different planets (DW: The Keys of Marinus, The Sensorites), and to different periods in Earth's history. (DW: Marco Polo, 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. Realizing she would be better off not facing the dangers of travel, and recognizing 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 would continue to regret this decision for centuries to come. (IDW: The Forgotten)

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. Following another encounter with the Daleks, the Doctor successfully programmed a Dalek Time Machine back to Ian and Barbara's home era, and they took their leave, 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 ancient Earth 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, and other factors, added additional strain to his relationship with Steven, who angrily left the TARDIS briefly following a subsequent bloody adventure. (DW: The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve) Steven almost immediately relented however, and with new companion Dodo Chaplet, the Doctor and his companions continued their travels, encountering Humans from the far future (DW: The Ark), the Celestial Toymaker (DW: The Celestial Toymaker) and even famous characters from the American Wild West. (DW: The Gunfighters)

Steven eventually left the Doctor, albeit on better terms (DW: The Savages) and soon after the Doctor was forced to leave an injured Dodo on modern-day Earth, where he picked up what would be 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, but not all was well with the Doctor. (DW: The Tenth Planet)

Regeneration
The energy drain from Mondas had an adverse effect on the Doctor's health, weakening his life-force to a point in which he had no-other option than to regenerate. He managed to return to the TARDIS in time to initiate the process for the first time, transforming him into a younger self, but in a bizarre twist his clothes also changed as-well when his excess regenerative energies could not be contained.


 * For a list of First Doctor stories in the order in which he experienced them, see First Doctor - Timeline.

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 also sometimes wore a cape. (DW: Planet of Giants, The War Machines). He was also seen smoking from a pipe at least once. (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 also occasionally employed a walking stick (DW: The Five Doctors) which sometimes made an effective weapon. (DW: The Chase) He also 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) However, 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)

Personality
A mysterious character, the Doctor progressed from selfish anti-hero to a more noble figure, defending truth and the innocent. He was by turns casually disdainful yet formally gracious. He was easily exhausted while walking, yet almost gleeful during a physical confrontation and was seemingly wise yet prone to mistakes borne of arrogance and rash judgment.

During this phase in his life, the Doctor was irascible, a brilliant but often short-tempered scientist. He refused to bend his knee to the Kublai Khan, giving rheumatic knees as the reason. (DW: Marco Polo). He would get particularly snappish with those who doubted the TARDIS could actually travel through space and time. He had no problem hitting a Viking when his own life was threatened. (DW: An Unearthly Child, DW: The Time Meddler)

At first he had a particularly selfish and duplicitous attitude. Having contempt for mere Humans, he regarded them as primitives. He abducted Barbara and Ian against their will and set the TARDIS console to shock Ian into unconsciousness. Arguably, he even contemplated killing the mortally wounded Za so that he would not slow down the Doctor's party. (DW: An Unearthly Child) The Doctor also deliberately removed the TARDIS' fluid link so that he would have an excuse to explore the Dalek City on Skaro. (DW: The Daleks)

As time went on, however, he displayed great wisdom and a kind heart. Perhaps due to his age, he seemed more frail than his later incarnations. He also appeared somewhat absent-minded, but this may have been exaggerated to make his enemies underestimate him. The Doctor would, when pressed, resort to fisticuffs with an effectiveness which belied his age. (DW: The Romans, The Crusade, DW: The Chase) He claimed that a professional wrestler, the Mountain Mauler of Montana, had taught him some effective moves. (DW: The Romans)

The Doctor comforted Vicki when she began to consider herself a problem. When she told him her fears that he would leave her, he told her she knew him better than that. (DW: The Crusade)

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)

Unlike his successors, he was often as reliant upon his companions as they were upon him, many times it was Ian or Steven who saved the day. Nonetheless, the first incarnation possessed an aura of power and intelligence which was impossible to ignore.

He often returned to Earth at various times in its history, apparently motivated by historical curiosity rather than a desire to preserve it against alien invaders. On his voyages to other planets, he was again motivated as much by curiosity as by a desire to help them.

It is notable that all 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. Even the first incarnation's presence on the TARDIS' monitor gave off enough authoritative aura to convince the second and third to work in harmony. (DW: The Three Doctors)

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 to 1963 London in order to return Ian and Barbara to their lives. The Doctor consulted a small handbook. 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)

Family and relationship to Susan
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 is his actual biological granddaughter.

The Daleks
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 a later 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)


 * 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 is what the Daleks were after, but not that he had known as such to begin with.

Other matters
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)
 * This is the only incarnation ever known to smoke, specifically a pipe. (DW: An Unearthly Child)
 * 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) It has also been suggested that the TARDIS was grown, rather than built. (DW: Rise of the Cybermen, The Impossible Planet)
 * Since TARDIS coral grows, it is possible that the Doctor grew the TARDIS, built the components to control it and later stole it from the Time Lords.


 * The computer WOTAN referred to the Doctor as "Doctor Who". Exactly why the computer would give the Doctor this name when he is 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)
 * See separate article.


 * At one point the Doctor has his photograph taken and is issued a library card, which is destined to be 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)

Key life events

 * Exiled, or escapes, from Gallifrey with his granddaughter, Susan, and a TARDIS. (DW: An Unearthly Child)
 * Meets for the first time future companion and best friend General Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, although for Lethbridge-Stewart the encounter takes place long after his first adventure with the Doctor. (ST: The Gift)
 * Arrives on Earth in 1963 and sets up a home in London, hiding the TARDIS in a scrapyard. (DW: An Unearthly Child) During this time, the Doctor hides the Hand of Omega. (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks)
 * Kidnaps Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright; taking them from Earth 1963. (DW: An Unearthly Child)
 * Encounters the Daleks on Skaro. (DW: The Daleks)
 * Begins to accept the idea of travelling with non-Gallifreyans. (DW: The Edge of Destruction, et al)
 * Leaves Susan to live out her life on Earth with David Campbell. (DW: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
 * Gains a new travelling companion; Vicki. (DW: The Rescue)
 * Returns Ian and Barbara to their homeworld and era, having long made peace with them for kidnapping them. Immediately gains a new companion in Steven Taylor. (DW: The Chase)
 * Encounters the Mechanoids and is taken prisoner by them but escapes. (DW: The Chase)
 * Meets another Time Lord, for the first time away from Gallifrey. (DW: The Time Meddler)
 * Through Time Lord intervention, encounters his second and third incarnations. (DW: The Three Doctors)
 * Vicki leaves to make her place in Human history. Katarina, believing the Doctor to be a god, joins him in his travels. (DW: The Myth Makers)
 * During a single tragic adventure, suffers the death of two companions, Katarina and Sara Kingdom and the death of friend Bret Vyon. (DW: The Daleks' Master Plan)
 * Relationship with Steven Taylor begins to break down, with Steven leaving the TARDIS in anger, only to soon return. Dodo Chaplet accidentally joins the TARDIS crew. (DW: The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve)
 * Steven Taylor leaves the TARDIS, this time for good, in order to help rebuild a civilization. (DW: The Savages)
 * Dodo Chaplet is forced to stay on Earth due to injury. The Doctor gains two new companions, Polly and Ben Jackson. (DW: The War Machines)
 * Through more Time Lord manipulation, meets his fifth incarnation and reunites with his second and third incarnations. (DW: The Five Doctors)
 * Encounters the Cybermen for the first time, an encounter that physically drains the increasingly frail Doctor. (DW: The Tenth Planet)
 * Collapses in the TARDIS and goes through a &quot;renewal&quot; regenerating into his second incarnation. (DW: The Tenth Planet)

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 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.