The Doctors:

William Hartnell, the first Doctor:

The mystery of the Doctor was introduced by William Hartnell, who played the first Doctor from September 1963 until October 1966. He was an elderly man with no name, a scientist who spoke of being an exile, who traveled through time and space in a time machine he could barely control,which was stuck in the shape of a police box. The first Doctor was irritable, forgetful, rude, andsometimes untrustworthy.

In An Unearthly Child, the Doctor willfully abducts Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterson, a pair of teachers who followed the Doctor's peculiar grandaughter Susan home from school, to stop them from going to the authorities after learing the truth about the TARDIS. In the following episode, The Daleks, he covertly sabotages the TARDIS as an excuse to explore outside the safety of the ship, putting everyone in danger. The first Doctor's character mellows in time, however: he was humanized by the people he knew and met on his travels.

William Hartnell's last story was The Tenth Planet, which was broadcast in late 1966. He left because of deteriorating health, but maintained a love for the show for the rest of his life. Hartnel was able to make a limited appearence again in the Tenth Anniversary episode, The Three Doctors, and his character appeared in The Five Doctors, played by Richard Hurndall. Of the twenty-nine stories he made, only seventeen remain in their complete form due to a misguided policy of the BBC in the early seventies. One of these losses was, unfortunately, the final episode of The Tenth Planet, although clips do still exist, including, fortunately, the first regeneration scene.

Click here for pictures and sounds from the first Doctor's era.

Patrick Troughton, the second Doctor:

The Doctor, magically transformed, was younger with a new personality which in some ways set the stage for all later Doctors. This Doctor displayed considerable knowledge and expertise gained through extensive travels, and had even gained some small measure of control over the TARDIS, although not much more than his predecessor.Troughton's Doctor also had a sense of wonder, coupled with a child-like playfulness. But while he often played the fool, capering with a disarming smile and playing his recorder, he hid the mind of a brilliant scientist.

The second Doctor's first story, which no longer exists in the BBC archives, was The Power of the Daleks. The six-part story was broadcast between November and December of 1966. His last regular story was The War Games, broadcast in 1969. It was this ten-part story that revealed the Doctor's origins, which heretofore had only been hinted at: he was one of a race called the Timelords, who had mastery over time and space, but who were content to watch without interfering. The Doctor was taken back to his at the time unnamed home world, and put on trial for the crime of stealing a TARDIS and interfering in the universe outside. His sentence was a forced regeneration, and exile on Earth in the twentieth century, with the knowledge of how to operate the TARDIS blocked from his mind.

Of the twenty stories of his era, only six remain in their complete form. One of these, Tomb of the Cybermen, was only rediscovered a few years ago in Hong Kong. The second Doctor returned for the tenth anniversary of the series in The Three Doctors, for the twentieth anniversary in The Five Doctors, and one final time in the twenty-second season story The Two Doctors, where he met the sixth Doctor.

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Jon Pertwee, the third Doctor:

The third Doctor made his debut in the January 1970 story Spearhead from Space. This was the first story to be shot in color. The third Doctor had the arrogance of Hartnell, experience equal to, or greater than Troughton, and an infusion of Jon Pertwee's own personality.

The third Doctor spent all of season seven trapped in Earth's present, where he was assisted, and sometimes hindered by UNIT, the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, lead by Brigadeer Lethbridge-Stewart. In the next two seasons, he occasionally left 20th-century Earth, but without control of the TARDIS, which was being operated remotely by a faction group of Timelords called the Celestial Intervention Agency. After the tenth anniversary story, The Three Doctors (1972-1973), his freedom was restored and he travelled again in time and space, returning frequently to twentieth-century Earth to help the Brigadeer.

The Master, a renegade Timelord first played by Roger Delgado, was introduced in the Pertwee era, and became one of the most popular villains, appearing in different regenerations in stories up to and including Survival, the last televised story of the original series, and the 1996 Fox TV movie.

While, unlike his predecessors, none of the third Doctor's twenty-three stories were completely destroyed by the BBC, a few exist only in black & white form. Jon Pertwee reprised his role as the third Doctor in the twentieth anniversary episode, The Five Doctors.

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Tom Baker, the fourth Doctor:

Tom Baker enhanced the alien nature of the Doctor, with the Doctor becoming more aloof, and with less human motives and behavior. With his strange,staring eyes, toothy smile, and incredibly long scarf, he often had the appearence of insanity in human terms. After regenerating, the fourth Doctor eagerly returned to his "cosmic wanderer" role, cutting off his ties to UNIT and twentieth-century Earth very early on in his seven seasons. Four of his companions (Romana (in two regenerations), Adric and Nyssa) were aliens, and another was a robot dog named K-9.

He still remains the best known Doctor worldwide, and is generally considered the most popular of the Doctors so far.

His first of forty complete stories was Robot, broadcast between 1974 and '75, and his last was Logopolis, broadcast in 1981.

While none of the fourth or any subsequent Doctors' stories have ever been partially or fully destroyed, one Tom Baker story was never completed due to BBC strikes. This story was Shada, written by Douglas Adams, which would have been completed and broadcast in 1980 to crown the fourth Doctor's penultimate season, season seventeen.

Footage from Shada ended up being used in the twentieth anniversary episode The Five Doctors, to explain the absence of the fourth Doctor, since Tom Baker reportedly felt it was too soon for him to return to the show.

A wax figure from Madam Tussaud's took his place in publicity stills.

Click here for pictures and sounds from the fourth Doctor's era

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This page was first created on Saturday, January 20, 1996.