It all began with ‘An Unearthly Child‘. On 23 November 1963 actor William Hartnell starred as a grumpy old man, with a telephone box and a grand daughter who is super smart. In her school, to solve a math equation, she wanted to invent few more new dimensions. The teachers were worried about her so one night they followed her in to an abandoned warehouse, and they found her and her grumpy grandfather living in a blue telephone box which is bigger on the inside than on the outside. From there began Susan, Barbara and Ian‘s journey. Their first adventure saw them going to 10o,000 BC.

William Hartnell as the First Doctor infront of the TARDIS

The first Doctor’s second adventure introduced us to the Dalek’s who would later turn out to be one of the Doctor’s archenemies. The stories alternated between Historical and Scientific. And with the introduction of Daleks, it became a phenomenon. The first season sees the Doctor and his Companions go to Skaro, meet Marco Polo, the Aztecs and many others. The second seasons sees the second story ar of the Dalek- “The Dalek’s Invasion of Earth” where Susan departs from the show, and in the very next episode ‘The Rescue’ we see the introduction of Vicki who replaces Susan. At first the Doctor doesn’t trust his ‘forced companions’ Ian and Barbra, but as the show progressed, he begins to trust them and has fun during their adventures. At the conclusion of a chase through time, Ian and Barbara used a Dalek time machine to go home, in the episode ‘The Chase’. Their place in the TARDIS was taken by a space pilot named Steven Taylor.

Daleks

In Season 3 , he meets someone from his race i.e Time Lords in the Meddling Monk, and he has an adventure with him in Galaxy 4. Vicki also departs from the TARDIS during the episode ‘The Myth Makers’. He is then joined by Katarina, in the same episode. But in the episode ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’ Katarina is killed. It was the first death of a companion in Doctor Who. The Doctor and Steven had their arguments during the episode ‘The Massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Eve ‘ where he is upset abou the deaths especially of Anne Chaplet. He rejoins the Doctor with his new companion Dodo Chaplet, descendant of Anne.  Dodo brought a cold virus to the far future, which nearly annihilated the humans and Monoids travelling on The Ark. In the same season, The Doctor meets one his most deadly foes The Celestial Toymaker. During that episode, he is made invisible while Steven and Dodo play the toymaker’s deadly games.  Towards the end, Steven and Dodo leave the Doctor. Steven remains as a moderator in the episode ‘The Savages’ and Dodo decides to remain on earth in 1966.

Cybermen

He is the joined by  Polly and Ben Jackson who were the first to witness a regeneration of a Time Lord. Though they hadn’t named it that yet. In the episode The Tenth Planet, The Doctor fought against the Cybermen on the antarctic snowcap station on the Tenth Planet called Mondas.  Due to exhaustion from fighting, he collapses in the TARDIS and his cells renew themselves and give him a new body and a new face. This is the first appearance of Patrick Troughton  as the Second Doctor.

The first four season of this wondrous series had an old grumpy man who travels through time and this man has led to this series being one of the longest running Science Fiction Series in the world. Ten men after him have played the Doctor, all inspired by him. This series was initially going to be an educational show, which had alternating episodes about science and history. But eventually, the Science element of the shows had more popularity than the history ones.

William Hartnell reprised his role as the doctor in The Three Doctors, the 10th anniversary special. which was also the last appearance of this great man. Towards the end of his run, his old age made him forget his lines and in The Three Doctors,  he required cue cards to remember his lines. He also got tongue tied while saying his lines due to his  arteriosclerosis. Patrick Troughton was suggested by William to play the second doctor. He died on April 23 1975 at the age of 67.

In the end we all know that  William Hartnell is the first ever doctor who set the standards for the other to come. Though he wasn’t the best, he was the original. So I leave you with the REAL last words of The First Doctor. Due to the less time for production, they had to scrap the last lines of the doctor. What he said as his last lines were:  “Ah! Yes. Thank you. That’s good, keep warm.” But, his original last lines were supposed to be  :

“No… no, I simply will not give in!”