William Hartnell is the Doctor.
Whilst he may not have been the longest running, and he certainly isn’t the
most popular in most polls held, he originated the role, bringing his own
irascibility and grumpiness, but also his lovability and charm. His wit and
sardonic humour radiate from him endlessly, and even in the direst of
situations, his “hmm”s and tuts warm my heart.
Of course, he is renowned for his ‘Billy fluffs’ –invariably at least
once an episode, Hartnell can stumble on a line. These are often cited by some
as a reason for disliking his portrayal. That said, for a man of his age and in
his condition, we can only sit and sigh in awe at the durability of him.
Rehearsing almost every week of the year, on a dreadfully tight budget and
schedule, Hartnell and his crew managed admirably. Considering his disease, he
actually fared surprisingly well – there are bit-part players who fluff as
often, despite only having the script for two-four weeks. In the 1960s, as we
know, only one take was often allowed – due to time constraints, the show was
filmed ‘as live’, and retakes were only allowed for the most catastrophic of
reasons. As such, he endured being dropped on camera cranes, being hit in the
face, and any number of terrible things – yet throughout everything, he managed
to hide most of this, behind his genius characterisation of the Doctor as a
doddery old man.
We must remember, though, that he is the First. He is the archetype of
the character, the originator of many of the character’s attributes which we
still see today. Without Hartnell (and the Daleks, admittedly) the series may
never have run for three years, let alone 49. He took the essence of a
character created by writers and made it his own. He actively changed scripts
if he thought them inappropriate for the children watching.
What Hartnell does is encapsulate all that later Doctor’s embody in one
go – he is loveable and miserable, grouchy and snappy, funny and clownish,
abrupt and deceitful, all at once. His stories helped in that each script
allowed him to bring a new trait to the fore – from the antihero liar of The Daleks to the lovable pragmatist and
historical hero of The Aztecs, from
moral peace-keeper in The Sensorites
to the heroic old man who battles adversity in the face of illness in The Tenth Planet, he managed to create
the template which is still being used to this very day. Many unfairly ignore
Hartnell, and claim that it was Patrick Troughton who created the role as we
now know it, and whilst Troughton is far and away my favourite Doctor, he
simply took Hartnell’s lead.
The joker of The Romans and The Myth Makers is the ball that
Troughton, Tom Baker and early Sylvester McCoy picked up and ran with. The
stoic pragmatist and heroic action man of The
Dalek Invasion of Earth and The Tenth
Planet is the template upon which Jon Pertwee, Peter Davison, David Tennant
and Matt Smith modelled themselves on. The unapproachable and aggressive Doctor
of An Unearthly Child and The Daleks seems to be the template for
Colin Baker’s interpretation – admittedly one which should have gone full
circle to encapsulate all of his traits rather than just those irascible ones.
The darker and more dangerous characteristics of Hartnell’s Doctor are the
template upon which later McCoy, Christopher Eccleston and later Smith will
utilise.
Of course, the series itself had no consistency as such to speak of, so
it is unsurprising that there seemed to be little or no consistency to the
character or the stories he was involved in. And that is also the crux of what
makes Hartnell so great – put him in any era, on any planet and against any
foe, and he thrives regardless. In the face of any adversity, he steps forward,
a new trait comes out, and he faces the challenge admirably. As each new brush
came in, carving a new way with the accompanying production team, the style
changed. Whilst later Doctor’s eras are renowned for Base Under Siege style
drama, or the earth-bound UNIT tales, before settling back into a hotch-potch
method like in Hartnell’s time, the earliest incarnation thrives on the unknowability
of what is around every bend– from historicals to sci-fi, Earth-under-threat to
stories of warring factions on desolate planets, there is rarely anything
similar. From the quiet, self-contained stories like Marco Polo to the epic sprawling battles of The Daleks’ Master Plan, you could never settle down knowing what
was coming.
Some of these adventures work – indeed, most do. Some were wild
experiments which are ambitious but sadly fall short for me due to the
budgetary limitations. Whilst The Daleks’
Master Plan works wonderfully despite its epic scale, the same cannot be
said for earlier attempts at this level of ambition such as The Keys of Marinus and The Chase, where multiple sets were
demanded for short filming periods, resulting in shoddy-looking set pieces on
shoddy-looking scenery. Likewise, ambitious projects like The Web Planet suffer, although that is principally down to the
rather formulaic plot underpinning the extremely avant-garde production idea.
Again, weak costuming and set design also mean that some of these projects
suffer.
During his tenure, there was a wide variety of companions, too – again,
since there was no tried and tested formula for them, they vary hugely in
effectiveness. Whilst Ian, Barbara and Steven are particularly well-rounded,
with a variety of idiosyncratic characteristics, others, such as Susan and Dodo
sadly end up hitting wide of the mark. The characters themselves were too
unreliable, varying wildly from alien school girl to shrieking hindrance in the
case of Susan, and from idiotic and pointless white noise to engaging and
mature young woman in the case of Dodo. From story to story, these characters
were given no solid framework, and each writer took on the role as the script
demanded, whether for better or worse. Always present is the boy’s own hero,
perfectly embodied by Steven and Ian, and hinted at in Ben’s brief stint with
this incarnation. With Hartnell’s health questionable at the best of times,
this style of assistant was always needed – someone willing to roll their
sleeves up and get physical. The young counterpart to Hartnell’s Doctor should
have been perfectly embodied in Susan, a granddaughter of the same heritage
with the same character quirks. Sadly, many of the ‘alien’ ideas were lost, and
only serials like The Sensorites
allow us to fully appreciate how wonderful her character could have been. Her
replacement Vicki worked wonderfully, but in turn she was replaced by Dodo,
whose very stupidity was so poorly sketched out that she was almost unbearable.
The rarest of companions, though, is Barbara, and it is a role that we
will never see again – morally speaking, she is the Doctor’s equal, if not
better. She sets him right, and helps to maintain a sense of balance.
Jacqueline Hill’s performance in The
Aztecs is why it is still one of the greatest Doctor-lite stories, and her
ownership of her role in history, and her personal growth throughout, makes her
one of my favourite companions ever.
We also have the ‘not-quite’ companions – characters like Katarina, Sara
Kingdom and Bret Vyon who briefly travel with the Doctor – and again, it is
testimony to Hartnell’s characterisation that at least two of these were shown
to mature and grow thanks to his company. Katarina, sadly, was something of a
wasted opportunity – but given that the part was originally intended for Vicki,
that is unsurprising.
So all in all, with Hartnell we can see greatness – he is not
one-dimensional, ever, and provides gravitas and mystery to the role, despite
us finding more out about him through his character growth than we ever will
with any other incarnation. He grows from his miserly first appearance, through
his experiences with his companions, into a loveable, unknowable rogue, able as
he is to flit between personas at the drop of a hat. Speaking of hats – on with
Troughton...!
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