William Hartnel
William Hartnel was the first to play the Doctor. His version of the good Doc. was a white haired, kindly old grandfather figure--with a bad tempered streak. Actually, he started out quite bad tempered and unreasonable. One might almost say "unhuman". (Sorry, couldn't resist.) He travled alone with his grandaughter at first, but by the end of the first thrity minute episode he'd managed to kidnap two school teachers and shanghi them into his travels. Over the next several years, he had a steady succesion of companions and traveled everywhere from Rome under the reign of Emporer Nero to a future so distant even the Earth itself no longer exsisted. His bad temper eventually evened out and he became a calm, reasonable rational human being....only, without being human....
When William Hartnel became to sick to continue his portrayal of the Doctor, the writers came up with a unique solution to the problem of replacing him. Instead of trying to find a man that resembled him they decided, since it had already been established in the show that he was an alien, to have him "regenerate", or, completely replace his mind and body. This decision was what made it possible for Doctor Who to run for thrity years. Unfortuantly, the episode containing the historic first regeneration of the Doctor has been lost, as have many of William Hartnel's episodes. But the actual moment of regeneration still exists on film. He regenerates because his body is, quote, worn out.
Interesting Fact: William Heartnel was the only person to play the Doctor that actually liked Jelly Babies, and then only the green ones.
Click here for a summery
of William Hartnell's episodes. Even the lost ones!
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Patric Troughton
Patric Troughton played the second Doctor. His character was completely different from Hartnel, not only in apearence but in personality. While Hartnel had been very calm and dignified, Troughton played the Doctor as---in the words of Hartnel---a "clown". His clothes were wild (an oversized jacket, suspenders, checked pants, ect) his personality silly and jokeing. He carried around a recorder (an instrument rather like a flute) in his pocket and would play it at the most inopertune times. This irratic behavior, however, mearly disguised his undeminished intelegence and caused his enemies to underestimate him.
It was in Troughton's last episode, "The War Games" that his home planet, Galifrey, and his people,
the Time Lords, were introduced. At the very end of Troughton's last episode, the Doctor was forced to regenerate and banished to Earth by the Time Lords.
When Troughton first took over the role of the Doctor, back in the 1960s, all of Britain seemed to hate his version of the Doctor. A ton of unhappy mail was delivered to the BBC and newspapers were talking about how horrible the tranformation was. People thought Troughton had taken all the dignity out of the show. Also, people were angry about Hartnel leaving. He had become a national icon in the few years he'd played the Doctor. But eventually, the hate mail ceased and people learned to love Troughton's irratic ways. Today he is one of the most loved actors to have played the role.
INTERESTING FACT: Durring the black and white era of the show, The TARDIS console room was actually painted light green--not white--because light green actually showed up as white better than white did on black and white film. Click here for summeries of all of Patric Troughton's episodes as the Doctor. Even the lost ones!!!
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