History Characters / DoctorWhoFirstDoctor

Ironically, despite Creator/WilliamHartnell's departure giving way to [[TheNthDoctor a trope]] decidedly meant to avoid TheOtherDarrin, the First Doctor has been the subject of it ''twice'' throughout the show -- first by Richard Hurndall for [[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors "The Five Doctors"]] (as Hartnell died in 1975), and then David Bradley for [[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime "Twice Upon a Time"]] and [[Recap/DoctorWho2022CENThePowerOfTheDoctor "The Power of the Doctor"]] (as Hurndall died in 1984). Consequently, the First Doctor is the only one to be traditionally recast in the TV series (discounting Creator/SylvesterMcCoy {{Fake Shemp}}ing for Creator/ColinBaker in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS24E1TimeAndTheRani "Time and the Rani"]]), though various soundalikes appeared in Big Finish's audio dramas to play other Doctors whose original actors were either unavailable, uninterested, or dead. At 75, Bradley became the oldest actor to play the Doctor onscreen in 2017[[note]]unless you count 83 year old Tom Baker in the reconstruction of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E6Shada Shada]][[/note]], breaking the short-lived record of 73 year old Sir Creator/JohnHurt in 2013, and he upped it to 80 when he reprised the role in 2022.

* PurelyAestheticGlasses: He had both a pair of Edwardian-style glasses and a monocle that he would occasionally take out when he was trying to look extra clever. The monocle would pop up more often due to him wearing it around his neck as part of his costume in some stories -- the glasses show up more rarely but are prominent in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E1AnUnearthlyChild "An Unearthly Child"]], including during his first encounter with Ian and Barbara. In at least one scene ([[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E3TheRescue "The Rescue"]]), the Doctor uses both his glasses ''and'' his monocle at the same time to study a spiral-bound notebook.

* NoodleIncident: Whatever drove him to leave Gallifrey in a stolen TARDIS and take Susan with him. An old classmate Runcible says he was "expelled" due to a "scandal". When the Time Lords catch up to him in his second incarnation, they're more mad he's been breaking their non-interference law than anything else. [[note]] Different stories, if taken all together, imply some wonderfully cryptic things. The Creator/BigFinish {{Audioplay/Gallifrey}} Series suggests that he was forced to flee after the President issued an assassination order ('burn edict') against him. Fortunately for him, the would-be assassin was Braxiatel, who is heavily implied (as in, he obviously is, but they've never outright ''said'' it) to be the Doctor's big brother; Brax warns the Doctor so he can flee, and then assassinates the president instead! In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent "Hell Bent"]] the Doctor says he once stole the (same?) President's daughter - he certainly ran away from Gallifrey with his ''grand''daughter, about whose parents we know absolutely nothing. And of course, when he left he took [[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E1RemembranceOfTheDaleks the ancient Gallifreyan superweapon that made them the Time Lords]] with him. And we still don't actually know ''why''.[[/note]]

* ArchEnemy:
** The Daleks were his most recurrent foe, first appearing in his (and the show's) second serial and quickly becoming staples of his era, to the point where [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E4TheDaleksMasterPlan the longest ever Classic Series serial]] (discounting the season-wide "The Trial of a Time Lord", which was produced as four interconnected serials) was a "First Doctor vs. the Daleks" story. Their ruthlessness was also a key part of the Doctor's own CharacterDevelopment into a more altruistic figure.
** He's also got quite the off-screen history with the Celestial Toymaker, his most powerful individual enemy, despite his only having one appearance in the television show. Expanded media picked up on this, and the Toymaker soon become an indispensable part of the Doctor's backstory, where it was revealed that he was responsible for the infamous scandal that got the Doctor expelled from the Academy after an ill-thought out expedition to the Toymaker's realm with two of the Doctor's friends resulted in the death of one and the Toymaker possessing the body of the other, retroactively making their one on-screen battle very personal for the Doctor.

[[Characters/DoctorWhoClassicSeriesCompanions Classic Series Companions]] ([[Characters/DoctorWhoK9 K9]], [[Characters/DoctorWhoRomana Romana]]) | [[Characters/DoctorWhoRevivalSeriesCompanions Revival Series Companions]] ([[Characters/DoctorWhoRoseTyler Rose Tyler]], [[Characters/DoctorWhoJackHarkness Captain Jack Harkness]], [[Characters/DoctorWhoRiverSong River Song]], [[Characters/DoctorWhoClaraOswald Clara Oswald]]) | [[Characters/DoctorWhoOtherSupportingCast Other Supporting Cast]] ([[Characters/DoctorWhoThePaternosterGang The Paternoster Gang]]) | [[Characters/DoctorWhoUNITStaff UNIT Staff]]\\

'''1''' | [[Characters/DoctorWhoSecondDoctor 2]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoThirdDoctor 3]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoFourthDoctor 4]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoFifthDoctor 5]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoSixthDoctor 6]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoSeventhDoctor 7]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoEighthDoctor 8]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoWarDoctor War]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoNinthDoctor 9]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoTenthDoctor 10]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoEleventhDoctor 11]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoTwelfthDoctor 12]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoThirteenthDoctor 13]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoFourteenthDoctor 14]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoFifteenthDoctor 15]]\\

* HeroicComedicSociopath: On occasion, especially in more humourous stories such as "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E4TheRomans The Romans]]", and whenever he encounters the Medding Monk. Vicki seems to bring out the worst in him.

** He's also got quite the off-screen history with the Celestial Toymaker, his most powerful individual enemy, despite his only having one appearance in the television show. Expanded media picked up on this, and the Toymaker soon become an indispensable part of the Doctor's backstory, where it was revealed that he was responsible for the infamous scandal that got the Doctor expelled from the Academy after an ill-thought out expedition to the Toymaker's realm with two of the Doctor's friends resulted in the death of one and the Toymaker possessing the body of the other, retroactively making their one on-screen battle very personnel for the Doctor.

* ArchEnemy: The Daleks were his most recurrent foe, first appearing in his (and the show's) second serial and quickly becoming staples of his era, to the point where [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E4TheDaleksMasterPlan the longest ever Classic Series serial]] (discounting the season-wide "The Trial of a Time Lord", which was produced as four interconnected serials) was a "First Doctor vs. the Daleks" story. Their ruthlessness was also a key part of the Doctor's own CharacterDevelopment into a more altruistic figure.

'''1''' | [[Characters/DoctorWhoSecondDoctor 2]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoThirdDoctor 3]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoFourthDoctor 4]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoFifthDoctor 5]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoSixthDoctor 6]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoSeventhDoctor 7]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoEighthDoctor 8]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoWarDoctor War]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoNinthDoctor 9]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoTenthDoctor 10]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoEleventhDoctor 11]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoTwelfthDoctor 12]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoThirteenthDoctor 13]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoFourteenthDoctor 14]]\\

The first incarnation, the [[HighClassGlass monocled]], wild-eyed [[TheEndIsNigh portent of doom.]] Introduced as a [[NobleFugitive fugitive]] with an air of mystery about him, One was a [[PunyEarthlings merry misanthrope]] with [[TheTrickster a mischievous side]], who loved manipulating people and playing games with their lives. His moral compass had long since deteriorated before leaving home, which raises the question of what could have possibly happened to him there, assuming it hadn't been like that in the first place...

'''1''' | [[Characters/DoctorWhoSecondDoctor 2]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoThirdDoctor 3]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoFourthDoctor 4]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoFifthDoctor 5]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoSixthDoctor 6]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoSeventhDoctor 7]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoEighthDoctor 8]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoWarDoctor War]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoNinthDoctor 9]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoTenthDoctor 10]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoEleventhDoctor 11]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoTwelfthDoctor 12]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoThirteenthDoctor 13]]\\

* ColourBlindConfusion: The novelization to ''[[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor The Day Of The Doctor]]'' says that the first two incarnations of The Doctor could only see in monochrome and that it took him centuries to realize that he was colour blind. Presumably as a nod to the show being black and white back then.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He was an unreadable, guarded figure who was, at first, slow to trust newcomers who learnt of him. However, once his trust had been earned, he would show another side of himself as a staunch anti-authoritarian with a mischievous streak. Also, his love for his companions (especially [[NotLoveInterest Ian and Barbara]]) is staggeringly intense and meaningful, but his companions only really figure that out because the circumstances of his travel have it so that they ''can't'' leave his company.

->'''Played by:''' Creator/WilliamHartnell (1963–66, 1973); Richard Hurndall (1983); Creator/DavidBradley (2017, 2022)

The first known incarnation, the [[HighClassGlass monocled]], wild-eyed [[TheEndIsNigh portent of doom.]] Introduced as a [[NobleFugitive fugitive]] with an air of mystery about him, One was a [[PunyEarthlings merry misanthrope]] with [[TheTrickster a mischievous side]], who loved manipulating people and playing games with their lives. His moral compass had long since deteriorated before leaving home, which raises the question of what could have possibly happened to him there, assuming it hadn't been like that in the first place...

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In the first season, he's an acerbic, prickly personality who gradually grows into a lovable eccentric over the later seasons. In a frequently-cited example, in the first ''Series/DoctorWho'' story, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E1AnUnearthlyChild An Unearthly Child]]", the Doctor was about to "mercy kill" a caveman with a rock so that he couldn't slow the rest of the party down. His companion Ian Chesterton stops him, the Doctor mutters an excuse and they go on. In the next story, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E2TheDaleks The Daleks]]", in another commonly mentioned example, he deliberately sabotages the TARDIS so that they can stay on Skaro and explore. By Season 1's "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E8TheReignOfTerror The Reign of Terror]]", he starts charging around meddling with things and getting in way over his head [[HilarityEnsues with hilarious consequences]], and by Season 2 he declares himself a defender of Earth while talking down a Dalek, a big difference from his HeroicNeutral characterisation before. From that episode onwards he's an enthusiastic, benevolent, sharp-tongued CreepyGood eccentric with a distinctively sneaky and ruthless streak and a real love of getting himself into trouble, then back out of it - all of which remains constant for him and for all other Doctors.

* {{Catchphrase}}: "Hmmm?" and "Mm? What’s that, my boy?"

In 2017, Big Finish began a series of new First Doctor stories, with Bradley continuing in the role. In 2022, Stephen Noonan took up the role, with Noonan's stories taking place later in First's timeline.

--> '''Doctor:''' People keep giving me guns, and I do wish they wouldn't!

** He's heard saying that he will not change at the end of "The Doctor Falls", echoing how the [[Characters/DoctorWhoTwelfthDoctor Twelfth Doctor]] is refusing to regenerate. He initially finds the Twelfth Doctor to be an irritating man, but ultimately comes to respect him as his successor.

* HighClassGlass: All the better to [[http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9exhduHISmw/TdDI9SDB8pI/AAAAAAAABXc/ZbdKyF5m1bw/s1600/hartnell-who.jpg peer at aliens]] with. Eleven still has it.

'''Doctor''': Only "sometimes"? My dear boy, what's wrong with your memory?

* CharacterDevelopment: The first time we ever see the Doctor, he's arrogant, selfish, and prefers to take the easy (even cowardly) way out if it saves him. His evolution over the first three serials is an important point in the script as he becomes the heroic Doctor we know and love. The Twelfth Doctor says that it was when he went to Skaro for the first time that he realised what it meant to be the Doctor: "The Doctor was not the Daleks."

* AmbiguouslyHuman: In the early era of Doctor Who, he was introduced as a mysterious figure who may or may not be human, which remained that way until "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E7TheWarGames The War Games]]" in The Second Doctor's tenure, which established him as a Time Lord, a species of HumanAliens who were very definitely HumanOutsideAlienInside.
* AmnesiacHero: The revived Series 12 reveals that the Doctor has had his memory erased and that there were several incarnations before the First Doctor.

->''[[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime "Well then, here we go. The long way round."]]''

[[Characters/DoctorWhoImmortalsAndEldritchAbominations Immortals and Eldritch Abominations]] | [[Characters/DoctorWhoMasters The Master]] ([[Characters/DoctorWhoJohnSimmsMaster John Simms' Master]], [[Characters/DoctorWhoMissy Missy]], [[Characters/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverseMasters Expanded Universe Masters]])\\

->'''Voiced by:''' David Coker (1997); John Guilor (2013); Creator/DavidBradley (2020-2021); Stephen Noonan (2022)

Ironically, despite Creator/WilliamHartnell's departure giving way to [[TheNthDoctor a trope]] decidedly meant to avoid TheOtherDarrin, the First Doctor has been the subject of it ''twice'' throughout the show -- first by Richard Hurndall for [[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors "The Five Doctors"]] (as Hartnell died in 1975), and then David Bradley for [[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime "Twice Upon a Time"]] (as Hurndall died in 1984). Consequently, the First Doctor is the only one to be traditionally recast in the TV series (discounting Creator/SylvesterMcCoy {{Fake Shemp}}ing for Creator/ColinBaker in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS24E1TimeAndTheRani "Time and the Rani"]]), though various soundalikes appeared in Big Finish's audio dramas to play other Doctors whose original actors were either unavailable, uninterested, or dead. At 75, Bradley is the oldest actor to play the Doctor onscreen[[note]]unless you count 83 year old Tom Baker in the reconstruction of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E6Shada Shada]][[/note]], breaking the short-lived record of 73 year old Sir Creator/JohnHurt in 2013.

In 2018 Big Finish began a series of new First Doctor stories, with Bradley continuing in the role.

* AmbiguouslyHuman: In the early era of Doctor Who, he was introduced as a mysterious figure who may or may not be human, which remained that way until "[[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/DoctorWhoS6E7TheWarGames The War Games]]" in The Second Doctor's tenure, which established him as a Time Lord, a species of HumanAliens who were very definitely HumanOutsideAlienInside.

* ArtifactName: [[spoiler:"[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E5TheBrainOfMorbius The Brain of Morbius]]" famously proposed that the "First" Doctor was not actually the first and that at least eight incarnations preceded him. "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E10TheTimelessChildren The Timeless Children]]" wouldn't just confirm that those faces were Doctors before the "First" Doctor, there were ''even more'' incarnations before those.]]

* CharacterTics: He would often gesture with his hands close to his face. Creator/PeterPurves said that this was Hartnell's response to not being able to gesture broadly in the same way as you could on stage, because TV was "small" (i.e., it didn't capture all the action across the whole set all the time). He would also flutter his hands when trying to decide something. He also tended to [[http://images.fanpop.com/images/image_uploads/The-first-doctor-timelords-270820_395_597.jpg clutch]] at his [[http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20101211235108/tardis/images/f/f1/William_hartnell_farewell.jpg jacket lapels.]] He often ends sentences with a distinctive 'hmm?' and ful-fblu-I mean-flubs his lines (although never breaking character), even becoming TheUnintelligible at times, and tends to deliberately forget people's names as a form of MaliciousMisnaming, particularly with Chesterton (stemming from a ThrowItIn of Hartnell's tendency to forget the character's name in the first few serials). His movements tend to be quite jerky, almost to the point of trembling, and his facial expressions tend towards the [[SmugSmiler smirky]].

* {{Flanderization}}: In "Twice Upon a Time", his occasional chauvinism gets to the point where he can't go five minutes without saying something offensive, much to Twelve's irrigation and embarrassment; the novelisation implies that he’s doing so deliberately just to annoy Twelve simply because he dislikes him.

* InformedAttribute: His status as a HumanAlien, which is occasionally mentioned but not demonstrated in any way until he regenerates for the first time. Sometimes, as in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E9TheSavages The Savages]]", he seems to actually forget that he's ''not'' a human (since this wasn't yet clear to the writers at the start of the show).

* PetTheDog: He's a lot grouchier than future Doctors, which makes his kindlier moments all the more profound. Most obviously, there's his warm and friendly relationship with Susan and Vicki, and his touching farewell to the former when he butts out so she can have a normal life with her new boyfriend.

* ScrewPolitenessImASenior: Much like Hartnell himself. If there's one thing the Doctor doesn't have time for, it's everything. But if there’s one thing the Doctor '''really''' doesn’t have time for, it's humans buzzing around his ear like a fly at a picnic, defying his orders at every turn, and sticking his neck out to go rescue ''more'' irritating humans. 'You drive me ROUND THE BEND!' the Doctor barks at Ian.

* UnscrupulousHero: He's devoted to his granddaughter and is disgusted by villains like the Daleks; but aside from that, his morals are loose at best, with his flaws ranging from pride and paranoia to outright moral cowardice in trying to abandon Barbara to die on Skaro rather than risk further exposure to radiation, as well as Ian and Barbara becoming his companions only after he trapped them within the TARDIS against their will. By the conclusion of the first three stories he gets over this.

* WaistcoatOfStyle: The first of many incarnations to wear one and it shows him as a refined gentleman, regardless of how he sometimes acts.

* BeenThereShapedHistory: In ''Byzantium!'', the Doctor assists in the original translation of the Book of Mark, and in The Witch Hunters, his presence unwittingly helps instigate the Salem Witch Trials.

** A PlayedForLaughs version occurs when he meets the [[Characters/DoctorWhoTenthDoctor Tenth Doctor]], who’s behavior makes him consider never regenerating to avoid becoming him.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: Flashbacks in ''Lungbarrow'' reveal the circumstances under which the Doctor originally left Gallifrey, which include him being disowned by the head of his family and most of his Cousins dismissing him to the point that a replacement for him was generated, and evidence emerges suggesting that he killed the head of the House (although [[spoiler:an investigation by the Seventh Doctor reveals that he was framed by his old rival]]). Flashbacks in ''Divided Loyalties'' reveals that the Doctor’s first trip off Gallifrey saw one of his oldest friends being possessed by an ancient entity and another was kept as a permanent prisoner by that same entity despite the Doctor’s efforts to save them.

->''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E1AnUnearthlyChild “What are you doing here?”]]''

* IncrediblyLamePun: He's quite fond of making them, then giggling like a schoolgirl.
-->'''Doctor:''' Did you take three dimensional graph geometry at your school?\\
'''Ian:''' No, Doctor, only Boyle's Law.\\
'''Doctor:''' What a pity. We shall have to boil this down, now shan't we? ''(laughs)''

After growing up to be an elderly man and grandfather, and meeting loads of new companions on his travels, the First Doctor developed many ailments and eventually began losing the fight to retain his health, which only got worse when the planet Mondas began draining energy from the Earth. When he became "weak as a kitten", his Time Lord biological clock set off a process to renew him. Scared of what he knew to be his first regeneration and the inevitable change to come, his path crossed with the Twelfth Doctor, who also needed to regenerate. After a look at past, present, and future, the Doctors parted ways and respectively regenerated. The First Doctor managed to get his current companions Ben and Polly inside the TARDIS as it went into flight, and the Doctor changed before their bewildered eyes into a whole new man.

After growing up to be an elderly man and grandfather, the First Doctor had many ailments and eventually began losing the fight to retain his health. When he became "weak as a kitten", his biological clock set off the process to renew him. Scared of what he knew to be his first regeneration and the inevitable change to come, his path crossed with the Twelfth Doctor, who also needed to regenerate. After a look at past, present, and future, the Doctors parted ways and respectively regenerated. The First Doctor managed to get Ben and Polly inside the TARDIS as it went into flight, and the Doctor changed before their bewildered eyes into a whole new man.

However, Barbara and Ian had little patience for the arrogant, cowardly snob they found themselves sequestered with and gave him a much needed dressing down -- after their first three adventures together he [[TookALevelInKindness became a much more patient, kinder, and altruistic figure]], but also established that ''he'' was in charge of the TARDIS crew.

* DotingGrandparent: To Susan, who likewise is devoted to him.

* FantasticRacism: Towards humans, whom the Doctor initially considers primitive savages and treats with open contempt and disdain. From dialogue in the first episode, one gathers that he only tolerates 20th-Century Earth for [[DotingGrandparent Susan's sake]]; he grows out of it, due to Barbara and Ian's influence.