First Doctor - Billy Fluffs 

Plus during that one bit the Doctor had just hit his head if memory serves : P

Yep, they made it part of the First Doctor's character.

It’s also because Hartnel’s memory was beginning to get worse as they went on and he needed que cards to tell him his lines this is especially the case in the 3 Doctors xx

@@TheWhovinerd-1963 cue cards*

@@ryanhindley174 okay thank you for pointing out that tiny mistake which was unnecessary. You kind of wasted your time there no offence I mean thank you 😊 but still ahah. Xx

It DOES kind of sound like he says "bullshit.."

@@petrichorjournal8866 Tom Baker fluffed in Genesis of the Daleks and said Spack off instead of back off and it was used in a comic as a Galliffreyan swear phrase as an in joke

Gallifreyan Cockney -ha!

U man English

+Alexander Cox "Hrrmhrblrhmmerr UNCONSCIOUS!"

The unit's right though.

Oh, sorry :3 English isn't my first language and I've never used that name for Celsius.

Yeah Centigrade's another name for Celsius that refers to the 0-100 scale for water's stages (because centi- means 100) that someone made up for some reason because they didn't like the name Celsius or something.

+Sauzels centagride came was invented by a guy name Celsius

kadarrius jones I know that?

I personally wish that other actors who have portrayed his Doctor since (Richard Hurndall and David Bradley) would've been allowed to retain that in their portrayals...The BBC I don't think has ever quite realized just how much his flubbs made his elderly Doctor more believable as such...😊

The guy was 55 looking 75

This is why he's my third favorite after 9 and 10

According to William Russell aka Ian Chesterton, Hartnell was doing it on purpose. My guess is that he was partially motivated by his desire to do something different after being typecast as "heavy" and "tough guy" characters for so long.

These are on purpose.

Ha ha! How 'Forrest Gump' of him 🙂

Hth did that maki it past the editors..?! Hahah!

@@craftman780 wasn't enough money for editors or reshooting back in the 60s, it probably just got ignored for the budget

Either way, that part always cracks me up lol

Indeed, as if he's thinking "...what just happened?" lol

Tomer Feiner i wonder how he could keep a straight face! but it seemed as if he was having a lot of fun there XD

William Russell is just as lost as we are. William Hartnell COMPLETELY forgot his lines and there are only the two of them in the scene. To make matters worse, Russell NEEDS Hartnell to say some of the line to even cover for him with ad-lib. Russell's line of "Ah, how do we open the door? We have no power" is him improvising to prompt Hartnell to get back on script when Hartnell earlier forgot his lines and just shut down. Hartnell is doing all of the blustering hoping that Russell will pick up his lines for him, but again, Russell needs the character of the Doctor to say the right thing so Russell (as Ian) can cover the remainder of the Doctor's lines. Russell does save Hartnell by picking up the Doctor's lines later in the same scene (not featured in this video), but we are left with this wonderful moment where Russell's intense confusion is on camera and it is NOT ACTING. The best part of this, is that these are consummate actors who NEVER broke character despite this temporary brain fart from William Hartnell. They even completed the scene in character with slight modifications... even if there is this odd exchange of dialogue in it. Without knowing what the script was, you (as a viewer) would just think it was the Doctor being eccentric.

Couldn't agree more. He personalised his character through these slip-ups

Tennant has theater experience, along with much of the cast, line flubs would be less common even if performed live.

Hartnell and Troughton also had extensive theatre background, probably a lot more than Tennant, because almost every actor of their era came through weekly rep. The fact remains that actors of today are made to look a lot better through the extensive editing that takes place after filming their (shorter) scenes.

Matt Maloney When Tennant is on stage I've never seen him make a mistake.

@@MALONEYCAMFIELD But Troughton never bluffed on Doctor Who!

@@alexhodgkinson6718 "When Tennant is on stage I've never seen him make a mistake." I'm not saying he did make mistakes on Doctor Who, I'm saying that if he did they'd be cut out in post-production, that's the difference, and he wasn't expected to perform long continuous scenes of dialogue in Doctor Who like Hartnell and Troughton did back in the Sixties, so the pressure to get it right first time wasn't the same.

you could see Rusell was on the verge of laughing

"It was not just Hartnell." It was not just Doctor Who either. I didn't realise how slick Doctor Who was until I watched episodes of Out of the Unknown, Doomwatch and Survivors. There are some really obvious dialogue fluffs in those shows. There seemed to me to be more fluffs in Survivors than in Doctor Who made at the same time (mid-70s).

Doctor Who was never filmed live.

IT was filmed in one take ! no chance of redoing things so it is sort of live!

Ethan Jones if it was never filmed live we wouldn't be watching it now.It was certainly BROADCAST live, and recorded simultaneously. You can tell particularly by inexact episode end to next episode beginning continuity differences.

Peter Ward It's simply just untrue, Peter. Dr Who has never broadcast live, they filmed episodes weeks in advance. In fact, the original recording of 100,000 BC had to be scrapped and re-recorded as Sydney Newman deemed the episode unsatisfactory.

Very true, many actors fluffed their lines on the show. In this period it was filmed in two or three chunks without breaks, so it was almost as if it was live television. Many people fluff in theatre too. The sign of a good acting troupe is that your fellows cover for the goof and everyone moves on with the audience none the wiser. Most of the time you do not even notice the fluffs on Doctor Who, which indicates the level of professionalism from all involved. I think the reason why WIlliam Hartnell's fluffs were so memorable is twofold. 1: He had the lion's share of the dialogue. 2: He was a consummate professional who wanted to get his lines right among other things. When you add the heart condition messing with his concentration, you can see why he becomes so iconic as you put it in some of his fluffs. It is the sheer energy of his performance combined with the frantic reaching for the correct line.

Best. Line. Ever!

What was it meant to say ?

I had a Galaxy accident once. Never put a chocolate bar in your back pocket then sit down.

you see the scanner over there I call it the scanner

See this comment? That is what I call a comment.

See this reply? That is what I call a reply.

A year later still hilarious

2 years later and my wife chuckled

i see what you did

At least he corrected himself. I think that's solved that little bit of solution.

@@TheSkully343 Yes, yes...I do seem to, um, see--see the problem at hand... 😂😂😂😂😍😍😍😍

How dare you, Crapman!... Er...Chapman!

@@SuperWolsey Good one😅😅😅😅

That film highly exaggerated his condition and isn’t really accurate. Other actors also fluffed lines quite a bit and the only reason they’re in the finished project is that retake were hard to do then.

+Richard Hewlett I was going to say, it feels SO part of his character he was portraying.

+Hyman74Roth Apparently, he occasionally went out of his way to stutter; he also intentionally mispronounced Ian Chesterton's name, calling him "Chatterton" or whatever. It was part of the First Doctor's character.

Complied? How nice to meet you, Mr Hartnell!

+Andrew Ford Bit like Europe really.

+Hovis Steve yea recently

Andrew Ford i remember wondering if this was an actual saying when i first watched the episode XD

I think 1st met Rudolph Valentino

Alaska RS ...which one?:D

I think in-universe it could have been old age? but yeah sad :(

I read that Hartnell was doing it on purpose, presumably to differentiate the Doctor from all of his other roles.

@@tomnorton4277 I think it's most likely a bit of both. Having seen some of his other roles (including in Dr Who itself, the Abbot in 'The Massacre'), it's clear of lot of the doddery aspects of the First doctor are intentional choices on the part of Hartnell as an actor, but it is well-known he also had problems remembering lines.

RassilonsArmy Not a pleasant place to be in.

Anthony Williams "Now, my boy, there are two things you can't do. One: Sit there until you get your breath back, and two: *don't call me Doc!* -#1

--Drugs

He suffered from arteriosclerosis and one of its symptoms was memory loss, indeed.

iCMarkus ***** such a shame.

Even pat Troughton screwed up some lines in doctor who. It’s because it was shot live. David tennant and any other doctor make as many fluffs as Bill did. Difference is they are edited out in post production.

Tomer Feiner he sayed : " both , susan and i"