Ironically, Hartnell's origins were as enigmatic as the Doctor's - he never knew his father, who abandoned his unmarried mother before his birth. Being raised by a single mother in a society where illegitimacy carried social stigma made him an outcast like the Doctor. Like the Doctor, he became during a difficult youth the protégé of an older mentor, Hugh Blaker who steered him in the right direction toward self-improvement.
I feel like I’ve commented this over a thousand times on RU-vid, but Hartnell is my favorite Doctor. He often gets characterized as either “the first one” or “the grumpy one” but all reality, saying that is doing no justice to the role. Sure he was stubborn and an ass at some points, but when he developed a relationship with his companions, there was this sort of twinkle of childishness that was often covered up; plus while much of Hartnells humor isn’t vocal, watch his body language and facial reactions, that’s where his hilarity shines the brightest. My personal favorite Hartnell moments are, in no particular order, the doctor’s speech about the birth of a star as well as his apology to Barbara in The Edge of Destruction, The “You can’t change history, not one line” speech from the Aztecs, His goodbye to Susan in the TDIoE, his chat with Vicki about her not being angry with Barbara and him welcoming her aboard the Tardis in The Rescue, his goodbye to Barbara and Ian in the Chase, his speech at the end of the Massacre, and many more. He is such a fabulous doctor, often held back by many of his episodes being missing, but if given a chance, they are in for a treat.
My personal favorite bit of acting from him comes from “the Tenth Planet.” When he asks the Cybermen “Have you no emotions, sir?” It’s clear he meant it as a jest, poking fun of the Cybermen, thinking there must be something left in them. But as the Cyberman states “Come to Mondas and you will have no need for emotions,” his face simply changes from joking to serious, realizing the full extent of the Cybermen. It’s this subtle facial acting that I love.
@@WillBoss2004 wow I didn’t know the killer from Five Nights at Freddy’s played the original Doctor. Man he really went off the deep end after stepping down from the role
I wouldn’t give tuppence for Wikipedia’s opinion of William , he was a man of his day and didn’t take kindly to upstarts like Anneke Wills slagging him off , I don’t believe William was anymore racist than most people of his age back then a proud man that fought for his country and is Dr Who full stop
I watched the first airings of his performance as an 8 year old. He became my surrogate father and my grandfather, both of whom I could not remember. He was sometimes scary, sometimes lovable, clever but flawed and always watchable. I listened to every word he uttered and totally believed in him. Some actors came close to his skills and presentation of the Doctor but never matched him. I still remember when he referred to Chesterton as Chesterfield!
One of my favorite quotes describing Bill on set comes from Jean Marsh who played Sara Kingdom in the Daleks Master Plan. She said that looking back, Bill wasn’t always in the best of health on set and needed a lot of rest. But besides that, he was never an issue when it came to learning lines or rehearsing. The biggest problem of his was laughing, and a lot of it. It just shows how much joy the show brought to him, and even in a time when the producers were upset with him and his health wasn’t the best, he still brought smiles to those around him and himself.
My little family has just finished our first start to finish watch through of the First Doctor era. William Hartnell is brilliant, and a far better actor than anyone seems to give him credit for nowadays. He broke my heart with his performance more than once and he had a knack for the comedy that is rarely mentioned. The way he cared about the role shines through and I feel bad for him knowing he hit his defining role only to have to leave due to his health. I'm sure if he could he'd keep travelling through time and space forever. Rest in Peace, Mr Hartnell.
I think that it's testament to his confidence in the show that even very early on in its run he predicted that it would go on for at least five years. And when you consider that in those days it was basically on for forty-odd weeks of the year that's some statement to make. It's only fitting that the one part he was basically seeking all his working life arrived in what proved to be the twilight of his acting career. Many actors find fame in a role fairly early on in their professional life only to slowly fade into relative obscurity over the course of time. William Hartnell did find relative fame for a while during the mid to late 40's through his (at that time) prolific film career. But there was no one stand-out role that really defined him. Thankfully, for him, and for millions of people throughout the country, he got his wish just as his health was on the cusp of declining. From the fairly under-the-radar TV and film appearances of the early 60's he was catapulted into virtual stardom with his defining role. I personally don't watch NuWho, it's just not for me for various reasons. But WH is a hero to me as he is to countless others. His legacy ( just like Patrick Troughtons) will NEVER die as long as television exists.
In lesser hands, we wouldn't have just watched this video, because no one would be talking about Doctor Who, 60 years later. My first time seeing Hartnell was the clip at the front of The Five Doctors, but in the 90s as his stories came out on VHS, I got to properly enjoy his era - at least, what remains of it. I certainly appreciate that he was a product of his era, not without flaws, but then - show me a person who is. Hopefully the BBC will give the colour/abridged treatment to a few more b&w stories over the coming years, as I think that will really help the younger generation to access it. I've been trying to get my kids to watch The Daleks for years, but it wasn't til last week's 60th Anniversary special, that they finally enjoyed it.
Thank you, this video was made with thoughtful purpose, that being the love of the Dr Who tv series. Mr Hartnell gave a inspirational theme that allows for other to follow with their own 'verity'.
The open to 5 Docs was my first glimpse of Hartnell, and I have to admit I was so young, I don't remember if Hurndall's recreation fooled me or not. :} Watching The Daleks in around 1990 on VHS - that was my first real introduction to the man who started it all, and I was sold.
One of the details that was changed was the part where Hartnell's granddaughter (the one that he had in real life, not Susan) is seen interacting with him in a Dalek dress up suit, while the cast were clearly filming 'The Reign of Terror' which was an episode made in 1964. I'm not 100 sure as to when the 1960s Dalek suit came out, but from what I know it came in time for Christmas, the aforementioned episode was made and shown prior to that event. Also he is seen with the very first World Distributors Doctor Who Annual (which isn't too bad, one can read it as a PDF file on 'The Web Planet' DVD I did once own an actual vintage copy, but sadly it got lost in a move many years ago😢) which was released in 1965. Lastly in part where we see Verity Lambert's leaving party, Hartnell is present. While this just may have happened, given that he was the lead actor it is obvious that he would have been invited, it is clear that the production team were filming 'Mission to the Unknown' an episode that didn't feature the Doctor, the TARDIS or indeed any of the other regular items seen on the show at the time. Thus Hartnell wouldn't have been in full costume, and nor would the TARDIS set have been left standing when not in use. You see, unlike in the production of the series today, floorspace in the studio was at an absolute premium, a point that had been made in the film, thus only the sets that were needed on that exact day of recording would have been set up. As the episode does not depict the TARDIS in any way shape or form, it would have been left in storage until it was needed. This is the reason why in a lot of Hartnell and Troughton stories from the TARDIS console room seems to somehow have the ability to rearrange itself, mainly it just got smaller and smaller plus the console itself would have it's control panels consistently change about at ramdom. The simple reason why this happened is because the scene shifters would simply snap everything together in some sort of very vague order, as they didn't have the time to measure the dimensions (of which there are 5, not 3...) merely in order for the set to be consistent from episode to episode. Lastly in a deleted scene we see an actor dressed on the set of 'Mission to the Unknown' (an episode made and shown in 1965) as a Monoid, which is from 'The Ark' (an episode made and shown in 1966, plus it was one that had been commissioned by Lambert's successor, John Wiles, some time after she had cut all ties to Our Program) and if my memory serves me correctly I think that there was also a few of the aliens from 'The Web Planet' as well, the costumes, would have most likely tossed away to that great junkyard in the sky right after production ended on that story, thus they wouldn't have been kept just to sit around taking up space for no reason. Oh and just one more thing, I might be wrong in my saying this, but I think that it would have been highly unlikely that Waris Hussain would have continued to mix with William Hartnell and the gang as he only worked on two stories (namely 'An Unearthly Child' and 'Marco Polo' well, most of Polo anyways) nor do I think that he would been all that involved in casting the regulars as his work would have been on those two stories only. Thus the only actors that he would have had a say in casting would have been the ones playing, school kids, cavemen, a policeman and yellow face performers, this film gives the impression, to those who don't know any better, that he would have directed multiple adventures with the original cast. However, in spite of all that 'An Adventure in Space and Time' is a very good movie, its production values are top notch, it clearly recreates the whole world of 1960s Britain to a tee, which is one of the main reasons why I love to watch it over and over again, which is to simply to look at everything in the background. David Bradley plays the part of William Hartnell fantastically, in fact I was happy when he was cast as the First Doctor in 'Twice Upon a Time', even if Moffat goofed by making him sexist, something which we don't really see him doing in the actual 1960s stories themselves, even the prop that they used to represent the prop that was used for the original TARDIS console (I was tickled to that it was in its historically accurate green, I've even seen it in the flesh..) which I'll add is my personal favourite TARDIS console, along with the set that went with it. I also liked the fact that they even recreated a number of the First Doctor's speeches on the bonus features on the DVD with David playing the role of the First Doctor, something that I'll often watch over and over, as it happens that they are among some of my personal favourites of the Doctor's speeches in the entire series (I've always liked the way Hartnell performed his farewell speech to Susan, as he played up the fact that it must have really torn out both of the Doctor's hearts to let go of his grandchild, Bradley did it almost as good as Hartnell, only his was a little more wistful and hopeful whereas the 1964 version it is played as a man in a whole world of heartache) but that's just. I'll even say that out of all of the things that were made for the 50th anniversary 'An Adventure in Space and Time' was by far the best thing to come out for 'Doctor Who' in 2013 and whenever I watch it I often end up with the urge to watch a Hartnell. Happy Times and Places
Some fans were not over impressed by Hartnells final reduced role in The Three Doctors.I disagree and share Katy Mannings opinion that Hartnell had one last opportunity to play his beloved role and meet his successors. I can remember a friend at School telling me ( a year later) in 1974 that theyd seen the news that Hartnell had died.Thanks Mr Hartnell RIP
4:49 -5:10 Spot on. That's what I have been trying to tell people when talking about classic Doctor Who. How they managed to keep going 26 years straight (but in particular Hartnell's run of 48 weeks a year) still continues to befuddle me.
Honestly I wouldn’t say a bad thing against him, regardless of his life choices I believe he has done more than enough to earn his right to exist beyond his life and death. Guy could punch me with his ring hand and all I would say is “Congratulations on rising from the dead Mr Hartnell. Is David Bowie returning as well?”
i loved in the daleks when he accidently said gloves instead of drugs then corrected himself, the actors of ian barbara and susan work around it saying how badly the radiation is affecting him
Hi Chimp Hartnell is my favourite Doctor, and I loved who’s there. I found it rather informative. Have you listened to the new 1st Doctor Big Finish Boxset with Steven Noonan? I really liked it and like his hartnell impression too. The Special features also have noonan chat quite interestingly about Hartnell as an actor
Imitation is best form of flattery. Best Tribute to William Hartnett were other actors cast to perform the role in Dr Who Anniversary Specials.Richard Hurdell particularly plays him in the Five Doctors. As I knew him from different role in Blake's 7.
Great work as always Sir Chimp! I'd love to see these mini bios on all the classic doctors. Being across the pond, I don't have much awareness of them outside of that role.
I'm just glad William Hartnell is still acknowledged 60 years after Doctor Who began. I appreciate David Bradley's been appearing as the First Doctor in recent years as Hartnell's been gone nearly 48 years now. But I'm hoping this doesn't mean they're just gonna have Bradley appear as First Doctor in future and not show any old footage of Hartnell himself anymore. Otherwise some New Who fans who don't watch Classic era at all might see Bradley as the First Doctor and not give Hartnell a second thought. Despite "Twice Upon a Time", where they mixed "The Tenth Planet" footage with new footage.
Amazing video! I've never heard this book before. But it's always fascinating to hear and just to explore these facts about him. At 4:21 where did you find that photo from? Judging from the cravat it is presumably from "The Web Planet." I've actually been looking through Google images to find it. But unfortunately, I had no luck. Really appreciate it!
Hi there. You are correct, it is from the Web Planet. Taken from a scene (I believe in ep3) where Ian and The Doctor have a conversation in a TARDIS interior. Hope this helps :)
Good job Cancel Culture didn't exist in William's Time because he would find it hard to find a job afterwards. His history is kind of strange it's like he was existing in 2 parallel timelines at the same time or they both merged into 1 causing contradictions, very Mandel Effect. Off Topic but apart from The Master who interacts with many Doctor Who Villains/Monster/Aliens, have you noticed that even though The Whoniverse is vast and wonderful that when it comes to onscreen canon that Doctor Who Monsters and Aliens rarely ever meet or interact with one another? In Some stories it's just a cameo (Flux) in others it's full on (Doomsday). I just thought it was interesting and you could make a video on it.
@TheZodiacz what does their actual age matter if the actor playing Troughton looks much younger? By today's standard Troughton looked more like 50s-60s, so it would make more sense to get an actor who looks that age even they're 55 or 60 themselves
You also forget,William Russell aka Russell Enoch is also Jewish. Overall, Hartnell is like anybody else. He just kid and make fun of anybody who is different and you just gotta laugh with him.
He would expect Gatwa to earn his keep like any other actor. Old Bill didn't give respect freely and he certainly wouldn't be on board with the participation trophies that get handed out these days. If Gatwa's a good Doctor, I'm sure Bill would approve but we have yet to see if he's up to the task.
