William Hartnell

[MacNimon]

Den Of Geek have been running a profile on each of the actors who have played the Doctor over the past few weeks, they've covered the first four so far. I thought this would be a good opportunity to look back ourselves at each of the actors who have played the Doctor. I'll post a thread for each actor after DoG have published their articles.

William Hartnell

What do you think of William Hartnell's characterisation of the Doctor? How important/successful do you think he was? Are you familiar with anything else from Hartnell's career outside of the series? How big an influence was he on the series and/or the character of the Doctor as the series continued through the decades?

[MacNimon]

Although I've hardly ever seen any of his pre-Who stuff (Carry On Sergeant I think is the only exception) one look at his IMDB page shows that he was a very busy and successful actor, starring in a number of big films of their time (Brighton Rock and The Sporting Life being just a couple) before he landed the role of the Doctor.

Hartnell, being the original, probably had a bigger influence on the character of the Doctor than any other single actor did, regardless of how popular they were. Each of the Doctors drew a different facet of Hartnell's performance and included it in theirs...Troughton based his character mostly on Hartnell's 'quirkyness'; Pertwee took the flamboyant facet, that of someone who enjoyed the fine things in life; Tom Baker was arrogant and sulky if he didn't get his way; Davison inherited the need for glasses (and even the way several of his close-up scenes were filmed was reminiscent of Hartnells); Colin, like Tom, was arrogant and quick tempered but was also much ruder; while McCoy drew on the alien aspect of the character, one who seemed quite smug at times about the fact that he knew more than anyone else; McGann had the costume and wig, which although was simply a cosmetic factor hinted at a young version of Hartnell.

It's a bit harder with the modern Doctors. Maybe not so much Eccleston who had a touch of Hartnell's detatchment perhaps, that feeling of being alone in the Universe; but I'm struggling with Tennant who seems to be an expansion of Eccleston's character rather than another facet of the original. The same with Smith, he seems to have so much of Troughton in him rather than Hartnell.

So I'd say that, even though he'll never be the most popular of Doctors in opinion polls, Hartnell probably has had the biggest influence over the series of all the actors who've played the character.

[Rob McCow]

Ooo! Excellent threadwork Kenny!

I will have to answer these questions another time, but this should be very interesting!

[Rob McCow]

What do you think of William Hartnell's characterisation of the Doctor?
It's magic, pure and simple. Even without much help from the scripts, his character clearly develops as the series goes on, so that the Doctor of The War Machines and The Gunfighters is very different from the one we meet in An Unearthly Child and The Daleks. There are three distinct phases in my view - the hardened, mysterious time-traveler; the softer explorer and adventurer of season 2; and finally the crusading hero that set the tone for the rest of the show.

How important/successful do you think he was?
He was vital! This question is largely irrelevant, because without him there would have been nothing. I'm with Peter Purves on this, that his performance is massively under-rated by the fans.

Are you familiar with anything else from Hartnell's career outside of the series?
Aside from two films, neither of which I've been able to sit all the way through, I have no idea what he got up to outside of Doctor Who. I'm not a fan of Brighton Rock or Carry on Sergeant!

How big an influence was he on the series and/or the character of the Doctor as the series continued through the decades?
Although he set up all the aspects of the character, some of what he did in the early stories, got ejected from the character. But wouldn't it be great if the Doctor were genuinely dangerous again? There are glimmers and attempts of it with Colin, Sylvester and in the new series, but he's never felt quite as dark and strange as William Hartnell did at various times throughout his run on the show.

[MacNimon]

What I enjoyed about that article was that it showed a genuine appreciation of Hartnell's work on the series. It's all too easy for people to scoff about him being doddery, forgetting his lines etc but it showed just how good an actor he was that often, when he did forget his lines, he could so easily make it seem 'in character' rather than it just seeming to be what it actually was...an actor fluffing his lines! After all, forgetting your lines isn't something worth criticising an actor for...it's just something that happened at the time and that they couldn't re-shoot, as they can today. If you watch or listen to any of those old series of the time, you'll find it happening regularly...the actors of that period though had the ability to improvise though when they slipped up that's not so obvious in actors nowadays (I don't mean that they can't do it, it's just that with modern technology they don't need to do it!)

And while he's criticised for fluffing lines, he not given enough credit imo for some of the lengthy speeches he had to make, filmed live in one take, which couldn't have been easy either.

[Rob McCow]

I agree. The only exposure that most Doctor Who fans have to 60's television is Doctor Who, so you end up comparing it with modern standards where re-takes are possible. We've been watching a few 60's TV shows that were recorded in a similar way, such as Out Of The Unknown and The Avengers. While the fluffs on Doctor Who may be more apparent, there's certainly evidence of mistakes being made then covered up on both those shows.

[Andrew Curnow]

What do you think of William Hartnell's characterisation of the Doctor? How important/successful do you think he was? How big an influence was he on the series and/or the character of the Doctor as the series continued through the decades?

I think I'm going to answer all those in one go - a couple of things strike me when watching those very first couple of stories. First is, looking at An Unearthly Child, obviously it was written as a part for an actor, regardless of who was going to be cast. And Hartnell puts in a stunning performance, he doesn't put a foot wrong in that all-important opening episode, nor in the caveman story that follows. He plays the character as written, totally convincingly, and is totally compelling. He may not be the obvious hero, but we nevertheless totally buy him as by far the most interesting central figure. So before he's on that relentless week-in, week-out schedule, he's just an amazing actor.

Second, although he also gives just as strong a performance in the Dalek story, he's already somehow 'got it' - by which I mean, perhaps the most important thing he gives to the show is that the character of the Doctor (and you could argue this is unique to the Doctor, and no other acting role) can be anything, and is actually down to the performer at least as much as the script. So he's already making a more playful character - when he's smashing the Dalek equipment in part 6 for example. By the time season 2 has come around, the more avuncular first Doctor is well to the fore, with his at time almost insane cackling for example. So the fact that Pertwee could be advised 'play it as yourself' and that other actors play him in totally different ways, is in part down to Hartnell early on bending the original character outline and reshaping it to suit himself. Without that we wouldn't have a show crazy enough for Tom Baker!! And arguably we wouldn't have a show that could legitimately and successfully produce a short-haired, leather-clad Northern Doctor in 2005!!

I really enjoy Hartnell's Doctor, and yes sometimes (like McCoy) his performance is not as good as you'd like. But when he's at his best, he's superb. And where to modern eyes sometimes it's a very 'big' performance, that's more a product of the time than of the man - look at Arthur Lowe's Captain Mainwaring, for example, from a few years later. Another 'big' performance by modern TV standards, yet one of the great TV comedy performances.

[Anthony Williams]

What do you think of William Hartnell's characterisation of the Doctor?

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. There are several reasons behind this. Firstly, he does a superb job of playing the cold, alien Doctor that we first meet, who does not empathise with humans in any normal way. However, over time we see his character grow. As he gets to know Ian and Barbara better through the first season, we see him warm up to humans and soon enough, he's taking more companions under his wing, by choice. The first Doctor is a character that never ceases growing.

How important/successful do you think he was?

Pivotal. To both criteria. When you look at the first few serials, Ian is clearly meant to be the main character, who meets this strange old time traveller and has adventures with him. But over time, it's clear that the Doctor is the real main character, and soon is more important. He was the first actor. No more needs to be said.

Are you familiar with anything else from Hartnell's career outside of the series?

Not at all!

How big an influence was he on the series and/or the character of the Doctor as the series continued through the decades?

Again, absolutely pivotal. Certainly within the Classic series, for exactly the same reasons that Kenny states. I feel that he got it dead on, and I don't need to elaborate further

[Larry]

What do you think of William Hartnell's characterisation of the Doctor?
It's magic, pure and simple. Even without much help from the scripts, his character clearly develops as the series goes on, so that the Doctor of The War Machines and The Gunfighters is very different from the one we meet in An Unearthly Child and The Daleks. There are three distinct phases in my view - the hardened, mysterious time-traveler; the softer explorer and adventurer of season 2; and finally the crusading hero that set the tone for the rest of the show.

.

that's what I love about Billy's portrayal he starts out as an amoral bad tempered and at times quite nasty person and but by The Rescue, he has mellowed into a kindly granfather figure with a strong sense of right from wrong.

i

t showed just how good an actor he was that often, when he did forget his lines, he could so easily make it seem 'in character' rather than it just seeming to be what it actually was...an actor fluffing his lines! After all, forgetting your lines isn't something worth criticising an actor for...it's just something that happened at the time and that they couldn't re-shoot, as they can today

I think people are a bit more understanding today over Billy's "fluffing of his lines" as we now know that he was in the early stages of dementia during his time as The Doctor. yet despite that he could still every now again deliver some absolutely top class performances and speeches.