First Doctor

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The Doctor
Character
Created by Verity Lambert (Producer)
Played by William Hartnell; Richard Hurndall
Gender Male
Species Gallifreyan
First Appearance An Unearthly Child
Native Place Gallifrey
Native Time "Modern" Gallifrey
Alias Doctor John Smith; Benjamin Jackson;[1] Dr Caligari;[2] Doctor Samuel Smythe;[3] Doctor Foreman[4]
Occupation Time Traveller
Known Friends Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright, Vicki Pallister, Steven Taylor, Katarina, Sara Kingdom, Dorothea Chaplet, Ben Jackson, Polly Wright
Known Enemies The Daleks, various aliens
Known Relatives Susan Foreman (granddaughter),[5], Irving Braxiatel (brother)[6], The cousins of Lungbarrow (cousins)[7]
Base of Operations The Doctor's TARDIS

This article is about the incarnation of the Doctor played by William Hartnell. For other incarnations of the Doctor see The Doctor. For other meanings of Doctor see Doctor (disambiguation).

Contents

Description

The first Doctor has the appearance of an old human being, with long (by 20th Century standards) white hair and wears an Edwardian suit.

He is often awkward and irritable, and is curious about every new place his TARDIS lands. This curiosity sometimes leads him to take somewhat dubious actions in order to get the chance to engage it.[8] However, he isn't the sort of being to kill people.

The first Doctor has the habit of mispronouncing his companion Ian Chesterton's surname, as well as making other occasional verbal blunders. Despite this, he does not take kindly to people calling him "Doc".[9]

His favourite period of Earth history is the French Revolution.[10] and he dislikes the 20th Century, but is willing to tolerate it.[11]

He is terrified of dentists, and claims to be Teetotal.[12]

Before meeting Ian and Barbara, the Doctor was extremely reluctant to interfere with the worlds he visited. Even after they influenced him, he refuses to carry guns on principle[13] and only takes life when his own is immediately threatened.[14]

Abilities

The First Doctor has a sharp mind and a strong grasp of science and engineering.[15] He also knows some medicine[16], although he is not a medical Doctor,[17] and human history.[18] He has always found it difficult to "solve" the fourth dimension[19] and has a high level of mental control[20]

He is more susceptible to radiation than either Susan or human beings.[21] Unlike most Time Lords, he appears to have only a single heart[22] He suffers from back pain when riding a horse, and is susceptible to "mountain sickness" caused by high altitudes. He wears glasses when flying spaceships,[23] and for reading - although his eyesight is better than that of a normal human.[24], despite being long-sighted[25] He is a competent forger[26] He has rheumatism, which is aggravated by freezing though he is able to remain conscious at several hundred degrees below zero[27]

The Doctor claims to have taught fighting skills to the Mountain Mauler of Montana, but is unable to play the lyre.[28] He is certainly capable of overpowering a teenage boy with ease[29]

He is also able to exactly mimic somebody's voice,[30] and gets goosebumps in his skin when Daleks are nearby.[31] He claims that alcohol has a negligible effect on his constitution.[32]

History

For a more detailed history of the first Doctor see The Doctor's Timeline, and the biography section of the site.

References

  1. ↑ He uses both of these aliases in The Witch Hunders
  2. ↑ He uses this alias in The Gunfighters
  3. ↑ The Doctor uses this alias in The Nine Day Queen (Decalog 2)
  4. ↑ He uses this alias in The Juror's Story (Short Trips: Repercussions)
  5. ↑ This is first established in An Unearthly Child. However, Lungbarrow lays out a slightly more complicated relationship between them, and in The Empire of Glass, the Doctor hints that the term doesn't strictly apply to beings like him and Susan.
  6. ↑ According to Braxiatel in Tears of the Oracle
  7. ↑ According to Lungbarrow and Divided Loyalties
  8. ↑ Most notably lying about the state of the TARDIS's Fluid Link in The Daleks
  9. ↑ As first established in The Dalek Invasion of Earth (Story)
  10. ↑ According to The Reign of Terror
  11. ↑ He tells this to Ian and Barbara in the first episode of An Unearthly Child
  12. ↑ As seen in The Gunfighters
  13. ↑ The Dalek Invasion of Earth (Story)
  14. ↑ The Dalek Invasion of Earth
  15. ↑ In The Aztecs he claims to be both a scientist and an engineer, and this knowledge comes to the fore in many different stories
  16. ↑ He identifies both the poison and the remedy in The Sensorites, administers first aid in The Crusade, and knows the cure for the common cold in The Ark
  17. ↑ He says this in The Forest of Fear, the third episode of An Unearthly Child
  18. ↑ As seen in every story set in Earth's past
  19. ↑ Or so he says in The Space Museum
  20. ↑ He's able to project an image of his choice into the Morok mind probe in The Space Museum and is able to resist both WOTAN's mind control in The War Machines and the Sou(ou)Shi mental probe in Venusian Lullaby
  21. ↑ As seen in The Daleks
  22. ↑ Ian talks about the Doctor having a single pulse in The Daleks, and a heart (singular) in The Edge of Destruction, the Doctor mentions having a heart (singular) in The Sensorites. This is explicitly confirmed in The Man in the Velvet Mask
  23. ↑ He does so in The Sensorites
  24. ↑ Both facts are established in The Plotters
  25. ↑ This is established in The Nine Day Queen (Decalog 2)
  26. ↑ Well, agents of the French Revolution are taken in by the documents he forges
  27. ↑ Or so he says in The Space Museum
  28. ↑ As seen in The Romans
  29. ↑ As seen in The Space Museum
  30. ↑ He does this to the Toymaker in The Celestial Toymaker
  31. ↑ He says this in The War Games
  32. ↑ The Little Drummer Boy (Short Trips: Companions)
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