william hartnell Archives

William Russell, aka Ian Chesterton - one of the first companions on Doctor Who when it premiered back in 1963 - has passed away at age 99.

He started out as an elderly Edwardian gentleman figure in 1963, after all, played by William Hartnell, not a beefy two-fisted man in his thirties. He was a stern but secretly mischievous and cunning grandfather When Patrick Troughton took over as the Second Doctor, he was younger and did a lot of running from monsters, but[...]

The main draw was watching Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee bicker with each other as they developed their off-screen friendship, with an ailing William Hartnell pre-recorded on video from a screen for just one scene Bickering is just basic Dramatic Conflict 101 in scriptwriting It's also the default mode for every Marvel Comic where another[...]

The first Doctor Who Christmas Special was on Christmas Day in 1965 when the show just stopped the story of the then-ongoing serial "The Dalek's Masterplan" to have William Hartnell and the cast sit down to a Christmas dinner and raise a toast to the audience in an episode called "The Feast of Steven." That[...]

This classic series stars the First Doctor, William Hartnell, and companions Peter Purves as Steven Taylor and Jackie Lane as Dodo Chaplet, with the late Michael Gough (now best known as Alfred in the Tim Burton Batman movies) as the Toymaker. Here's a clip from the surviving live-action episode It's the end of that story where The Doctor defeats the[...]

Instead of seeing Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor in the final scene, William Hartnell (David Bradley) looks up from the controls of the TARDIS to see Ncuti Gatwa's Fifteenth Doctor – with the plan being that the scene be updated every time a new Doctor is named That alone would be enough reason to go out and[...]

The Doctor (William Hartnell) in his second story was still a massive selfish dick who put everyone in danger because he just wanted to explore a dead city In the earliest version, the Daleks were quite limited: they were trapped in the city because they could only move around with their magnetic bases on its[...]

The earliest is an episode devoted to "The Time Meddler," a story from the First Doctor's (William Hartnell) era that was a milestone in many ways and worth watching, not just for homework but because it's a lot of fun. "Doctor Who: The Time Meddler": BBC "The Meddling Monk" is the episode that introduces new companion Steven[...]

Determined to explore, the Doctor (William Hartnell) leads his companions into the metal city, where they discover danger at every corner and what will become his deadliest enemy, the mutant Daleks. These seven original 25-minute episodes have now received a cosmic makeover, having been dazzlingly colourised and weaved together into a 75-minute blockbuster to appeal to[...]

Peter Capaldi, as an OG fan of the show, requested that the Cybermen the Twelfth Doctor fought in his final story be modeled on the original Mondasian Cybermen, who were introduced back in the 1960s in the First Doctor's (William Hartnell) final adventure "The Tenth Planet." Back then, the costumes were just white cloth masks[...]

The Doctor spent most of the early part of the story invisible and silent because William Hartnell's health was declining, so the producers let him take time off and toyed with the idea of bringing in a new actor to play The Doctor from that point on. The Toymaker only appeared in that one Doctor Who[...]

The original second season of Doctor Who, featuring William Hartnell as the First Doctor, is the next release to come to Blu-ray Season 2 is the biggest release yet – a limited edition nine-disc box set from the early years of the programme, which sees Hartnell's First Doctor take centre stage for some epic early[...]

Do the Celestial Toymaker & every other canonical baddie on Doctor Who really need a comeback just because they appeared on the show?

"Galaxy 4,' the mostly-missing Doctor Who serial from the 1960s starring William Hartnell as the First Doctor, has been given the animation treatment Galaxy 4 is the mostly-missing first serial of the third season of Doctor Who, which originally aired in four weekly episodes from 11th September to 2nd October 1965. "Doctor Who: Galaxy 4" cover art courtesy of[...]

Earlier this week, Doctor Who fans learned that David Bradley and John Barrowman are reprising their respective roles as William Hartnell's First Doctor and Captain Jack Harkness in pre-recorded cameo appearances in the upcoming immersive West End production Doctor Who: Time Fracture With impressive DW resumes such as those, Bradley and Barrowman have pretty much cemented their[...]

And each actor played the character as a different archetype: William Hartnell played him as the last of the Edwardian patriarchs; Patrick Troughton played him as a Chaplin-esque hobo; Jon Pertwee played him as a dandyish playboy; Tom Baker played a wandering bohemian and so on The 21st Century Doctors were even more modern archetypes:[...]

1st Doctor William Hartnell is No 6, so it's nice to see the original model near the top  All in all, this looks fairly consistent with the patterns we've heard about anecdotally over the last few years The Radio Times just has what looks like "official" figures to back it up This is all terribly[...]

When you watch past versions played by William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Paul McGann, and Sylvester McCoy and their deeply ambivalent interactions with Gallifrey takes on new meaning knowing their origin as the Timeless Child Chibnall has also introduced more unknown incarnations out there prior to the First[...]

An hour before the event, audio drama "Doctors Assemble!" was released to coincide with both today's anniversary/birthday as well as the special nature of this edition's rewatch. Doctor Who Lockdown Kicks Off with Special Message from David Bradley But just to make sure things are officially official, actor David Bradley (William Hartnell in the drama, and the[...]

The Cyberman wanted everyone to be like them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtEPOTRWm7IVideo can't be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: The Cybermen | Doctor Who (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtEPOTRWm7I) Cybermen from the Start The Cybermen made their debut in "The Tenth Planet", William Hartnell's final story as the First Doctor before he regenerated into Patrick Troughton[...]

If you started watching Doctor Who with Jodie Whitaker, it certainly doesn't make you less a fan than when William Hartnell or Matt Smith took on the role. If there are things to take away fan culture from 1999 compared to 2019, we have greater access and influence than ever before As nerds and geeks, we're[...]

It just happened to be Christmas, so William Hartnell and the cast broke the 4th Wall and addressed the audience directly to toast them a Merry Christmas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9xUK6ZL9lkVideo can't be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Doctor Who: A Happy Christmas to all of you at home! – The Daleks' Master Plan (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9xUK6ZL9lk) Alas, this episode is lost[...]

When original Doctor William Hartnell had to leave the show due to deteriorating health, the producers didn't want to cancel the show. It was one of the most popular shows in Britain after all They invented regeneration in an act of desperation Little did they know that they created a means for the show to go[...]

Variety reports that the deal includes  Doctor Who episodes featuring Tom Baker (including "The Deadly Assassin," "The Ark in Space," and "The Robots of Death"), Peter Davison (including "EarthShock," "The Caves of Androzani"), Jon Pertwee (including "Planet of the Spiders," "Terror of the Autons"), and William Hartnell (including "The Dalek Invasion Of Earth"). https://youtu.be/sjciw9A5D0oVideo can't be loaded[...]

While there have been attempts to alter the look of the Daleks over the years, it seems like Doctor Who viewers are really big fans of "bronze"...

In the TV movie An Adventure in Space and Time, which told the story of first Doctor William Hartnell,  Ford was played by Claudia Grant, who has since gone on to play the role in Big Finish Production's new audio dramas featuring the First Doctor and his companions. BBC The video is a promo for the upcoming Doctor[...]

We'll also be treated to interaction between Capaldi and David Bradley, portraying William Hartnell's first Doctor. But that interaction might not go so smoothly, because while the Time Lords are one of the oldest and most advances species in the universe, a society who are far beyond human preconceptions of gender, apparently nobody told Doctor #1[...]

Earlier this week, we linked to shots taken by one Doctor Who fan, George Baker, and posted to Twitter (before being deleted) that identified a figure filming the Doctor Who Christmas Special alongside Peter Capaldi. And one that seemed to confirm earlier rumours about the cliffhanger of this Saturday's series ten finale episode, The Doctor Falls. The rumour[...]

The current BBC webpage for Dad's Army second series lists the three remaining episodes but now, also states, "There will be 6 episodes. More information coming soon."