Read more about The First Doctor at: Wikipedia

Official Site: BBC

The First Doctor is the initial incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by the actor William Hartnell from 1963 to 1966. Hartnell reprised the role in the tenth anniversary story The Three Doctors in 1973 - albeit in a reduced capacity due to his ailing health. Actor Richard Hurndall played the part of the First Doctor in the 20th anniversary story The Five Doctors after William Hartnell's death in 1975. A cinematic version of the character, Dr. Who, was played by Peter Cushing.

Within the series' narrative, the Doctor is a centuries-old Time Lord alien from the planet Gallifrey who travels in time and space in his TARDIS, frequently with companions. When the Doctor is critically injured, he can regenerate his body; in doing so, his physical appearance and personality change. Hartnell's Doctor is the Doctor's "original" form. The regeneration plot device was introduced when Hartnell needed to leave the series, and consequently has extended the life of the show for many years. The First Doctor is the youngest incarnation of the Doctor, but has the most aged physical appearance.

At the inception of the series the Doctor was a mysterious character and little was known about him except that he had a granddaughter, Susan Foreman, and that they were from another time and another world. He had a time machine, the TARDIS, which was disguised as a police box and was bigger on the inside than on the outside. He and Susan were in exile as well, for unspecified reasons. It would not be until the last adventure of the Doctor's second incarnation that the name of the Doctor's people (the Time Lord) would be revealed, and the third before the name of his home planet (Gallifrey) was first spoken.

The series began with schoolteachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright investigating the mystery of Susan, a student who appeared to possess scientific and historical knowledge far beyond her years. Discovering the TARDIS in a scrapyard, they were involuntarily taken by the Doctor on a journey back to the year 100,000 BC, and spent two years adventuring through time and space with the Doctor.

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