MY FIRST LOVE

THE ENDURING APPEAL OF WILLIAM HARTNELL

Mean. Arrogant. Patronising. All words you could use to describe the First Doctor. Yet after watching the elderly black-and-white time traveller on screen he was firmly cemented as my favourite.

It doesn’t really make sense, of course. I should prefer David Tennant and Matt smith for their youth and the modernity of their series. But for me the First Doctor is best because of just one word – honesty.

When my dad first put on William Hartnell’s episodes for me I can’t have been more than eight. something about Hartnell’s Doctor stuck with me and now that I’m older (not by much, admittedly) I see what it is. unlike the kookiness that inhabits later Doctors – looking at you, Matt smith – the First Doctor doesn’t disguise his true age with what I can only describe as “antics”. If you think he’s a befuddled old man, you can bet he’ll use your prejudice against you. He won’t pretend to be nice if he doesn’t feel like it. He won’t baby his companions or wait for them to catch up.

But he doesn’t make a habit of it. underneath it all is a deep affection for those that stick with him, which you’ll only glimpse if you prove you can handle him when he’s being a little too frank. Thanks to this double-edged quality, the First Doctor is as much a lesson in how not to behave as it is a guide for how to stay true to yourself. every thorny quality of his disguises the faith he has in his loved ones. Or as he put it to a departing grandchild: “Go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine”.

Not so mean after all, hmm?