"Go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine"

On this day in 1975, William Hartnell passed away at the age of 67. I don't want to only talk about the deceased cast of Doctor Who but this made my mind turn in a few different directions. So strap in for a quick spin!

In 1978 when I started watching Doctor Who, I had no idea there was anyone besides Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor. At some point when my PBS started showing Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor episodes, they finally aired the 10th anniversary episode The Three Doctors. This introduced me to Patrick Troughton's Second Doctor and, very briefly, William Hartnell's First Doctor. It really wasn't a great introduction. Poor ol' guy, trapped in a plastic box, on the scanner screen. He had some funny lines, but you could tell he was very weakened. This Doctor had seen better days.

In my mind, the second time I saw the First Doctor was in the 20th anniversary special The Five Doctors. The opening clip taken from the Dalek Invasion of Earth was fitting and brief, but so out of context. Since William had passed away, they recast the First Doctor with another actor who was fine in filling his shoes, but still not the man himself.

Then came the glorious day when my PBS started airing Doctor Who from the very beginning. Going back to 1963, to the day after JFK was assassinated, came the very first episode An Unearthly Child. Through the fog on a cold London night, a police officer passes by a  junk yard with an old Police Box humming in the corner. A pair of school teachers follow their student Susan to this junk yard and meet the Doctor. So feisty, so argumentative, so crotchety, so eccentric. THIS was William Hartnell's Doctor in his prime! Playing the Doctor as the anti-hero, he electrified the screen. Bursting into the TARDIS for the first time, he transported all of us to another dimension. It was breathtaking!

Once we got to the Dalek Invasion of Earth and saw that tiny clip that started The Five Doctors in context, it was so much more emotional. The Doctor saying goodbye to his granddaughter, locking her out of the TARDIS, and forcing her to start a new life with the man she loves. "Go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine." Timeless words that have lived on for nearly 50 years. 


Hartnell had many more great adventures in his three years in the role. Thankfully many of those adventures still exist and we have enjoyed them many times. When I finally obtained his swansong, The Tenth Planet, on VHS, I sat glued to the TV as he fought his last battle against a new menace called the Cybermen. Even though the final episode  no longer exists, between telesnaps, linking narration, and the last few minutes of actual footage, we saw William Hartnell rejuvenate into Patrick Troughton. 


While William was not in good health for the last years of his life, I am now struck by how young he was when he passed. Much like Elizabeth Sladen, who was only 65 when she passed last year. Both taken to soon from us. Both sad reminders of our fleeting mortality but they will always live on through Doctor Who.


-Michael