The Doctor In The TARDIS

The First Doctor was the first incarnation of the Time Lord known as the Doctor. Most accounts of him were drawn from close to the end of his life.

Initially, he had as companions his granddaughter Susan Foreman and her kidnapped teachers, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright. He bade Susan farewell to let her live a happier life with a man with whom she had fallen in love. Later, during a confrontation with the Daleks, the Doctor used one of their time capsules to return Ian and Barbara to their proper time - something he had been unable to manage with the TARDIS.

After Susan's departure, the Doctor gained a new companion in Vicki Pallister. She reminded him of Susan and the Doctor saw her as a surrogate to fill her spot in his travels with Ian and Barbara. Vicki left the Doctor's company, feeling her time with him was over and she needed to move on.

Soon after the departure of Ian and Barbara, the Doctor gained a new companion in Steven Taylor, with whom he had a relatively uneasy relationship. Steven was bitter towards him, blaming him for the deaths of Katarina and Sara Kingdom. However, the Doctor was forgiven and companion Dodo Chaplet joined them on their travels.

Ultimately, Dodo became injured in an adventure and decided to remain home in her own time, while Steven decided to stay and help a civilisation they had encountered.

Right before his battle with the Cybermen of Mondas, the Doctor had gained two new companions in Ben Jackson and Polly Wright, to whom he was much more kind to prevent them from leaving as Steven had.

He met his end after battling the Cybermen for the first time on Earth. He was forced to regenerate into his second body from exhaustion and a loss of strength to maintain his ancient body.

I think one of the biggest problems suffered by this serial is the lack of Doctor in the middle. While the actors going on holiday and missing episodes was nothing new, the Doctor was actually playing a huge part in the episodes where he wasn't featured. I think this spoiled the tension somewhat as it meant that the Toymaker was talking to thin air for a huge chunk of the story.

I definitely agree with PP. The invisible thing perhaps wouldn't have been so bad if they had had Hartnell record dialogue to be inserted. They could have even filmed whole scenes like they did with Susan in The Aztecs.

When he was in it he was as good as ever, but this is one of those stories where his absense was really felt.

I'm with everyone else in here in thinking that those middle two episodes would have really benefitted from Hartnell actually being in them.

What everyone else said.

His performance, what there was of it, seemed fine and in line with every other story. It's a shame this is where his holiday fell because it could have done with him in the middle two episodes, but I think with tighter writing they would have been able to make his absense less of a problem.

He's not at all what I expected (first time I've seen him), but I found the character quite likeable. He's a million miles away from Matt Smith, but at the same time it's not a huge leap of logic to see that they are the same. I don't know what I expected, but it works. I like him.

Generally speaking, the earlier Doctors are a lot older than the later ones.  He's got younger as he gets older, if you see what I mean 8)

I wanted more of him in this. I think that they had a good reason within the story for him not being there, but I don't think his absense really helped the story. When he was there though he was as good as he always was.

It seems everyone else has said what I came in here to say, and that is that they shouldn't have had him missing from the middle, or at the most they should have left it at one episode. There wasn't enough going on in the story to mask his absense as well as it's been done in others.

I love the first Doctor. I think he is absolutely brilliant and having him appear in more of this story would have greatly improved it, I think. There should have been more interaction between him and the Toymaker.