The Doctor In The TARDIS

It's a well known fact that the then producer, John Wiles, who had a bad relationship with William Hartnell, was going to write him out of the show during this serial. When the Doctor returned from being invisible, he intended to have a new actor in the role. This idea was quashed and eventually led to Wiles' leaving.

I for one am glad this never happened. I think it would have changed the whole premise of regeneration and might have seen the show ending long before it eventually did. I also love William Hartnell and I think though he only had a few stories left, I'm glad it was him who got to do them.

Do you think this would have been a good idea?

I don't know if it would have been a bad idea entirely. Hartnell was great, but there was nothing spectacular about his performance between this and The Tenth Planet that we would have missed out on had he left the show at this point, however I think it would have been a lazy way of writing him out and put a potential spanner in the works for future regenerations.

I don't know what was going on behind the scenes and it's not really our place to judge, but on screen I think William Hartnell was doing just fine in the role. He may have been difficult but he was doing the job.

I know his health was playing up and I know that he was known to be a bit crabby, but I think this was nothing more than a personal vendetta by someone who just didn't like the man. If there was that much of a problem with Hartnell I'm sure the BBC or whoever would have backed Wiles up.

At the time, it might have seemed a good way of changing the actor, but it wouldn't have made the show as flexible as the regeneration idea.  I'm glad they didn't go that way.

I'd agree with this. Though he wasn't in this story much, his performance when he was didn't seem at all lacking. I'd say he was pretty consistent from the start to the end of his reign

He's one of my favourite Doctors so I'm really glad this story wasn't the end of his time on the show. He obviously still had it in him. The War Machines was one of his best performances in the role and that one came right at the end of his run.

I think that doing that would have been a rubbish way to write him out. Whether they wanted him out of the role is one thing, but if you are going to do it, don't be lazy about it.

I sort of agree with this. I'm glad that he stayed around a bit longer, but I don't think we would have lost anything major in terms of development had this been his last story.

Whatever the reasons for wanting it, I'm glad they didn't get rid of him in this. I like the stories that come later