First Doctor


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The Dalek Invasion Of Earth

William Hartnell as in The Dalek Invasion of Earth

Twice Upon A Time

The Five Doctors




Played by William Hartnell / Richard Hurnell / David Bradley
23 November 1963–29 October 1966  / 20 November 1983 / 25 December 2017
First appearance
An Unearthly Child
Last appearance:
The Tenth Planet (regular)
Last appearance:Twice Upon A Time (guest)
Number of series
34 stories (140 episodes)

Thanks to TARDIS Wikia


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An Unearthly ChildThe DaleksEdge Of DestructionMarco PoloThe Keys Of MarinusThe AztecsThe SensoritesThe SavagesThe War MachinesThe War MachinesThe War MachinesThe SmugglersThe Tenth Planet

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The Doctor was born on Gallifrey, home planet of the Time Lords, “the oldest and most mighty race in the universe.” (The War GamesThe Time WarriorThe Sound of Drums) He was born under the sign of Crossed Computers, the symbol of the maternity service there. (The Creature from the Pit) The infant Doctor slept in his cot under “the Doctors first stars” (A Good Man Goes to War)

The Doctor had parents, as well as a family. (The Tomb of the CybermenTV Movie, The Sound of Drums) His mother may have been a Victorian era human called Penelope Gate, and his father, Ulysses, may have been a Time Lord explorer. (The Gallifrey Chronicles) he had a brother called Irving Braxiatel. (LungbarrowA later incarnation of the Doctor once claimed that he was half-human on his mother’s side. (TV Movie) The Doctor lived in a house on the side of a mountain named Mount Cadon. (The Time Monster) His home was called the House of Lungbarrow.

He lived there along with his cousins, who were produced by the Looms, and with his brother, Irving Braxiatel. LungbarrowTears of the Oracle)

When he was just a “small child”, the Doctors mother told him the story of Grandfather Paradox. The story scared the Doctor so much that he worried that Grandfather Paradox was hiding in various locations near where he lived. (The Gallifrey Chronicles)

In his childhood, the Doctor once watched a meteor storm on Gallifrey with his father. (TV Movie)


The Doctor and his close friend, the Master, used to play in the estates of the Master‘s father for days long. (The End Of Time) the Master would often hypnotise others, and the Doctor would un-hypnotise them, even though it was the Master who taught the Doctor hypnotism. (The Dark Path) The Doctor and the Master were bullied as children and the Doctor was forced to kill the bully Torvic to save his friend’s life. He was later confronted by Death, who insisted he become her disciple. The Doctor refused and asked for Death to take away his guilt, causing her to transfer the memory of committing the crime to the Master instead. The Doctor forgot he had ever made the deal. (Master)

He was also bullied by Anzor, who used a device called “the galvaniser” (a torture device) on his classmates to ensure that They did as he said. He particularly bullied the Doctor, forcing him to do his navigational homework as he was too stupid to do it himself. He used the galvaniser on the Doctor at least once, as he later threatened to “revive your memory of my galvaniser” to terrify him. (Mission to Magnus)


He attended the Time Lord Academy under the tutelage of Borusa and was a member of the Prydonian Chapter. (The Deadly Assassinthe Master was one of his classmates. (The Five Doctors) the Doctor did not have an impressive career at school, passing his qualifying exams to become a Time Lord with only 51% – the lowest possible pass mark – on the second attempt. (The Ribos Operation) However, this was revealed to be indirectly influenced by his brother, Braxiatel. The Doctor was jealous of his freedom to leave Gallifrey as an unofficial ambassador, and tried to follow the route that he had taken, but he was too impatient. He also realised that with Braxiatel already out in the universe, the Time Lords would not allow anyone else to go. Therefore, he deliberately scraped through the Academy with the bare minimum marks on the last permitted attempt, so as not to draw undue attention to himself, so he could eventually leave Gallifrey. (Tears of the Oracle)

During his first year At The Academy, the Doctor gained a troublesome reputation by trapping his teacher in a time-loop for a day. (Island of Death)

Still a “small boy”, the Doctor wrote a treatise on the chromosomal origins of love. His tutor said that he missed the point entirely and gave him a “rubbish” grade. (The Wormery)

When he was ninety, he visited the Medusa Cascade, later describing himself as “just a kid”. (The Stolen Earth) The Eighth Doctor stated that he was a terror until the age of 120, claiming that he was a late developer. (The Next Life)

At the Academy, he and the Master joined the Academy’s Hot 5 musical band, with the Doctor playing the lead perigosto whilst the Master played the drums. (Deadly Reunion) He once attended a party on the Moon of Korpal and met fellow academy student, Rummas. But he was too drunk to remember. Soon after, he and Rummas began sharing Borusa as a tutor. (Spiral Scratch)

On one occasion, he and the Master travelled into Gallifrey‘s history in search of Valdemar a dark mass of life created by the Old Ones in the higher dimensions, which swept across creation and wiped out the Old Ones. They met a surviving Old One, who warned them of Valdermar’s powers. The Doctor was shaken and was horrified that the Master seemed fascinated by it’s power. (Tomb of Valdemar)


The Doctor spent “centuries” At The Academy. (Mortal Beloved) While he was At The Academy, the Doctor received the nickname “Theta Sigma” or “Thete” from his friends in the Deca. He wasn’t always fond of this nickname. (The Armageddon FactorThe Happiness Patrol)

He was expelled for a time and relegated to traffic control for five centuries after his first encounter with the Celestial Toymaker in an act of youthful rebellion resulted in the ‘deaths’ of his friends Rallon and Millennia, but he returned to the Academy after receiving his doctorate in his spare time. (Divided Loyalties)

In year fifty At The Academy, the Doctor fed a snapping wart fowl to his fellow student Valyes’ summer project. Valyes held a grudge against him after that. (The Next Life)

The Doctor failed his time-travel proficiency lesson because he didn’t attend it, which made him unqualified to operate a TARDIS, and he also rejected an offer to retake the lesson. (Festival of Death)

The Doctor was a father at one point in his life (Fear Her), of both “sons and daughters”. (The Eleventh Tiger)

The Doctor had three grandchildren Susan (An Unearthly Child), John and Gillian, although John and Gillian were living on Earth and had no knowledge of him or their true origins. (An Unearthly ChildThe Klepton Parasites)

Sometime later in his life, the Doctor was considered a “superior” on Gallifrey. On one instance, he saved a glowing life form from being killed by other Gallifreyans, including his old friend Magnus, later known as the War Chief. (Flashback)



Before he departed from Gallifrey, the Doctor possessed a Type 50 TARDIS, which he abandoned when he left and became a renegade. (Prisoners of Fate)


These omissions are so great that The article’s factual accuracy has been compromised. Check out the discussion page and revision history for further clues about what needs to be updated in this article.

The Doctor was married to an unidentified individual, with Clara Oswald counting a fourth marriage alongside his successors’ wifes when trying to convince the Cybermen that she was the Doctor. (Death in Heaven) His tenth incarnation recalled being “terrible” at his own wedding. (Blink)

According to several accounts, the Doctor was a father at one point in his life, (Fear Her, The Doctors Daughter, Listen) of both “sons and daughters”. (The Eleventh Tiger) In his eleventh incarnation, the Doctor later recalled coming to the Rings of Akhaten “a long time ago with my granddaughter” after leaving Gallifrey, (The Rings of Akhaten) and Clara also referred to the Doctors “children and grandchildren”, who were “missing, and [she] assume[d], dead” by the time of the Doctors twelfth incarnation. (Death in Heaven)

The Doctor had three known grandchildren: Susan, (An Unearthly Child) John and Gillian. (The Klepton Parasites) Susan specifically identified the Doctor as her grandfather, (An Unearthly Child, “The Escape”) as did Barbara Wright, (An Unearthly Child, “Hidden Danger”) Ian Chesterton, (“The Ambush”, “Kidnap”) Ping-Cho (“The Wall of Lies”) and the Doctor himself, (“The Brink of Disaster”) while the Doctor likewise considered Susan to be his grandchild, (“The Rescue“, Marco Polo, The Sensorites, “Flashpoint”) as did the First Elder. (“Hidden Danger”).

However, other conflicting accounts explained that Susan was not the Doctors grandchild, with one stating Susan was a young Time Lady from the Doctors own time whom the Doctor had rescued, (Birth of a Renegade) and another explaining she was from the time period of her grandfather the Other. (Lungbarrow)

After his friend, the Master, had a daughter of his own, the Doctor gave him a cameo brooch made of Dark star alloy. (The Witch’s Familiar)


Several versions of the Doctors departure from Gallifrey were known.

One account depicted the Doctor living as a lowly Scrutationary Archivist of the Bureau of Possible Events, and disowned by his family in the House of Lungbarrow. In order to replace the disowned Doctor, his family loomed another cousin, Owis. After an encounter with a gloating Glospin, he revealed that There was genetic evidence to suggest that The Doctor didn’t originally come from the Lungbarrow Loom, and intended to use it to get the Doctor executed for Loom-jumping. During a fight between the two, the Hand of Omega arrived to attack Glospin, giving the Doctor the opportunity to escape in a Type 40 TARDIS with the Hand of Omega. The Hand piloted the TARDIS to the Dark Time on Gallifrey to collect&nbspSusan, who was the granddaughter of the Other. Susan believed the Doctor was a reincarnation of the Other, and began travelling the universe with him. (LungbarrowLegacy of the Daleks)



The Doctor, innocent of the students’ revolt, was too highly respected to be terminated like the other students. It was decided to wipe parts of his memory. Bloody reprisals against the students followed, and the Doctor decided to leave Gallifrey in a TARDIS. As it happened, the Lady Larn was hiding in the same TARDIS that The Doctor stole; the Doctor knew her as Susan and she affectionately called him “grandfather”. (Birth of a RenegadeTime & Time Again)

Another account suggests the Doctor broke the Time Lords’ law on non-interference and faced being erased from history by his brother Braxiatel.


Another account showed the Doctor, already with Susan, ready to steal a faulty TARDIS in a repair shop on Gallifrey. In the process of leaving Gallifrey, the Doctor was going to steal a newer TARDIS model until an incarnation of Clara Oswald advised him to steal the Type 40 with a faulty navigation system instead, as it would be much more fun. This account also showed the Doctor already wearing Edwardianera dress before he visited Earth. (The Name of the Doctor)

He grew a bond with this TARDIS that would last for centuries. When the Doctor first entered the TARDIS, he described it as “the most beautiful thing I ever saw”. (The Doctors Wife)




The Doctor met humans for the first time on the planet Iwa when he and Susan were seperated, In his search for Susan, the Doctor found a human medical colony. The principal work of the facility, called “the Refuge”, was to rehabilitate patients identified as “Future Deviants”. By undergoing dream therapy, it was hoped that such individuals would not become criminals. The Doctor soon learned the residents were besieged by fox-like aliens who could disintegrate and reconstitute their bodies.

Taking him inside their compound, the humans stripped him of his clothes and burned them, citing possible contamination by the “foxes”. They gave him new clothes drawn from their own supply.

This meant that he was now wearing the garb of a doctor. When they assumed that he was sent by Earth to help them, he agreed. Not wishing to give them his real name, he referenced his new clothes to derive a title: “the Doctor”. The Doctor assumed this alias, because he described it as an honourable profession amongst his own people.

He agreed to help them with their “fox problem” if they would help him find his granddaughter. They discovered “Susan” had become trapped in the colonists’ “dream chambers”, medical devices that put patients into deep sleep and linked them in one communal dream. Inside the dream chamber, the Doctors granddaughter met a human colonist named Jill, who promptly gave the young girl the name “Susan“, after Jill’s own mother.

Eventually the newly-named Doctor and Susan were reunited.


Some time after their first meeting with humans, the Doctor and his granddaughter began to study Earth and humans more closely. One of their first trips to Earth was to the British coastal town of Keelmouth in 1933. There, they vacationed at a bed and breakfast called “Bide-a-Wee”. Another of its guests was a time traveller named Prentice.

He had used his technology to displace Keelmouth in time; the village was in 1933, but the surrounding world was in 1999 Prentice’s aims were not precisely evil — he just wanted to retire in a place where it was always a small British village in 1933 — but the Doctor and Susan had to convince Prentice to reverse the effect, because his retirement fantasy wasn’t fair to the people he had trapped alongside him. (Bide-a-Wee)




The Doctor and Susan went to ancient Rome, Mexico, Antioch, Jerusalem (Byzantium!) and Akhaten. (The Rings of Akhaten)



They met Siger Holmes, father of Sherlock Holmes. (All-Consuming Fire)

Soon after, the Doctor and Susan visited 16th century Germany and saved Martin Luther King from two assassination attempts whilst attending his trial. (The Price of Conviction) and they visited 1955 and discovered the alien “Shakers” had been in leauge with the British Goverment since World War II. (Losing the Audience)

Visiting Earth again in 1979, the dematerialisation circuit was fried while the TARDIS was orbiting Earth. The TARDIS was taken on-board a Slarvian ransport, and the two Time Lords learned that The snail-like species planned to conquer Earth by hatching their eggs all over the planet. Their plan failed because the Slarvian ship crashed into the English Channel, making the threat localised to England. With the help of the humans Linda Grainger and her grandfather Edward Grainger, who had met the Doctor many times in his future incarnations although the Doctor was yet to meet him, the Doctor and Susan stopped the Slarvianeggs from hatching. (Childhood Living)

Soon after, they unwittingly travelled to Paris in the 22nd century, where they became embroiled in political intrigue in the run-up to an election in the city of Urrozdinee. Departing after the incumbent had been killed, they never quite understood that The city they had visited was what had once been known as EuroDisney. (Urrozdinee)

At this point, the Doctor had realised that “the TARDIS assaults the mind of anyone, but its owner and his familiars.” As a result, he and Susan had been losing their memory since they began travelling in the TARDIS. This prompted their search for somewhere to take residence and recover from the memory loss. (Echoes of Future Past) Their loss of memory would stay for sometime after settling in London. (Time and Relative)


Soon after this, they made a short trip to the planet Tacunda. There, they uncovered a jewel called a “Blessing Star”. This crystal altered the laws of probability around the holder, essentially making their dreams come true. The Doctor tried the device, wishing that he could pilot the TARDIS to 20th century Earth. He was successful at piloting the ship for one of the only times in this incarnation’s existence. Unfortunately, it completely fried the navigational system, stranding the Doctor and Susan in I.M. Foreman’s junk yard in Totter’s Lane, London in the 1960s. (The Rag and Bone Man’s Story)

In 1962, the Doctor and Susan took up residence in a Totters Lane junkyard in Shoreditch, London to allow Susan to complete her education, and so the Doctor could effect repairs and build missing components for the TARDIS. (An Unearthly ChildTime and Relative) While based in London, the Doctor hid the Hand of Omega, a powerful Time Lord artefact that he had taken from Gallifrey. (Remembrance Of The DaleksTime & Time Again)

Although he was known to be unsociable and unlikely to travel outward, this did not stop his search for knowledge. He at least once visited a library (The Vampires of Venice) and a public theatre, where he once got into a fight with a lady, (Who is Doctor Who?)

Just before starting classes at Coal Hill School, The Doctor and Susan took a couple of trips to the European mainland.




Soon after the time of his arrival, a Dalek had discovered him. The Doctors seventh incarnation also appeared in his past self’s life on a mission from the White Guardian to steal the TARDIS Instruction Manual. Unbeknownst to the First Doctor, the Seventh Doctor saved him from the Dalek and made off with the instruction manual in the confusion. (Time & Time Again)

At some point during 1963, he was placed on trial for murder as a result of killing a werewolf with a silver bullet. He was acquitted by the jury which was made up partly of his future selves, specifically his secondthirdfifth and eighth incarnations. (The Juror’s Story)

The Doctor began investigating an alien insect and planned to take it home. His later abscondment from the 1960s prevented him from doing so. He wouldn’t deal with the insect until he was in his fourth incarnation. (Those Left Behind)

The Doctor and Susan got lost at night in the dense fog. They met a girl named Joan Calder and sheltered at her home, where they met her mother and grandfather. During the visit the house burst into flames. On the Doctors instruction, Susan broke a mirror in the house. The elder Calder crumbled into ash and the fire abated. Although the Doctor never was able to adequately explain the event, it was related to the fact that The house had in fact been levelled during the London Blitz two decades earlier. The Doctor postulated that Susan‘s action likely saved the lives of Joan and her mother. (Ash)


While Susan was attending Coal Hill School, London was consumed by winter weather in the middle of spring, as a result of an extra-dimensional called the Cold awakening. After being coerced by Susan, the Doctor reluctantly decided to interfere in events, and defeated the Cold by depositing it on Pluto in the far future, before it destroyed all humanity on Earth. After these events, it opened the Doctors mind to the possibilities of getting involved in events more often. Although, it did make him more paranoid about people discovering their secret, since he was aware that The Time Lords would be alert for any signs of interference. (Time and Relative)


Whilst Susan attended Coal Hill School, the Doctor and she continued to reside at 76 Totter’s Lane. Two of Susan‘s teachers Ian Chesterson and Barbara Wright, followed her home and confronted the Doctor. He launched the TARDIS, kidnapping them so they couldn’t tell anyone about Susan and him. They travelled to prehistoric times.


The Doctor thanked Old Mother when she freed them, but grew miserable whilst trekking through the Forest of Fear. When Za was wounded by a tiger, the Doctor initially refused to help him. He picked up a rock and was seemingly ready to kill Za, until Ian stopped him. The Doctor claimed he was about going to have the injured man draw a map back to the TARDIS. (An Unearthly Child) However, a meeting with his eighth incarnation in a time bubble – created when the two Doctors met – convinced him otherwise. (The Eight Doctors) Recaptured and placed back in the cave, the Doctor tricked Kal into revealing he had killed the Old Mother. The Doctor helped Ian with an escape plan, and the travellers made it back to the TARDIS. (An Unearthly Child)


The Doctor was unable to return Ian and Barbara to their original place and time. When the TARDIS landed on Skaro, he lied about the fluid link needing more mercury, when there was nothing wrong, so he could explore a nearby city. In the city, the Doctor and his friends were captured by the Daleks, confiscating the fluid link they brought along.

Having escaped, they assisted the Daleks enemy, the Thals in their attack on the Dalek city. The Daleks‘ power supply was damaged in the attack. The Daleks died and their plans to flood the atmosphere with radiation failed. However, this was not the last the Doctor seen of the Daleks, as he would go on to battle them many times in his future, and they would become his greatest enemy. (The Daleks)

With the fluid link retrieved, the Doctor left Skaro forEarth, using the fast return switch. The spring in the switch was damaged, causing it to be stuck. The TARDIS was sent to the beginning of a solar system and everyone was knocked out in the trip. The TARDIS tried warning the crew about the atoms forming around them when they came to, but the Doctor assumed that this was Ian and Barbara‘s sabotage of the ship. Once Barbara figured out what was going on, the Doctor fixed the spring and apologised to his human companions, ending the fault. (“The Rescue“, The Edge of Destruction) After this incident, the Doctors relationship with Barbara and Ian became more warm, and he began to learn and respect their humanity. (Hunters of the Burning Stone)


The Doctor landed on an island on Marinus Arbitan.  asked them to search for the keys to the reprogrammed Conscience of Marinus to regain control over the Voord, as all of his other followers and family members failed to retrieve them. Arbitan trapped the TARDIS in a forcefield, preventing the Doctor and his companions’ escape.


The Doctor jumped ahead to Millennius, the location of the final key, to find Eprin. Once Ian had found two more keys, he was knocked out and framed for Eprin’s murder. The Doctor stood as defence at Ian‘s trial, but Ian was sentenced to death. The Doctor learnt that one of the conspirators in the murder, the prosecutor, Eyesen, was ready to collect one of the keys and Ian was spared execution. The guards captured Eyesen and the last key was found in the mace that killed Eprin.


The Doctor and his companions arrived in an Aztec temple in Mexico. They went through a one-way passage that prevented access to the TARDIS. Barbara posed as the Aztec god, Yetaxa, with the others as her servants, to find a way back. Barbara tried and failed to change the Aztecs’ history of human sacrifice for the better, which the Doctor strongly advised her against. Susan was to be punished for denying marriage to the Perfect Victim of the Aztecs’ sacrifice and Ian to be executed when he was framed by the High Priest of Sacrifice, Tlotoxl, for attacking the High Priest of Knowledge, Autloc. Autloc’s faith in Yetaxa was shattered, and he left for the wilderness.





The Doctor and Ian later followed by Barbara, went to the aqueducts where belladonna had been growing. They found the human expedition and pretended to be a welcoming party for them and that The “war” against the Sensorites was won. The expedition were taken into custody on Maitland’s ship. Maitland’s ship was free to leave and the TARDIS crew had regained their lock. (The Sensorites)



The Doctor rescued Joseph Rennigan, the sole survivor of an American space mission that crashed on Mars, leaving Joseph convinced that The Doctor and his three friends were hallucinations. (Rennigan’s Record)

Starting to feel guilty about taking Barbara and Ian away from everyone and everything they know, the Doctor made sure Barbara‘s mother, Joan Wright, knew that her daughter was alive and happy. (A Long Night)

The Doctor later visited a dying world, where Barbara was infected by an alien parasite which disorted her memories. However, the Doctor was able to free her of the infection. (Nothing At The End of the Lane)



The Doctor next travelled to London during World War II and discovered the Bansharai, alien shapeshifters who survived on emotions, had been posing as dead people to make the wishes of their loved ones come true, also posing as Barbara‘s father. (Tell Me You Love Me)





The Doctor and his companions next travelled into Earth‘s future; in London during the time of the 22nd century Dalek invasion, Susan met David Campbell, a young resistance fighter against the Daleks. Realising she would be better off not facing the dangers of travelling with him, and recognising she was no longer a child, the Doctor reluctantly left her behind. (The Dalek Invasion of Earth) Although he later reunited with her briefly for an adventure on Gallifrey, (The Five Doctors) he continued to regret this decision for centuries to come (The Forgotten) and even slept through a materialisation because of his sorrow. (The Rescue) Shortly after leaving Susan in the 22nd century, the Doctor travelled to Venus three billion years in the past to attend the funeral of his old friend Dharkhig. There, the Doctor, Ian and Barbara became embroiled in the VenusIans’ conflict with their would-be saviours, theSou(ou)shi. (VenusIan Lullaby)


Travelling on with his two human companions, the Doctor went on the trail of an energy being known as the Vril and followed it to 1553 England, where he, Ian and Barbara met Queen of England, Jane Grey. Defeating the Vril, who had possessed the Duke of Northumberland, the Doctor resisted the urge to alter Jane’s fate, instead being by her side as she died. (The Nine-Day Queen)


The Doctor had a second encounter with River Song during his travels with Ian and Barbara. This time, River wiped his memory with mnemosine recall-wipe vapour so the timeline would remain intact. (The Eternity Clock)



The TARDIS crew eventually landed on Vortis, where they encountered the Zarbi and the Animus, (The Web Planet) and met Richard The Lionheart in the 12th century. (The Crusade)

The Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Vicki then travelled to 1868, where they attended a lecture by Thomas Huxley. The four Of them travelled into the London Underground to investigate a group of missing students and discovered that The Zarbi had populated themselves in the there. Travelling further into the sewers, they found the Animus, who had reformed itself and had moved to Earth to take revenge on the human race. Ian was able to kill it by driving a train into it. The Doctor and his companions prepared to leave, but the Doctor discovered that his companions were missing; having been pulled out of time byan entity. (Prisoners of Time)

The Doctor and his companions continued to explore alien worlds and Earth‘s past. On one occasion they landed on Xeros, only to find their future selves exhibits in display cases. They began trying to avoid this version of the future. The Doctor was taken by the Moroks to be prepared for the exhibit but he was rescued by Ian. They were recaptured but the Xerons rebelled and freed them. Thus they prevented their own future. (The Space Museum)

Soon after, the Doctor and the rest of the TARDIS crew found themselves being followed through time by the Daleks, who built a time machine in order to follow the TARDIS through time. After many different trips and landings, the crew were able to defeat The Daleks. Following the encounter, the Doctor successfully programmed a Dalek time machine to take Ian and Barbara back home. (The Chase) At this time he gained another new companion in Steven Taylor, and met another Time Lord, The Monk (The Time Meddler)



The Doctor was pulled out of time by the Time Lords, who wanted his help in getting the Second and Third Doctor to work together to stop Omega. (The Three Doctors) His memories were wiped and he was returned to Steven and Vicki. (The Empire of Glass)

After arriving on a doomed planet with Drahvin and Rills, (Galaxy 4) Vicki fell in love, and decided to leave the TARDIS to remain in Troy. It was in Troy where the Doctor and Steven met Katarina who decided to travel with them. (The Myth Makers) Soon after, the Doctor entered into an epic struggle against the Daleks that saw the deaths of two of his companions, Katarina and Space Agent Sara Kingdom. The Doctor was also greatly aged by the Time Destructor, enough to turn a human to dust. (The Daleks’ Master Plan)



The TARDIS materialised in London in 1966. There they encountered the Fulgurites, who were involved in the trafficking of humans across the galaxy for slave labour with the full knowledge of the British government. The Doctor and Steven put an end to the Fulgurites’ activities with the assistance of a young city trader named Oliver Harper, who joined the TARDIS crew. (The Perpetual BondThe Cold Equations) Oliver travelled with the Doctor and Steven briefly. He met his death At The hands of the Vardans on the asteroid Grace Alone while saving his companions‘ lives. (The First Wave)


This added additional strain to his relationship with Steven, who briefly left the TARDIS following a subsequent bloody adventure. Steven almost immediately returned however, and with new companion Dodo Chaplet, the Doctor continued their travels. (The Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Eve) Together they encountered humans from the far future, (The Ark) the Celestial Toymaker, (The Celestial Toymaker) famous characters from the American Wild West, (The Gunfighters) and travelled to Kiev in the 13th century. (Bunker Soldiers)

It was after this struggle with the Toymaker that The Doctor felt he was nearing the end of his first life, and became increasingly unwell. (The Man in the Velvet Mask) Steven eventually left the Doctor, albeit on better terms. (The Savages) Soon after, the Doctor faced the mad computer WOTAN and its war machines in 1960s London. After he was forced to leave an injured Dodo (who was controlled by WOTAN) on modern-day Earth, where he picked up the final companions of his first incarnation, Polly Wright and Ben Jackson. (The War Machines)



The Doctor and his new friends then got caught up with a band of smugglers. (The Smugglers) and continued to travel together, arriving on their first alien planet. (Ten Little Aliens)

After he dropped Ben and Polly off, the Doctor began travelling on his own with the ability to pilot the TARDIS effectively, as a favour granted to him by Rassilon as he was approaching his first regeneration. He took this opportunity to revisit Rebecca Nurse, (The Witch Hunters) and meets several future incarnations. (Five Card Draw)

Visiting Cambridge, the Doctor visited a Time Lord called Professor Chronotis, unaware that The Professor had just had an adventure with his fourth incarnation. (Cambridge Previsited)

The Doctor next met a writer called John Lucarotti and told him about his adventure in France At The time of the Huguenot massacre and inspiring the writer to take a trip to Samarkhand. (The Meeting)



Trying to return them home, the Doctor crashed the TARDIS on an alien planet, where he and his grandchildren met Grig and accompanied him on a quest to find the oldest TherovIan in existence who possessed a cure for a disease that had crippled the Theros population. After battling the Great Ixa, the Doctor and Grig found the cure, saving the Theros civilisation. (The Therovian Quest)

Investigating the disappearance of seven Earth spaceships in 2075, the Doctor and his grandchildren were taken prisoner by Captain Anastas Thrax and his pirates, who had been drawing ships off course and selling their cargo. Alongside a band of prisoners, the Doctor overpowered Anasta’s ship and had him arrested. (The Hijackers of Thrax)

After travelling alone for a while, the Doctor resumed his travels with Ben and Polly.

Suffering from nightmares about his father, the Doctor next travelled to a planet he had been running from for so long – Gallifrey, where he met his K’anpo Rimpoche, his old mentor, and was offered a chance to return to his life on Gallifrey before his abscondment, rewriting his own past and erasing his travels in time and space. Resisting temptation, the Doctor ran from Gallifrey once again, and continued “running” in his TARDIS. However, he now had the knowledge that his first regeneration was approaching. (The Three Paths)

The Doctor also had nightmares for years about an elderly lady who had been covered in veils after she died on a hot day, with the heat causing flies to swarm around her corpse. (Heaven Sent)

According to the First Doctor himself when asked by a glass avatar of Bill Potts what he was running to instead of away from, “I left Gallifrey to answer a question of my own. By any analysis evil should always win. Good is not a practical survival strategy, it requires loyalty, self-sacrifice, love. And so why does good prevail? What keeps the balance between good and evil in this appalling universe? Is there some kind of logic, some mysterious force?” Upon hearing this, Bill suggested that it was “some bloke” who went around fixing the universe when it was needed. The Doctor didn’t understand that Bill believed that it was the Doctor himself that maintained this balance, something that Bill would note that none of his incarnations would realise even when everyone who ever met them understood this fact.

Unknown to Ben or Polly, the Doctor had started his first regeneration, Mondas having drained his strength. The Doctor, scared to change, decided to halt the process, determined to not become a different person.

The First Doctor finally understood that “that’s what it means to be a Doctor of War.” “You were right you know: the universe generally fails to be a fairytale. But that’s where we come in,” confided the Twelfth Doctor. After watching the Armistice for a few hours, the Doctors shook hands, at which time both of their hands started glowing with regeneration energy. The First Doctor admitted that he was finally ready, but questioned his future self on his decision. The Twelfth Doctor stated that The First Doctor would have to find out “the long way round” and was wished luck by his predecessor before the First Doctor departed to his TARDIS.

When the Twelfth Doctor declared the Earth to be protected, the Doctor didn’t understand whom his future self meant, showing that The Doctor never even considered it to be himself. The Twelfth Doctor would refer to his predecessor as “early days” as an explanation for this.

However, after his future self altered time slightly to save the lives of two men, the Doctor was amazed rather than angry and took his future self’s meddling to be a good indicator of the man he would eventually become.

While the Twelfth Doctor once considered his first incarnation to have been “eccentric, a bit mad, [and] rude to people.” (Hell Bent) upon meeting him, he treated his past incarnation with respect, but was rather shocked at some of his mannerisms, particularly his lack of political correctness.

After learning about his future self’s history as “the Doctor of War,” the Doctor was shocked and horrified, but continued working closely with his future self, even confiding in him. By learning about his future self, the Doctor let his fears go, accepting regeneration and change.

Near his life’s end, the Doctor feared regeneration and what he would become to the point that he resisted it. During an encounter with his future self, the Doctor admitted his fear, something he stated he would never usually admit to someone else. The Doctor’s fears grew upon learning that he would become known as “the Doctor of War” and seeing images of some of the conflicts that he would participate in. However, after witnessing his future self alter time slightly to save the lives of two men in the middle of a battlefield, the Doctor finally understood what he would become and what “the Doctor of War” truly was. Seeing his future, though he would not remember it, inspired the Doctor to let his fears go and accept his regeneration.

Unlike his successors, he was more “hands free”, relying less on devices like the sonic screwdriver and sonic sunglasses in favour of using his own eyes and intellect, which proved superior to the Twelfth Doctor’s when analysing the Testimony. As a result , the Doctor did not understand such devices or how to use them. He was also capable of delaying regeneration for several hours, staying in the “state of grace” it provided longer than the Twelfth Doctor, still able to move around without displaying any fatigue despite the process somewhat altering his appearance.

A major skill the Doctor lacked was the ability to correctly pilot his TARDIS which caused many problems for the Doctor and his companions over their adventures as he could not control the TARDIS to return them home. As demonstrated by the Twelfth Doctor, the First Doctor simply lacked the skill to properly fly the TARDIS. Having had centuries more experience, the Twelfth Doctor was able to pilot the First Doctor’s TARDIS with ease to the center of the universe, amazing the First Doctor at his future self’s skill and the ease with which he could do it. (Twice Upon a Time)

The Doctor departed his future self, and entered the TARDIS after catching the fading image of his late companion Oliver Harper. (The First Wave) Now inside the TARDIS and losing more of his strength as the TARDIS’ controls operate on their own, he managed to set the coordinates to return it to Antarctica in 1986. Glowing with regeneration energy, he opened the doors for Ben and Polly. “Well then, here we go, the long way round,” stated the Doctor before collapsing unconscious to the floor.(Twice Upon a Time ,The Tenth Planet). As his twelfth incarnation recalled, his first regeneration was when he realised that “[he] wasn’t who [he] thought [he] was”. The Doctor’s regeneration felt like “the end of everything” as every particle in his body was dying. (Blood and Ice) Before the astonished eyes of his friends, the Doctor regenerated for the first time, transforming into a much younger man, (The Tenth Planet) At The age of 450-years-old. (Iceberg) As noted by the Twelfth Doctor to his original incarnation the Doctor would not remember the meeting between both himself and the Twelfth Doctor after he had regenerated. (Twice Upon a Time)


  • At some point, the Doctor visited Dido. (The Rescue)
  • The Doctor camped out on Mars, but had to leave the camp material there when the TARDIS had a malfunction and almost left without him. (Please Shut the Gate)
  • The First Doctor visited Mondas. (Byzantium!)
  • The First Doctor attended the funeral of Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. The Gift)
  • Before he met Ian and Barbara, the Doctor argued with Henry VIII and was sent to theTower of London, where he could escape in the TARDIS. (Strangers in Space”)
  • River Song considered the First Doctor to be boring, because he spent his time hanging out with teachers. (The Eternity Clock)


  • In an alternate timeline created by the Black Guardian as revenge on the Doctor, the First Doctor never left Gallifrey, and eventually became Lord President. However, it also left Earth to be invaded by countless aliens, who were then in war over the planet. The Seventh Doctor, Benny, and Ace, with instructions from the White Guardian, were able to retrieve the Key to Time to set the timeline straight. (Time & Time Again)
  • A sculpture of his head appeared in the 1993 special for Children In Need titled Dimensions In Time.

The character did make appearances in the CDs for Big Finish in Auld Mortality and Storm of Angels played by Geoffrey Bayldon.

The actor is played by David Bradley in the 50th Anniversary drama An Adventure In Space And Time, a documentary on how the show was first created.

Memorable Quotes

We are not of this race, not of this world, we are wonderers in the fourth dimension of Space and Time


The DaleksThe AztecsThe AztecsThe ChaseThe ChaseThe Daleks' Master PlanThe Daleks' Master PlanThe ArkThe War MachinesThe War Machines

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