“It all started out as a mild curiosity in a junkyard, now it’s turned out to be quite a great spirit of adventure don’t you think?”
In the final volume of Once & Future (a fantastic comic with some jaw-dropping art and a zombie King Arthur, check it out), writer Kieron Gillen talked about how characters can be divided into two camps, iconic and dramatic. Iconic characters are simple, they have a set way of viewing/interacting with the world, it’s just the circumstances around them that change. Think Batman or Sherlock Holmes (actually a lot of detectives fit in this category) they’re never really going to change but the fun of their stories is in seeing them dropped into new and interesting surroundings. Dramatic characters on the other hand are on a journey, think of any drama ever. Who the character is at the start of the story is a vastly different person than who they are at the end, at least they are if they’ve been written properly.
I’ll argue that on the whole the Doctor is an iconic character. Doesn’t matter where they go in time and space or what face they have, they are fundamentally the same person. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t iterations of the Doctor that lean more dramatic. The First Doctor for example, as played by William Hartnell, is a dramatic character. He goes from being selfish and self-serving (check out my last post for more details on that) in ‘An Unearthly Child’, to standing defiant while all those around him run for cover in ‘The War Machines’. The Doctor is a hero, but it’s when they were the First Doctor that they learned how to be heroic, so let’s talk about that.
When we first meet the Doctor he can at best be described as self-interested. His primary goal in travelling about the universe is to sate his own scientific curiosity, even if that means putting others at risk. Just look at ‘The Daleks’ when he lies about needing mercury just so he has an excuse to explore the mysterious city. Yet the minute things get dangerous he’s all for running back to the TARDIS and getting out of there. He’s not interested in the places he lands or in solving their problems, not at first. It’s his interactions with other people, and the example given him by Ian and Barbara that slowly begins to change him. Ian and Barbara are good people, brave and compassionate and I feel they make the Doctor aware of some of his own failings, so much so that as he comes to accept them as friends he also accepts their way of viewing the world.
As their travels continue, the Doctor’s more kindly grandfather side begins to show through, which brings us to another aspect of his character. To call the Doctor overprotective of his granddaughter is to call the Atlantic ocean a paddling pool, it’s a gross understatement. There is clearly a lot of love there, but it so often manifests as the Doctor making decisions for Susan rather than letting her decide for herself. Her exit is the best example I can give for this, after defeating the Daleks in ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’, Susan is torn between her growing feelings for David and her desire to stay with her grandfather. Rather than talking to her about this though, the Doctor decides to remove her agency entirely by locking her out of the TARDIS and speaking to her over the monitor.
To me this exposes one of the critical flaws with this Doctor, despite how compassionate he’s become, he is terrified of his own feelings. He can’t bare to see Susan go, so he runs away into the TARDIS and gives the goodbye from a safe place, his comfort zone. This is shown again when Ian and Barbara want to leave after another run in with the Daleks. At first the Doctor point blank refuses to help them take the Dalek time machine back to the 1960s London, but with a little gentle persuasion from Vicki he eventually comes round, though he’s clearly not happy about it. Even as they leave the Doctor can’t bring himself to watch them go, walking away with his back turned.
I don’t want to make it sound like I’m bashing on the First Doctor, he is a flawed character certainly, but that’s what makes him so interesting to me. My appreciation for this era of the show has only grown over the decades, and there is a great deal of fun to be had here. While the First Doctor likes to put across the image of a stern, wise elder the truth is he’s really just a big kid. Whether it’s hiding in a Dalek casing, tweaking the nose of authority figures or just having a good laugh with his companions, the more this Doctor travels the more joy he finds. His travels are no longer just about satisfying his curiosity, but also appreciating the times and places he lands in.
All in all, while the First Doctor may first appear to be the grumpy grandpa, self-serious and only interested in his own intellectual curiosity, eventually his travels and his companions bring out the best in him. He gains a taste for adventure and a mirthful spirit that was perhaps always there but certainly shines through more and more. He begins to open up and care more, taking on the example of his friends. Of course for every friend he makes there is also a goodbye and this exposes the Doctor’s inability to cope with this new found openness. Struggling to watch dear friends go, either choosing to do it entirely on his terms or refusing to look back. This Doctor is young, he is inexperienced, but he is learning and building the foundation for the hero to come. But what do you think? How do you see the First Doctor and are there any characteristics you want to highlight? Leave them in the comments below.
I’m Chris Joynson, aka Neverarguewithafish, I’m a writer and blogger and if you want to chat with me you can find me on twitter @ChrisGJoynson. See you out there in the vortex.
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