William Hartnell was not that eld. I was amazed when I found out he was 55 when Doctor Who started. I thought David Bradley wasn’t old enough to play him then I found out he is almost 20 years older.
He was younger than Capaldi, but he was a heavy smoker and drinker with a lot of health issues that eventually ended his tenure on the show. And if anyone hasn’t seen Adventures in Time and Space, watch it immediately, it gives all the context for the gestation of the show aand how the classic elements came about, and it’s funny and happy and sad and moving and just wonderfully done.
Hartnell was made to look a lot older than he really was with makeup and a wig. Here’s what he really looked like.
Also, this is relevant and hilarious…- YouTube
The Tom Baker era is grand good fun!
It’s all about Patrick Troughton for me.
Just you wait 'till you get to Tom Baker. Or John Pertwee, for that matter. If you’re enjoying the classics, you might like Rowan Atkinson’s (aka Mr. Bean’s/Blackadder’s) glorious spoof.
Are you watching the reconstructions of the lost episodes? If I were doing what you are doing, there’s no way I wouldn’t. Everything slotted in exactly where it goes.
It’s the Brigadier!
Nobody’s pounced on this one yet?
Jon Pertwee was the Third Doctor. The Second was Patrick Troughton. You’re right about Sean’s successful career.
Other trivia: the kid who played Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter movies is Patrick Troughton’s grandson. Troughton’s sons, David and Michael, are also distinguished actors.
Jeez, really? I guess fifty-five was a whole lot older in 1963 than it is now…
Season one done.
Season two (of the classic one) being started now.
Well, give us a little rundown or mini review of what you thought, then. What fun are threads like this without a bit of vicariousness?
[quote=“glee, post:5, topic:736691”]
William Hartnell (first Doctor) thought it was a risk playing the part - he was an established actor in ‘hard man’ roles.
See, I’ve heard the opposite: he had been typecast as tough guy/drill sergeant/grim detective-type for twenty years (since his biggest role in The Way Ahead (1943) and he longed to do something else. Even when he had a role in the TV comedy The Army Game, his character, a sergeant-major, wasn’t allowed to be funny. So when Verity Lambert offered him the role, he was intrigued, even if he wasn’t immediately convinced.
The movies should be enjoyed as a lark, but are not considered in any way part of the milieau. Mindless fluff at best.
Drinking game - take a shot every time one of the companions says:
“Doctor, what is it?”
or
“What is it, Doctor?”
I knew that don’t know why I put 2nd.
David Troughton is one of a couple of people who had roles in the original run and the recent series. He had a minor role with his father. He had a much larger role in a Pertwee story line. Then he was in a David Tennant episode. I remember him mostly as Wellington in the various Sharpe series.