William Hartnell does not rank highly in the ‘Best Doctor’ polls. His reputation is somewhat lessened by the notion that his successor was the first modern Doctor, that he often forgot his lines and was simply a cantankerous old git, not the energetic hero the character would eventually become.

I’m here to say that this is simply wrong. He is the Doctor. He is a cantankerous old git and the energetic hero.

Okay, so he doesn’t do much running around, but he still commands the screen. He’s sharper of mind than many a Doctor, to the extent that he seems wiser than his older selves. At the same time, he’s an aggressive, mysterious old man who’s quite capable of taking a sudden strop. Oddly, this seems to put people off Hartnell, but in younger Doctors it’s seen as a mark of good acting. And Hartnell is full of good acting.