The First and Twelfth Doctors may have to work together in the Doctor Who Christmas special but they’re also going to find themselves clashing – over the original Time Lord’s outdated views about women.


“What we did emphasise [about the First Doctor] was the old fashioned nature and how he is from the 60s,” revealed David Bradley, who plays the part opposite Peter Capaldi’s more enlightened incarnation.

“He goes into the Twelfth Doctor’s Tardis and says ‘it’s a bit dusty around here, it’s in an awful state isn’t it? Where’s Polly? Shouldn’t she give it a spring clean?’ And then Peter’s saying ‘you can’t say that’.

“[The First Doctor] brings all his 60s sensibilities, what’s lovingly called casual chauvinism,” said Bradley, speaking at the London Film and Comic Con. “He’s just talking [as if] the [companions] are there just to help out, and do the dusting and do all the domestic chores – his attitudes to a lot of things come right from the 60s, so there’s a lot of conflict between Hartnell’s Doctor and Peter’s Doctor about how things have changed in the last 50 years… we had quite a bit of fun with that.”

We can only hope that the First Doctor is around long enough to see who the Twelfth regenerates into…


David Bradley was speaking at the London Film & Comic Con