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Doctor Who: David Bradley’s First Doctor – better on TV or on audio?

By James Aggas

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David Bradley starred as the First Doctor in both the TV episode Twice Upon a Time and the audio series The First Doctor Adventures by Big Finish. But which is the preferable interpretation?

(Photo credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: BBC.)

Currently, we have two key interpretations of David Bradley’s take on the First Doctor – one on television, and one on audio. But which medium is his version of the Doctor strongest?

Very soon, volume two of Doctor Who: The First Doctor Adventures will be released. I’m very excited about this, especially as the first volume was so incredibly strong. David Bradley’s performance was particularly brilliant at capturing the spirit of William Hartnell himself.

Then it got me thinking. Out of the two interpretations that Bradley has given so far – namely the episode Twice Upon a Time and The First Doctor Adventures – which is the stronger? Let’s take a look.

Twice Upon a Time

There’s a lot to like about Bradley’s performance in Twice Upon a Time. Seeing it visually, he’s very keen to get many of William Hartnell’s mannerisms exactly right. There’s a lot of physicality to the performance, without overdoing it. He also gets a lot of the physical and vocal quirks of Hartnell’s original performance perfectly.

The best and most authentic moment of Twice Upon a Time has to be when he makes his big speech to Bill about morality, particularly the nature of good and evil in the universe. What’s particularly brilliant about this moment is how much it captures the spirit of the First Doctor.

If you watch the early stories, particularly with Ian and Barbara, he was initially less interested in typical viewpoints of “good” or “evil”. He was far from the hero he was meant to become, at least in the beginning. One line from The Edge of Destruction particularly stands out:

"One man’s law is another mans’ crime."

So the speech that he gives to Bill, of initially looking at the universe and seeing good and evil in a more distant way than with later incarnations, suits his Doctor completely.

Bad jokes

Where the characterization doesn’t quite work is with the sexist “jokes” that Moffat felt compelled to include. After all, he’s from the Sixties, and he’s bound to have said a few embarrassing things at some point, right?

Perhaps not as much as you’d expect. I’ve gone into even more detail on why many of his lines felt out of character before.

Even a line that was quoted from the original series, about giving Bill a “jolly good smacked bottom”, was originally said to his granddaughter. While it still doesn’t make it OK, taking a line of horrendously old-fashioned family discipline and placing it in a completely different context by directing it at a stranger just made it far, far worse.

Was this enough to destroy the character completely? Considering how frequent the “jokes” were, it did come close to it. However, the rest of his characterization, including the performance, the wisdom and the distant view of the universe, did at least suit the character.

Bradley has continued to play the role of the Doctor in The First Doctor Adventures. How does this compare to his TV appearance?

(Image credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

Doctor Who: The First Doctor Adventures

With The First Doctor Adventures, an audio series made by Big Finish, one key element you don’t have is the visual one. You don’t see how well Bradley’s performance mimics Hartnell and his little quirks.

You also have none of the original cast working alongside him, such as William Russell or Carole Ann Ford. (Well, not yet, at least with the latter…)

Instead, you have the actors from An Adventure in Space and Time that Bradley worked with. This could have made the interpretation from Bradley as the First Doctor feel less authentic than in Twice Upon a Time.

However, one key thing that helps is that the First Doctor is, on the whole, much better handled. The Sixties tone of the original stories is there. But it doesn’t rely on making awkward comments for humor, or breaking the atmosphere by pointing out how much things had changed.

Flawed, but in the right way

Instead, the series presents a version of the First Doctor that’s arguably even truer than what we got with Twice Upon a Time. We have a Doctor who’s occasionally dismissive and smug when it comes to Ian and Barbara. There are also moments when he’s almost dangerously arrogant.

These are the key traits of the First Doctor, at least during the first season or two. So the stories remember the real flaws of his Doctor, without making fun of them or exaggerating them, as Moffat did.

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And if you’re looking for something that captures the exact style of those original stories, then The First Doctor Adventures does that exactly right.

It is admittedly a little unfair to compare it to Twice Upon a Time in those terms, however. After all, part of the fun of that story is the idea of old and new completely clashing.

While Moffat had a little too much fun with that while ironically forgetting what the First Doctor was actually like at times, overall, he did a pretty good job, albeit one with a very clear and obvious flaw, and not in an intended way. However, if you are looking for something that captures the original era really well, then The First Doctor Adventures is definitely the better choice.

Summary

Honestly, I still have a problem with the First Doctor’s characterization in Twice Upon a Time, but only because the jokes that were made at the expense of his character is the one glaring flaw in what would’ve been a pretty respectable interpretation. Honestly, if it weren’t for those moments, then Twice Upon a Time would be close to perfect, especially for First Doctor fans.

As it is, while it lacks the visual element, Big Finish’s First Doctor Adventures have so far come across as a far superior interpretation overall. Anyone looking for high quality stories that capture the spirit of William Hartnell’s Doctor exactly would find a lot to enjoy about this range. So on the whole, The First Doctor Adventures are the superior option for checking out David Bradley’s best possible portrayal of the First Doctor.

Next: Twitch Watch finale: Recommendations of the day 07/23

Have you listened to The First Doctor Adventures? Do you agree with this assessment? Or do you have your own thoughts on how David Bradley’s take on the First Doctor has been handled? Let us know in the comments below.

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