Doctor Who: The imagination and ambition of the First Doctor’s era

We look back on the early days of Doctor Who, and why the First Doctor’s era was so special in terms of both ambition and imagination.

Yesterday saw the release of Classic Doctor Who on BritBox UK! Hundreds of episodes are finally available for UK subscribers to stream online, giving many fans the chance to re-watch some of their favorite episodes – as well as, perhaps more importantly, the chance for New Series fans to watch the series from the very beginning.

While the Classic Series can be watched in almost any order (so long as you watch a particular serial from the start, at least), it is worth pointing out how special the very earliest episodes truly were. The First Doctor’s era was incredibly imaginative for its time – perhaps more so than it had any right to be. Certainly, more than it had the budget for, at times.

Take The Web Planet, for example. This six-part story aimed to depict an entirely alien world, with no humanoid characters featured other than the four regulars: William Hartnell’s First Doctor, and his companions Ian, Barbara and Vicki.

The main two races of the serial were the Zarbi and the Menoptra – the former looking like giant ants, the latter closer to butterflies. As you can imagine, the execution of the story didn’t quite match its ambitions. And those ambitions were high – there were even sequences that tried to depict the Menoptra as flying! Something that was hard to achieve with both the budgetary and technical limitations of the time!

The First Doctor’s era wasn’t just full of monsters or journeys into history, but it also featured fleshed-out alien races, too.

(Photo by Clive Limpkin/Express/Getty Images)

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High ambition

I will admit, The Web Planet isn’t exactly one of my favorite stories. But it has grown on me, over time. While it didn’t exactly achieve everything it had set out to do, the fact that it was so ambitious and so imaginative is something that can be respected.

Also, while there were instances of a story’s execution not quite matching the ambition, it has to be said, there were many other instances when it worked rather brilliantly. In fact, the second serial of the series was particularly successful: featuring incredibly alien beings and taking place over numerous settings, ranging from jungles to swamps to a huge city, The Daleks was a huge hit for the series. A key reason for that is how it didn’t let its budgetary restrictions hold it back.

Watching those early episodes again, it really is quite amazing to see such imagination and passion put into the show by the production team. Doctor Who has always been a show without limits, but I think that’s particularly true of the original era, thus making it essential for fans to watch.

Are you a fan of the First Doctor’s era? Do you think it was an ambitious era for the series? What are your favorite stories for the First Doctor? Let us know in the comments below.