unwillingadventurer:

Reasons to love the Hartnell era.

35. THE FIRST REGENERATION.

No one knew that the Doctor would ever regenerate but when poor old William Hartnell grew tired and ill, they came up with this ingenious idea that the programme could go on if they had this mysterious alien able to change his face and personality whilst still being the same man.

It’s seems a bit of a sad reason because it means the end of the First Doctor but Doctor Who is all about change and his final episode marks what a great journey he’s been on. Really he isn’t the first Doctor, he’s THE doctor and he doesn’t die through injury or action, he just dies an old man who has had a long life, with Ben and Polly by his side trying to keep him warm from the cold. When this old man began he hated humans, now they were comforting him at death.

Sadly the BBC lost Hartnell’s last episode and only fragments remain of his regeneration but it still gives you chills and is an amazing moment in the history of Doctor Who when we see Hartnell’s face fade for the last time and Patrick Troughton’s appear. Onward!

DOCTOR: What did you say, my boy? “It’s all over.” “It’s all over.” That’s what you said. No… but it isn’t all over. It’s far from being all over.

(via tardismonkey)