Did Hartnell have to go?

[SiHart]

Listening to Hartnell's performances in The Smugglers and The Tenth Planet, is it obvious he has to go? What do you think?

[Si Hunt]

It seemed to me that him becoming unworkable with was as much a contributory factor as his health. Even polite people have said he was a bugger to work with, so I can well imagine he made peoples lives a nightmare as he got more crabby, proprietorial and frustrated as he got more ill. If he was making people miserable, not to mention missing episodes through health, he probably had to go.

Also as much as I love the Hartnell era, at 3 years it winds down and is renewed by the coming of Troughton. A fourth, let alone a fifth, Hartnell year would have been pretty stale and depressing. It's hard to see him muttering his way through "Evil of the Daleks" and it being quite as exciting.

Si.

[Stephen Morgan]

I agree with Mr. Hunt. Hartnell was getting increasingly intolerant towards new producers and new ideas. It had been mentioned as far back as The Celestial Toymaker that he could be replaced and his increasing illness and absences proved a final nail in the coffin so to speak.
So, Yes, if the program was to survive, and let's face it the ratings were falling, it was time to move on.

[J.R. Southall]

And let's be honest, by the time of The Tenth Planet 3 he knew he only had a single week left in the job ... yet still wasn't fit enough to turn up for work. Imagine if he'd carried on another year!

[Si Hunt]

I suspect for TP:3 he chucked a sickie to make them sweat that he wasn't going to turn up for his last episode! We could have had the incoming Doctor in a cheap wig years ahead of "Time and the Rani"!

Si.

[Llordllama]

They could have just brought in his identical duplicate from The Chase in that case. No one would have noticed the difference!

[Rob McCow]

Success! Paramount success!


But then that still wouldn't answer the title of this thread, as Hartnell would still be gone!

[Larry]

It seemed to me that him becoming unworkable with was as much a contributory factor as his health. o.



Si.

personally my feeling is Billy's poor health was the main reasons that made him hard to work with Billy suffered from arteriosclerosis, which effected his memory and even when you watch series 1 I think it was beginning to effect him. I know first hand how memory loss can effect a person and I suspect Billy knowing he health was failing grew more and more frustrated and that may of contributed to his being hard to work with. Also when old people are suffering from memory loss they hate change they prefer familurarity and perhaps the constant changes in regular TARDIS crew and the producers may again explain why he was difficult to work with.

But I agree that even if Billy,had not had his off screen problems his health made it impossible to carry on Peter Purvis, who was clearly very protective of Billy, has in his dvd interviews pretty much said that he had to carry Billy through episodes.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

I remember being at a convention in 1996 where Anneke Wills said just how difficult Hartnell was to work with.

When you look at the original few stories, and the Doctor is there, but Ian and Barbara carry the story. But by Tenth Planet, the Doctor is the focus. That's a demanding role, and I dont think Hartnell was up to it - there are a few episodes in total he was absent.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

It's sad but the fact remains that if Hartnell hadn't left or alternatively someone else such as Bayldon (who I believe was offered it first) had taken the role and carried on for another three or four years, we'd probably never have had the first "rejuvenation" which, ultimately, is the main reason the show is still going over 40 years later.