Country of origin United Kingdom No. of episodes 42 (9 missing) | No. of stories 8 Original network BBC One | |
Starring William Hartnell
Carole Ann Ford
Jacqueline Hill
William Russell Original release 23 November 1963 (1963-11-23) – 12 September 1964 (1964-09-12) | ||
The first season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 23 November 1963 with the first ever story An Unearthly Child and ended on 12 September 1964 with The Reign of Terror. Only 33 of a total of 42 episodes survive in the BBC archives; 9 remain missing. As a result 2 serials remain incomplete.
Contents
Main cast
Prolific actor William Hartnell was cast as The Doctor, a mysterious alien traveller; his interpretation of the character has since come to be known as the First Doctor. In the series, the Doctor is accompanied by three companions: his granddaughter Susan Foreman (Carole Ann Ford), and her schoolteachers Ian Chesterton (William Russell) and Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill).
Serials
Verity Lambert was producer with David Whitaker serving as story editor and Mervyn Pinfield as associate producer.
A full years of production was recorded but it was decided to hold over last two stories for transmission as the start of season 2.
Season 1 is one of the more complete seasons of Doctor Who from the 1960s, as all but two of the serials are complete in the BBC archive. The only serials that have episodes missing are Marco Polo (all 7 episodes) and The Reign of Terror (2 episodes). Marco Polo is one of three serials that has no surviving footage at all from any source (the others are "Mission to the Unknown" and The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve, both from Season 3). The Reign of Terror has had its two missing episodes reconstructed using animation for its release on DVD.
^† Episode is missing