10 Most Cringeworthy Doctor Who Moments From The 60s

1. Hartnell's Line Flubs - Various Episodes

Way back when Hartnell's stories first started making the rounds, either in audio form or, for those of us lucky enough to see them in syndication, in video form, Hartnell's line fluffs became a source of occasional but good-natured embarrassment. Hearing the First Doctor say things like "If you'd had your shoes on, my boy, you could've given her hers," or "A dead human body in the river? I should say that's near murder. Isn't it?" was considered part of the experience. You were watching a series from an era in which retakes for a mere flubbed line simply weren't economical - if someone laughed off-camera, or if an actress coughed on camera (sorry, Jacqueline Hill), they simply pressed on. Sure, the flubs made us cringe a bit, but they were more likely to make us laugh. Later we learned what Hartnell's health was like at the time of those tapings - and suddenly those flubbed lines were uncomfortable for entirely different reasons. It's even harder to watch them after having seen last year's excellent movie An Adventure in Space and Time, which presents Hartnell not only as an irascible product of his generation but as a man fighting off the effects of ill health even as the people around him grow exasperated at what they perceive as his failings as an actor. Of course, we could still ignore all that extraneous knowledge and simply accept the Doctor's slips of the lip as a sign of his advanced age...which, indeed, it was. Yikes. Have we left out any moments from the '60s that you found particularly cringey? Have we offended you in any way? If so, let us know (as usual) in the comments below!