Doctor Who: Ranking All 13 Doctors From Worst To Best
11. The First Doctor (William Hartnell)
Doctor Who might not be around today had William Hartnell not helped to make the show's early years such a success, and for that, we shall forever be in his debt.
But the bad thing about him being the first incarnation is that every actor who came afterwards has had the opportunity to refine and improve upon the character, and for that reason, the First Doctor lacks the depth we've come to expect from the character.
Like the Sixth Doctor, the First Doctor was quite hard to like, but not because he was annoying or self-centred. Rather, Hartnell played the character like a strict grandfather, and he was quite rude and harsh at times. On the plus side, this gave him a commanding screen presence, and he was a genuinely intimidating, scary figure. Whenever he faced the Daleks - or some other alien threat - you had no trouble believing that he could save the day.
Unfortunately, there really isn't much else to the character beyond his cold and distant personality, and a pinch of charm would have gone a long way.