Doctor Who

I remember first catching Doctor Who late night on a friday when I was about ten years old. It was playing on the local tv station KVOS TV12. The first thing that stood out about it was the rather creepy opening music with actor Tom Baker's face looming in a blue vortex and then seeing the famous "blue box" twirling about. I had no idea what was in store.
The episode opened on a rock quarry and there was this round spaceship and a short stocky alien that resembled mister potato head. I later found out this alien was called a "Sontaran", one of the Doctor's oldest enemies. Another thing that stood out was the good Doctor himself- Tall man with curly brown hair,toothy smile, and an impossibly long multi-colored scarf, who had an affinity for jelly babies (british candy for those not in the know)
The effects were chessy but the stories were great and the show just had that great British charm to it! I discovered years later that the Doctor that I had watched was not the first but actually the fourth. You see the Doctor is an alien and when he is severely injured he "regenerates" into a new body. Sometimes younger and sometimes older. Each time he gets new garbs and a new personality.
I found at the time that there were a total of 7 Doctors. Then the show had ended in England back in '89. Fast forward years later to 1996 and I found out that Fox was going to do a new series with an 8th Doctor. Unfortunetly the pilot movie didn't go over as well as the studio had hoped and the Doctor was out of commission again....at least for eight years. In 2005 the BBC brought the Doctor back and updated the series for the modern age with top notch cgi and Tardis set.
Here we are in 2011 and Doctor Who is still going strong and shows no signs of stopping. Anywho I have drawn many Doctor Who pieces over the past couple years and wanted to share my stories behind them. The first piece I am showing is of the first Doctor- actor William Hartnell. Bill played the part from 1963 to 1966. He played the part as a crotchety grandpa who knew more than everyone else. He did lighten up a bit towards the later part of his time as the character. He also traveled with a family member, his granddaughter Susan.
Bill Hartnell was in fairly poor health during his time as the Doctor and the show writers had to find a quick way to write Bill out of the series so one writer suggested," well since Doctor Who is alien then why can't he just change his appearance and body?" This turned out to be a genius idea and at the end of the episode "The Tenth Planet" The Doctor regenerated for the first time to the suprise and shock of audiences everywhere back in '66!
The drawing I did has the first Doctor in black and white, since that how the series was filmed for years. I put the Doctor in a color background that I had gotten from a Doctor Who Tardis bank. Some photoshop trickery was used and BAM- the first Doctor is complete! This piece I posted on deviantart.com and it has become one of my most popular Dr.Who pieces.
Next time I will post the second Doctor Patrick Troughton

Cheers
Stephen Whitener