The Cosmic Hobo Magnet

The 'Cosmic Hobo.' Patrick Troughton. He played the Doctor between 1966 and 1969. The decision to write the regeneration features of the Doctor came after the first Doctor, William Hartnell, had health problems and struggled with his lines. The show was a hit and obviously, the producers didn't want the show to end, so they considered replacing Hartnell with a lookalike, as had been done on many shows in the past when an actor couldn't continue with the role. Fortunately, the creators had the idea that the Doctor, being an alien, could simply regenerate every cell in his body when he died. This way, they could cast a fresh, completely different actor without all the fuss of "does he really look like and act like the original Doctor?" ...