{"id":24974,"date":"2022-11-01T17:05:35","date_gmt":"2022-11-01T16:05:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1731373"},"modified":"2022-11-01T17:35:32","modified_gmt":"2022-11-01T16:35:32","slug":"doctor-who-star-says-william-hartnell-was-furious-over-cast-changes","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/doctor-who-star-says-william-hartnell-was-furious-over-cast-changes\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctor Who star says William Hartnell was \u201cfurious\u201d over cast changes"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Morgan Jeffery\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 01 November 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Peter Purves, who starred in 46 episodes of Doctor Who<\/a> in the mid-1960s, has admitted his time on the show felt \u201cchaotic\u201d amidst multiple cast changes.<\/p>\n

Purves played Steven Taylor, companion to the First Doctor (William Hartnell), and completing the show\u2019s central trio at first was Maureen O\u2019Brien as Vicki, who was subsequently replaced by a series of more short-lived assistants.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was heartbroken when she left,\u201d Purves said of O\u2019Brien. \u201c<\/span>We got the new scripts for [1965 serial] The Myth Makers<\/a> \u2013 sadly of which nothing remains \u2013 and Maureen read that in episode 4 she left the show. She didn\u2019t know. She found it in the script. It was a shock \u2013 it was a shock to Bill [Hartnell].\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Purves \u2013 who was speaking at a BFI event to mark the release of the\u00a0 Doctor Who: The Collection \u2013 Season 2<\/a> Blu-Ray boxset \u2013 recalled Hartnell being \u201cabsolutely furious\u201d at the news of O\u2019Brien\u2019s departure.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u201cThe sad thing was that she was never really replaced \u2013 because she was replaced by Adrienne Hill from The Myth Makers [playing handmaid Katarina] for five episodes. We all thought she was the permanent new girl, but it was decided that a girl coming from ancient Troy could not cope with the science elements of the show and wouldn\u2019t understand all that, so after five episodes, they just junked her, literally.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Katarina became the first Doctor Who companion to be killed off when she perished midway through The Daleks\u2019 Master Plan<\/a>, with Jean Marsh fulfilling the companion role for the remainder of that story as space security officer Sara Kingdom.<\/p>\n

Peter Purves reveals idea for Doctor Who character to return as villain<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>
\u201cJean Marsh was established then in the programme for eight weeks, which was all she could do \u2013 she was never going to stay longer than that,\u201d Purves explained. \u201cSo the cast kept on changing, which was not the nicest environment to work in, and didn\u2019t make any of us feel particularly secure.<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cI never felt secure in the job \u2013 once Maureen had gone, I thought I could go at any time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
He continued:\u00a0\u201cI discovered later that I wasn\u2019t in jeopardy at that time, but Bill was, for a variety of reasons. They kept on trying to find ways of writing him out of the show.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
Purves pointed to two stories, 1966\u2019s The Massacre<\/a> and The Celestial Toymaker<\/a>, in which the Doctor plays a smaller part in the narrative as evidence that the production team were trying to \u201cfind a way of seeing if the show worked with Bill having much less of a role\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n
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