“I always think that the clown and hero are different levels in the Doctor – there is no completely straight Doctor. The folk memory of Hartnell is he’s a cranky old man, but when you watch him he plays the Doctor as a stroppy child. Very twinkly and he’s not crotchety, he’s sulky, the way that an infant would be. Ian and Barbara are sort of his parents, indulging him to go and behave himself a bit better. The Doctors are always like that. He’s either an extraordinarily youthful old man or an extraordinarily old young man. He’s always both.”
— Steven Moffat, in an interview with Nick Setchfield.
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