“The Twilight Zone”, Season 3, Episode # 35, “The Doctor”. Written by Rod Serling.
In the year 1815, a little boy is saved from certain death by a mysterious stranger known only as The Doctor. As the years go by, and the boy grows to adulthood, the boy’s life is saved again and again by The Doctor. But, strangely, The Doctor never seems to age…
Initially written as a typical one off episode for the 3rd season of “The Twilight Zone” , “The Doctor” received such a positive response from science fiction fans that in November 1962, at the behest of the network, "The Twilight Zone" producer Buck Houghton approached writer Rod Serling with a view to developing a weekly, one hour television show based on the character of The Doctor.
It is interesting to note how, even in this early incarnation, “The Doctor” fits seamlessly into the later “Doctor Who” television series. Serling already had familiar “Doctor Who” elements in place, such as, The Doctor’s anachronistic appearance, a time machine bigger on the inside than the outside (and able to change it’s appearance so as to blend in with it’s location - obviously the chameleon circuit was working at this point!), a companion (albeit unseen) and an evil nemesis (Jack Weston, playing an early incarnation of The Master?)
“The Doctor” also gives a tantalising glimpse of The Doctor prior to his flight and exile from his own people. The story, dealing with The Doctor’s attempts to keep Abraham Lincoln alive just long enough to put history “back to rights”, is morally ambiguous and finally chilling. Time after time The Doctor saves Lincoln from being murdered by Jack Weston’s Laughing Man, only to allow the historical assassination to go through unhindered as it was “supposed to happen” .
Keenan Wynn gives a nuanced and fine performance, and although he declined to sign up to the subsequent television series, history shows that he had definitely not finished with the character of The Doctor…Cast: Keenan Wynn (The Doctor), Billy Mumy (Boy Abe), Brandon De Wilde (Teenager Abe), Austin Green (President Abraham Lincoln), Jack Weston (Laughing Man).
