The first time lord?

the first Dr. Who William Hartnell

The first time lord?  

Before William Hartnell started his run as the iconic time lord for Doctor Who, there was a show that had some of the elements that would be explored in more detail in Doctor Who.  

Roy Steffensen - star/writer of Captain Z-Ro

This show was called Captain Z-Ro, and its hero could travel in space and time.  It was originally broadcast live in the San Francisco area almost a decade earlier, and would introduce many of the concepts that would be used in Doctor Who, so you could argue that Captain Z-Ro was in effect the first time lord.

Captain Z-Ro was a children's show, and would feature a 'mentor' role which was Captain Z-Ro and his 'companion' role which was the teen called Jet.  Like Doctor Who, the Captain would witness and influence historical events and he and his companion would get into adventures.  

Captain Z-Ro was shot simply with an nonexistent budget, with at most four actors for the whole show.  It was broadcast in the infancy of television, most of the live shows were lost for good.  However due to its success later episodes were later recorded onto videotape and film.  Although its imagery was more influenced by flash gordan and buck rogers, it was a success and had broadcasters thinking about science fiction and children's program hybrids.  One successful offshoot was years later with the time travelling time lord Doctor Who.

Worth a look for fans of Doctor Who and Spandex and Monster.

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