The Language of Doctor Who Quotes

“Billy fluffs’ or ‘Hartnellisms’ (fluffed lines and errors of dialogue) became part of the Doctor’s identity, sometimes actually scripted in. In a seemingly autobiographic line of dialogue, the Doctor complains, “My writing gets worse and worse. Dear, dear, dear, dear, dear” (The Rescue). All of which begs the question about the boundary between Hartnell’s performance of the Doctor and that of his personal ‘self’.”
― Dene October, The Language of Doctor Who: From Shakespeare to Alien Tongues