An Adventure In Space and Time
By Mark Gatiss
When the news came down that they
were planning on making a docudrama about the origins of Doctor Who and the man
who was the torchbearer for The Doctor William Hartnell I was more than intrigued.
In fact you could say I was really excited to see this docudrama and at times I
wanted to see this more than “The Day of The Doctor.” Then the promotional pictures were released
and I saw how closely they paid attention to detail just made the excitement
level go up to a whole new level. Now I
really wanted to see “An Adventure In Space and Time” and see how the show came
to fruition and the hardships it came up against.
Now I have finally watched “An
Adventure In Space and Time” and I am lost for words on how magnificent it
was. Watching the origins of the show
unfold before my eyes was incredible. As
most fans have only read about this we now can see what happened and more
importantly some of the events that made up the origins of Doctor Who. It was interesting to see Verity Lambert and
Waris Hussein fight through the prejudices of the time. What makes the show
that more incredible is the barriers it broke by having the first woman
producer at the BBC. This is normal for
the times as sexism and racism was still strong back then and nothing was done
about it like today. Mark Gatiss did an
excellent job getting the feel of that era right down to the cigarette smoking which
was a common thing back then.
I really was impressed with the
sets and costumes. The production crew
really paid attention to detail and it all looked like it did back in 1963 especially
the Daleks city on Skaro. That looked
amazing along with the sets they used for Marco Polo and The Web Planet. The costumes too were top notch and pretty
accurate. It was amazing to see the sets
and costumes as they really did a great job on them. But was most impressive was how the TARDIS
came about. Watching that scene on how
they made the basis for it was pretty interesting and then when you saw the set
itself it was absolutely stunning. It looked
just like the set they used for the William Hartnell stories and it was just
amazing to see a it was so breathtaking to see when the unveiled it for the
first time.
David Bradley was an excellent
choice to play William Hartnell. He had
the look and the mannerisms down pat. It
was like watching William Hartnell himself on the screen. David Bradley brought the man to life and in
ways that many fans probably did not know.
The way he showed us the true man and not the actor that we see on TV
was good to see even if some of it wasn’t pleasant. There was also a sense of sadness with
William Hartnell as you could see as the years went on and the people he
enjoyed being with left the show. The
saddest was when they told him they didn’t want him to be The Doctor anymore
and you just felt sorry for him. It was
a very sad moment especially when he got home to his wife Heather and started
crying that he didn’t want to leave the show.
Even though William Hartnell was
a grumpy and difficult old man and hard to work with he did have a charm to him
that was shown in “An Adventure In Space and Time”. Like when he went off on Carole Ann Ford and
then realized he was jerk and made up for it by apologizing to her by buying
her flowers with an apology in the card.
The scene that I really liked the most and one that really defined the
man was when he was approached by the school children when he was sitting in
the park with his wife. I smiled
watching him marching with the children and yelling exterminate. That was a sweet scene and a side of William
Hartnell that most people do not know.
Mark Gatiss gave us an absolute
masterpiece about the beginnings of Doctor Who. From Sydney Newman coming up
with the idea of Doctor Who right down to the regeneration with Patrick
Troughton. It was true to form and was
not sugar coated to put things in a better light and duplicated an era that not
many fans know about. It was funny, sad
and heartwarming at times and I’m sure it brought a tear to a lot of the older
Doctor Who fans like myself. “An
Adventure In Space and Time” was a really good anniversary present for the fans
and I myself truly enjoyed watching it.
I also loved the surprise of seeing Matt Smith at the end smiling and
nodding to David Bradley’s William Hartnell giving him a sense that what he
started still goes on to this day and that was really a great touch to end the
docudrama on.
Thank you Mr. Gatiss for giving
us a wonderful movie to watch over and over and it is indeed a wonderful
present for the fans.
Grade A +
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