An Adventure in Space and Time

As part of the 50th anniversary celebration of Doctor Who, the BBC has produced this movie about the origins and Bill Hartnell years of the TV show. Writer Mark Gatiss, a longtime Whovian, has dug through all the stories and legends and has produced a fine script.

The thesis of the movie is that Sydney Newman chose a novice producer, Verity Lambert, who proceeded to build an unlikely team: the first Indian director of the BBC; an actor frustrated at his lack of advancement; and the already worn out facilities at Lime Grove. Somehow she managed to hold this together long enough to create a series which has prospered for half a century, despite the best the suits at the BBC could do.

There's some fine casting in this one, especially David Bradley as William Hartnell. It's rather shocking to me to see him, clean-shaven and well dressed and he gives a fine performance as the William Hartnell of the standard story: old, collapsing under the impact of ill health, but unwilling to give up his claim to fame.

That's not precisely the reality of the matter. Doctor Who ran on a killing schedule during Hartnell's term: forty episodes a year, dialogue filled with scientific bafflegab. Almost anyone would have crumbled under it.

Still, the story as written is cogent and should please the series' fans. the production values are top notch and the actors are excellent and look like the ones who played the original roles. I'd like to give a shout out to the stand outs, but I'd have to name just about every member of the cast.

This movie probably won't appeal to people who are not rabid fans of the show, but for those who, like me, are, it's a great treat.

I was privileged to attend the premier at the National Film Theatre. The audience was asked not to give away any spoilers, so I'll respect that wish (not that I wouldn't have done so anyway, of course).

The programme was far more emotional that I had expected and the audience's reaction - laughs, tears and much rapt silence - showed I wasn't alone. Admittedly, the place was packed with Doctor Who fans, so it was hardly going to send any of them to sleep, but they could also have been counted on to be highly critical of any factual errors.

The time frame covers 1963 to 1966 and is as much a biography of William Hartnell, the first Doctor, as the early years of the show he fronted. The Doctor is played by David Bradley (no complaints from me about his crotchety but committed portrayal) and is pretty much throughout seen as ailing in physical health or mental agility, which seems like a true depiction but is rather unfortunate for his legacy as someone often described, in his earlier years, as a fine character actor. Hartnell's granddaughter, who was in attendance at the post-screening Q&A) referred to the fact that prided himself on remembering his lines, so his problems with this as depicted here should be taken into context, although it would have been a tall order for the programme to have tried to focus on any more of the man's life without overrunning its 90 minute time.

Many of the key production staff have key roles, although (as writer Mark Gatiss acknowledged during the Q&A) not all of them were included as to do so would have been made the programme too difficult to follow. Thus there is no David Whitaker, for example, but there is much screen time for the Sydney Newman, the Canadian Head of Drama at the BBC, amusingly played by Brian Cox. His pivotal role in appointing and supporting Verity Lambert, the Doctor Who producer, was one of the unexpected revelations here.

Without giving away any really key moments (and there are plenty of lovely surprises) the show is both reverential of the programme as well as poking fun at the ridiculousness of making a prime time science fiction programme on a BBC budget with no computer technology and live editing. Plenty more such contrasts abound: the daleks are both funny and awesome at the same time; Hartnell's crotchety but committed personality is shown to be a benefit and a hindrance.

If you are even slightly interested in Doctor Who I'm sure you'll love it as much as the audience who gave it a standing ovation. Young children would probably be unlikely to find much of interest in it but older ones with more than a 30 second attention span may well enjoy it. Considering that much of the story of the programme is known to many of us and that there are no deaths or love affairs involved (that's not a spoiler - surely you weren't expecting that?) it is to its credit that it managed to be so entertaining for a film-length duration.

Faithful and loving recreation of those early days of "Doctor Who", when William Hartnell(played excellently by David Bradley) first took on the mantle of that mysterious wandering time & space traveler the Doctor, with a fine supporting cast portraying his costars(William Russell, Jacqueline Hill, and Carole Ann Ford) and real-life production crew(like producer Verity Lambert, young director Waris Hussein, and their boss at the BBC Sydney Newman.) Behind the scenes turmoil and uncertainty are well portrayed, and were quickly settled once the Daleks debuted, and the ratings climbed to ten million...

The script by Mark Gatiss is quite good, with nice touches that long-time fans will appreciate, though at only 90 minutes, it does move along a bit too fast, with other key participants(like script editor and writer David Whitaker) left out altogether, and the final little nod to the "future" will either leave viewer hot or cold, since not all fans like what the series later became(I stopped at Peter Davison), but those are small complaints in this otherwise worthwhile special, which also gives a most interesting view of the private side of Hartnell, with his loyal wife and granddaughter. Most effective and moving.

Earlier this year, on the gentle prodding of IMDb user Theo Robertson, I decided that I would go back and watch Doctor Who from the beginning. This was interested to me since I can just about remember the image of Davison as the Doctor but really the actual moments I remember are from the era of McCoy and Baker (an era that brought the show to an end for many years); so watching the originals was interesting to me if for no other reason than I had never seen them. The timing was good because I was glad to have made that connection before all the 50th anniversary stuff kicked off.

All through the fuss and hype, I did feel like we were celebrating where the show was right now, not its roots and as a result I was really glad of this film for focusing on the origins of the show. As Theo will probably tell you better than I, the facts are dusted up in the sake of a good story and the film moves better for it. I disagree with Theo where he says this film presented it as some sort of great cultural moment – I thought the film did a good job of showing how throwaway it was, how little interest there was and how it is more or less a matter of good fortune that the characters caught the public imagination and made an impression that has endured for decades. The story is presented in an affectionate manner, particularly towards Hartnell, who is probably given a bit too much nostalgic cheer for what he deserves, but he is given his dues and is very well played by Bradley.

The tone of the show is affectionate and humorous; we are not spared the fluffed lines and the set malfunctions and yet these are given over to part of the charm. The supporting cast play up their outsider status in a pleasing way, although as Theo says, I'm not sure if Cox was told that his role was to inject energy and color into the film, but his performance is so overblown as to be pure caricature. Still though, it all works really well and with so much hype and fanfare for the current show, it was so nice to have something looking back with such gentle affection – I didn't even mind the appearance of Matt Smith as I thought that was a nice moment and more a nod to the origins than it was to the present.

I only started watching the new series just this summer, but I'm hooked! In Belgium, Doctor Who isn't well known, so that explains a lot why I'm a rather new fan. I've wanted to start watching the Classic Who's, but I never got to it.

After seeing this, I just can't say anything else but WOW! I now understand that Doctor Who has such a legacy and we are so priviliged that it's still on! I loved the cast and how they showed us even the dark side of themselves, by showing us that they didn't really care about the budget of the show when it just started.

The movie was fantastic, it really touched me, I cried... a lot!

So I think I'm ready now to watch the Classics, but now, first of all, the 50th, so every Whovian out there, young, new, classic fan or new fan, Happy 50th, Happy Day of the Doctor!!!

May we have 50 years and more!!