An Adventure In Space and Time: An Adventure In Space and Time is the docudrama that told the beginnings of Doctor Who and written by Mark Gatiss. An Adventure In Space and Time charts through the first three years of the programme from the casting of William Hartnell (David Bradley) as the First Doctor to him handing over the series to Second Doctor Patrick Troughton (Reece Shearsmith). It begins with a flashforward to Hartnell’s last day on the series in 1966 as he prepare to work on The Tenth Planet his swansong before going back to 1963 as Sydney Newman (Brian Cox) comes up with the idea of Doctor Who with him appointing Verity Lambert (Jessica Raine) as producer. Newman mentioned coming up with The Avengers. Hopefully today’s audiences knows which Avengers he was talking about. During the first filming of when Ian and Barbara first entered the TARDIS came the banging of the TARDIS doors a fact that was well known to me beforehand plus the raining in the studio which I think I vaguely knew about before. Dalek creator Terry Nation is only mentioned but not seen as Verity Lambert made the decision to make the first Dalek story which Nation wrote despite it going against Newman’s edict that the series did not have any bug eyed monsters. I don’t know whether Gatiss ever thought of having Terry Nation in An Adventure In Space and Time and whether the Terry Nation estate would have approve of a depiction of him is something I can only speculate. The assassination of US President John F Kennedy unavoidably gets brought up here due to it taking place the day before the first broadcast of Doctor Who. Considering the assassination, it was said that the first episode got respectable ratings. Undeterred by this Verity insisted to Sydney that the first episode be repeated to give the series a proper chance with the audience a request that Sydney requested and the re-enactment of this demand was well delivered. However the working relationship between Verity and Sydney would be testy when as I said before she brought in the Daleks thus defying the bug eyed monster edict. Verity’s decision to bring in the Daleks would be justified when on a bus to work she saw a couple of kids imitating the Daleks and then Sydney telling her the Daleks delivered huge ratings for the series. Now it has been established that Doctor Who became a success because of the Daleks, I will now point out the stories that the cast and crew had worked on as seen in this film: -The original pilot and the first broadcast episode -The first Dalek story with the atmosphere of terror being conveyed as the first Daleks were rolled out in front of the cameras. -The Edge of Destruction -Marco Polo – As all of this story is completely missing it is quite remarkable that a scene of the story gets recreated here. In fact Marco Polo himself Mark Eden appears in An Adventure In Space and Time as Donald Baverstock, the man who originally had Doctor Who’s fate in his hands. -The Reign of Terror --Dalek Invasion of Earth – This included a conversation between William Hartnell and Carole Ann Ford (Claudia Grant) as this story was the latter’s swansong and the former conveying sadness on her leaving. It also has David Bradley recreating superbly Hartnell’s “one day I shall come back…” line. -The Web of Planet – It was during the depiction of the filming of this story that Bradley as Hartnell mentioned being in This Sporting Life. What wasn’t mention was the fact that This Sporting Life was how Verity noticed him in the first place for her to cast him as the Doctor. -The Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Eve Just with the departure of Carole Ann Ford, we also see Bill Hartnell saddened on the departure of Verity from Doctor Who. Hartnell would also be saddened by the departure of William Russell (Ian; Jamie Glover) and Jacqueline Hill (Barbara; Jemma Powell) but this was not depicted here perhaps there wasn’t any time for it. In fact the amount that Grant, Glover and Powell delivered as their companion actors seems less than I expected. There were non-speaking actors who portrayed Maureen O’Brien (Vicki), Jackie Lane (Dodo), Peter Purves (Steven), Anneke Wills (Polly) and Michael Craze (Ben). They all appeared in publicity shots as the new companions. This is no doubt to conveyed how much there have been changes with the companions just as Hartnell had stayed on as the Doctor. I also spotted real-life companion actors, all of whom with Hartnell, making cameos here – the real William Russell, the real Carole Anne Ford, the real Anneke Wills and Jean Marsh. I had known that Hartnell was difficult with the production team after Verity Lambert left and it was heart-breaking seeing it being depicted here. As with any docudrama, not everything that is presented in An Adventure In Space and Time is 100% accurate and one aspect of it that I noticed that Gatiss has taken a poetic licence to was Mervyn Pinfield discussing with Sydney Newman in 1966 of how long Hartnell can continue to play the Doctor. Pinfield in real-life had already left Doctor Who by this point in time, in fact he actually died that year. Through Bradley’s portrayal of him, it was definitely felt heartbreaking seeing Hartnell on his last day as the Doctor. It is here that Reece Shearsmith makes his brief appearance as Patrick Troughton as he prepares for the series’ first regeneration scene but we don’t get to see him playing the Doctor as he was only there as Troughton in the Second Doctor costume. As An Adventure In Space and Time approaches its end we then see Hartnell having a vision of current Doctor Matt Smith. Obviously this was an invention in the script by Gatiss but it illustrates very well what a legacy Hartnell is leaving behind with Doctor Who. We get to see the real Hartnell ending the film with his “One day I shall come back…” line from Dalek Invasion of Earth. A superb way to end An Adventure In Space and Time which has been served very well by fine performances from the cast especially David Bradley as William Hartnell and Jessica Raine as Verity Lambert.
Posted on: Mon, 02 Dec 2013 09:54:33 +0000
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