- You may be looking for the 1999 documentary.
An Adventure in Space and Time, released in 2013 in time for the programme's 50th anniversary, was a docudrama largely about William Hartnell's era as the First Doctor. Though marketed as the story of how Doctor Who was made, it was in fact much more of a limited biopic, giving much of its screentime to an investigation of Hartnell's portrayal of the Doctor. Because the script dealt with the entirety of Hartnell's reign on the programme, and ended with the regeneration in The Tenth Planet, Verity Lambert's struggles to produce the programme, though strongly featured, were a subplot.
The show was a labour of love by writer and executive producer Mark Gatiss, who had been trying to make it since before the 40th anniversary in 2003.
Synopsis
A young producer frustrated by British television's glass ceiling, a new executive at the British Broadcasting Corporation, a young director of Indian descent, and an older actor struggling for artistic legitimacy come together in 1963 to start a brand new television programme called Doctor Who. After initial difficulties, the show becomes a hit, leaving the actor alone to carry on the show's traditions — and to face his increasingly ailing health.
Plot
When boisterous Canadian TV producer Sydney Newman joins the BBC, he finds himself needing to fill a timeslot on Saturday afternoon. He decides to commission a science-fiction serial with an educational element. To produce the serial, he breaks with convention and hires a woman named Verity Lambert, who had previously worked with him as an assistant. He also hires Waris Hussein, the BBC's first director of Indian descent to helm the first few episodes.
Lambert encounters two challenges from the start: she isn't taken seriously by some of the "old boys club" at the BBC, and she has to find a suitable actor to play the lead character - a scientist known as the Doctor.
She approaches William Hartnell, an esteemed character actor who, of late, has become frustrated with being typecast as military or gangster figures. Although sceptical at first, Hartnell agrees to take on the role.
Initial production of the original episode is beset with problems, from the TARDIS doors malfunctioning to fire sprinklers going off in the middle of a scene. Even more concerning is the fact Hartnell is dissatisfied with how his character is written. Newman rejects the episode and considers firing Newman and Hussein, but then opts to let them remount it after making improvements to the character of the Doctor. Lambert, however, refuses his order to replace the theme music.
The revised version of the episode goes over much better, and the greenlight is given for more episodes to be made, although Newman is initially upset at plans to introduce an alien menace known as the Daleks as it violates his No. 1 rule that there be no "BEMs" (bug-eyed monsters) in Doctor Who. The first broadcast is ultimately overshadowed by the assassination of John F. Kennedy, so much so that Lambert convinces Newman to authorise a rebroadcast the following week.
The introduction of the Daleks launches the series into popular consciousness, and Hartnell finds himself the idol of children, at one point leading a group of children around a park, pretending to be on the hunt for Daleks.
The blush of success begins to fade over time, however, as Hartnell finds himself - much as the Doctor does - having to move on as his companions and real-life friends leave the series. As Verity Lambert herself prepares to leave the series, Hartnell's wife informs her that William's health is fading due to arteriosclerosis brought on by smoking and drinking which, among other problems, has made it increasingly difficult to remember his lines. At other times, his condition makes him exhibit dementia-like symptoms.
As Hartnell finds himself at the centre of an ever-changing parade of co-stars, Newman takes notice of the actor's failing health and ultimately makes the difficult decision to replace him in the lead role, as the writers figure out a way to keep the character of the Doctor going, but with a new actor: Patrick Troughton.
Hartnell reports for his final day on the set, where he meets Troughton and prepares to shoot his final scene. As he does so, he has a vision of the future: a young man in a tweed jacket and bow-tie standing across the TARDIS console, signifying a long life ahead for the character he originated.
As the film ends, the real William Hartnell is seen delivering his farewell to Susan.
Cast
- William Hartnell - David Bradley
- Sydney Newman - Brian Cox
- Verity Lambert - Jessica Raine
- Waris Hussein - Sacha Dhawan
- Heather Hartnell - Lesley Manville
- William Russell - Jamie Glover
- Jacqueline Hill - Jemma Powell
- Carole Ann Ford - Claudia Grant
- Mervyn Pinfield - Jeff Rawle
- Rex Tucker - Andrew Woodall
- Douglas Camfield - Sam Hoare
- Judith Carney - Cara Jenkins
- Richard Martin - Ian Hallard
- Delia Derbyshire - Sarah Winter
- Peter Brachacki - David Annen
- Donald Baverstock - Mark Eden
- Peter Hawkins - Nicholas Briggs
- Patrick Troughton - Reece Shearsmith
- Harry — security guard - William Russell
- Joyce - Carole Ann Ford
- Cyril - Toby Hadoke
- Arthur - Charlie Kemp
- Len - Roger May
- Alan - Reece Pockney
- Reg - Ross Gurney-Randall
Uncredited cast
- The Doctor - William Hartnell (archive footage)
- Himself/the Doctor - Matt Smith
- Party guest - Jean Marsh
- Party guest - Anneke Wills
- Maureen O'Brien - Anna-Lisa Drew
- Jackie Lane - Sophie Holt
- Michael Craze - Robin Varley
- Brian Hodgson - Joseph Railton
- Christopher Barry - Stewart James Barham
- Production office secretary - Pippa Rathborne
- 1960's Vintage Mum - Elaine Andrews
- Party Girl - Harriet Kershaw
Crew
| Executive Producers Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat and Caroline Skinner |
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| Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources. |
References
- Verity Lambert and others watch Valentina Tereshkova launch into space, the first woman to do so. The Seventh Doctor and Ace met the cosmonaut in AUDIO: Thin Ice.
- Sydney Newman rejects "tin robots," "mutations," "death rays" and "brains in a glass jar," all of which would soon feature prominently in the programme.
- His distaste for B.E.M.s, though — Bug-Eyed Monsters — is very much historically accurate, and on par with his comments on early concept drafts for Doctor Who.
- The assassination of John F. Kennedy is announced on TV. Lyndon B. Johnson is announced to have replaced Kennedy as President following the broadcast of "An Unearthly Child".
- William Hartnell is shown the Doctor Who Annual 1966 while in his The Reign of Terror costume; he is delighted by this, having never experienced anything like this level of fame before.
- While getting ready for his finale in TV: The Tenth Planet, William Hartnell becomes emotional and cries "I don't want to go." This was the last line said by David Tennant's Tenth Doctor in TV: The End of Time, which was also a regeneration story.
William Hartnell sees the future of the show.
- The final scene shows William Hartnell filming his final scenes in TV: The Tenth Planet. In this sequence, he literally looks into the future of Doctor Who, and sees Matt Smith next to him. Matt smiles at him and begins flipping switches on the console, possibly a reference to the famous closing scenes of The Tenth Planet where the switches on the console begin moving by themselves.
Story notes
- David Bradley and Jessica Raine both guest-starred in Doctor Who episodes that were broadcast during Series 7 (the telefilm was shot during the broadcast hiatus between the two halves of the season): Dinosaurs on a Spaceship and Hide, respectively.
- In addition to the cameos by William Russell, Carole Ann Ford, Anneke Wills, Jean Marsh and Matt Smith, another Who veteran appearing in the film is Mark Eden, who played the title role in TV: Marco Polo.
- Nicholas Briggs, here playing Peter Hawkins who was hired to provide the voice of the Daleks, has performed the same duties for the TV series since 2005. He is also producer of the long-running Big Finish Productions Doctor Who audio dramas range and, with Gatiss, was involved in numerous independent spin-off projects during the 1989-2005 interregnum and was also the longtime host of the Myth Makers interview series.
- The actors playing Maureen O'Brien, Peter Purves, Jackie Lane, Michael Craze and Anneke Wills are not credited, with Purves and Lane (and by extension, Steven Taylor and Dodo Chaplet) only appearing for a few seconds.
- William Russell (Harry — security guard), Toby Hadoke (Cyril), Carole Ann Ford (Joyce) and Reece Shearsmith (Patrick Troughton) are credited on-screen but not in Radio Times.
- The Radio Times programme listing was accompanied by a small colour head-and-shoulders shot of David Bradley as William Hartnell, with the accompanying caption "An Adventure in Space and Time / 9.00 p.m. David Bradley stars as the Doctor's first screen incarnation".
- The finale of the film includes footage of the real William Hartnell from TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth. This same footage was used to open the 20th-Anniversary special, TV: The Five Doctors, in which another actor, Richard Hurndall, stood in for Hartnell. The official Youtube channel of Doctor Who posted a video of Bradley doing the speech as Hartnell.
- The film's original broadcast on BBC Two was immediately followed by a rebroadcast of all four episodes of An Unearthly Child on BBC Four.
- In separate interviews, David Bradley and Mark Gatiss mention that, months prior to his being cast as the Twelfth Doctor, Peter Capaldi visited the set.
Ratings
to be added
Filming locations
Differences with documented history of Doctor Who
- In the film, Verity Lambert is shown watching the historic flight of first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, the day before being hired as producer. In reality, she was hired two days before Tereshkova's flight.
- Around the same time Lambert is hired, William Hartnell is seen watching a telecast of his sitcom The Army Game. However, the final episode of the series aired in June 1961 and while it is possible Hartnell might be viewing a rerun, this is unlikely in 1963; the Radio Times Guide to TV Comedy lists no further UK broadcasts after 1961, and notes that most episodes of the series were wiped.
- The film artfully suggests that Sydney Newman was coming to grips with the scripts for The Daleks while Lee Harvey Oswald was shooting John F. Kennedy. However, on 22 November 1963, Serial B was fully commissioned and well into production. In fact, the day Kennedy was shot, "The Survivors", episode 2, was recorded (resulting in a brief disruption of the taping). The record shows that it was during production of "The Survivors" that the cast and crew saw the complete Daleks for the first time; this is depicted as occurring sometime after the assassination as well.
- For purposes of time (and perhaps avoiding repetition) certain events are omitted, arguably most notably the fact that "The Dead Planet," the first episode of The Daleks, had to also be remounted due to technical issues.
- Hartnell holds up an annual on the set of The Reign of Terror, although the first Doctor Who Annual wasn't released until September 1965, well over a year after Reign was filmed. The cover art for the book has been altered to more closely depict David Bradley as opposed to Hartnell. This difference in chronology is made more obvious by the presence of a Zarbi on the front cover, even though the depiction of the filming of The Web Planet doesn't take place until later in the film (and, indeed, is depicted as the time when Lambert leaves the production).
- Though Daleks speak of extermination and people who need to be exterminated, they did not actually use their future catchphrase "Exterminate!" in The Daleks. In this production, the catchphrase is wrongly shown to have become popular just after the broadcast of Serial B. Indeed, Hartnell is shown to shout "Exterminate!" to kids in a park, which is unlikely because it wasn't in the script for The Daleks.
- The speech with which Hartnell has trouble near the end of the story is from "The Bell of Doom". However, The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve was directed by Paddy Russell, and the apparent director speaking to Hartnell from the booth was male in this production. (Although it's possible, as the speaker is never identified by name, that this was an assistant director.)
- Episode 1 of An Unearthly Child is shown to end with a scene in which Susan checks the radiation counter; this in fact was the closing scene of Episode 4, "The Firemaker", which in the film's chronology hasn't been shot yet. Later, when Hartnell is shown watching the first episode at home, proper closing sequence for episode 1 is shown. It is implied, therefore, that Sydney Newman watches the complete four-part serial, when only the first episode actually existed at that time.
- During production of what would come to be called The Pilot Episode, a male actor walks off the set after refusing to have his teeth blackened for the role of a caveman, after which another actor dressed as a caveman volunteers to replace him. In the actual production, it was a female actor who walked off the set, but during production of Episode 2, and no caveman actor was actually present on set during production of Episode 1, as the sequence with the caveman observing the TARDIS was filmed separately at another studio several days earlier.
- It is strongly implied that the rebroadcast of the first episode was due to the Kennedy assassination news coverage; in reality, it was primarily due to a power cut preventing a portion of the country from viewing the original broadcast.
- The film also indicates that production of the first version of Episode 1 was shut down due to the fire sprinklers going off and also due to the allotted time in the studio running out. Neither happened in real life.
- Hartnell's apparent inability to remember the name "Chesterton" is used to illustrate his fading health, but in reality most of those errors were scripted as a running joke by the character.
- While Matt Smith's cameo never really happened in real life but was mainly added in to show that — after 50 years — the show is still going, Hartnell himself once said to Carole Ann Ford that he believed the show would go on "for ever and ever more."
- Several individuals intimately involved in the early production of the series are omitted from the film, including David Whitaker, CE Webber, Donald Wilson and Anthony Coburn (John Wiles is alluded to, though not mentioned by name).
- Richard Martin is shown directing the Daleks' first on-screen appearance, which in actual fact was directed by Christopher Barry. Martin did direct some of The Daleks, but not that particular scene.
- Lambert's departure is suggested to take place during production of TV: The Web Planet (actors in Zarbi costumes are visible during her party and when she discusses leaving). In reality, she left after production of TV: Mission to the Unknown during the next season. A deleted scene included with the DVD release from the same sequence shows her encountering an actor dressed as a Monoid from TV: The Ark, even though that story wasn't made until well after her departure.
- It is suggested that talk of replacing Hartnell takes place after the introduction of Steven and Dodo, however the pair are photographed with Hartnell in their costumes from TV: The Celestial Toymaker, a serial which had been considered as a possible regeneration story.
- The Doctor's dialogue about touching alien sand and hearing the cries of strange birds is depicted as being part of the script for Episode 1 of An Unearthly Child, but in reality it's from Episode 2.
Home video releases
DVD releases
to be added
Blu-ray releases
to be added
External links
to be added
