Well Happy 50th Anniversary Doctor Who, a character that has captured fans around the world for almost twice as long as I have been in existence. How wonderful!
Part of the 50th Anniversary celebrations is An Adventure In Space And Time, a television drama film based upon telling the story of the creation of Doctor Who, as well as how William Hartnell became the first Doctor. It’s a great subject matter, and I am surprised it has taken this long to get a film about it, with so much love and passion behind it. This is a wonderful piece for Doctor Who fans, whether you have been a fan since the beginning, a fan of the older series or the newer series, or even if you don’t know much about Doctor Who at all. I watched this with my mother, she was a Tom Baker fan and wasn’t too familiar or aware of this first era of Doctor Who and while I am more into the newer series (and Tom Baker’s run naturally) it was a film that we both got a lot out of and appreciated.
As I said, this tells the story of the creation of Doctor Who, how it started, how they cast it and how in the beginning it struggled. It shows us the inclusion of the Dalek’s, their big ratings win and how passionate everyone was about the show. It is especially about William Hartnell, played here by David Bradley, and why he decided to take the role and how he really became passionate about the character and why in the end he had to step away. This is all very interesting stuff, and it naturally tugs at the heart strings as we see this wonderful journey that Hartnell took and the decision to step down due to his health really hit him hard.
This tv film really works so well because it has a really solid script, the characters who are in fact real people are written very nicely and there is a lot of respect shown towards them. The real gem is of course David Bradley as William Hartnell, if there was a character he was destined to play it was this one. He captures the essence of Hartnell perfectly, he shows us a side of the man that many don’t really get to see. This is perhaps one of the best performances I have seen all year, he becomes the man and he really takes us on his journey and we really want to be there. I did not get through this without shedding a few emotional tears.
This really is a must see, no matter what your feelings are on Doctor Who, it’s a great film and that pays the utmost respect to his subject matter and the fans.
Rating:
The Super Network 