An Adventure in Space and Time: The History of Doctor Who

As a longtime admirer of Doctor Who, I was certainly caught up in the excitement surrounding the show's 50th anniversary celebrations. "The Day of the Doctor," a brand new episode written by Steven Moffat and starring Matt Smith, David Tennant, and John Hurt, was a wonderful celebration of the kind of storytelling that makes Who great. However, every Whovian should also check out An Adventure in Space and Time, a TV movie written by Mark Gatiss (who has penned many marvelous Doctor Who episodes, as well as co-creating Sherlock) that tells the story of how Doctor Who was created and brought to TV screens in 1963.

The movie follows the behind-the-scenes action when the BBC's Head of Drama, Sydney Newman (Brian Cox), decided that the 1963 Saturday schedule needed to cash in on the sci-fi craze and feature a program that could entertain, frighten, and educate children. He appointed Verity Lambert (Jessica Raine) as the show's producer, making her the first female producer at the BBC, and Waris Hussein (Sacha Dhawan) as the show's director, making him the BBC's first Indian director. Lambert and Hussein both had something to prove and they immediately set out to prove it. They brought on William Hartnell (David Bradley) to play the Doctor, and after a few hiccups, they managed to create a show that people are still watching 50 years later.

An Adventure in Space and Time is a loving ode to Doctor Who and also features certain cameos that will delight and thrill fans. Each actor has put in a noteworthy performance, but the star of the piece is David Bradley, who perfectly captures William Hartnell's initial confusion and later devotion to the character of the Doctor and everything the show represented to its legions of fans. It is a moving portrayal that made me want to start watching classic Doctor Who episodes and see what the First Doctor was really like. Mark Gatiss' script focuses on the most interesting people and moments in the show's creation and he elegantly condenses four years of television history into ninety minutes of pure entertainment.

Despite my love for Who, I was woefully ignorant of its history and conception at the BBC. Thanks to An Adventure in Space and Time, I have more reasons to admire how groundbreaking this show was, not just in terms of content, but in terms of the people involved in its creation. 50 years later, it is still going strong, and the celebrations of the show's past have only stoked the excitement about its future.