Sorry, this movie sucks

Nice effects though.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Doctor Who is my favorite TV show ever, so admittedly this film will connect to me far more. It's not necessarily a brilliant piece of TV, but it's a lovely drama with great performances, a compelling underdog story, nice visuals, good dialogue and a truly, truly wonderful ending. David Bradley is a superb actor and despite how brilliantly grotesque he was in Game of Thrones and Harry Potter, he's wonderful here and carries the entire film along. All the other actors do a great job and this is also a nice feminist story of a woman triumphing over workplace sexism to produce one of the most beloved TV shows of them all. It's a highly nostalgic work, and as a documentary of the show's beginning it works very well and gets a lot of information across. As a drama, it hits various compelling emotional peaks (Although a lot of it was probably artistic licence to some degree, but that's understandable in a film of this sort). It loses momentum in the last half-hour as it rushes through the first 3 years of the show and feels more like a highlights montage, but there are still good moments throughout this last section. As for that final scene with the Matt Smith cameo, don't get me started on that because believe me when I say this: I will cry. It's that wonderful. On the whole, a very nice tribute to the show, even if the run-time is too short to cover the subject completely. 8/10

Today, more than fifty years after it started, Doctor Who is a worldwide phenomenon. When it started though in 1963, no one was certain that the show would make it to the end of the year let alone run for decades. Indeed, the show faced troubles before it ever got to the screen. An Adventure In Space And Time presented viewers with a dramatization of those early years of the series ahead of the show's fiftieth anniversary in 2013. Even two years later, it remains a watchable and informative account of those early years of the show.The script by Mark Gatiss, who has written episodes of the revived Doctor Who as well as numerous novels and audio dramas based on the series, does a superb job of condensing the events of over three years into a ninety minute production. For anyone who knows at least some of the early behind the scenes history of the series. While the running time means that the film can't give everyone their due but many of the people get their moment with references to theme tune arranger Delia Derbyshire and the series original associate producer Mervyn Pinfield. Gatiss wisely chooses to focus on a handful of people involved with the series including its original producer Verity Lambert and First Doctor actor William Hartnell. By choosing to focus the film's attention, it allows for a tight narrative that also gets to feature events such as the show's aborted first pilot, its near cancellation as well as presenting off told anecdotes about the early production of the series. While it does make sweeping generalizations at time, it remains true to events by and large to great success.Along with Gatiss' script, a large part of the success of this production comes from the casting. David Bradley as Hartnell was a masterstroke of casting and while Bradley doesn't have his voice and might be just a tad bit taller than the real Hartnell, he captures the spirit of the man well such as in moments such as his first lunch meeting with Lambert and director Waris Hussein. Speaking of Lambert and Hussein, both are well cast with Jessica Raine (who was soon to guest star on Doctor Who itself in the episode Hide) in particular shining as Lambet who finds herself fighting tooth and claw to get her first series as a producer off the ground. Lambert finds an ally in Hussein, played by Sacha Dhawan who bares a strong resemblance to the real life director. A surprising addition to the cast is the noted actor Brian Cox who appears as Sydney Newman, the Canadian born head of BBC Drama who essentially created Doctor Who as part of a major shakeup that followed his coming to the BBC. Cox's Newman bares some resemblance to the real man though Cox doesn't seem to act much like the Newman who can glimpsed in a couple of the DVD documentaries but he certainly has a presence which benefits the production.There's also a solid supporting cast as well. There's Lesley Manville as Hartnell's wife Heather who urges him to take the part and watches his rise to recognition before his health begins to suffer in a major supporting role which helps as well. Rounding off the original cast of the series are Jamie Glover as William Russell, Jemma Powell as Jacqueline Hill and Claudia Grant as Carole Ann Ford with a number of non-speaking actors and actresses playing the various companions from the remainder of the era. Doctor Who fans will spot a number of actors from the show's history in smaller roles such as the real life William Russell as a BBC security guard, companions actresses Anneke Wills and Jean Marsh as party guests, comedian and Doctor Who fan Toby Hadoke as a BBC bartender and modern day Dalek voice actor Nicholas Briggs playing his 1960s predecessor Peter Hawkins. While some of the casting is less than successful (such as Reece Shearsmith as Patrick Troughton who pales in comparison with Bradley's Hartnell), on the whole the cast is strong and does an admirable job of bringing their real life counterparts to life.The other admirable aspect of the film is its production values, especially its sets and costumes. For Doctor Who fans, part of the thrill of watching the film is its recreation of the long lost but familiar sets of the show's early years including the original TARDIS console room set which is recreated in splendid detail. There's also recreations of sets, props and costumes from a number of stories from the show's early years including the first Dalek story, the lost historical adventure Marco Polo, The Web Planet with its Menoptra and the Cybermen from their debut story The Tenth Planet. Outside of the elements and sets from the series, the film does a good job recreating its 1960 settings from the Hartnell home to the offices at BBC TV Centre. The latter of which is helped in its verisimilitude by actually filming at and inside the real TV Centre, being the last in a long line of productions filmed and recorded there. The latter fact, while sad, also seems fitting given how much of a tribute it plays to the designers and people who worked there on Who and other programs.Indeed, An Adventure In Space And Time is very much a tribute. It's a tribute to the people like Verity Lambert, William Hartnell and Sydney Newman who are amongst many of the people who helped to launch what would become a worldwide phenomenon. It does so with much love and attention for detail that's clear throughout. It's also an impressive piece of docudrama that serves as an example of how to bring a sometimes complex story of real events and bring them to life on screen. What more can you ask of it?

As part of the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, along with the various documentaries, clips shows, repeats of episodes, and of course the excellent anniversary episode The Day of the Doctor, there was also this TV made film that told the story of how it all started, from writer Mark Gatiss (The League of Gentlemen). Basically, set in 1963, Canadian producer Sydney Newman (Brian Cox) is the head of the BBC TV drama department and wants to fill the Saturday night tea team slot with a new show that will appeal to both the youth generation and the whole family, and he has in science-fiction with some kind of leading figure of hero taking companions on journeys and adventures through space and time, but with no "bug-eyed monsters". He exchanges his idea with inexperienced young producer Verity Lambert (Jessica Raine), who he chooses to create this show, along with young Indian director Waris Hussein (Sacha Dhawan), and with the writers they scan through the various actors that they are interested in casting as the hero, The Doctor. Grouchy but reliable character actor William Hartnell (Harry Potter's David Bradley) is the man chosen to play The Doctor, and they start filming inside the made up set, the inside of the police phone box, this TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space), bigger on the inside than on the outside, and the first adventure, An Unearthly Child, sees the characters going to the stone age. There are technical problems and a low budget to contend with, and the recent assassination of President John F. Kennedy threatens the ratings, but Doctor Who is born to good ratings, but ignoring the "no bug-eyed monsters" warning, the creation of the mutant robotic like creatures, the Daleks, with their iconic catchphrase "Exterminate!", wins the show 10 million viewers, Newman is very happy and the show continues its success. Hartnell enjoys the success he has achieved, immerses and enjoys himself playing The Doctor, and is happy bringing joy to his granddaughter and the various children in Britain, but slowly he shows signs of illness as he forgets his lines and requires reshooting, he asks Newman for less working days in order to recover, but he and the producers have already talked, the show will continue, but he will no longer play The Doctor. The decision is made that The Doctor, being an alien, will regenerate with a new face, and the new younger actor Patrick Troughton (Reece Shearsmith) will replace Hartnell, though reluctant to give up the part, and having been attached to Doctor Who for three years, he wishes Troughton good luck, and the show does indeed continue on, with another nine actors playing The Doctor over fifty years. Also starring Lesley Manville as Heather Hartnell - William's wife, Cara Jenkins as Judith 'Jessica' Carney - Hartnell's granddaughter, Jamie Glover as William Russell (who played Ian Chesterton), Jemma Powell as Jacqueline Hill (who played Barbara Wright), Claudia Grant as Carole Ann Ford (who played Susan Foreman), Nicholas Briggs as Peter Hawkins (who voiced the Daleks and Cybermen), Mark Eden as BBC1 Controller Donald Baverstock, and a cameo by Matt Smith as the current Doctor. I saw the photograph of Bradley in the leading role before this special was broadcast, and I was very impressed with how spot on he looked to the first actor of The Doctor, he was very convincing as Hartnell, the other stars playing the people behind the creation of the show and elsewhere was very good too, the story is certainly an interesting one, everything about this was filled with nostalgia and authenticity, it certainly makes you appreciate where Doctor Who started and where it is today because of the performance of William Hartnell and the creators behind the show, there is also an appropriate tribute to Hartnell from the various people who knew him and those who enjoyed his time of The Doctor, this is a really enjoyable docudrama. Very good!

Overall, this is a very well-done movie detailing the early days of the Doctor Who series. It is well written, well acted - especially by a touching David Bradley and a sharp, funny Brian Cox - and moves well.In fact, I would argue that, even though it sometimes relies on a little Whovian knowledge on the part of the viewer, this is a solid portrayal of an adventure in broadcasting that is fun even if you aren't a Doctor Who fan.And that's why the last part of the movie bugs me. First off, near the end there's a cameo that makes no sense in terms of the movie itself. That is, if you haven't been watching Doctor Who the last few years you'll be perplexed. It's out of place, because there's no setup for it and it is there as very much a fan thing instead of a movie thing. It undercuts the emotional power of the scene and, even if you know who the actor is, just seems weird and pointless.After the movie ends, there is an immediate mini-documentary on William Hartnell. I don't know if this is officially part of the movie or just something the BBC stuck in to fill in the time, but if the former, it's a problem yet again. It's not that it's uninteresting, but that it once again says, "this wasn't a real movie, it was just this thing to appeal to Doctor Who fans."This movie is good enough that it didn't need to pander to its likely audience. And it doesn't, until the last 15 minutes.