An Adventure in Space and Time

Not to be confused with Adventures in Time and Space.

Please do not use {{Infobox television film}} directly. See the documentation for available templates.

An Adventure in Space and Time is a British television documentary drama commissioned to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the science fiction series Doctor Who. It is written by the Doctor Who and Sherlock writer Mark Gatiss. Details of the film were announced by the BBC on 9 August 2012, with the programme airing on BBC Two in the United Kingdom on 21 November 2013, on BBC America in the United States and Space in Canada on 22 November 2013,, on UKTV in New Zealand on 22 November 2013 , and on ABC1 in Australia on 24 November 2013. It tells the story of the team behind Doctor Who's creation. The TV programme was shown in a pre-screening at the British Film Institute in Southbank on 12 November 2013.

Synopsis

In 1966, William Hartnell (David Bradley) is sitting in his dressing room at the BBC as a stagehand calls him to the studio, only to be shunned away by the angry Hartnell. On the set, shooting The Tenth Planet, the other actors are bothered by his absence, as he suddenly enters in costume, ready to film what are revealed to be his last moments as the Doctor. As he stands by the TARDIS console, he closes his eyes and remembers his years as the Doctor. Afterwards, he shares a brief exchange with his successor, Patrick Troughton (Reece Shearsmith). As the cameras are about to record, Hartnell turns on the time rotor before looking across the console. He sees Matt Smith, in the Eleventh Doctor's outfit, smiling back. Content with the knowledge that Doctor Who will continue, the actor begins his final scene.

Production

The drama is produced by Matt Strevens, and directed by Terry McDonough. Filming began in February 2013. The production was based at the Wimbledon Studios in London, with shooting also taking place at BBC Television Centre.

On Sunday 17 February 2013, location filming for the drama took place early in the morning on Westminster Bridge in London. This involved replicas of 1960s Dalek props crossing the bridge, in a recreation of a famous scene from the 1964 Doctor Who serial The Dalek Invasion of Earth. Interior scenes replicating early Doctor Who production at Lime Grove Studios have also been filmed, showing 1963-era cameras and studio equipment.

To make the drama understandable to a general audience not knowledgeable about the history of Doctor Who, not all of those involved in its creation are represented in the script. For example, the programme's original story editor David Whitaker does not appear, and his role is merged with that of associate producer Mervyn Pinfield.

A significant part of the production involved the recreation of scenes from the classic series, some of which are from incomplete serials such as Marco Polo - Mark Gatiss has stated that his ambitions included filming the death of Sara Kingdom from the missing episode 12 of The Daleks' Master Plan, using actress Jean Marsh (who originally played the character in 1965) to play the increasingly aging Sara, and using Super 8 footage of the Radio Times publicity photoshoot for The Three Doctors as the very end of the film, neither of which the budget was large enough to accommodate.

Cast

A number of the cast have appeared in Doctor Who at one time or another, most notably William Russell and Carole Ann Ford. David Bradley appeared in the Series 7 episode "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship", while Jessica Raine was in the Series 7 episode "Hide", both alongside Matt Smith as the Doctor; Jeff Rawle was in the Season 21 serial Frontios with Peter Davison; Mark Eden appeared as the title character in the Season 1 serial Marco Polo with William Hartnell; Nicholas Briggs has played the voice of the Daleks since the series was revived in 2005 and Brian Cox voiced the Elder Ood in The End of Time.

Doctor Who actors

• David Bradley as William Hartnell, who portrayed the First Doctor
• Jamie Glover as William Russell, who portrayed Ian Chesterton
• Jemma Powell as Jacqueline Hill, who portrayed Barbara Wright
• Claudia Grant as Carole Ann Ford, who portrayed Susan Foreman
• Anna-Lisa Drew as Maureen O'Brien, who portrayed Vicki
• Reece Shearsmith as Patrick Troughton, who portrayed the Second Doctor
• Sophie Holt as Jackie Lane, who portrayed Dodo Chaplet
• Nicholas Briggs as Peter Hawkins, original voice of the Daleks and Cybermen

Behind-the-scenes personnel

• Brian Cox as Sydney Newman, co-creator
• Jessica Raine as Verity Lambert, original producer
• Sacha Dhawan as Waris Hussein, original director
• Sarah Winter as Delia Derbyshire, creator of composer Ron Grainer's theme tune recording
• Jeff Rawle as Mervyn Pinfield, associate producer
• Andrew Woodall as Rex Tucker, director
• Ian Hallard as Richard Martin, director
• David Annen as Peter Brachacki, original production designer
• Sam Hoare as Douglas Camfield, director
• Mark Eden as Donald Baverstock, controller of BBC One

Others

• Lesley Manville as Heather Hartnell, wife of William Hartnell
• Cara Jenkins as Judith "Jessica" Carney, granddaughter of William Hartnell
• William Russell as Harry
• Carole Ann Ford as Joyce
• Reece Pockney as Alan
• Charlie Kemp as Arthur
• Roger May as Len
• Kit Connor as Charlie
• Matt Smith as himself (uncredited cameo)
• Jean Marsh (uncredited cameo)
• Anneke Wills (uncredited cameo)

Earlier proposals

Gatiss first pitched the idea of such a drama to the BBC for the programme's fortieth anniversary in 2003, submitting a proposal to BBC Four. However, the proposal was rejected by the BBC, and Gatiss was told there was no available slot or budget for such a programme. Ten years prior to Gatiss's pitch, at the time of Doctor Who's thirtieth anniversary in 1993, film-maker Kevin Davies had proposed a similar project called The Legend Begins to the BBC. The Legend Begins would have mixed documentary interviews with those responsible for the creation of Doctor Who with a dramatised strand showing the programme's beginnings. Eventually, the dramatisation idea was abandoned in favour of a standard documentary format looking at the entire history of Doctor Who, which was eventually broadcast on BBC One as Doctor Who: Thirty Years in the TARDIS in November 1993. When interviewed in 2003, Mark Gatiss claimed to have been unaware of Davies's earlier The Legend Begins proposal when he first came up with the idea for his programme.

Home media

The programme will be released on DVD on 2 December 2013.

External links

• "An Adventure in Space and Time". 21 November 2013. BBC Two. Retrieved 15 November 2013. {{cite episode}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |episodelink= (help); Missing or empty |series= (help)
• An Adventure in Space and Time at IMDb