An Adventure in Space and Time (2013)

With the main course due in a couple of days it was time to have the starter. I was really looking forward to this drama which looked at William Hartnell's time on Doctor Who. Like most dramas of this type it starts at the end and goes to a flashback to tell a story. In the end we get a Cyberman and the bloke dressed up as him quips "tell him to hurry up I've got a planet to invade". The story isn't here to give up a world that puts people in a bad light. This was a love letter by Mark Gatiss who did the sketches for Doctor Who night back in 1999. One particular sketch was not very nice to the actors but this is completely different and its done with a nice balance of humour and drama. As the story unfolds we get things that we as fans know such as Hartnell fluffed his lines, Lime Grove Studio was tiny and the sprinklers went off when it got too hot. As Hartnell's health deteriorates it was a moment when Hartnell asks for a reduced workload and Newman basically fires him. I genuinely though that it was Hartnell's choice to leave but this clearly wasn't the case. The moment when Matt Smith appears in the TARDIS was a totally unexpected moment and it was this moment that I felt this was Mark Gatiss' goodnight kiss to the show. It was quick, simple but hugely fantastic and it was for me the icing on the cake as far as this story was concerned.

The performances were really good. No one really sounded like the people they were suppose to play but that didn't matter as the performances were so good that at no point did I think that Brian Cox was playing Sydney Newman but that it was Sydney Newman. David Bradley should be congratulated for giving a superb performance as William Hartnell. It was nice how as Hartnell got more ill Bradley's performance reflected this and it meant that it became more heartbreaking and the final part saw me fighting with myself in an attempt to not cry. I managed it but only just. Jessica Raine's performance as Verity Lambert was just as important as Bradley's. She had to juggle many balls as the first female BBC producer. I thought that her performance was heartfelt and the final scene between Verity and William was made emotional by their chemistry that they had from the very beginning.

You will need to watch this several times to spot all the cameos. As I write this I had spotted William Russell as a BBC security guard, Carole Ann Ford as a house mum with her hair in curls, Anneke Wills and Jan Marsh at Verity's leaving bash.I hadn't spotted Mark Eden (Marco Polo in Marco Polo) and if there are more then I look forward to spotting them. As I mentioned earlier this isn't a story that is going to be a warts and all story and the closest it comes to be serious is with Waris Hussein and there are a couple of uncomfortable moments where its clear that his skin is a problem but these are fleeting moments and put in there to at least address the issue that racism was around in 1963.

I had high expectations going into this and there were met and exceeded. This was a lovely and emotional story that showed me why I love Doctor Who and why in two days time, the show will be celebrating its 50th anniversary. Well written, well performed and well directed. Day of the Doctor has a lot to live up to and who would have thought that would be possible even in their wildest dreams.