An Adventure in Time and Space

With the 'celebrations' going on, this is a pseudo-documentary, a 'dramatisation' of the time of William Hartnell on Doctor Who. David Bradley rather brilliantly portrays Hartnell, and many scenes from episodes are recreated (at this point, I'd be willing to accept replacing the missing episodes with recreations).

However... most of this was just boring. I already know the stories, and they are played out rather straightforwardly. We need to explain why Valerie Lambert is in charge, why they needed to remount the first episode, how the Daleks saved the series, how William Hartnell was no longer able to play the role... to be honest, it wasn't until we got near the end, and had David Bradley show some real emotion, that the story became watchable. (And just how many leaving scenes mimicking the end of The Green Death do we need?)

Still, this is preferable to The Ultimate Guide to Doctor Who, which was just another potted history of the past 50 years. And then there was the '10 greatest monsters and villains', which was just an excuse to show old episodes again with new five minute introductions.

In some ways, despite some of the more dubious elements, the BBC Doctor Who Night was more celebratory...

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