Dr Who - An adventure through space & time *Spoliers*

So I’m a MASSIVE fan of Doctor who & on Thursday I watched “An adventure through space & time”. I can only refer to how the drama portrayed the people involved but I found it really interesting how the show was started & what a struggle it was for the first female producer & the first Indian director to make their way in the BBC at that time.

I understand that the drama came from a sentimental, idealist view point but Doctor Who has always retained a sentimental feeling throughout its long run. You only need to listen to the music to see it.
I found it incredibly touching how much William Hartnell grew to love the show even though he was known for his grumpiness & was described by some as being intolerant.

It was moving to see the first departure of a companion, the Doctor’s granddaughter’ leaving her in the serial “The Dalek Invasion of Earth”, where she had fallen in love with a freedom fighter. Susan says she must stay with the Doctor to care for him but the Doctor wishing for her happiness leaves her. He says to her that one day he will come back and not to be upset at his departure.

It was particularly interesting that they chose to include the scene of Hartnell standing at the mantel piece in his home breaking down expressing greatly how he didn’t want to leave the show. I don’t know if this event occurred in reality but it must of been particularly upsetting regardless that he couldn’t carry on with the show due to him increasingly forgetting his lines. I also couldn’t help but think about the resemblance to the scene just before David Tennant’s regeneration where the Doctor expresses how he didn’t want to go.

The final scene of note was when they reenacted William Hartnell’s final scene as the Doctor in the serial “The Tenth Planet” before his ‘regeneration’ into Patrick Troughton, before it was known as such. You see David Bradley, portraying Hartnell looking beside the console to find Matt Smith smiling back at him. This was obviously added but represents how all the doctors are all connected to one another.

Yes I know its sentimental but this is one of the things I feel is so unique about Doctor Who & at the time William Hartnell wouldn’t have necessarily realised how unique the show was. The Doctor never ‘dies’ instead the next actor is regenerated into the role. It’s not a “replacement” in the conventional sense, the actor doesn’t have the role “taken away” from him (like in a remake), instead what ever the Doctor has done within the show remains the case, isn’t over written by the next Doctor & is still referred to in the show.

He will always be the Doctor of that time period & is simply passing the torch onto the next for them to add something special to the role, as the Doctor goes on ever evolving with a shared history between them all.

The Doctor is a select club in which they never lose their title, they are the Doctor of their time & aren’t restricted in the same linear line as us as the Doctor says “Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey”

and I’m looking forward to the 50th anniversary show :)