I absolutely adored it. I was definitely tearing up at the end. An absolutely lovely film and Mr. Bradley was wonderful in it. I think it did a very good job of capturing the "feeling" of the time.
I was afraid to come into the Doctor Who forum because I had recorded all the stuff that aired for the 50th anniversary (I have seen Day of the Doctor, finally). I decided to write my review of this on Facebook but since I've seen everything, I figured I should post it here too. Something of an addendem to this was I think I agree with EMH regarding this film being the best of the 50th anniversary specials. It really was a well done film, and as someone who doesn't know anything about Doctor Who prior to 2005, it was nice to see a film chronicling the creation of this great series. I'm not sure how much of it is true or not, but all of it was enjoyable.
One thing I forgot to mention earlier: I had no idea Jacqueline Hill and Verity Lambert were friends prior to working together on Doctor Who. It was nice to see a hint of that friendship in early scenes of the film.
I absolutely loved this. I enjoyed The Day of the Doctor, but this to me was the true anniversary special. I can't say much that isn't just a fan-girl fangirling, so I'll get to my one critque: I laughed when Matt Smith popped up. I understand the poetic symbolism, but most of the poetic symbolism didn't violate my suspension of disbelief. The Exterminate/Kennedy scene was a powerful use of this kind of cinematic poetry. I know that he wasn't literally reading the script at the same time as JFK getting shot, but that's fine, because he doesn't know that JFK is getting shot either -- he doesn't have access to knowledge outside of the in-universe world. Having Hartnall's actor see Matt Smith was a visual symbol that Hartnal couldn't conjure up in-universe -- even if he envisioned other doctors, would any of them be in their mid 20's? -- and so the story is broken and I can see the man behind the curtain winking at me. I actually think the simplest solution would be to have him look off into the distance, and not let us see what he sees. Perhaps even give us a view of the other characters watching him look off into the future, so that we can share in a mutual "What kind of future must Hartnall have imagined?" moment. That amount of 'twinkle' would be hard for an actor to portray but the guy playing Hartnall could have pulled it off; The amount of which he communicated to the audience was outstanding. So yeah. Loved. I'd give it a perfect score, even though I recognize that it wasn't perfect. I'm amazed at how captivating it was -- I'd love to see more of those films by Gatiss documenting the entire tenure of Doctor Who. Imagine Colin Baker's movie! Hell of a story there.
Which I think was the idea. After all, the next thing they did was to show the actual Hartnell version of the "I shall come back" speech, which revealed the unreality of the Bradley version we saw earlier. So basically the ending was an acknowledgment that this was a dramatization rather than reality. In a way, they were saying: (The Tempest, IV.i.159-170) Which I think is a pretty good reminder that one shouldn't mistake a docudrama for real history. This may have been a representation of the show's origins in 1963-6, but it's actually a creation of 2013, and it's good to remember that.
Didn't know what to expect when I first this,but it was good,david Bradley did did a great performance as hartnell.
Watched the movie a second time, then watched clips from "The Aztecs" on Netflix....and the real Hartnell was certainly more vital and vigorous than the way Bradley portrayed him. I mean, I loved the movie but Hartnell came across more as a doddering old man in it than he does in the actual episodes. Of course, The Aztecs was an early episode, right? So maybe that explains it. It was before he got run down and overworked.
Excellent. Loved it. I was most impressed with David Bradley's performance as Hartnell, and Jessica Raine was great as Verity Lambert. This was an even better love letter to the show than the 50th anniversary special
Well, "The Day of the Doctor" had to be more than just a "love letter" to the past; it also had to be a resolution and advancement of the arcs of the current series. AAiSaT, by contrast, was able to be more fundamentally about paying tribute to the show's history. So the two had different priorities, doing complementary things rather than trying to do the same thing with different levels of success.
I thought Raine was excellent as well. It had been bugging me why she looked so familiar, then I finally realized she was in "Hide" last season.
That got to me as well--along with Smith showing up, in that enigmatic way. Why didn't they show all the rest--well they did that with "Day of" but maybe, like Smith holding his own with Tennant, send up Matt's incarnation as one of the best--after all, he copied Patrick's most of all--and that was Hartnell's immediate successor. having Hartnell actually fix the time rotor was my favorite bit. This is Mark Gatiss' best offering in my opinion--and I would like to see more--maybe a behind the scenes tale of each Doctor--with that doctor's actor as played by different people over the years. For example, I'm very sure that Peter Davison got his feeling hurt replacing Tom Baker, feeling Wesley Crusher kind of hate. I'd like to see his story, as he warmed to his own role over time perhaps, or poor Colin's health. I'm sure each actor has gone through interesting things over the years...
It's occurred to me that the shot of Smith at the end wasn't really meant to represent Hartnell's POV. Smith was standing in for us, the modern audience, looking back at Hartnell from our POV. I mean, this is really a pretty sad movie. Hartnell finally finds a role he loves, a professional family where he feels he belongs, but everyone leaves him and then he gets too ill to continue and they kick him out and his career withers and then he dies young and it's all very sad. So I think that final moment reflected our wish as fans -- and Mark Gatiss's wish as the writer -- that we could go back and communicate with Hartnell and tell him that what he started would leave a legacy stretching forward 50 years and more, and that he would always be remembered and cherished. To let him know, as it were, that there should be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties, because Doctor Who had gone forward in all its beliefs and proven to him that he was not mistaken in his.
Excellent. Very effective. My favourite parts were the taking of the publicity shots to denote the passage of time, and how Hartnell's position in them changed. Very nice bit of drama. Sometimes I despair that the BBC can't do it any more. It was nice to be proved wrong.
Just saw it -- wonderful tribute to the show and the original cast & crew. Anyone notice that Matt Smith puts his hands on the Tardis console the same way Jon Pertwee did in "Frontier in Space" when he contacted the Time Lords? Wonder if that was intended and whose idea it was.