An Adventure in Space and Time - Grade and Discuss
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Ditto. I thought it was very effective, and feel that anything involving a sequence of all the Doctors would have been too much.The Smith cameo at the end worked perfectly for me. YMMV.
Ditto. I thought it was very effective, and feel that anything involving a sequence of all the Doctors would have been too much.The Smith cameo at the end worked perfectly for me. YMMV.
You get so much more out of putting two living, breathing, talented actors in the same room that you would get with a montage of old footage that I don't understand how anyone would suggest the opposite.
Loved it. For me, it was more than a documentary about the making of Doctor Who. It was a story about a man who truly discovers the spotlight in his later years, but can't continue because he is betrayed by his body. The Matt Smith cameo fit perfectly with how I saw the story - Bill Hartnell recognized for a brief moment that what he laid the foundation for would endure, and people would remember.
Here are some recreations of iconic Hartnell scenes they made featuring Bradley as the Doctor:
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksrDyn-6ahg[/yt]
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0Lvd8v8o-8[/yt]
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox8QYFvltIw[/yt]
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niAJhq9DT_8[/yt]
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksrDyn-6ahg[/yt]
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0Lvd8v8o-8[/yt]
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox8QYFvltIw[/yt]
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niAJhq9DT_8[/yt]
Off the wall comment: When I saw the exterior shot of the BBC office, my first though was it could entomb a lot of Cybermen.
I enjoyed the film. Especially they way the captured the period. Great attention to detail. Solid performances by all the lead. Though I do have to wonder if Sydney Newman spoke like that, Didn't sound very Canadian.
I enjoyed the film. Especially they way the captured the period. Great attention to detail. Solid performances by all the lead. Though I do have to wonder if Sydney Newman spoke like that, Didn't sound very Canadian.
David Bradley really gave an award worthy performance. The moment between him and Matt Smith was heartbreakingly beautiful.
Well, that was her saying it while taping the pilot, right? And a taping that went all wrong thanks to the TARDIS doors opening and the sprinklers going off. So they later reshot the scene and she slipped and said 'dimension' instead. Only four tape edits possible per episode (as they mentioned), so the slip stayed in. No big deal.
I didn't get to see this when it aired Friday due to a cable outage, but I just saw it via On Demand. It was a good movie, a good tribute. Bradley was very good as Hartnell; the voice wasn't particularly exact, but he managed to capture the mannerisms pretty well, and gave a moving performance. The cast was very good overall. And the recreation of the period was marvelous. I was glad to see that the console room did have one wall that was just a photo backdrop of the roundels after all, though it was smaller than the real one.
Of course it was a fictionalization, a distillation, rather than a literal, exact recreation of historical events, but anyone who expects strict accuracy from a drama is looking in the wrong place. Juxtaposing Newman reading the script for "The Daleks" with Oswald assassinating Kennedy was chronologically unrealistic, but dramatically very powerful. A lot of this was taking different events and threads and creating composite scenes to summarize things that took place more gradually and diffusely in reality, just as some of the characters, notably Newman and Pinfield, were composites, given credit for multiple people's contributions. But it made it work better as a drama.
One or two of the inaccuracies did bug me a bit, though. The main one was the shot of Delia Derbyshire playing the theme on a keyboard. As I understand it, the theme was created in a musique concrete style by painstakingly splicing together hundreds of strips of audiotape, with every note and every different sound element being a different piece of tape. But then, the saga of the theme's creation probably deserves a movie of its own, so they had to simplify. Still, I wish it had gotten more than a few seconds.
Also, the bit about turning on a switch to make the time rotor rise and fall puzzled me. I always thought that was done manually by a stagehand pushing on a lever or bellows or something. A motor on set would've been too noisy.
And yes, the actress playing Susan did fudge her line and said "Relative Dimensions in Space" instead of "Dimension."
I liked the way Gatiss picked out scenes from the episodes that symbolically resonated with where Hartnell was or where the story was -- from showing the "Danger" warning on the TARDIS console just before the Kennedy sequence to Hartnell stumbling over the Doctor's speech about all his companions leaving. And it was great how the opening flashforward scene with the bobby carried a totally different layer of meaning once we saw it again in context: "You have to move on. You're in the way."
The Smith cameo was a little corny, but it pretty much worked as a symbolic moment. A montage of all the Doctors would've been way too much, and we got plenty of that in "The Day of the Doctor." And Smith is the reigning Doctor as of the 50th anniversary, the event this movie was made to commemorate, so his appearance symbolizes that achievement.
Of course it was a fictionalization, a distillation, rather than a literal, exact recreation of historical events, but anyone who expects strict accuracy from a drama is looking in the wrong place. Juxtaposing Newman reading the script for "The Daleks" with Oswald assassinating Kennedy was chronologically unrealistic, but dramatically very powerful. A lot of this was taking different events and threads and creating composite scenes to summarize things that took place more gradually and diffusely in reality, just as some of the characters, notably Newman and Pinfield, were composites, given credit for multiple people's contributions. But it made it work better as a drama.
One or two of the inaccuracies did bug me a bit, though. The main one was the shot of Delia Derbyshire playing the theme on a keyboard. As I understand it, the theme was created in a musique concrete style by painstakingly splicing together hundreds of strips of audiotape, with every note and every different sound element being a different piece of tape. But then, the saga of the theme's creation probably deserves a movie of its own, so they had to simplify. Still, I wish it had gotten more than a few seconds.
Also, the bit about turning on a switch to make the time rotor rise and fall puzzled me. I always thought that was done manually by a stagehand pushing on a lever or bellows or something. A motor on set would've been too noisy.
And yes, the actress playing Susan did fudge her line and said "Relative Dimensions in Space" instead of "Dimension."
I liked the way Gatiss picked out scenes from the episodes that symbolically resonated with where Hartnell was or where the story was -- from showing the "Danger" warning on the TARDIS console just before the Kennedy sequence to Hartnell stumbling over the Doctor's speech about all his companions leaving. And it was great how the opening flashforward scene with the bobby carried a totally different layer of meaning once we saw it again in context: "You have to move on. You're in the way."
The Smith cameo was a little corny, but it pretty much worked as a symbolic moment. A montage of all the Doctors would've been way too much, and we got plenty of that in "The Day of the Doctor." And Smith is the reigning Doctor as of the 50th anniversary, the event this movie was made to commemorate, so his appearance symbolizes that achievement.
By the way, seeing in that behind-the-scenes special that Waris Hussein is still alive, I wondered why he hasn't been brought back to direct more Doctor Who. Wouldn't it have been wild if he'd directed this very movie? Or even "The Day of the Doctor?"
I'm not versed on – or really even a fan of – old Who, so I wasn't expecting to have much of a reaction to this, but wow. It was wonderful, and so emotional by the end. That Matt Smith cameo... I thought I didn't like his take on the Doctor much, yet seeing him in that context made me realize how much I've to love his crazy mug.
It was devastating. The whole sequence leading up to it was a tearjerker, of course, but Smith pushed me over the edge; I broke down weeping when he appeared. I don't think TV has done that for me in a long, long time. It felt like it pulled my heart out.
It was devastating. The whole sequence leading up to it was a tearjerker, of course, but Smith pushed me over the edge; I broke down weeping when he appeared. I don't think TV has done that for me in a long, long time. It felt like it pulled my heart out.
So do we know if this is getting any sort of dvd release? Seems a 50th Anniversay box set with this, Day of the Doctor, the Five(ish) Doctors, the mini-sodes, and plenty of extras and commentaries would be a no-brainer.
I finally watched it this evening.
Wow.
I'm not ashamed to admit that it reduced to a blubber of tears, especially with the final scene and the post-credit interviews. What a beautiful film. Not just a story about the beginnings of Doctor Who, but also women in the work place (mostly Verity, but a hint of Delia, too), capturing people's imagination of the space race, and most importantly, the story of the great William Hartnell himself.
David Bradley completely captured the wonderfully cranky charm of William Hartnell and his love for Doctor Who with lots of fun moments like playing "Doctor Who" with the kids in the park, his conversations with his granddaughter, and perfectly stubborn about making sure things were done right on the set. Jessica Raine and Brian Cox were also terrific as Verity and Sydney.
I loved seeing glimpses of An Unearthly Child, The Daleks (although I'm surprised they didn't recreate the iconic Barbara moment), Marco Polo ("Shame it's not in color"), The Dalek Invasion of Earth (Westminster Bridge is cleared off for Daleks again!), The Web Planet, The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve, and The Tenth Planet (the sight of the Cyberman actor smoking a cigarette in costume reminds me of that photo of Kevin "Link" Lindsay smoking a cigarette with Jon Pertwee in costume).
I also loved all of the little cameos from Carole Ann Ford, Anneke Wills, Jean Marsh, William Russell (I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't recognize him at all!), and especially Matt Smith and his silent, respectful appearance.
The post-credit interviews were icing on the cake, especially Jessica Carney and Terrance Dicks.
As much as I loved "The Day of the Doctor" and "The Light at the End" (and "The Night of the Doctor"), An Adventure in Space and Time is my favorite celebration of Doctor Who's 50th anniversary, hands down.
Wow.
I'm not ashamed to admit that it reduced to a blubber of tears, especially with the final scene and the post-credit interviews. What a beautiful film. Not just a story about the beginnings of Doctor Who, but also women in the work place (mostly Verity, but a hint of Delia, too), capturing people's imagination of the space race, and most importantly, the story of the great William Hartnell himself.
David Bradley completely captured the wonderfully cranky charm of William Hartnell and his love for Doctor Who with lots of fun moments like playing "Doctor Who" with the kids in the park, his conversations with his granddaughter, and perfectly stubborn about making sure things were done right on the set. Jessica Raine and Brian Cox were also terrific as Verity and Sydney.
I loved seeing glimpses of An Unearthly Child, The Daleks (although I'm surprised they didn't recreate the iconic Barbara moment), Marco Polo ("Shame it's not in color"), The Dalek Invasion of Earth (Westminster Bridge is cleared off for Daleks again!), The Web Planet, The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve, and The Tenth Planet (the sight of the Cyberman actor smoking a cigarette in costume reminds me of that photo of Kevin "Link" Lindsay smoking a cigarette with Jon Pertwee in costume).
I also loved all of the little cameos from Carole Ann Ford, Anneke Wills, Jean Marsh, William Russell (I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't recognize him at all!), and especially Matt Smith and his silent, respectful appearance.
The post-credit interviews were icing on the cake, especially Jessica Carney and Terrance Dicks.
As much as I loved "The Day of the Doctor" and "The Light at the End" (and "The Night of the Doctor"), An Adventure in Space and Time is my favorite celebration of Doctor Who's 50th anniversary, hands down.
I don't think we got the post-credit interviews on this side of the pond.
The thing that sold it for me was after Verity Lambert left and the new producer was giving instructions and Hartnell (for it was he) said "I can't close the doors from this side of the console". To which the disembodied voice said "does it matter?".
"Of course it matters".
Hartnell totally understood.
Did you not get him in makeup for panto a few years after he left DW? It was strange because he had a disconnect between what he was doing and what he was saying. His daughter's comments were very touching too.
"Of course it matters".
Hartnell totally understood.
Did you not get him in makeup for panto a few years after he left DW? It was strange because he had a disconnect between what he was doing and what he was saying. His daughter's comments were very touching too.
doubleohfive
Fleet Admiral
I very happily found An Adventure in Space and Time included in the 50th Anniversary package I purchased on iTunes Saturday, and as I watched it, I marveled at all the things I did know (very few) and all the things I didn't (very many) about the origin and creation of Doctor Who as a television series.
By the end, I was quite moved and satisfied by the picture. I can forgive historical inaccuracy; it's a movie, not a documentary.
Lastly, those of you deriding, complaining about or just quizzically unhappy with the Matt Smith cameo are completely missing the point. It was a beautiful moment and I was very happy with it.
By the end, I was quite moved and satisfied by the picture. I can forgive historical inaccuracy; it's a movie, not a documentary.
Lastly, those of you deriding, complaining about or just quizzically unhappy with the Matt Smith cameo are completely missing the point. It was a beautiful moment and I was very happy with it.
I initially thought it was Brian Cox being Brian Cox, but having subsequently seen a clip of Newman in interview, I'm impressed at how true a portrayal it is.
There's also The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot, written and directed by Peter Davison and starring some very familiar faces. Well worth half an hour of this Whovian's time.
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