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Doctor Who: "An Unearthly Child" Issues Bring More "Adventure" Changes

"An Unearthly Child" rights issues resulted in scenes & dialogue being cut from BBC's Doctor Who docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time.

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Article Summary

  • The reairing of An Adventure in Space and Time now features a cameo from Ncuti Gatwa.
  • Scenes and dialogue from An Unearthly Child cut due to rights issues.
  • Anthony Coburn's family member withholds rights over early Doctor Who episodes.
  • First four episodes absent from BBC's massive iPlayer Doctor Who library.

When the Mark Gatiss-penned An Adventure in Space and Time was reaired on Thursday night on BBC Four as part of the big celebration in play for the 60th anniversary of BBC's Doctor Who (with the three-episode special event kicking off this weekend on BBC One, BBC iPlayer & Disney+ with "The Star Beast"), viewers may have noticed a big difference from the version that originally aired in 2013. Instead of seeing Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor in the final scene, William Hartnell (David Bradley) looks up from the controls of the TARDIS to see Ncuti Gatwa's Fifteenth Doctor – with the plan being that the scene be updated every time a new Doctor is named. That alone would be enough reason to go out and purchase a physical copy of the original cut – though we wonder if BBC iPlayer will include both versions. But earlier today, RadioTimes confirmed that certain scenes & pieces of dialogue were cut due to rights issues pertaining to "An Unearthly Child" – the same rights issue that's kept the story off of BBC's streaming service.

doctor who
Images: BBC

Back in October, Stef Anthony Coburn announced on social media that the BBC would not be getting the rights to the late writer Anthony Coburn's episodes – the first four Doctor Who episodes – explaining that the BBC's treatment of their father as the reason why they won't deal with the BBC unless it meets their proposal. Anthony Coburn was a staff writer for the BBC in 1963 when he began working with story editor David Whitaker on the early development of what would become the long-running series – taking their respective turns at the project. During his early run on the show, Coburn penned four episodes – including "An Unearthly Child" and "The Robots" (aka, "The Masters of Luxor").

Not long after, the BBC confirmed to RadioTimes that "An Unearthly Child" wouldn't be included in the massive streaming library (800+ episodes, spinoffs, and more) hitting BBC iPlayer on November 1st. "This massive iPlayer back catalogue will be home to over 800 hours of 'Doctor Who' content, making it the biggest ever collection of 'Doctor Who' programming in one place but will not include the first four episodes as we do not have all the rights to those," a BBC spokesperson confirmed.

So if you were thinking of purchasing the original version of An Adventure in Space and Time simply because of the Smith/Gatwa update to keep your collection complete, you have another reason to grab a copy – just make sure you do it before everyone else realizes what happened:

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Ray FlookAbout Ray Flook

Serving as Television Editor since 2018, Ray began five years earlier as a contributing writer/photographer before being brought onto the core BC team in 2017.
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