Posted in: BBC, Doctor Who, Preview, streaming, Trailer, TV | Tagged: an adventure in space and time, bbc, bleeding cool, cable, doctor who, doctor who an adventure in space and time, doctor who lockdown, emily cook, livetweet, mark gatiss, sacha dhewan, streaming, sydney newman, television, tv, verity lambert, waris hussein
Doctor Who Lockdown Rewatch Goes on An Adventure In Space and Time
You know the drill. Following up on Wednesday's edition, the next Doctor Who Lockdown rewatch episode has been announced. Doctor Who Magazine writer and BBC Radio Editor Emily Cook revealed on her twitter feed that it would be Doctor Who: An Adventure in Space and Time. The rewatch will take place on Saturday May 23th at 7 pm British Standard Time, which is 2 pm Eastern Time in the United States. Joining the livetweet will be writer-actor Mark Gatiss and actor Sacha Dhawan, who played the director of the first episode of Doctor Who, Waris Hussein, and now plays The Master on the current version of the series.
Learn the Not-So-Secret Origin of Doctor Who
Doctor Who: An Adventure in Space and Time was a one-off special episode about the origin of the show itself. The script was a labour of love by Mark Gatiss who worked for years to get it greenlit. It was ultimately a tribute to the first actor to play The Doctor, William Hartnell, played with a puckish vulnerability by David Bradley. Bradley had previously achieved fame and notoriety from playing Walder Frey on Game of Thrones, who orchestrated the infamous Red Wedding that massacred Robb Stark and his followers.
An Adventure in Space and Time proposes that the figure of The Doctor, while totally made up and fictional, still became a redemptive figure who changed people's lives in real life. The role gave Hartnell, then an already successful character actor, unexpected fame and the adoration of the nation's children. The Doctor, the story suggests, saved his first actor from a life of bitterness and gave him new friends. His failing health resulted in the producers needing to replace him, which led to the idea of regeneration, setting in motion the show's future for the next 50 years and beyond.
Gatiss' script also showed that the show was a beacon for outsiders right from the beginning – it was created by people considered outsiders in British society. Its ostensible creator, then head of the BBC Sydney Newman, was Canadian. The producer Verity Lambert was Jewish – she went on to become one of the most innovative and celebrated producers of British television drama all the way until her death in 2007. The first director of Doctor Who, Waris Hussein, is South Asian and gay. Yes, he's still alive. It's no wonder that outsiders have gravitated to the show over the decades and became fans. All the Doctor Who episodes selected for the lockdown rewatch are special, but An Adventure in Space and Time is especially so.