An Adventure in Space and Time Review

This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I review every film I watch.

I remember when I watched this film for the first time at a time when I was absolutely obsessed with Doctor Who. I adored this film and put it as one of my favorite films of all time. After watching it again now, it no longer falls in the top 10 or even necessarily in my favorite films, but I still think this is a really darn good TV movie, especially for Doctor Who fans. There's a lot to like about this movie, but there's also a lot that feels like already seen territory, so let's talk about all of that.

Probably the best aspects of this film are the writing, acting, cinematography, and attention-to-detail in the time period. The shot composition is marvelous to look at, Mark Gatiss' script is overall very charming and fairly authentic, and the way that this movie captures the 1960s is just incredible. The cameras they use, the TV and the way TV shows were aired, the magazines of that era, it's just all captured so well and makes you feel like you're in the middle of watching this show get produced. In terms of the acting, David Bradley was the perfect choice to play William Hartnell. Not only does he look a lot like him, but he really understands the turmoil behind the man, how annoyed he was at being typecast and how grateful he was when this show turned into something beyond what he could have ever dreamed of. He's amazing in this show, as is everyone else (particularly Jessica Raine, Sacha Dhawan, and Brian Cox). The show celebrates Doctor Who as a show and all of the people who made it happen and does so brilliantly. It's a fascinating look behind the scenes, and seeing the Daleks, Cybermen and TARDIS appear on-screen in this movie for the first time is certainly crowd-pleasing. The music by Edmund Butt is very good as well; I'll occasionally have the theme song running through my head for a few minutes because it's just so catchy.

There are also some amazing emotional moments, including one from David Bradley where he uses a well-known DW catchphrase. It doesn't feel like it's simply there to get a reaction from all of the Whovians, it feels like it fits in the context of the scene. That's another thing that's really good about this movie: newcomers can absolutely watch it and still understand what's going on and feel fully impacted by what's going on in the film. Sure, it's probably a better viewing experience if you've at least seen the reboot (which I have-- I haven't watched much of the original series), but the film still works if you don't know anything about the show, which is great. Bradley's scene and two other scenes in particular really stand out to me: A scene where Bradley interacts with a bunch of kids as The Doctor and a scene that may actually be one of my favorite scenes in all of movie history. That scene uses the fact that the very first episode of Doctor Who aired on the night that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated to its full, bone-chilling potential. If you see the movie, you'll know what I'm talking about, but I don't want to spoil it for those of you who haven't yet. The editing in that scene is absolutely incredible, and the sudden 180 it takes is absolutely incredible.

Now, as I said, I used to think this film was one of my favorite films and that it had absolutely no flaws. Looking at it now, I simply cannot say that was the case. Because this film can only be an hour and a half long because it's made for television, the pacing feels rushed at times. There are quite a few character moments in this film that feel like they should have been given a bit more time to breathe or develop, and that's sad. I feel like they didn't quite utilize a subplot about Verity Lambert being the first female producer at the BBC quite well enough. Don't get me wrong, there are some great scenes that result from that, but the subplot doesn't seem like it's developed or resolved quite as well as it should be, which I was very disappointed by. On top of that, this feels like a fairly stereotypical biopic: something we know will turn out to be successful struggles to get off the ground, then things go terribly wrong and it seems like it won't see the light of day, then things turn around again, then things turn for the worse again-- we've seen all this before and I'm not sure this film did much to make it feel new. On top of that, there's a scene involving one of the first scenes shot for the show going completely wrong, and... I'm sorry, but it seemed at first to me like the movie is implying that the way they shot that scene was what made it into the final pilot in real life. If that's not what they were implying (which I actually don't think it is), then that scene was horribly rushed and not executed well to make us realize, "Oh, they reshot that scene so that it didn't look like that much of a mess." If that is what they were implying, the Blu-ray of this movie actually came with the pilot episode of the show, and I can tell you for a fact that THE SCENE DIDN'T COME OUT NEARLY THAT WRONG IN THE FINAL PILOT. I know I've said in the past that I don't have much of a problem with somewhat changing the way things actually played out for a movie if it makes sense for the story, but when the film starts implying that footage that ACTUALLY EXISTS and is READILY ACCESSIBLE is different in the film than it was in real life, I have a little bit more of a beef with that.

Okay, so the pacing feels a bit rushed and the plot feels a bit cliche. There's part of me that feels like I should be a bit easier on it since it's a TV movie, but pacing and writing issues could still be sorted out during the production stage, so I feel like taking points off for that is justified. Other than that, I would still strongly recommend this film to anyone who can watch it, especially Doctor Who fans who have at least checked out the reboot. The script does a great job of portraying the ever-changing nature of the show and of integrating great references and cameos into the film that don't feel like they were put there just to get a geeked-out reaction from Doctor Who fans. Seriously, if you've seen Doctor Who and you don't know about the cameo at the end of this film (like I unfortunately did), please go watch the film before you find out ANYTHING about it. I'm absolutely positive you will be blown away by it. This film has great performances, solid writing, good music, great cinematography, and an attention-to-detail that really makes you feel like you're in the 1960s. I'm definitely curious if anyone who hasn't seen Doctor Who before and doesn't know anything about the show sees this film first and still loves it. I have a feeling they just might.

Letter Grade: A-