BBC Doctor Who Special - An Adventure in Space and Time (TV Movie) - Group Reaction 

William Hartnell was only 58 when he was forced to stop as the Doctor because of his illness, so he wasn't thát old. David Bradley is a lot older (he was 70/71 when this was filmed)

Couple of fun facts: - William Russell (who played first companion Ian Chesterton) and Carole Ann Ford (who played the Doctor's granddaughter Susan) had cameos in this TV film. Russell played the old, mustachioed BBC security guard at the beginning; and Ford played the grandmother in the bathrobe and curlers who was in the middle of the street yelling "Michael, come in for your tea!". (Jacqueline Hill, who played first companion Barbara Wright [who was also the friend Verity was dancing the twist with at the beginning of the movie], died in 1993). - Mark Gatiss, who was the exec. producer for this film, said when they were shooting the scene where William Hartnell chastises Carole Ann Ford for being frivolous with her money on clothes, the setting was in between shooting scenes for the 4th ever story "Marco Polo", which is one of the First Doctor stories that's been completely lost. He said he was really tempted (since they had most of the story's script, costumes, set pieces and props; not to mention the proper recording equipment circa 1964), to lock the studio doors and have the company shoot the entire story anew. - If you're wondering why the British people were really shaken about JFK's assassination, it was partly due to how globally popular he was as our president, but it was also because JFK's father Joseph Kennedy was during the late 20s/early 30s the US Ambassador to Great Britain. He and his whole family were very popular there at that time. So they had seen JFK grow up as a child. The fact regarding Doctor Who was it premiered on Nov. 23rd, the day after the assassination; so people were so distracted by what had happened in Dallas that they didn't take to the show immediately.

Matt Smith's Doctor wasn't the one to break the regeneration rule, that happened back in Classic Who when The Master kept coming back.

"That's how they did it..." The Daleks still have operators inside them *now*! :)

I disagree. Doctor Who is a show built to last, and it reinvents itself always. New showrunners, new writers, new cast, even if it goes on break, or gets cancelled, I guarantee it will come back.

A nice reaction. I TOTALLY disagree with the views on Doctor Who ending though. Doctor Who is unlike any other show that can go on too long, due to its very nature, anyone can be the Doctor and anyone can be the companion and you can tell literally any kind of story within it. That kind of idea can go on forever.

15:53 - 15:58 Fun fact: Dalek voice actor Peter Hawkins (3rd/April/1924 - 8th/July/2006) is played by current Dalek voice actor Nicholas Briggs. After Doctor Who in 1968, Hawkins did many voices on other British television programmes for kids on the BBC and ITV. 1972 - 1997: Rainbow. 1983 - 1986: SuperTed. 1984: The Family Ness. 1986: Jumbo and the Jet-Set. 1989 - 1990: Penny Crayon.

I know I'm late, but I just wanted to add: that is exactly how the TARDIS was created. The designer hated working on something so 'uncivilized' as sci-fi, and Verity had to pester him non-stop to get anything out of him. He ended up tossing those office supplies together in an attempt to mock her about her unimportance, and she turned around and used it anyways, making up details on the spot to turn it into something that worked as a set, and one far larger than anyone expected. The designer always hated Doctor Who and that set, but Verity and the crew did an amazing job in inventing ways to make his insults backfire to their advantage.

Ty for making this reaction - I had just turned 14 and remember exactly where I was when told of the Kennedy assassination just before the day of the first Dr Who airing - the memories of Dr Who and many other shows are also vivid and you can imagine how kids talked about and relived the shows at school (our old version of 'reacting'). Really good television entertainment was still being invented and tried, and the great modern shows we enjoy now are a tribute to the inventiveness of those early pioneers. Reaction videos were not possible until recent times and I am grateful to be able to enjoy them and have the memories revived by your reactions and comments - thanks again and keep up the good work.

Interesting story about the last time William Hartnell played the Doctor, which was in a story from early 1973 called "The Three Doctors": The idea behind this 10th anniversary story was to have (up to that point) all the Doctors (William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee) interacting with each other due to their time streams getting brought together; and fighting a common villain. When the showrunner at that time, Barry Letts, called William Hartnell in late 1972 about being on the show after securing Patrick Troughton, Hartnell said he would love to do it and would participate in it. Almost 24 hours after that call, Hartnell's wife Heather called Letts and said "Bill's saying he's going to be on 'Doctor Who' again. Is this true?" The producer said yes, and that Hartnell agreed to be in it. Well, Hartnell's wife told them that they had caught him in that call on one of his unusually lucid days; most of the time the "arteriosclerosis of the brain" he was suffering (which nowadays would be diagnosed as dementia) and other maladies he had made it tough for him to be able to physically move around and retain any information. In short, he wouldn't be able to properly do blocking nor remember any lines. But by that time, the producers had already locked up Hartnell on their casting call sheet. So, instead of the First Doctor meeting up with the Second and Third Doctors in person, it was explained in the story that the First Doctor was caught in a time eddy. This allowed the production to get a small studio to do up like a "time eddy", had Hartnell sit in a chair that was in front of the camera, and had him read his lines from cue cards next to the camera. Once that was filmed, that footage was then played on the monitor in the TARDIS and Troughton and Pertwee acted against that footage. He did a decent job with it, but it is hard to watch because of how much slower he is at that point. Here's a bit of footage from that story involving him: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-I6Uf4sjX8RE.html

If you liked this...watch The Five-ish Doctors. Made for the 50th special as well about the previous actors who played the Doctor trying to get cameos in the episode. It's awesome.

You HAVE to react to Tennant's "Silence in the Library" two-parter and Capaldi's "Heaven Sent." Those episodes have some of the best Doctor Who performances in the series.

omg I am so surprised they made a reaction vid to this. *This brightened up my Christmas*

19:19 Suzanne wasn't just his first companion, she was his grandaughter too.

I do love the bit where Hartnell says, "I told them you know, there is only one man who can do this job." And Troughton just responds with, "Couldn't they get him?" Implying he was not good enough to replace him.

The series said in Classic Who that Time Lords could be given regenerations, I think around the time the Valeyard was around.

The Time Lords gave the Doctor a whole new regeneration cycle , that's 12 more regenerations. They offered The Master the same in The Five Doctors.

I took my 2 sons and daughters. To watch the first episode. At a museum in Bradford England. This was 10 years ago we really enjoyed. And even though its in black and white. They still loved it. When was a kid playing out with my mates my mum shout me in saying Dr who on the telly i would drop everything and plonk myself in front of the goggle box.

I typed that not realizing you were having a big discussion at the end haha, one more thing I'd like to add: They didn't actually break the rules with more regenerations. They establish a lot of things in the old series, including there's no 'hard cap' to the amount of regenerations. Everyone gets the 12, but the council can choose to add on to that. The Doctor says he can't ever do it again for 2 reasons. 1. He doesn't think the council can reach him to give him more. 2. Even if they could, he and the council have had serious issues for a very very long time, well before the time war. It's more or less long established they want as little to do with him as possible, so it was far far more likely they'd be willing to just let him die rather than give him such a massive gift.

I ADORE the symbolism of Hartnell seeing Matt, it obviously didn’t happen but it’s more symbolic than anything, it shows that if it had been possible that I think William would’ve been very proud and happy that the legacy HE began continues on to this day

Keep in mind that WW II was still very fresh in many people’s minds in 1963. VE Day was only 18 years before Doctor Who came out. Having the Daleks shout “exterminate” and their hatred of anything that isn’t them was a direct reference to the Nazis. It was part of the reason that Neumann had such a negative reaction and also why the Jewish Lambert thought the story needed to be told. I don’t think Americans, and especially younger ones, really get the connection. The Daleks creeped out younger folks but the older ones had a visceral reaction to that sort of bad guy. Whenever you see the Daleks in a first Doctor story keep the historical context in mind. Big Finish did a really good job of cementing that relationship with their Dalek Empire range. They also did a Nazi story called “Colditz” starring the 7th Doctor and Ace that made a good connection even without there being Daleks in it. David Tennent was also in that but he didn’t play the Doctor. Anyone that considers themselves to be big Doctor Who fans owes it to themselves to listen to the Big Finish audios. I really think they are a better introduction to classic Doctor Who than the old TV shows.

They didn't really break the rules in fairness. The Timelords gave him a new regeneration cycle. Not so much breaking rules but making up new ones. :-p

If you guys would want to throw in reactions to classic Doctor Who, might I recommend whoever provides the hardware to watch stuff get a subscription to Britbox. This service includes all available stories from Classic Doctor Who's run from 1963 to 1989. If you take the plunge and get Britbox, here are the stories from classic Doctor Who I'd recommend from each of the first 7 Doctors. First Doctor (William Hartnell): * = a must-see - An Unearthly Child (the very first story)* - The Daleks* - Edge of Destruction - Keys of Marinus* - The Aztecs - Dalek Invasion of Earth (this was the story where that final "One day, I shall come back..." speech is from) - The Time Meddler* (first instance of another TimeLord without being expressly noted) - The Ark Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton): - Tomb of the Cybermen* - Enemy of the World* - Web of Fear* (first story to feature Brigadier Gordon Alistair Lethbridge Stewart [Kate Lethbridge Stewart's father]) - The Mind Robber* - The Invasion* (first story to feature UNIT) - The War Games* (the longest number of episodes in a surviving story [10, in fact] but the pacing is so good [and the episodes are only 23 min. long each] it doesn't feel so long) Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee): - Spearhead From Space* (first Doctor Who story in color) - Inferno* - Mind of Evil - The Daemons - The Sea Devils (though the monster's a little shoddy, this story features a very young Donald Sumpter [who you knew as Maester Lewin on GoT and Rassilon in the 12th Doctor's "Hell Bent" episode]) - Curse of Peladon (the young king in this is played by David Troughton, Patrick's son and the one who also played Professor Hobbes in "Midnight") - The Three Doctors* (The 10th Anniversary story, and the first multi-Doctor one) - Monster of Peladon Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker): - Genesis of the Daleks* - Terror of the Zygons (the first appearance of the Zygons a good 38 years before "Day of the Doctor") - Brain of Morbius (first appearance of the Sisterhood of Karn, the ones from "Night of the Doctor") - Robots of Death - Talons of Wang Chiang - Season 18, which had the umbrella title "The Key To Time" (and also had the first female TimeLord Romana)*: + The Ribos Operation + The Pirate Planet + The Stones of Blood + The Androids of Tara + The Power of Kroll + The Armageddon Factor - City of Death* (really popular one shot mostly in Paris; the heavy in this story was played by a much younger Julian Glover [whom you all knew as Grand Maester Pycelle on GoT]) Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) (this was the Doctor 10 runs into in "Time Crash"): - The Visitation - Kinda - Earthshock* (the only surviving story in which a companion gets killed) - Arc of Infinity - Mawdryn Undead - Terminus - Enlightenment - The Five Doctors (the 20th anniversary story; also had a completely different actor playing the First Doctor since William Hartnell was already dead [though ironically, the replacement actor died a few months after they completed shooting]) - Caves of Androzani* (most authoritative Whovian publications usually rank this one as the best Doctor Who story ever; it was directed by Graeme Harper, who also directed "Army of Ghosts/Doomsday" and other episodes in NuWho) Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker): - Vengeance on Varos - The Two Doctors (the last multi-Doctor story until "Day of the Doctor") - Season 23, which was given the umbrella title "Trial of a Time Lord": + The Mysterious Planet + Mindwarp + Terror of the Vervoids + The Ultimate Foe Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy): - Dragonfire (the actress who played Magenta in "Rocky Horror Picture Show" is in this one) - Remembrance of the Daleks (The actor who played Geoffrey in "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air" is in this one) - Ghost Light - Survival (the final story before the BBC cancelled "Doctor Who" in 1989)

To answer your question at the end: Matt Smith has another 12 regenerations. They mentioned that it was a new regeneration cycle.

DO NOT SAY to start at season 9. Are you crasy? Thats like watching the last episode of lost and saying you watched the whole thing. Please stop saying such things. Also. people DO still watch supernatural and its great.

Doctor who as a show can change enough to keep it fresh and going forever

I literally paused, watched this film, then came back. There are tears on my keyboard keys as I type this. Gosh that was so good.

So glad you guys did this. Never did I think a docudrama could get so emotional. With the whirlwind of hype around the 50th Anniversary at the time, the waterworks were strong at the end of this film!

omg these three are adorable! they are just so excited and happy. and they all nodding at the same time without even knowing XD

The only time we ever saw the Doctor's TARDIS change shape in the original series was during the 1985 story "Attack of the Cybermen" The 6th Doctor attempted to finally fix the Chameleon circuit, but it still didn't work properly and changed into several random and sometimes funny objects over the course of the story (A Flowery Armoire, A Pipe Organ and a Gateway). At the end of the story it changed back to the Police Box shape again, and the Doctor just left it that way, contented to have the familiar Box back again.

Fun Fact. The pilot episode was shot twice. First on 27th September 1963. Partly re-written and re-shot on 18th October, and broadcast, as everyone knows, on 23rd November. It was repeated one week later because of the Kennedy assassination.

i'm so happy you guys reacted to this, I can't wait for you guys to see the christmas special! it was awesome :)))

“I kind of want to see the black and white version now”. Y’all should react to the first actual episode. It’s so amazing what they did with what little they had. They made you believe the styrofoam and the clunky monsters were real because the actors did so well.

I always love our outfits but Chris is killing me with that xmas jumper lmao

"2013"?! Damn! Time flies! 😞

Matt Smith holds a special place in my heart.

Good on you guys for including some more sci-fi in your line up, and Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays to all of you! Not really a big Dr. Who fan at all, but my Dad was a huge fan of the original run and I heard nothing but good things about the David Tennant and Matt Smith runs (saw maybe 6 episodes out of that). The actor that played Walder Frey has been in a heap of TV shows and movies, and I always feel he deserves a great deal of respect.

There was no rule breaking, new regeneration cycle and time lord being able to regenerate into any gender is canon.

Micky had the fez on the whole time so im thinking hes gonna freak out at the end when matt shows up and NOPE 😂 same old mick just staring lmaoo

This episode never even crossed my mind, but great idea I think to show some newcomers the dramatized version of how it all started, probably adds a greater level of appreciation for the whole series both for old and new fans. But seriously though guys please make The Empty Child your next Doctor Who reaction.

Hi - have watched Doctor Who since later in the Troughton era.

Fun fact: the Daleks still get operated the exact same way.

I love seeing David Bradley as William Hartnell and the Doctor, partly because up till this point, I'd only known him as the grubbiest of horrific old farts.

Glad you guys did this! Hope to see more Doctor Who things from you - If you like Matt Smith what about his cross over into The Sarah Jane Adventures?

Love viewing your reactions, very nice

You see the tardis getting stuck in the police box form in the very first episode an unearthly child

22:48 You see that? Can you see that you old beautiful man? That's your legacy...

PLEASE DO MORE DOCTOR WHO!!!

lol the timing of this had me thinking it was the christmas special.

@17:56 That's a depiction of the original Doctor Who Annual from 1965. I own one of those! It's a mixture of comics and stories and puzzles.

So, no robots or bug eye monsters? WE wouldn't have the Cybermen or Daleks if it hadn't been for that first producer.

Capaldi is my favorite. Gonna be sad to see him go 😢

No no doctor who can go on forever its not like any other show.it will be going on after were all long gone

Hey Normies I don't know if u guys know this but, the security guard on the BBC in this movie is the man Who played the Ian Chesterton the First male companion.

Best Christmas ever!!!!

You guys are marvelling at how they used to do the daleks when that's pretty much how they still do it.

2:52 Our friend in the fez surely knows the name is "Cybermen" and that many people are only saying it with an accent that he doesn't seem to have, right?

2:44 3 Sonic screwdrivers and they still get up to start the video smh.

You guys should definitely watch "Dalek"

10 million viewers was a lot when you consider this was the UK which at the time was about a quarter of the population. And the show was supposed to be a low budget Sci fi show for kids

"No of us would be allowed in some of those places" Fuck dude, thats shitty to think about

I wish you guy did the river arc episodes and the The Day of the Doctor with chris and micky and suraj

I was somewhat surprised and saddened they didn’t mention Hartnell’s reprisal of Doctor Who in the 10th anniversary program during the end credits.

It gets stuck in that position in literally the first story of Doctor Who.

They do fix the Chameleon Curcuit in one episode, but it breaks again by the end of the episode and stays a police box

Great reactions :) I know I'm late catching up with this, but as many people say, don't get beaten up by the rules and get worried this show will stay the same eh. During the classic series there is an episode called The Brain of Morbius, in that the Doctors' previous selves are shown and they are incarnations that were unknown (and to this day never commented on - the faces used were actually cast and directing crew from the filming). If Adventure In Space & Time shows, many of the things we hold strict as rules for Doctor Who were often just made or created for production reasons. I doubt ANYONE in the BBC ever thought Doctor Who would last enough for the 13 incarnations to be thing, heck they didn't even think there would be a need for anyone after William Hartnell. In Classic Who, The Master used up all his 12 regeneration's and actually ran out of bodies, yet he/she is still alive today :) With Doctor Who, rules aren't rules.

To this day I still find it hilarious how people get so hung up on the 'doctor only has 13 Lives' thing. As someone whose been a fan all my life, it's just funny to me how ppl don't understand that its in dr whos identity to just keep going and going. Theres no real ending to it, and the episode in which the rule was established in ('The Deadly Assassin') was literally 14 YEARS into the Classic Show. The Idea of Time Lords wasn't even introduced until the Second Doctor's last Story, 6 years into the show. The Doctor didn't have 2 hearts until 7 years in. Even in the Deadly Assassin, the Master (the villain of the episode) is on his 14 incarnation meaning the rule is broken! So basically, all of ur points are kinda dumb lmao. Still good video tho!

The tardis is stuck in the police box appearance as when the doctor landed in 1960s England in the pilot the tardis chameleon systems broke so it was stuck as a policy box because that was the appearance it took to blend in the 1960s

@10:00: I admit, I find it funny that under normal logic, Hartnell would be correct, the TARDIS needs consistent switches and buttons or children will get confused. But nowadays, it seems accepted that the TARDIS's buttons do all sorts of things and won't be consistent.

Inserts correction for the name of the special, still gets it wrong in the video title :P EDIT: For real though, this is a really good reaction.

Yeah, I think they actually replayed the first episode because it got overshadowed by Kennedy dying.

The Daleks were created and owned by Welshman & Writer/Creator Terry Nation and his Estate owns them to this day. They are not owned by The BBC.

I wish u did another secret Santa episode

Jessica Carney, Willliam Hartnell's real granddaughter wrote a Biography of his life called. "Who's There".

You're DW knowledge really is fleeting, isn't it?

Regeneration wasn't mentioned as a concept until 1974s Planet of The Spiders, 1st to 2nd was explained as "A function of the tardis" and 2nd to 3rd was a change of appearance and exile as punishment from the Timelords.

I probably realize that every time I hear the Classic Daleks, but pretty sure the speech is based on speech cadence of Nazi Baddies from war movies with a bit of Hitler's speeches.

I haven't watched the doctor sence paul McGann and Christopher eccleston. Might have to pick up where I left off. Good vid!!

9:29 Pure Gold . XD

Nice reaction, guys. I'm a true Who-Nut ("Whovian" is way to light for me). I still watch an episode every day, starting over at the very beginning every two years. I loved this movie, having read a lot of the story before. My only complaint is so nerdy as to be downright silly. When they show the photo shoot of the actors at the beginning of season four, the companions are Ben and Polly, played by Michael Craze and Anneke Wills. My problem was the actors who played them in that one brief scene. The actor playing Craze towered over both the others. In real life he was quite short and the top of his head was about the same level as her eyes. Like I said, silly, but it really stood out for me.

everyone always misses the end credits

The recorded the house keys then slowed down the sound to get the tardisbsound

Nice job Nahid!

Hope you guys react to the Christmas special Twice Upon A Time aka Calpaldi's last episode soon!

My personal thoughts on the matter is that Doctor Who should not definitively end until 2063. There can be another hiatus in there somewhere if need be, but it would have to make another comeback someday using the same continuity and end with a 100th anniversary special.

That girl can stop watching Dr Who. Most people end up being weaned off it, but that's no reason for the show to stop. Her kids will love it and grow up loving it.

Actually, that's *still* how they operate the Daleks. ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/976x549_b/p01nw68m.jpg

You cannot compare Supernatural with Doctor who. Supernatural has been running on the same formula for 15 years, with the same leads. It is exactly the same show it was 15 years ago. They keep going round and round in circles and keep bringing the same characters and same plots..and angels and demons and apocalypse storylines literally in every season. Compared to that Doctor who is a show that is continuously in flux. It changes with every Doctor and I'd say with every season. No two seasons are the same in Doctor who, and every Doctor has his or her own personality. You might like a particular doctor or dislike another, but the show keeps changing, and that's the fundamental difference between supernatural and dr who. Supernatural's creator had intended the show to last 5 seasons. Whereas Doctor who was created with the idea of going on as long as it could. Even if they end it...it can always be rebooted later. That's the beauty of Doctor who's format. It can literally start from any point. The show has to change as it goes on..and that is the reason it has gone on for so long.

I would’ve loved them to reshoot Marco Polo.

You guys should react on the 100. It’s really good

If Doctor Who ends in the next 5 years, it's Navi's fault. LOL

I think I would rather them not watch Doctor Who than to jump around like they have been doing. Just watch it from the beginning or not at all. When you jump around it makes the reaction just answering questions for the ones that haven't watched the show.

Susan was also the Doctor's Granddaughter

Check out the time of the Doctor Christmas special. Also Check out The Greatest Showman This is me Dance Tutorial.

@ 17:12 Mickey: “Daleks saved the show.” [Rana’s feminist rage intensifies] Rana: “SHE saved the show! It was her idea!” [Terry Nation rolls in grave] LOL

21:58 MY EXACT SAME REACTION

Sad that I, Terry Nation, only got one mention in the story. I worked hard to create the Daleks!

This was a brilliant surprise. A great reaction for a great movie. :'D Also as far as I know there was no physical limit to regeneration. Rassilon, the Time Lord boss dude who I think had part in creating regeneration, made a rule limiting regeneration to 12 (except for himself, cause he's a greedy bitch like that), so it's not such an asspull that The Doctor was given more (or heck, limitless) regenerations... I think. I forget the details.

Supernatural WILL NEVER DIE! same with Doctor who They will never go away.

GUYS NOT TODAY