WasAnnon Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

LouHomey From my favorite movies..

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Rickting Doctor Who is my favorite TV show ever, so admittedly this film will connect to me far more. It's not necessarily a brilliant piece of TV, but it's a lovely drama with great performances, a compelling underdog story, nice visuals, good dialogue and a truly, truly wonderful ending. David Bradley is a superb actor and despite how brilliantly grotesque he was in Game of Thrones and Harry Potter, he's wonderful here and carries the entire film along. All the other actors do a great job and this is also a nice feminist story of a woman triumphing over workplace sexism to produce one of the most beloved TV shows of them all. It's a highly nostalgic work, and as a documentary of the show's beginning it works very well and gets a lot of information across. As a drama, it hits various compelling emotional peaks (Although a lot of it was probably artistic licence to some degree, but that's understandable in a film of this sort). It loses momentum in the last half-hour as it rushes through the first 3 years of the show and feels more like a highlights montage, but there are still good moments throughout this last section. As for that final scene with the Matt Smith cameo, don't get me started on that because believe me when I say this: I will cry. It's that wonderful. On the whole, a very nice tribute to the show, even if the run-time is too short to cover the subject completely. 8/10

StuOz A drama about how Doctor Who came to be on TV.Perhaps the best British TV drama made in years.I like Doctor Who but I am more into US science fiction like Star Trek and Irwin Allen...which also came out of the 1960s. My point is: this is for fans of 1960s sci-fi in general. Not just Doctor who fans.Everybody is this drama is perfectly casted, mainly the guy playing William Hartnell.The Daleks and The Tardis are perfectly matched to how they looked back then.It gets a little sad towards the end, so there is more to this than a sci-fi blast from the past.

AaronCapenBanner Faithful and loving recreation of those early days of "Doctor Who", when William Hartnell(played excellently by David Bradley) first took on the mantle of that mysterious wandering time & space traveler the Doctor, with a fine supporting cast portraying his costars(William Russell, Jacqueline Hill, and Carole Ann Ford) and real-life production crew(like producer Verity Lambert, young director Waris Hussein, and their boss at the BBC Sydney Newman.) Behind the scenes turmoil and uncertainty are well portrayed, and were quickly settled once the Daleks debuted, and the ratings climbed to ten million...The script by Mark Gatiss is quite good, with nice touches that long-time fans will appreciate, though at only 90 minutes, it does move along a bit too fast, with other key participants(like script editor and writer David Whitaker) left out altogether, and the final little nod to the "future" will either leave viewer hot or cold, since not all fans like what the series later became(I stopped at Peter Davison), but those are small complaints in this otherwise worthwhile special, which also gives a most interesting view of the private side of Hartnell, with his loyal wife and granddaughter. Most effective and moving.

GenevaDuck One thing the BBC always does extremely well is period drama. In this case, despite the fact you know how it ends, you are drawn into the story of William Hartnell's time as the first Doctor and your heart breaks with his when he is told he is being replaced.David Bradley give an outstanding performance as William Hartnell, an excellent character actor who sees his career in decline to the point he is being asked to star in a 'kiddie' show that is going to make him immortal. Bradley plays Hartnell with all his faults, but he also makes you feel sympathetic towards him. I believe this movie will give Dr. Who fans a new appreciation for Hartnell and his contributions to the series beyond being the First Doctor who seemed to be forever flubbing his lines.I would have given this 10 stars, but the Matt Smith cameo at the end made me sigh and ask "Why did they do that?"