In case you couldn’t tell, we’re pretty damn excited about our impending Doctor Who fix — season 7! The 50th anniversary special! A…docu-drama? Yes, it’s true, BBC has announced that Doctor Who will be the subject of a 90-minute film for BBC Two, dramatizing the show’s origin story. Hit the jump for more details on who’s involved!
According to Bleeding Cool, Mark Gatiss, perhaps best known as Mycroft Holmes (!), has written a 90-minute special entitled An Adventure In Space And Time. His past credits include scriptwriting for both Doctor Who and Sherlock, in addition to a number of Doctor Who novels.
Asked to describe the project, Gatiss said the following:
This is the story of how and unlikely set of brilliant people created a true television original. And how an actor – William Hartnell – stereotyped in hard-man roles became a hero to millions of children.
I’ve wanted to tell this story this for more years than I can remember! To make it happen for Doctor Who’s 50th birthday is quite simply a dream come true.
BBC has not released a specific premiere date, but as diehard Whovians know, Doctor Who will turn 50 on November 23rd next year, potentially pushing back any celebratory Who releases well into 2013. I just don’t think I can wait that long!
To be clear,  this will be a scripted drama/documentary about the origins of the series, not a Doctor Who special, which means we’re still waiting on the edge of our seat for any news snippets regarding an actual plot-driven special. For now, we’ll just sit tight with this lovely bit of information, and hope Tom Baker, Peter Davidson, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, and Matt Smith play themselves in the film, because there’s nothing quite like a multi-Doctor romp to cap off 50 years of making children smile and fan-people squeal
(via Deadline and Bleeding Cool.)
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Published: Aug 9, 2012 12:32 pm