Second paragraph of third chapter:

Those plurals are more accurate because Doctor Who will be a series of serials, and each serial will be a new adventure, but the phrase ‘an adventure in space and time’ is more evocative: today, it reads like a mission statement. The phrase is characteristic of what Brian J. Robb called the ‘emphasis […] on mystery’ in the first Radio Times coverage of the series.⁷ The aforementioned teaser cover line gave Doctor Who less prominence than a front cover photograph; Donald Wilson, the Head of Serials, expressed concern to the Radio Times editor that their decision not to promote Doctor Who in that way despite earlier plans was indicative of a ‘lack of confidence’ in the programme: after all, Radio Times was then an in-house BBC publication. Wilson thought the programme ‘an absolute knock-out’ that ‘will run and run’.⁸ An Adventure in Space and Time does not depict Wilson, but it does depict characters facing a perceived lack of confidence. However, the phrase ‘an adventure in space and time’ would appear regularly in Radio Times listings as Doctor Who indeed ran and ran.
⁷  Robb, Brian J., ‘Those Radio Times’, DWM #167, p16.
⁸  Quoted in Howe, David J., Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker, Doctor Who: The Handbook – The First Doctor, p231.

This is a book about the 2013 drama-documentary An Adventure in Space and Time, about the origins of Doctor Who. Back when it was first shown, I wrote:

By the way – wasn’t An Adventure in Space and Time really fantastic? One of those bits of Whoviana that you could safely show to a non-fan and expect them to get the appeal of the show. Sure, it’s a shame that David Whitaker got merged with other characters, and that we did not see Hartnell actually acting at the height of his powers, but the story was at least as much about what the show did to Hartnell than what he did to it. I watched it at [Charlie and Feorag’s], and then came home and watched it again with Anne and F on Friday.

I have rewatched it once or twice since, so didn’t go back to it for this writing, though now that I have read David Rolinson’s analysis I think I might give it another whirl.

David Rolinson’s book is one of the great Black Archives, even if it’s not formally in the Black Archive series (which are restricted to TV episodes of Doctor Who). It’s a loving analysis of where the series came from, where An Adventure in Space and Time came from, analysis of the form of drama-documentaries, analysis of the content in terms of what parts are factual, what are invented, what is in-between; there is a lot of reflection on the nature of television, of story-telling, of telling stories about telling stories, of the side references to other parts of the wider Doctor Who story. I was going to write that it’s not quite a shot-by-shot analysis of the play, but actually in places it is exactly that.

But on top of that, the book brings a fannish joy to bear. We can admit that the thing we love has flaws, but we still love it. Rolinson takes glee in each of the small moments of triumph, and in the bigger triumph that the whole thing adds up to. And it’s objectively a good piece of art – if got shortlisted for the BAFTA and Hugo Awards that year. (Beaten for the Hugo by a Game of Thrones episode that also starred David Bradley.) My favourite Black Archives are the ones that look at something I already liked and give me more reasons to like it, and this is definitely in that category (even if not, formally, a Black Archive).

Enough for now; if you enjoyed the show, get this and enjoy it some more. You can get An Adventure in Space and Time here.