To mark the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, BBC has announced in a press release that it will be making the origin of the TV series into a TV movie.
It’s been known for a long time that the series creators Sydney Newman, Cecil Edwin Webber, and Donald Wilson were considered “upstarts” in the BBC studios, having set out to create Doctor Who in response to a gap in the programming schedule on Saturday Mornings in between the kids show Juke Box Jury and the sports program Grandstand. Sydney Newman, Head of Drama, realised that the program would have to appeal to children due to Juke Box Jury, as well as appeal to the adult and teenage audience that watched Grandstand. He realised that a science fiction show would be perfect, and ran to the writing department with the idea, and as they say, the rest is history.
Mark Gatiss, long time Doctor Who writer and actor, will be writing the TV special, with Doctor Who current show runners Stephen Moffat and Caroline Skinner executive producing. It is currently unknown who will be placed in the shoes of the creators and who will be playing the actor of the First Doctor, William Hartnell, then pigeon holed into hardman roles.
“The story of Doctor Who is the story of television – so it’s fitting in the anniversary year that we make our most important journey back in time to see how the TARDIS was launched.” says Stephen Moffat.
The 90 minute tv special is entitled An Adventure in Space and Time and while no air date has been set, it is speculated that it will air on the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who‘s first broadcast, November 23, 2013.
