Doctor Who: 10 Reasons Why An Adventure In Space And Time Was The Best Drama Of 2013

2. I Can Do It All With A Look

As a justification for avoiding learning lines that are beyond him, William Hartnell declares that he can accomplish the same effect as the dialog would with simply a look, and it's a point that the script would seem to agree with. For example, the scene in the BBC bar where both we and Verity Lambert learn that Warris Hussein is gay through nothing more than a look. It's a huge piece of character motivation that the script trusts us to understand non-verbally. William Hartnell himself provides the ultimate test of this when Sydney Newman fires him from the show. All of the unspoken feelings are there on his face, as they are on Sydney's. Later, when we come back around to filming that first regeneration scene and we're introduced to Patrick Troughton he does it again. It's worth remembering that we've always seen Patrick Troughton as the Hero and Gentleman in this particular story. Yet the moment when William Hartnell tries to be graceful and gentlemanly and hand over the reins to Patrick Troughton with a vestige of dignity and Patrick Troughton turns the moment into a joke... Yes, we know Patrick Troughton well enough to know that he was as insecure as anyone, and that deflecting a compliment with a joke was just his way of manifesting that. But when William Hartnell offers him the last of his dignity by complimenting him as a choice of successor and Patrick Troughton refuses to let him have the moment, it is impossible to not hate Patrick Troughton for it, which is a thing that was hitherto completely unthinkable.