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

8. The Use Of Repeated Imagery To Tell The Story

One thing that An Adventure in Space and Time did rather a lot of was reuse scenes and imagery with increasing variations as a vehicle to relay character development. The most obvious of these is the cast photos being taken in the parking lot. The first of these is actually a lovely little gesture toward a picture that most fans of the show will be very familiar with - the Cast photo of William Russell, Jacqueline Hill, Carol Ann Ford, William Hartnell and Verity Lambert drinking champagne. (In real life the photo is in the BBC bar, but moving it to the parking lot is a forgivable change.) We see the first picture being taken, after which Bill Hartnell immediately moves away - not part of the group. Distant. Edgy. We see the real discordant relationship beneath the 'happy family' picture we were already knew. By the time the next photo is taken and the scene is recreated we have Maureen O'Brien in for Carol Ann Ford, and we see how Bill has become part of a group now, now longer separate, even as we see how the pain of his first 'family ' loss is hurting him. Then the same scene again with Peter Purves and Jackie Lane. Bill is still with them, but you can sense the divide between them; the increasing alienation between him and the replacement 'family'. By the time we get to the picture of him with Anneke Wills and Michael Craze it becomes truly heartbreaking, the two of them clearly having no interest whatsoever in even pretending to care about him, off in their own little world. If you pared this show down to nothing but that series of four press photo scenes you would still have William Hartnell's story told in heartbreaking clarity. Similarly, the scenes of Bill and his wife in the park also have a progression. From the first isolated walk with him visibly off put by the thought of 'the kiddies' to the joyful parade of him leading those same kiddies on an adventure hike, to him depleted and obviously tiring out, again it's the same; the story is told visually in miniature. Consider also the parking lot scenes, and the way in which each person's arrival says a world about how we're to perceive their character. Sydney Newman 'isn't supposed to park there', while Verity arrives in someone else's car.