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

3. The Intersection Of The Fact And The Fiction

"And now they hate anyone and anything that isn't like them!" Verity Lambert says this about The Daleks as a justification of why they're a good script idea, but it's equally true that she's saying it about Rex Tucker and all of his BBC boys club friends. This is just one example of a point when the script blends the real world events with the events going on in the show. This is just one example of a moment when the script plays reality and the fiction of the show against one another. Another example can be seen by comparing William Hartnell's interactions with his Granddaughter and his 'Granddaughter'. The first time we see him at home with his actual Granddaughter he makes her cry out of sheer bad-temper, but through learning what to say to his fictional Granddaughter he is able to bridge that gap with his real one, finally finding a common connection with her. When she observes, 'A Doctor? Does he make people better?' it's equally true for both the fictional character and the real man. Both the drama we're watching and Doctor Who itself begin with a policeman in the fog, which is obviously no coincidence, but it's the contrast between what the two policemen do that makes it striking. The fictional policeman draws a line between The Doctor and the ordinary world, marking the Doctor out as something special and beyond. The real world policeman performs the opposite function, dragging William Hartnell back down to the real world with a thud, tearing away from him the things that made him feel special.