Early news of one of the treats in store for 2013 – the year Doctor Who celebrates its fiftieth anniversary – as the BBC announce the production of a ninety-minute TV drama, An Adventure in Space and Time which will take viewers right back to the early 1960s and the origins of the seminal sci-fi drama. 

The TV movie, rumours of which have been floating around fandom for several years, will be written by long-time fan and new series writer Mark Gatiss and produced by BBC Wales, home of Doctor Who since 2005. Steven Moffat and Caroline Skinner, current executive producers of Doctor Who, will also exec produced the movie, whose title is derived from the Radio Times ‘tagline’ which supported the show’s credits in the early years. “The story of Doctor Who is the story of television,” says Moffat, “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.”

The film follows in the footsteps of other BBC productions delving back into the history of modern popular television such as The Road To Coronation Street which dramatised the creation of the long-running Manchester soap. No news yet as to the casting for An Adventure In Space and Time but Starburst wouldn’t be hugely surprised to see Gatiss himself donning a white wig and fluffing his lines in the role of William Hartnell or even, bearing in mind his past work in The League Of Gentlemen, squeezing into a posh frock to portray the show’s iconic first producer Verity Lambert. Or maybe that’s just us…

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