I LOVE that they both hadn't seen this and Katrina made the right call not watching it beforehand. 2013 was such a great year for Doctor Who fans! If only other franchises could do what Stephen Moffatt, the BBC and everyone involved did to celebrate Doctor Who's anniversary. We are extremely lucky in that respect.

I stand by it: I think this is the best thing Mark Gatiss has done

I was a 5 year old boy Living in London when this show started. My mum always like to tell the story that I hid behind the couch when the daleks came on. This was a great tribute and was so good to see the background to the show.

So when The Doctor becomes John Smith in Human Nature, and tells us his parents are Verity and Sydney, you now know who he's referring to. Let me edit this to add kzfaq.info/get/bejne/i79-nM-K2JjVgok.html

This aired not long after season 3 of Game of Thrones in which David Bradley plays Walder Frey. It was so impressive to see him play both one of the most evil antagonists ever and then a vulnerable old actor.

I literally cry everytime I watch this episode.

My mum remembers kids doing exactly that (Dalek impersonations) in London the day after.

I remember watching this when it aired and being blown away by how good it was. I was expecting a cheap little documentary with some old interviews about what went on with maybe a few reinactments. The docudrama really helped sell the weight of the 50th to a new who viewer like myself and was really impressive given the relatively mundane plot they were working with.

there were a few great cameos in this as well William Russell who played Ian Chesterson as a security guard Carole Anne Ford who played Susan as a mum calling her kids in Anneke Willis who played Polly as a party Guest

I read that the Daleks were the scarier villain in part because they looked like tanks and the memory of the WW2 was still relatively fresh for some people.

Another class reaction guys. This is definitely Mark Gatiss's best Who related script. Bill Hartnell was a great actor with real range. It's awful that his career was cut short by arteriosclerosis. His last tv appearance was in a Dr Who serial in 1973 but by then he was very frail and had to read all his line off cue cards. He died two years later aged just 67. If you want to check out some of his film work three of his most notable roles were in Brighton Rock, Carry on Sergeant and This Sporting Life. He's great in all of them.

I’m crying, you’re crying, we are all crying for a character and show that we all love. ❤️❤️

This is such a heartbreaking story and your reactions are so unbridled and without reservation. Laughing and crying means you’re alive and sometimes it hurts.

It doesn't matter how many times i watch this, i cry every single time

My uncle came home from school one day with a black eye and a note from his teacher pinned to his school uniform saying: "Don't worry, he wasn't getting into fights, he just walked round the corner into a Dalek".

I am glad you both got to see this. :) Matt Smith in the original control room at the end... So powerful.

Yes Dalek mania was a real thing after they first appeared. In this programme there are lots of cameos by companions from over the years. (for example William Russell who played Ian Chesterton is the car park attendant at the BBC in this).

The thing of the kids playing 'exterminate' on the bus is absolutely true. This old man was born in 1959, and recalls how the Daleks became the biggest thing on TV at that time. Lasted for years, toys everywhere, two cinema movies, and return appearances ever since.

Yes, the "fornicator" blooper went out over the airwaves. "Billy-fluffs" are a feature of the early years as editing videotape was quite difficult at the time.

Some of Mark Gatiss' best writing.

The gun used in the Dalek reading was the iconic German Luger Pistol of WWI and WWII fame. 1963 was only 12 years after WWII. The children who lived during the Blitz were now the parents who watched Doctor Who with their children and the story parallels with WWII Germany cannot be overlooked. That was the writer's intent, so he said. I lucky enough to meet Terry Nation, who wrote The Daleks, at a convention after-party back in 1980. Yes, Im that old 😏🤦🏻‍♂️

The policeman who knocked on the car window saying he was in the way was Patrick Troughtons son.

Sydney: "No tin robots or Bug-Eyed Monsters!" Verity: "Right!" [Pilot] Sydney: ".. Do it all again!" Verity: "...." [Bug-Eyed Robots] Sydney: "What the hell..!" [10M Viewers] Sydney: "... alright.. What the hell do I know.." XD XD XD

Aw, seeing Katrina cry like that broke my heart.

It's fun for me as a viewer to see both of you react to something you haven't seen before.

Obviously as with all of these things it's a simplification and compression of events, and some very important people are missing, but it does at least give a flavour of what happened, and it's nice that it brings a wider interest to that story.

An amazing special, David Bradley does a great job as William Hartnell, and the 'I don't want to go' line gets everyone.

Anyone else get nervous when she brought up Sacha Dhawan’s IMDB? 😂

14:35: The kids on the bus. Yes, my school playground was full of kids being Daleks. Including me!😊 IIRC this was the last show produced at the old BBC TV building in west London before it was sold off and redeveloped.

Absolutely wonderful vid, can't wait for the 50th👍👍👍❤️❤️

There were loads and loads of past companions playing tiny bit parts in cameos throughout this episode... if u google it you'll get the list.. including the car park security guard at the bbc who was in fact played by william Russell.... one of the first companions, ian chesterton, from 1963..

Nice surprise. (edit) Wasn't expecting to tear up tonight, but I should have known, every bloody time, thank you for everything. :)

Really hope you do Night of the Doctor as well!

I LOVE this movie, I get so very emotional at the end there, his heartbreak over having to leave the role, the vision of the legacy that would follow him, the first Doctor's speech to Susan. Just love it so very much. Also such a treat for this to be something both of you reacting to it

Lovely film. Nice to see William Hartnell's speech at the end - a fitting tribute to the First Doctor! (And he will always be the First Doctor, whatever Chris Chibnall tries to do!)

This is one of my favourite things the BBC has put out, so glad both you hadn't seen it!

Will you gals watch the Paul McGann telemovie and 'Night of the Doctor' before the 50th?

I feel the best course of action here would be to watch the TV Movie, then The Night of the Doctor, then the 50th and then The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot

You girls should check out the pre-Dr Who BBC drama from the 50's - Quatermass about the adventures of Prof Bernard Quatermass & his rocketry group (pre spaceflight days!!). Four dramas were made, broadcast originally live with filmed inserts. Quatermass & the Pit is the best, even Stephen King 'borrowed' story elements from it. It was made into a film by Hammer movies in 1967, truly scary. Both Mark Gatiss & David Tenant appeared in a BBC4 live broadcast recreation of the first story, The Quatermass Experiment, just before Tenant was announced as Dr Who. Gatiss is a big Quatermass fan, & the ending of The Lazarus Experiment, was filmed in the same place as the end of The Quatermass Experiment. BTW, keep an eye on who plays the director...he crops up later in new Who!.

I understand that you cannot watch a lot of classic Who, but I don't know why you haven't watched at least the first part of the first story "An Unearthly Child" (forget the other three parts) aren't you curious to see the first ever episode?

"This isn't gonna work" _50 years later..._

here's something that may turns Paula's brain....David Bradley also was Solomon in Doctor Who "Dinosaurs on a spaceship" and Filch in the Harry Potter movies.....he doesn't even look the same....

Said it before, but what's truly impressive to me is what a departure both Who and Trek were from the space cadets, ray guns, and moon men scifi of the '50s, and how it gave such a rich and complex dramatic turn to those, enough that both, in many ways, redefined the genre, at least for television..

I watched this with my brothers when it aired and we were all in tears... And then Smith... We were wrecked lol *Edit* and I was in tears with you this time as well haha, definitely essential Who viewing!

Yes, as a five-and-a-half year old in 1963 I can confirm that as soon as the Daleks appeared (not in the first adventure as implied here) boys were shuffling across playgrounds rasping 'EXTERMINATE EXTERMINATE' and inventing Doctor Who themed chase games to go with it. I missed the first 1st episode due to a trip out to relatives, but caught its repeat. When monsters meant I hid behind the sofa in terror (the acid spitting bugs in the Web Planet being the worst) my parents tried switching off the telly, only to be screamed at to switch it back on! Having seen a little of the digitized Hartnell era I think that they've been scrubbed up rather too well, so the atmosphere of fuzziness and shadows has been lost and of course the acting mostly seems too mannered compared to now. Yes I was upset when they changed the Doctor, but Troughton became and remains my favourite, although many of his adventures are lost. I would cheerfully watch sympathetic remakes of this era; The Celestial Toymaker (Troughton) exists only in memory. If you've looked at The Mind Robber it gives some idea of the style of the time and some of its ideas are similar to those of The Matrix.

You're doing a grand Job. It was a steep learning curve doing this one. And it always feels like a precipice at the end. 1964 is the year I was born, so wierd and magical to go back as as an adult.

I dont want to go.......a simple sentence that invokes great emotion in anyone in the Who fandom

that was awesome, hadn't seen this myself before. Need to look up the entire episode. It's great when they show how an Iconic show started . Especially when they do it good like this.

in the third series when they hide from the family of blood, and ten disguises himself as John Smith, when talking about his parents his mother is name dropped as Verity and his father was sidney

"I Googled Sacha " nooooo lol he was also in sherlock.

Are you planning to react to the KZfaq Night of the Doctor short episode? I think it’s kinda important in explaining the 50th anniversary episode.

Oh we are getting closer. I feel the Night coming soon. 23:30 You should stop looking up actors roles 👀 27:25 I think people find Cybermen scarier, cause they are us: deformed, upgraded us - the mutilation of you personally vs a quick and mostly painless genocide... But I would say there are some episodes with Daleks that really hit hard. And suprisingly even if I hate his guts and think he should go away - Chibnail actually did bring the scary in Daleks, which was one of the few ok things he ever did. Davis especially made Daleks extremely funny - even in Donna's season they were nothing more than a funny sidekicks to Davros. Moffat kinda did have some actually respectful episodes with them - especially the Asylum and Capaldi's era in general was great about the villains, but he also went more pathetic sometimes with them.

It WAS true about the daleks, they ushered in an era called dalekmania that lasted through the early 60s... they were everywhere... toys, cereal boxes, comic books... they even made 2 big screen cinema releases with peter Cushing as the doctor...

17:20 Only The Doctor knows how the TARDIS works.

I ADORE the symbolism of Hartnell seeing Matt, it obviously didn’t happen but it’s more symbolic than anything, it shows that if it had been possible that I think William would’ve been very proud and happy that the legacy HE began continues on to this day

The best thing Gatiss has written for doctor who

What a nice change to see Katrina's eyes widen seeing something New from WHO. This may be her own true first full WHO reaction on her channel, ever.

Glad to see you appreciate this. I'm an old fan of Doctor Who, but haven't watched any of your videos on it ... yet. Whenever I'm re-watching Doctor Who, this is where I'll come to also see your reactions. I got here 'cause of your Rick and Morty videos. I still think Hartnell did the best Doctor, mostly because he hadn't really figured out how humans functioned and was still very inhuman from time to time. But he still portrayed a loving fascination and enthusiasm towards humanity, that they kept going through the series. Also, it's great to see how much faith they for TV to be an educational medium back then, with every other adventure being just time travel here on earth to different historical periods. (And always ended up in the most historically significant places for some reason...) Not much of that anymore. I haven't seen any videos on post reboot Doctor Who here. (Or have I just missed it?) Are you thinking of doing that? Except for the lost episodes (where I had to just read the scripts and transcriptions), I think I've seen it all. Both the ones still here and the lost recreated ones. Too bad they didn't archive more back then... Whenever I get my hands on a time machine, going back and recording this is high up on the list of things to do. ;) (That can't screw up time too much, right?) You are both great. Thank you and keep up what you do!

Hi Katrina & Paula, I can confirm the bus effect was true. I had just started Infant School, at the time of sitting down to watch this new program, Dr.Who in Nov. `63. At first the older boys were running around pretending to be soldiers, with tommy guns. After the Daleks appeared, back at school the following Monday, they were pretending to be Daleks, right arm fully extended with clenched fist as (the plunger) the other kept closer to the body with clenched fist (the gun). This was in effect the beginning of Dalekmania, the Whoniverse version of Beatlemania. Leading to two feature films made by a U.S. company & Terry Nation, separate from the B.B.C.. This had Peter Cushing portraying a human inventor called Dr.Who, with his latest amazing invention the Tardis. The Actor who portrayed (Donna`s Grandad) Bernard Cribbins, is involved in the 2nd one.

Oh damn, this docudrama!😍😭 What a wonderful tribute to the beginning of this brilliant show! Lovely to see you enjoy this so much! I can't wait for you to catch up with NewWho and watch more Classics because then you'll notice just how f'n on point and stuffed with references & cameos this truly was! Gets better with every rewatch! To me personally, seeing Sacha Dhawan was extra special, having grown up with ITVs "Out of Sight". Looking forward to you watching the 50th Minisodes (Last Day & Night of the Doctor), the spoof/mockumentary "Five(ish) Doctors Reboot" and the 50th special itself plus some Classics like Terror of the Zygons, The Five Doctors and some 1st Doc (to retroactively understand some references) and also the spoof "The Curse of Fatal Death" by noneother than the Moffmeister himself featuring a magnificent cast, you'll laugh your a§ off! Stay safe & healthy!💙💙🍀

Well, that was a great reaction. It's lovely to see your passion for the show and the people who created it. Regeneration was a HUGE gamble. It could have totally destroyed the show's credibility but luckily for us it worked and worked spectacularly. I loved the scene with David Bradley and Matt Smith. Such a beautiful nod to the past and the present(at the time), it was like the Eleventh Doctor saying 'you can take it easy now, the show is in safe hands and WILL continue, I'm here as proof' Also, just a little bit of trivia, the BBC security guy was played by William Russell, the original Ian Chesterton, the mother calling her son in was played by Carole Ann Ford, the original Susan and Anneke Wills, who was Polly, also makes a very brief cameo. Jessica Rayne who plays Verity Lambert was in Hide with The Eleventh Doctor and Clara. Fantastic reactions ladies, always enjoy them. ☺

I hope you watch "The Night of The Doctor" before watching the 50th anniversary special. Here's the link: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/Y7tjndWEktvMpaM.html

as soon as it was over I wanted Gattis to start Troughtons special with the same format and of course ALL the other Doctors too

It was released prior to the 50th in the US

Its true, daleks were huge among kids. It was called "Dalekmania" at the time.

Glad you reacted to An Adventure In Time and Space it was so well done.

I’m guessing the 1996 Doctor Who movie isn’t part of the 50th action list followed by the minisode Night of the Doctor since certain elements pave the way to the 50th anniversary and the Christmas special.

I was at Primary School in 63, YES kids were all running round the playground shouting Exterminate, including me. We loved it.

In case either of you two (or any viewers/commenters, for that matter) are a little curious about the TV show Hartnell was on that he was watching with derision, here's an episode of "The Army Game" from about 1957 (when Hartnell was 49 years old); with him playing this sergeant in the British army leading a bunch of screwball men in a particular platoon. The other actors are probably unknown to all of you; unless you are a Beatles fan and have seen "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help". Two of the actors playing the screwballs each appeared in one of those two films; one played the Beatles' manager in "A Hard Day's Night", and the other a maitre' d of an Indian restaurant in "Help" (oh, and the really tall guy in this later played the controller of the Ice Warriors [the creature the Russian submarine crew captured in "Cold War"] in a Second Doctor story) I, for one, think Hartnell does a great job playing in a comic role here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jsp2lZdzssWYpnU.html

A wonderful Docu-drama. What's cool is the actors who played Harntell, Ford, Russel and hill have gone on to do the voices the big finish 1st Doctor Adventures,...With a few Surprise castings. Also, there were some actual Classic Who cast members sprinkled into as Small cameos in the movie which make this even more Fantastic Bradley is is FANTASTIC as the Doctor. Matt Smith's Surprise CAMEO is so Magical!

Such a wonderful reaction! I don't know the British equivalent of the Emmy award, but David Bradley for playing William Hartnell should have been handed one. Jessica Raine should have probably received one as well. Every single one of the cast was amazing.

This is the top tier of Doctor Who episodes for "pulling at your heartstrings", or getting you feeling emotional. I teared up at "I don't want to go." ETA: Okay, I will be honest and admit I also teared up when Tennant did it.

You guys haven't gotten me teary in a long time, thanks. It's allergies, I say, allergies.

This time I loved seing Katrina discovering Doctor Who. Great reaction by both of you, Ladies!

William Hartnell was informed by Innes Lloyd who was the new producer at that point not Sydney Newman that he was to leave the show. William Hartnells health was deteriorating and was struggling to remember his lines and became difficult to work with they weren't sure how to carry on the show without him so the regeneration idea was at the last minute thing so he was replaced by Patrick Troughton. The process name regeneration wasn't used until The Third Doctors (Jon Pertwee) last story Planet of the Spiders it was simply referred to as a renewal in the early days. Terry Nation based The Daleks on the Nazis as World War II would had been still fresh in people's memories back in the 60s as it was over 20 years ago by that point.

Several years back, Brian McEleney, a marvelous local actor here in Providence, portrayed King Lear as a man descending into dementia. It was devastating.

Is there such a thing as a ‘triumphal punch in the guts’? Because that’s what it felt like when Matt Smith appeared. I understand that Matt’s hand movements exactly mirrored those of William Hartnell’s last filmed TARDIS scenes. Dark comedy? Mark Gatiss is heavily involved with THE masterclass in that - The League of Gentlemen.

I cry at the end every. single. time.

Thumbs up to Paula as a fellow fan of The Great! I love to see people reacting to An Adventure in Space and Time, so I love this vid. If you'd like to see a little more of William Hartnell (non Doctor Who related) I recommend three of his films, Brighton Rock , This Sporting Life and especially The Mouse That Roared, where he co-stars with the great Peter Sellers

I get a little emotional, watching you two get emotional... And I knew what was coming!

Well that was magnificent. Great to see your reactions. Gatiss' masterpiece.

Wonderful reaction to a wonderful story. Much love ♥

THANKS for reacting to and reviewing one of my all-time favorite movies!!!!

I own a coffee cup with the same image as Paula’s shirt which makes me chuckle to myself.

two weeks of classic ST and DW is almost over

Hello ladies. Filch got upgraded. And that guy at 10:05, oh my🤫. And I just realize both of them were in the MCU.

I still know Sacha Dhawan from Outsourced. That was the first thing I ever saw him in.

to be fair, when he sai ' i don't want to go' it got me too. someone as cutting onions when he said it

I fear many new who fans who only know of the first doctor from this special think of the first doctor as nothing more than a grumpy, diddering old man. But he actually has so much heart and brilliant comedy to him that you rele need to watch william hartnell’s performance to see it properly

Watching this in 2013 is when I learned Doctor Who was the idea of a Canadian. The show is so British so I was kinda shocked it was originally the brainchild of a Canadian.

Wow, didn't know this exists. Will have to check it out.

Mark Gatiss had in mind to include the story of how the Daleks were designed in this as well, but ultimately decided that something had to go or we'd have a three hour show. Apparently none other than Ridley Scott (who was a staff designer at the BBC in the early '60s) was slated to design the first Dalek story but he got sick so they shuffled the schedule around to accommodate him and one of his colleagues called Ray Cusick got the gig. That was going to be a quick visual gag showing someone crossing out Ridley Scott's name on an assignment board or something. There was considerable bad blood behind the scenes over the years between Terry Nation (the guy who wrote most of the Dalek stories back then) and Ray Cusick over which one was more responsible for the success of the Daleks and "Doctor Who." Nation scripted the critters but the visual aspect of the things was all Cusick, and it has proven extraordinarily durable as a design over the last fifty-odd years. As it happens, Nation's agent negotiated a wildly lucrative deal for him with the BBC where he got all the licensing rights for the Daleks as well as right of first refusal if the BBC ever wanted to use the Daleks again. The BBC obviously had no clue what they had when they signed that. Nation parleyed his ranty stepchildren into a multi-million dollar merchandising empire that had him rolling in cash whereas Ray Cusick, whose design concept had a hell of a lot to do with how well the Daleks were executed, was on staff at the BBC and got his regular paycheck and a pat on the head. Gatiss' idea was to try and redress the balance as far as who 'fathered' the Daleks but, as I said, it didn't make it into the final show. Probably wouldn't have been a very positive story anyway. Terry Nation's agent was a woman called Beryl Vertue who happens to be Steven Moffat's mother in law. Small world, huh? She had a wild and varied agenting and producing career in British TV and it still going strong in her '90s. So Verity Lambert wasn't the only badass ladyperson involved with the early life of "Doctor Who." :)

I'm surprised both hadn't seen this special. It was such an amazing tribute to Doctor Who. Even I, who didn't watch Classic Who got sucked in. Bravo Moffat.

Thanks for the double shot of this and Brain Of Morbius today, you got me through a very rough afternoon - I guess Im kind of surprised you didn't mention seeing David Bradley recently as Solomon The Trader in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship... or did I miss it?

I do think the Daleks could do with a revamp. If I had my way, I'd make the Dalek travel machines bigger on the inside, just like the TARDIS. This would make it possible for more than one Dalek mutant to travel in it. I would also make it possible for the mutants to exit and enter the travel machine via a transportation / teleportation device at the rear of said machine. As for the mutants, they need to have the ability to walk and portray a more horrific appearance, which would send children behind the sofa. Maybe make these new Daleks come from an alternate universe. Great reaction 👏👍. Trev from East London, UK.

Agree best thing Gatiss has ever done. It was screened on the Thursday before the 50th. My mum had died on the Monday so I was in buckets of tears and it gets me ever time since especially the Matt Smith moment across the years. Not sure if you recognised all the cameos. Hadn’t realised it was two years ago you reacted, wondered why you didn’t recognise Sasha as the gay Asian director back in 1963.

I would suggest you also watch the fivish doctors if you haven't done so

Another quality cat prep video!

Did You recognize Brian Cox? He was in Braveheart, Erin Brockovich, The Bourne series,X-Men 2, Troy, and many many more. I was his photo Double for a TV series pilot that never aired.

Sydney Newman also created my other favorite British TV show, The Avengers. And you’ll find a lot of actors who did both over the years, eventually including even the great Diana Rigg.