An Adventure in Space and Time led to him being cast as the First Doctor himself in the 2017 "Doctor Who" episodes "The Doctor Falls" and "Twice Upon a Time" and in a series of audio adventures for Big Finish Productions. In 1966, William Hartnell (David Bradley) is in his dressing room at the BBC. He insults a stagehand who calls him to the set, where the delay caused by his absence is noticed. Hartnell enters in costume, ready to film his last moments as the First Doctor and stands in front of the TARDIS console. Three years earlier, BBC executive Sydney Newman (Brian Cox) is
An Adventure in Space and Time Who" in 1993, filmmaker Kevin Davies pitched an idea called "The Legend Begins" to the BBC. "The Legend Begins" would have mixed documentary interviews with those responsible for the creation of "Doctor Who" with a dramatised strand showing the programme's beginnings. Eventually, the dramatisation idea was abandoned in favour of a standard documentary format looking at the entire history of "Doctor Who", which was eventually broadcast on BBC1 as "" in November 1993. Ten years later, for the fortieth anniversary, writer and executive producer Mark Gatiss pitched the idea for the film to BBC Four, unaware of Davies's previous attempt.