The third foreign adaptation to air, was TVN’s ‘Doktor – przez czas i przestrzen’, from Poland. This adaptation aired from 9 June to 11 August 2019 in both Poland and the United Kingdom, unlike the first two adaptations which were aired a few days earlier in their home countries.
However, in the UK, unlike the other foreign adaptations, the show was not titled “Doktor – Przez czas i przestrzeń”, but instead the title was translated into English and became “Doctor Who: Through Time and Space”, to make it more accessible to an English audience. But, it didn’t stop there, as Jane Espenson, as the Franchise Executive, saw an opportunity during pre-production of the show, as she noticed that pretty much all Polish actors, unlike those in the Netherlands and Spain, spoke fluent English, leading her to consult with BBC Studios, and decide that instead of an English Dub, the series would instead use a model of foreign TV making, first pioneered on BBC/S4C co-productions, which would shoot each scene twice, firstly in Polish and secondly in English and then create two different versions of the show, negating the need for an English dub. This meant that the show was in Native English, instead of in a dubbed form, and therefore it sparked a lot more interest at the BBC, as suddenly, it not only became a whole lot more marketable, but it also became a massive advertising opportunity for the concept of ‘Bilingual’ dramas. All of this together, persuaded the BBC to push this series more than the other three, and they even premiered the show on BBC Two, instead of BBC Four. Naturally, the BBC put more money into this show, paying, along with CBS, for the cost of shooting each scene twice. Additionally, to justify it’s place on BBC Two and to help explain to English audiences what exactly they were watching, ten 60-120 second introductions were commissioned to open each episode of the show, featuring David Bailie, reprising his role as the Toymaker, explaining that he’s created a whole new universe of Doctors, just for the fun of it, and summarising events of the previous episodes, as the series went on. Suddenly, with these changes, proposed by Jane Espenson, the show was propelled from just another English dub of some important foreign television show to air late night on BBC Four into another one of Doctor Who’s spinoffs for a wider English speaking audience to enjoy.
After being awarded the franchisee contract with BBC Studios and CBS Corporation in late-2017, TVN took the project extremely serious, seeing it as a huge opportunity for Polish television. They entered into co-production with ATM Group, to produce the show and along with them came producer, Artur Kowalewski. Patrick Yoka was hired by TVN as the showrunner, but later on, Piotr Szymanek joined as a co-showunner, due to disagreements between TVN and ATM Group. One of ATM’s trusted directors, Magdalena Łazarkiewicz, agreed to direct episode 1, and other directors were carefully selected.
In order to push the marketing for the adaptation, and sell the ‘Doctor Who’ brand to the Polish audience, well-known Polish actor of the small and big screen, Janusz Gajos, was persuaded to take on the role of the Doktor. Gajos’s Doktor drew major inspiration from William Hartnell, Richard Griffiths and David Suchet portrayals, creating grumpy, snarky and stubborn, but kind-hearted incarnation, excited to explore the wonders of universe and caring about his companions; insistent on preserving history and slowly but surely developing empathy; smart, perceptive and witty, quite quirky. Additionally, Gajos gave the character occasional campy abruptiveness and almost theatrical act in the moments of ecstasy, much reminiscent of his performance in Zemsta.
THE ZYGONS
Season 1, Episode 1
Written by PATRICK YOKA & PIOTR SZYMANEK
Directed by MAGDALENA ŁAZARKIEWICZ
TX Date – 9 June 2019
The opener of the season is actually one of two original stories in the season, introducing the first of the two companions Pola. The Zygons feature as the stories main villain, who are used as more of a plot device to bring the Doktor and Pola together. The story borrows the idea from Terror of the Zygons of the Zygons controlling a mythical creature, in this case the Basilisk. The story also introduces Pułkownik Anastazy Lubicz-Sługocki, the Polish version of the Brigadier, who the Doktor suggests should set up some sort of special unit to help with alien incursions such as this.
Initially, the Doktor and Pola part company at the end of the episode, but the Doktor later returns to Pola’s flat to say his goodbyes, but after the Doktor explains just who he is, Pola shows an interest in coming with him, so the Doktor invites her along. The episode ends with the Doktor dematerialising the TARDIS, as we just linger on a shot of him smiling blissfully.
THE DEAD PLANET
Season 1, Episode 2
Written by JOLANTA HARTWIG-SOSNOWSKA
Directed by KASIA ADAMIK
TX Date – 16 June 2019
This episode is a quick 45-minute retelling of The Daleks with a lot cut out, essentially cutting parts one to three down to about five minutes, and abandoning most of episode six. Obviously, one of the biggest changes is that there’s only one companion instead of three, so the Doktor and Pola share a lot of the companions previous plot points. The episode focus much more on the moral quandary of necessary evil and the Thal’s pacifism, than the original. This episode caused some controversy due to striking resemblance to the events of 27th WOŚP finale from January 13th 2019. This parallel however was accidental, as the episode has been written and shot way before this event.
THE THIRD DIMENSION
Season 1, Episode 3
Written by PATRICK YOKA & PIOTR SZYMANEK
Directed by JAKUB MISZCZAK
TX Date – 23 June 2019
This story adapts Flatline and that’s the least important thing about it. Setting is changed to People’s Republic of Poland, 1979. Here, we meet our second companion – Benek, a young average factory worker from Ursus. He assists Pola in investigating the case, which leads to comedy gold, as the two are polar opposites. They face not only Boneless, but the soulless machine of communist state, which tries its hardest to deny the problem. In fact, episode focuses more on familiarizing the audience with realities of late 1970’s Poland than the plot. Pola learns to respect Benek throughout the story and in the end she herself asks the Doktor to take him on board, on which he agrees.
SCISSORED TIME
Season 1, Episode 4
Written by AGNIESZKA BŁOTNICKA
Directed by JAKUB MISZCZAK
TX Date – 30 June 2019
This story adapts The Time Meddler, with one significant change; the antagonist, Mnich, tries to change the outcome of Battle of Grunwald. Due to the place that this fight holds in Polish national mythos, characters and audience alike perceive Mnich not just as a freak, but a straight-up villain who threatens the very existence of Poland. Indignance unifies Pola and Benek over their generation gap that is a recurring theme throughout the episode and lead to some amusing scenes. Mnich is defeated just like he was in original story.
This episode also reveals more about the Doktor’s Time Lord background and their non-interference policy.
THE SEARCH, PARTS ONE & TWO
Season 1, Episodes 5 & 6
Written by PATRICK YOKA
Directed by MACIEJ DUTKIEWICZ
TX Date – 7 July 2019
This story is the adaptation of Keys of Marinus. Due to the length of this story, it was made a two-parter, as showrunner wanted to keep as many of its adventurous shenanigans as he could. Even so, once again Part One was completely dropped, its role taken by quick five-minute introduction. The concept of travel dials was dropped, in favour of characters willingly helping The Voord and travelling in a TARDIS. The splits up of the team were mostly removed as well, since the shooting schedule didn’t require them, and, of course, the main roles were properly recharacterized. Part I features primarily events from OG Parts Two and Three, and Part II – Parts Five and Six, with Part Four split between them as a link.
THE CAVEMEN
Season 1, Episode 7
Written by ROBERT BRUTTER & JERZY NIEMCZUK
Directed by WOJCIECH ADAMCZYK
TX Date – 21 July 2019
This is the cheap episode of the season, so Patrick Yoka decided to make up for it with quality story. He convinced legendary director Wojciech Adamczyk and writers Robert Brutter and Jerzy Niemczuk, of Rodzina Zastępcza, Miodowe Lata and Ranczo fame, to make one episode. They chose to adapt An Unearthly Child, however dropping the famous first episode and reinventing the rest as a story about the divide in cavemen tribe. Two opposing factions differ in principles, follow different leaders and grow hatred for other side inside themselves. The Doktor and companions are thrown in the middle of this. While initially the Doktor wants to just get out of this mess, when it starts to impact Pola and Benek, heatening their own disagreements, he decides to step in. Under his influence, the cavemen learn to respect each other and reconcile. Episode is nuanced, funny and clever, in a way that only these storytellers could make it.
THE MARA
Season 1, Episode 8
Written by ALEKSANDER SOBISZEWSKI & KATARZYNA SOBISZEWSKA
Directed by TOMASZ SZAFRAŃSKI
TX Date – 28 July 2019
This episode is the adaptation of Kinda, with Pola taking Tegan’s role, Benek taking Adric’s role and Nyssa’s part, as well as a lot of padding, removed. The Doktor’s and Benek’s role however rewritten to fit their characters better, the Doktor being less emotional and Benek more proactive than their counterparts from the original.
Due to its plot point of ‘men not being able to speak, unless they are idiots’, this episode caused some outrage in dark corners of Polish Internet.
FLOOD OF THE MILLENNIUM
Season 1, Episode 9
Written by GRZEGORZ ŁOSZEWSKI & ARTUR KOWALEWSKI
Directed by DOMINIK MATWIEJCZYK
TX Date – 4 August 2019
In this completely original story, we visit Wrocław right before the flood of 1997. The TARDIS crew finds out that a con artist extorts money from the citizens posing as insurance agent with exceptionally beneficial offers. They expose his scheme, but this still leaves his victims without an insurance in face of incoming wave. Pola stands up to the task and organizes them to build provisional floodbanks and other protections, forcing the Doktor to help them as well. Together, they manage to save the district, though the flood is still devastating, drowning most of the city.
The story discusses Time Lord non-interference policy and its limits, but primarily it’s about the tragedy of the city struck with disaster once natural, but made worse by human carelessness, and about the heroism of the ordinary people. In the end credits, the theme is replaced with “Moja i twoja nadzieja” by Hey.
WOTAN
Season 1, Episode 10
Written by PATRICK YOKA & PIOTR SZYMANEK
Directed by KASIA ADAMIK
TX Date – 11 August 2019
The finale brings us back to contemporary Warsaw, where Pola tries to take a short break from adventures, but this is not to last, as WOTAN, supercomputer developed by one of IT institutes, rebels. Able to hypnotize humans, it builds an army of devastating war machines and once it finds out about the Doktor, tries to force him into submission by, among others, kidnapping Pola. The only good news is that a failsafe temporarily prevents WOTAN from accessing or even being aware of Internet existence. The Doktor and Benek team up with returning Pułkownik Lubicz-Sługocki, now in charge of special military taskforce called JEDNOSTKA, to shut the machine down. The episode leaves out some outdated elements of The War Machines, it also changes the way WOTAN is defeated – The Doktor overloads it with a portion of Time Lord data downloaded from TARDIS.
With so much focus put on Pola this season, in this story more attention is paid to Benek, who experiences similar fish-out-of-water story to what Pola had in Flatline. The main theme though is the Doktor’s change of character, as inspired by heroism of humanity he decides to become an intergalactic helper and vows to protect Earth. The episode ends with the Doktor and Benek departing in the TARDIS, while Pola stays in Warsaw, insisting on finishing her break with no further distractions, and asks the Doktor to collect her in about a month. We then see her making dozen of phone calls, as she decided to make her life worth living and be more proactive, as well as come in touch again with some of her loved ones.
WIDWWA 