Doctor Who: The Movie

This attempted pilot for a new Doctor Who series may have faults but I think some of the criticism is off-base. The original Doctor Who series was never a slave to realism or it's own continuity the way shows like Star Trek or The X-Files were. It was more like a long-running comic strip with it's light "who cares about obsessive fan-boys and fan-girls" approach. This show always played fast and loose with it's own continuity and often contradicted what had gone before for the sake of the present story being aired. So many fans went bananas over things like the Doctor being half-human and the Eye of Harmony being on board the Tardis and the Master being able to slither around in that black snake form to find a new host body or why he was put on trial by the Daleks. For a show that always pretty much made it up as it went along that's a waste of time. I've got some random thoughts to throw out about this attempt to revive the series.

As for the Doctor being half-human I'll repeat my remark about this show making it up as it went along. From what I recall the show was on the air for years before it even established that he was a Time Lord so a sudden revelation about a half-human heritage isn't as way out as it first seems.

My view on the Master being able to slither around in snake form is also to repeat that this show was never a slave to it's own continuity. I'd like every Dr Who fan who can't sleep at night fretting over this bit to explain to me what the White Form in the story where Tom Baker regenerated into Peter Davison was and why the other regeneration scenes took place without such a White Form "merging" with the Doctor.

As for why the Eye of Harmony was on board the Tardis I'll say that if a new Doctor Who series had resulted from this pilot movie they could have done a flashback story at some point featuring Sylvester McCoy's Doctor and explained all that.

I thought the Master being put on trial by the Daleks was kind of cool - sort of like they were saying "This guy is so evil even the Daleks are outraged!" If a new series had resulted they could have done another Sylvester McCoy flashback story at some point to explain what led up to the Master being put on trial by the Daleks. Maybe he tried to take over Skaro and turn all the Daleks into his own personal hit-squad or some other nonsense.

Sylvester McCoy was pretty cool for agreeing to appear in this movie to give the potential new Doctor Who series a legitimate link to the original British show. The poor guy had to come in with a lame regeneration scene and went out the same way and the effort was for nothing since the show's own fans turned up their noses at this film and the new series was never given a chance. A new Doctor Who series that didn't live up to the continuity geeks' vision of the show would have been better than no Doctor Who series at all. Just another example of the down-side to cult shows.

Just suppose the film had been a reasonable success and maybe gained 10 million viewers in the United States, not that I agreed at all with a US co-production. £3.3 m is not a lot of money, even in 1996 for the BBC themselves to fork out.

According to Bidding Adeau, there would have been at least 6 other films. Perhaps the next set in the future on a space station penned by Terry Nation? Maybe another with The Cybermen and one with the Daleks?

I think if the TV series in 2005 works. There should be in parallel like DS9 ran along with Voyager, there should be an attempt to fill the gaps without running into Attack of the Cybermen syndrome. Maybe a few McGann films to see what happens between him and Christopher Eccleston's first appearance.

The half-human thing and kiss can be all but forgotten. A new TARDIS set.

If anything I would like to see more of McGann's Doctor. In that rape programme Lying he looked fantastic, still young enough.

It is now twenty years since the US/UK co-production of Doctor Who: The Movie was broadcast. Shown seven years after the cancellation of the television series and nine years before the relaunched series with Christopher Eccleston.

It was the only new Who in the 1990s. It also brings a lot of ingredients that was used in the relaunched series as Russell T Davies studied what it did right and what it got wrong.

Sylvester McCoy returns as the seventh Doctor, he gets shot and after receiving botched hospital treatment, regenerates into Paul McGann's eighth doctor.

The Tardis lands in San Francisco in 1999. The Master escapes in a snakelike form from the Tardis and plans to take control of the Eye of Harmony once he has occupied the body of a paramedic (Eric Roberts).

The Doctor must find a beryllium atomic clock and stop the Master with the help of Dr Grace Holloway.

British director Geoffrey Sax made use of the higher budget with good use of special effects even though he was hampered with a reduced number of shooting days.

The Tardis is much bigger but I guess the HG Wells like interior setting does not make it look like a Gallifreyan time machine.

The visuals were grand and obviously some of the morphing techniques were inspired by films such as Terminator 2.

The casting of Paul McGann was the master stroke, with the 60 minutes screen time he had, you really felt that he was the Doctor. A Byronesque romantic (he even got to have a kiss) and man of action.

It was a shame we have seen so little of McGann's time lord apart from the mini adventure, The Night of the Doctor; although there are plenty of Eighth Doctor audio adventures.

I also liked the malevolent interpretation of the Master by Eric Roberts who really pushes up the dial with his campiness when he puts on the time lord regalia. He shifted the emphasis of the Master from the moustache twirling villain of Anthony Ainley and it has been carried on by the subsequent Master's since then, male or female.

The story was not that great, you felt it needed a bit more reworking and it had rather a lot of continuity which was fine for fans of the original show, but what about new viewers?

A point not lost in the 2005 re-continuation which started afresh and only added continuity in small measures over subsequent seasons.

Some of the elements of the television film might have introduced a few groans. The cloaking device to describe the Tardis chameleon circuit and the Doctor being half human. However it was a lot less Americanised than people feared and had it contained lots of links to the television series.

There were a segment of fans who were disappointed after this was shown in 1996. Yet the movie received very good viewing figures in the UK and two decades on it was worth revisiting McGann's outing.

The only bad thing I can think about the Doctor Who TV movie is that it didn't become a new series. Paul McGann did an excellent job as the Doctor. Hopefully, he'll get another chance to play the role again someday. Loved the new TARDIS console room as well. The movie did a fine job in appealing to both long-time Doctor Who fans and people unfamiliar with the show.

It was in January 1996 that I first heard that my all time favourite TV hero was returning to our screens as a joint BBC / American network TVM . Whoever you are reading this review never EVER give up on your hopes and dreams because for DOCTOR WHO fans in the early 1990s not one of us ever believed we`d be seeing our favourite show return , never mind seeing a big budget American production or that this version was gong to have BAFTA award winning actor Paul McGann in the title role . Words fail to describe the anticipation me and every single other Who fan in the cosmos had in waiting till the TVM was broadcast in May . The only comparison I can think of is LOTR diehards waiting to see FELLOWSHIP , THE TWO TOWERS and RETURN OF THE KING . When the day of the broadcast came one Bank holiday Monday I`d almost bitten my fingers off in unbearable anticipation . I`d read every article I could find about the production in telefantasy magaziness , Paul McGann`s Doctor had appeared on the front cover of every British TV guide and the trailers led me to believe the Daleks were going to be heavily featured alongside the Master . So in mid evening the TVM began and for 90 minutes all the world`s problems disappeared . When the end titles rolled I was torn between being totally amazed by the good and bitterly disappointed by the bad .

The good bits were Geoffry Sax`s direction . Every single cent was up there on screen for the audience to gasp at . This is one Who story that can`t be accused of having crap FX . Sax also does an excellent editing job with intercutting between scenes , and it really was fascinating watching a Who story take place in an American setting . But the best aspect to the production is Eric Roberts camp scene stealing performance as the Master . My own memories of Roger Delgado`s original Master soon faded as Roberts bad-ass TERMINATOR inspired American arch enemy of the Doctor stole the entire show .

But unfortunately much of the bad outweighed the good and most of this was entirely down to Matthew Jacobs script which involved far too much continuity and extremely bad continiuty at that which not only displeases diehard fans but will alienate casual viewers at the same time . Regeneration ? temporal orbit ? the eye of harmony ? I know of these concepts because I`m a fan but here they`re presented entirely different from what I know them as . Likewise when did the Doctor become half human ? But the most disappointing thing were the Daleks who seem to be intergalatic hangmen and not the Nazis of the universe as shown on TV for three decades . Also bitterly disappointing to see them relegated to an off screen cameo when according to the trailers they might have been making a physical presence . Oh BTW can anyone really understand the plot ? At times it felt more like a Bond movie as the Doctor races around on a motor bike trying to save the world from a super villain . With the exception of Roberts no one really turns in a good performance least of all McGann who is surely one of Britain`s most underrated actors . I really expected more from him , though to be fair he didn`t have a lot to go on due to the script.

Oh well I suppose it was good while it lasted and I suppose my life has been slightly enriched after seeing an American version of DOCTOR WHO , and let me just repeat if someone had told me in 1992 I`d one day be watching an American version of the show I would have laughed in their face . It`s not the worst DOCTOR WHO story I`ve seen but it`s not a story I`ll watch over and over again unlike The Silurians , Inferno , Genesis Of The Daleks , Seeds Of Doom or Kinda . These really were classic pieces of not only Who but of British television