User reviews

I really struggle with this movie. Being traumatised as a 9 year old when the show was cancelled I can remember the sheer excitement at there being a movie. It starts off well enough, I really enjoyed Sylvester McCoy's appearance, at least he got a send off.

Paul McGann made a really good Doctor, I feel sad for him that he wasn't given a true crack of the whip, he showed us in The Night of the Doctor what we'd missed all those years. He performs as well as can be expected. I even quite liked Grace (not the kissing bit!!)

But, oh my days it's so tacky, Eric Roberts as the Master?? Seriously!! I don't know why they didn't hire Dom DeLuise and have him in drag, well they weren't that far off were they.

The story itself isn't uninteresting, but gang crimes, guns etc it's not what this show was about, were they aiming this movie at the American market? The Doctor being half human? I should coco!!

Overall it's watchable enough, at least they tried to get it to work, it's just a bit too cheesy and glitzy. 5/10

The very strange and failed attempt to revive Doctor Who in the 1990s for an American audience now sits in time as a strange curio in the franchise. McGann's byronesque Doctor is the best thing about it really but the whole plot is so perfunctory, dated and clunky, that it's a real struggle to watch it. Poor Yee Jee Tso's Chang Lee is barely a character at all and there are huge narrative holes in here. Still, it rattles along at a fairly brisk pace, and me being nine when it was released gives it a curious nostalgic edge. I tried to make a comic of McGann's doctor, eating jelly babies and fighting giant be-legged Daleks, for example.

Everything about this movie was pretty forgettable except for the opening theme and the Doctor himself.

This movie is not as awful as some negative reviews state. Paul McGann does a good job as the Doctor, some glimpses in his performance from the Baker/Davison era, with hints of the darker Doctors of late. Daphne
Ashbrook is a decent companion and there is a good amount of chemistry between the two.

Eric Roberts' Master is a bit problematic, a slimy '90s film noir character lacking either Roger Delgado's savage charm or

Anthony Ainley's smug self-assurance. And the whole worm- thing does NOT work.

But the big problem is with the writing, it's as if they were trying to fit as many Hollywood cliché's into the movie as possible. From a corrupt, evidence-destroying hospital administrator, to a confused plot-line about New Years Day 2000 (maybe the writer really thought the world was going to end and nobody would be around to see the stupidity in his script.) It is these standard clichés that give Hollywood such a bad name, and wreck this effort.

I've never completely bought into the whole "Curse of the Time Lords", business, (it always seemed something could be going on between the Jon Pertwee Doctor and Jo Grant) so found the kisses between the Doctor and companion trite, but not devastatingly so. Ah, but I remember Jon Pertwee and Katy Manning, as well as Hartnell, Troughton, T Baker, Davison, C Baker, and McCoy. I have to wonder if any of the writers or producers here gave past episodes any more than a cursory glance.

Fox seems to have been very cynical about this whole project. The acting is good, and the special effects good. but it lacks the heart and soul of the original (or the current) series, leaving an altogether mediocre movie.

Had less money been spent on CGI and special effects and invested instead into the plot and research into the TV series this movie would've shined. Unfortunately it doesn't. As typical of all Hollywood movies the point has been missed by a long shot for the sake of special effects, cliffhangers, and a romance scene. What's more they've rewritten the Doctor as being half-human. You can't do that to a series that has been going on for decades! And what is the Eye of Harmony doing in the tardis?

Overall attempts at trying to hype up a British series and Americanize it have failed. The TV series aims at having enough suspense to have you on the edge of your seat but then some ridiculously good way of saving the day that you either fall back into your chair laughing, cheering, crying, or panicking and eager to know what's going to happen next. This movie does not reflect the TV series and attempts at being too serious that it doesn't strike the viewer in the same manner. If anything the Saw movies share more in common with Doctor Who as they contain jaw-dropping plot twists which this movie is missing out on.

This was a real misfire, with all of time and space to explore we instead spend 99% of it in modern America. The villain is potrayed as a black leather caped square jawed Terminator knock off, while interiors now resembles a Joel Schumacher movie. The movie certainly has a very operatic quality to it but I just didn't think it worked. Its more a story of a mild mannered Brit navigating modern America at times amd at other times it morphs more into action. I just didn't feel it really captured the spirit of the show, maybe an impossible task but not one achieved.

... get the 2005 Russell T. Davies revival on DVD and (re)discover what good-Who is all about! To think that I was so excited at the prospect of a Fox series revival - until I saw this abomination... If Tom Baker was dead he would have rolled over in his grave! As it was, I'm sure his heart must have stopped beating a few times the night this premiered. I had friends over to watch it - and they were nowhere near the Whovians that I was - and even they were like "This isn't like the show we watched as kids." The person I feel worst for in this whole mess was Paul McGann - because I think he would have made a good doctor - in the right hands - with the right script - with an assistant who didn't phone it in.

He's back. And its about time.

So said the adverts on BBC 1 on the run up too Easter 1996.

Well it was about time but he was not really back.

This below average, big budget co-production between BBC and FOX was poor even compared too the worst earlier Doctor Who story lines such as The Two Doctors.

Paul Mcgann is great as are most of the rest of the cast. The special effects are great (but now very dated). The directing is great.

Its the story and whole atmosphere that let this down. Its not really Doctor Who and just too confuse any new viewers the character is not really reintroduced. For new fans too much is different. Such as the pointless half human sub plot.

I'm still not sure if they count it as part of the official canon of the show (I do, even if it is rubbish) but if you want a good Mcgann story then pick up the audio show Shada from Big Finish audio or watch the web cast version.

Hard-core fans will have seen it already but new and casual fans should avoid and watch something like The Caves of Androzani instead...

To think it took seven years to make the movie, the result is almost unforgivable. Since a child, I'm a Doctor Who fan of the original series and the new series. Finally, I saw the Doctor Who Movie this week, and I could not believe how bad it was. While I usually like Eric Roberts, he is horrendous as the Master. It's obvious that he knew nothing about the character, nor did any research. Paul McGann is actually quite good as the Doctor, and my reason for giving it five starts. But the plot is entirely forgettable, and many aspects of the Doctor as a character are missing or wrong. Maybe the new series since 2005 has spoiled me, but seeing the Movie for the first time in 2021 was a disappointment.

I love Doctor Who, classic or revive, but the television movie? I don't think so. I expected it to be like an actual story but instead it feels more like an extended episode. When listening to the high-pitch soundtrack on YouTube, I was excited to see this movie. But instead felt disappointed.

.......But, If you want a Doctor Who movie, Stick with the 1960's Peter Cushing "Dalekmania" Movie's. Sure the doctor is in name only and the Tardis is an actual Police box, But you get flashed up Actual TV Scripts and even excellent Daleks.

The 1996 movie on the other hand, Despite being considered as 'Cannon', Missed all the fun and adventure of the TV series. Of course it was meant to appeal to an American audience, But still.....If your an American fan?, Just get some TV episodes to introduce people to the show.

All I can say in ending, Is that the 1996 movie had some nice special effects, But just didn't work right for the DW universe.

5 out of 10