DOCTOR WHO | Doctor Who: The Movie (1996) | Part 1 | REACTION

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[@alexanderfinch4432]

For anyone who hasn't heard, Richard Franklin died in his sleep on Christmas morning at the age of 87. God rest his soul. Also this story was broadcast in the wake of the Dunblane massacre and so the street gang shooting the 7th doctor sequence was kept out of the tv broadcast but reintroduced to the dvd release and this story was filmed in Vancouver which represented San Francisco.

[@TheDrugOfTheNation]

That’s not right. The scene that was cut was the other two gang members being shot before the TARDIS appeared (though you can still see one’s feet in the materialisation shot). The uncut version was shown on Doctor Who Night in 1999.

[@alexanderfinch4432]

@TheDrugOfTheNation oh right ok. I never actually saw the original broadcast but I knew it was something along those lines. Thank you for the correction.

[@vivalapsych]

Ohhhhh. Sad to hear

[@DoctorWhoBookClub]

Paul McGann has both the shortest amount of screen time of any Doctor - but he also simultaneously holds the record for largest number of stories, across audios, books, and comics. What a delightful paradox. ✨

[@stephensheridan1279]

Also the longest time between his first story and regeneration! 😉

[@Joey15811]

Richard Franklin (Mike Yates) passed away :( R.I.P Richard 😢

[@hornorsilk2901]

Eric Roberts as the Master.... again, I think it goes along with the history of the show, showing us more of how the Master was able to take over Tremas' body; when he was out of regenerations, he found a way to continue his life this way -- and he is a bit more deadly, a bit more desperate because of it. The Roberts Master is finally getting his due with Big Finish as well.

[@EvilSoupDragon]

It’s not a great Doctor Who story, but Paul McGann really shines as the Doctor and the console room is amazing.

[@kieronball8962]

Great Who memory, Marie-Clare. Tom Baker briefly had a wood panel Tardis control room, but rumour has it, the set was damaged while in storage and they abandoned it. :)

[@Tejiknasten]

The 7th death was a chock for me as a kid, growing up with his adventures on VCR during the wilderness years. But I'm glad they included him in this film.

[@gamegeek812]

It had not been part of the original plan to bring Sylvester McCoy back, but the producer Philip Segal insisted though, so he could pass the torch to Paul McGann.

[@FrankNFurter1000]

7's Death in this movie really upset me as a kid. It's traumatic! But 8 is wonderful. Enjoy, MC! And a very merry christmas!

[@Eltonlaleham]

It is a darned shame Richard Franklin is now deceased, and also I met him at several cons and he was very nice. I hoped when this film was broadcast, in 1996 the year I turned 27 and also I hoped Dr Who would be back on television on a regular basis like it was from 1963 to 1989 in 1989 I turned 20 and got my first job after leaving school.

[@johng5859]

Happy Boxing Day! The TV movie is a fascinating curio, a road to an Americanised Who that ultimately wasn’t taken due to poor ratings in the US (though it did well in the ratings in Britain). The whole project was the baby of Philip Segal, an expat British producer working in American TV, who had watched and loved the show as a child and was determined to bring it back. It took him seven years and endless negotiations, but eventually he got both the BBC and the Fox network on board. The plan was for there to be a full series if the initial movie was a success, or at the very least for there to be further movies, but that wasn’t to be. While it is nice that the seventh Doctor is given the regeneration here that he was denied by the cancellation of the classic series, even if it is a rather brutal and undignified one, Sylvester McCoy subsequently said he shouldn’t have been in it. I think he was right, as the regeneration means it takes about twenty minutes before we meet the eighth Doctor, and even longer before he settles into his new persona, significantly limiting the time Paul McGann has to shine. This was a mistake from which RTD learned when he brought the show back in 2005, making sure the ninth Doctor was in the thick of the action from the start. The Master is played by Eric Roberts, brother of Julia, who was familiar with the show having seen it when he was training as an actor in the UK during the 70s.

[@andygozzo72]

it was poor ratings in the US mainly cause they had an 'important' episode of roseanne on anoither channel at the same time , if they hadnt done that, it may have been very different

[@DoctorVell]

Facts: 1) This movie aired about the same time Jon Pertwee passed away 2) This was a backdoor pilot for a new series 3) Anthony Stewart-Head (Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer) auditioned for the role of the Doctor 4) The actress who played Bruce's wife, in fact, was the real wife of Eric Robert's at the time.

[@alexfletcher5192]

I think the general feeling both then and now is that they nailed the casting for this. Paul was the BBC's preferred candidate for the Doctor and Eric Roberts (famously the brother of Julia Roberts on top of his other achievements) was stipulated by Universal. I don't think it hurts the dynamic at all. And it makes me laugh to think of Donna Noble reacting to news of yet another redhead (Daphne Ashbrook as Grace Holloway) travelling in the Tardis before her.

[@seanryan3020]

I first saw this at a VHS rental shop in Taiwan in 1997 or 98. I couldn't believe that they had somehow gotten it! It even had Chinese subtitles!

[@GoldenAgeGeek]

The TARDIS in this movie has the best interior.

[@thesquire9966]

It's set in america because it was made by an american broadcaster. The plans for what they'd have done if it had gone to series are available online and are utterly wild. This tardis interior and title sequence are a lot of people's favorites, including mine. I actually quite like this as an ending for 7. He was so calculating and manipulative (especially in the expanded universe stuff), it feels fitting that the thing to take him out was random chance, something he couldn't have foreseen or planned against. 8 is easily one of my favorite Doctors. I highly recommend his Big Finish run (starting with 2001's Storm Warning) for what is essentially his proper turn as the Doctor.

[@lapelcelery42]

I swear there's a bit during the part where Sylvester is panic-fiddling with the console at the beginning (though not in this edit) where the intent of the sound design is that the Tardis groans in the Doctor's voice.

[@The-Cosmic-Hobo]

The portrayal of the Doctor by Paul McGann is the absolutely best thing about this whole venture. The fact that his tenure has been maintained by the new era (ie seeing his face appear in The Next Doctor) was amazing, and of course - Night of the Doctor! (Although he absolutely SHOULD have been in the role of the War Doctor...)

[@neilmcdonald9164]

First doctor to have the vastly bigger Tardis interior we know from the new era...1st sonic since 5's first season in 1982🎩

[@Joey15811]

Imo this the best intro ever imo. One of the earliest classic whos i watched but its not the strongest but love McGann as the doctor. I think a spin off should be filling the gap. To give him a on screen chance. I was actually born by the time it came out. I was 5 months old. Bbc america wanted ro bring it back to made this to test the waters but it didnt take off. Probably best as its too Americanised and not the best. This came out in May 1996. Althougg it woukd make more sense as a 1999 release being it focusing on the start of the next millenium

[@The-Cosmic-Hobo]

I have to say I felt pretty happy here in Oz, because when this first aired in 1996, the BBC censored some of the telemovie (I believe the scene where the Doctor is shot was reduced, and also 7's death on the operating table was cut down too), AND in the USA, because of ad-breaks, a few bits were also trimmed... Whereas, us Aussies were shown the FULL story. :) Clearly our censors didn't care about how traumatic the death was... :)

[@whobp8]

Doing a quick scan of the comments on this reaction, I haven't seen any that really try to answer some of your questions about the TV movie comprehensively, so I'm going to give it a shot. I haven't read all of the comments, so if I missed one that already said all this, I apologize for being repetitive. The production team had been pretty far advanced in the planning stages for a season 27 of Doctor Who, still starring Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor and Sophie Aldred as Ace (though she was intended to be written out mid-season to be replaced by a new companion) when new BBC Controller Jonathan Powell decided to cancel the series. Powell didn't have the disdain for Doctor Who that his predecessor Michael Grade had, but Powell didn't want John Nathan Turner to continue as producer of the series, and he was struggling to find anyone who wanted to take Turner's place as no producers wanted to take over a series that was perceived to be on the verge of cancellation anyway. At the same time, the BBC was under pressure to make fewer of their programs "in house" and to instead farm them out to independent production companies, so as to keep production costs and therefore license fees low. Powell thought Doctor Who was an ideal candidate for this treatment. An independent production company would presumably be able to give the series a bigger budget and the BBC could air the show without having to physically make it. So, in a sense, Doctor Who was not so much cancelled as put into production "limbo". A number of companies were interested in producing Doctor Who, but the BBC had a condition for selecting a production company that caused the majority of those companies to ultimately drop out of the running. The BBC wanted the new Doctor Who to run on one of the major American networks. Doctor Who had started to be shown in the U.S beginning in the late 70's on local PBS (Public Broadcasting System) stations. There are thousands of these advertising-free stations in the U.S. broadcast in individual regions of the country rather than nationwide. A number of British shows were seen in America on PBS, but one of the best selling British Shows, bringing a lot of revenue back to the BBC, was Doctor Who. Now the BBC wanted Doctor Who to be broadcast coast-to-coast on one of the major networks. It was a tough sell. While the series was popular on PBS, it was in a national sense, a "cult" or "niche" show in the U.S. The major networks weren't that interested, feeling the show wasn't well known enough to garner a lot of viewers. One of the people who had been interested in producing Doctor Who was Steven Spielberg, at the time he was producing a (short-lived) sci-fi show called SeaQuest DSV for American television. Philip Seagal was working for Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment production company, overseeing their television productions including SeaQuest and others. When Spielberg decided to drop the idea of producing Doctor Who, feeling the BBC's condition of it having to air on a major American network was too big a stumbling block, Seagal asked for Spielberg's blessing to pursue the production deal on his own. Seagal had been born in the U.K. and had grown up on Doctor Who and had a passion for the project. Segal ultimately secured the rights to produce Doctor Who after securing a deal with the Fox Network to air a tv movie as a "backdoor" pilot. (If the movie got good ratings, Fox might then greenlight a continuing series.) Seagal made the tv movie and it was aired in 1996. It garnered very high ratings in the U.K. where it aired on the BBC, but unfortunately it did very poorly in the U.S. This was partly because it aired during "sweeps" week. Unlike the BBC, the major American channels are funded through advertising sponsors and one week from each financial quarter of the year (sweeps week) is used to determine how much money these advertisers are willing to invest in shows depending on how high the ratings are that the shows achieve. Naturally, the networks all want to achieve the highest possible ratings during this week so as to receive the most money possible from their sponsors, so they tend to air programs that are likely to attract the highest ratings during this week. In May Sweeps, when the Doctor Who tv movie aired, there were a few big finales to popular American series that were on at the same time, against which Doctor Who just couldn't compete. Fox network subsequently didn't produce an ongoing series of Doctor Who, and since Seagal's production deal was contingent on the show airing simultaneously on the BBC and a major American network, he couldn't make any more episodes. The BBC also couldn't get anyone else to produce anymore television episodes until the contract they had signed with Seagal expired and the full rights had reverted back to the BBC. And we know how long that took. So, the reason this story is set in America and has mostly American or Canadian actors in it, is that it was an American production, filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia. Though I am an American, I'll try to not take your xenophobia personally 😢. (Just kidding. I'm not offended in the slightest 😂) While this movie is enjoyable to someone who is steeped in the lore of the Classic series, in retrospect it isn't ideal as a relaunch for the show as anyone coming to Doctor Who for the first time with this would presumably be baffled by the regeneration and Classic series references. But Russell T Davies learned from the mistakes made with this when he rebooted the series in 2005, reintroducing the lore gradually. There are obviously a number of things done in this movie for the first time which are then carried on into the modern series. The best thing about the movie is Paul McGann himself, who is instantly engaging as the Eighth Doctor. While his tv run is tragically short, he has made many, many Big Finish audios in which he has been able to flesh out the role, which are worth dipping into if you're interested.

[@detectivesquirrel2621]

There was a series of 8th Doctor Novels and McGann joined Big Finish early on. So even though he only got this one adventure if you include the novels, comic strips and Big Finish audio adventures, Paul McGann has in fact had more adventures than any other.

[@Lexi_Zone]

I like Paul McGann, and the Eighth Doctor got so many good stories in the form of novels and audio books. The opening theme for this movie is probably my favorite version of the Doctor Who theme. The Seventh Doctor is my personal favorite though, so as happy as I am that he's in this, I find his death pretty disturbing...! Very tragic.

[@TheMoonRover]

The show was never officially cancelled, but the BBC were no longer willing to fund and produce a full season in-house in 1990. They did look for other options, hence we got this 1996 TV movie co-produced with Fox, intended as a pilot for a revived series. It didn't get the necessary US audience to continue.

[@57305northernprincess]

The BBFC wanted to give The Movie a 15 certificate. Some scenes had to be removed for the UK Broadcast. The USA broadcast had no edits so thankfully the version we all watch today is the American broadcast. The woman that The Master kills first is Eric Robert's wife. They usually work on nearly every production together

[@detectivesquirrel2621]

Interestingly another actor who auditioned for the part of the Doctor for this movie was Peter Capaldi

[@alexfletcher5192]

The passing of Richard Franklin just as a new Doctor arrives chimes with the theme of coincidence that seems to be at the core of the show at the moment. For this heavily-promoted film was broadcast (at least in the UK) over the May bank holiday in 1996, shortly after the death of Jon Pertwee. Which, with the 'family' nature of fandom, often feels like a personal bereavement. Curiously, outgoing Doctor Sylvester McCoy also made his debut just before Patrick Troughton passed away, a decade earlier. So I think we have all become a bit twitchy every time we see Tom Baker trending on X/Twitter.

[@sixstanger00]

The original intent behind the 1996 TV movie was to kick off a new series. Unfortunately it failed to impress networks, and DW would once again be put to sleep until 2005. The part of the theme you're referring that starts this movie's opening titles is called the "middle 8."

[@papalaz4444244]

it's never been the middle eight, though. It's not 8 bars, it doesn't happen in the middle of the tune and it happens twice in Delia's original. It's really the chorus or the B melody. There IS a middle 8 in Delia's version. It's the 8 bars of bass in the middle of the tune, which happens once.

[@sixstanger00]

@@papalaz4444244 I'm only telling you what it's been called for the past 60 years, not what it actually is.

[@shanejames13]

I absolutely love this to this day! It was one of the first Classic Who stories I saw as a child

[@briangilliver2197]

Great reaction, Eric Roberts now the Master, is Julia Roberts actress ( pretty woman , Notting hill,etc) Brother. >looking forward to pt2

[@stickytapenrust6869]

I actually remember watching this on original BBC1 broadcast in May 1996. It’s my earliest discernible memory of Doctor Who as I was just coming up to my 6th birthday (though at that age I already knew what a Dalek was so I *may* have watched the 1993 BBC1 repeat of Planet of the Daleks aged 3, but if I did at 33 now I have absolutely no memory of actually watching it). My clearest memory of watching this was the bit with the Master in translucent snake-like form hissing at the camera (07:39), running out of the room crying with fright, my mum spending a minute or two coaxing me back into the living room and me being even more frightened by the moment the snake rams itself down Bruce’s throat as he slept (07:47). I think that’s when my mum decided that it was too scary for me so I went to bed. Whether I slept that night or not I don’t remember…

[@jameoww]

McGann is great, his audios are fantastic, the Movie is... not great but it has it's place in history lol You're totally right that Doctor Who is quintessentially British and there's something off about the vibe when it isn't

[@darynvoss7883]

I do love the Eric Roberts Master, genuinely nasty and over the top.

[@hornorsilk2901]

I've always found him way under-appreciated. Like Paul as the Doctor, he only got a brief representation of what he was going to bring to the character. Thankfully, he has been able to do a brief video for BF giving him another chance to play the Master in visual form: kzbin.info/www/bejne/o3nKgptpqp5mabM

[@The-Cosmic-Hobo]

If you can get hold of it... there is a video diary by Sylvester when he was making The Movie called "Bidding Adieu". It really shows the journey this took him on, and how passionate about WHO he was.

[@awall1701]

I remember reading in the newspaper that Jon Pertwee shortly passed away after this aired in the UK. I am pretty sure that this aired over the Spring Bank Holiday in the UK but was shown a couple of weeks earlier in Canada and the US.

[@stickytapenrust6869]

There was a brief “in memory of” caption after the end of the original BBC1 broadcast of this. kzbin.info/www/bejne/kIHSpYl9qZWehKssi=PPhAtFWvfEjVwFGV

[@hornorsilk2901]

Paul is a fantastic Doctor, and this movie influenced New Who in so many ways. Sadly, the story was a bit meh, but if one can get beyond the plot, it is enjoyable

[@hornorsilk2901]

Big Finish gives him who due, at least

[@bobchisholm7487]

This film is such a "Doctor Who" oddity, not like the old show, not like the new show. It's like a fragment of what the show might have become in an alternate world. I've always loved this version of the console room.

[@Eltonlaleham]

I do say Chang Lee, doing deals with the Master is as dangerous as doing deals with arch-villain Servalan who was as devious as a poisonous snake. I do say Marie-Clare, the 7th Doctor have longer hair than he had when classic Dr Who ended with survival and also seeing a new sonic screwdriver was awesome in billions of ways, I also thought the Master taking over the Paramedic, Bruce,s body was creepy and it gave me goosebumps. In regards to your statement, about a gothic control room in the TARDIS control room appeared in both Masque of Mandragora and Hand of Fear when Sarah Jane left.

[@JoanneRachel-m6j]

❤❤❤

[@mark-s]

Merry Christmas mc last of classic who cannot wait for your reaction to last night's new doctor episode I liked love Ruby but at least least with 8th doctor I did like night of the doctor too.

[@jonathanmurphy3141]

I went to Vancouver B.C, train up and back from Seattle for 3 days. I’d been there as a child with my parents. It’s a wonderful city. I had a DW location book, and visited several of the sites - some are close together. Vancouver has been the location for X-Files, BSG, x-Men, Deadpool, Stargate, most DC Tv shows. And, it hosted the Winter Olympics. So, walking around, it was odd -and viewing now “oh, I know that place”. I watched this on the May’1996 US broadcast - set my Vhs to record, as I had a graduate school exam that evening. Glad the video worked. When I got back to my apartment, sat with my Cat, and some whiskey, and could fast through the commercials.

[@papalaz4444244]

This is still the most expensive Dr Who ever made and most of it is the template for nu-who. People STILL hate it for a variety of memes they said in 1996.

[@elliottnoad1270]

The movie was gonna be a pilot to a US revival of Doctor Who. However it didnt do well in the US due to going up against a sitcom called Roseanne, but in the UK, it did well & the BBC slowly but surely started doing more Who with the VNA book range started in 1991 ended & the BBC started doing books in house with McGann. Then in 2003, RTD & Julie Gardner were announced as bringing back Doctor Who for 2005. If the US Revival would have continued, itd have been remakes of Classic who stories e.g Tomb Of The Cybermen becoming Tomb Of The Cybs or The Talons Of Weing Chiang going from Victorian England to modern day New York. Apparently they had to fight to have McGann as the Doctor as Fox wanted a big name American Doctor & Master, while the people making it wanted British Doctor & Master. So they settled on a British Doctor (McGann) & an American Master (Roberts).

[@afhjkdgf]

According to the Wikipedia page, they did want a British Doctor, but interestingly “Among the actors who were invited to audition for the role of the Doctor but declined the opportunity were Christopher Eccleston and Peter Capaldi.”

[@elliottnoad1270]

@@afhjkdgf TL;DR it's definitely a weird but cool coincidence looking at how many were candidates for the Doctor & who have gone on to appear later down the line in the franchise in some shape or form (multiple shapes or forms for some actors). I read it as Fox wanted a American Doctor, relented then Eccleston & Capaldi auditioned but yeah its definitely a cool coincidence that 2 future Doctors auditioned & that on top of those 2, 4 more future Doctors* (Atkinson**; R.E Grant**; Hugh Grant**; John Hurt) and outside of the Doctor; a future Master (Derek Jacobi); future Rassilon (Timothy Dalton); future Great Intelligence voice (Ian McKellen);& Great Intelligence body (R.E Grant), were also candidates for playing the Doctor. *If we're being technical, a 5th one (Alan Davies) too. The EDA book The Tomorrow Windows has the Doctor see his future including the face of his next body with multiple potential "9th" Doctors after McGann, with the book having exclusive "9th" Doctors with one based on Alan Davies & another based on Suzie Izzard. **Similar to the Davies Doctor & Izzard Doctor from The Tomorrow Windows, The McGann Doctor also saw the Atkinson Doctor from comic relief, R.E Grant Doctor from Scream Of The Shalka & Eccleston Doctor (and based on Revival Who, Hurt Doctor). Then the final EDA book, The Gallifrey Chronicles, revealed that all of them are equally real/canon and there are multiple "9th" Doctors. The Gallifrey Chronicles only says Atkinson Doctor, R.E Grant Doctor & Eccleston Doctor (but again revival Who showing us Hurt Doctor). Giving us 4 to 6 different but canon/the same "9th" Doctors.

[@seanryan3020]

Somehow, I don't think "Roseanne" was that big of a strike against this as the demographics for both shows diverged pretty widely, even in the 90s.

[@elliottnoad1270]

@@seanryan3020 neither would I tbh, but apparently when the TV movie aired in the US on Fox, it was during the part of the TV year where as their shows wrapped up airing the latest series, they would air pilot episodes for new stuff and then based on ratings of those pilot episodes commission more episodes for later. On the day of TV movie's US airing, it was at same time slot on Roseanne, apparently (never seen it) one of the characters was gonna have a heart attack or it was the episode after said character had a heart attack, or something similar. But more people watched that & since the TV movie was also a pilot for series, it was seen that there wasn't enough interest for & Fox didn't greenlight the series. But will admit like this is all second hand info from Wikipedias and trivia sections & video essays on the wilderness years/TV Movie so a game of telephone or two could have occured before writing the wikis and/or the video essays were filmed.

[@jonathanmurphy3141]

The TARDIS console was found in studio storage, there in V’BC. It’s been restored, and travels to Conventions. McGann and the other actors have posed with the console at Con’s. ⏰ The writer of this, Matthew J, is British. His father acted in “the Gunfighters”. The Director, and Ptoducer were British too. Yet, the Fox tv network imposed a few elements to have this film made. The 8th Doctor continued quickly in novels, the comic in DWM. McGann started Big Finish audio in like 1999. I knew Paul McGann before this from “Withnail and I” the Horachio Hornblower series, in the 90’s - and an Iraq War drama “the one that got away”, which he finished just before this in ‘95 (Paul’s audition he had a good head of hair - he went off to do that War film, appeared with a military cut in Canada. The DW crew had to make a set of wigs quick, to what they expected.

[@junipetta1595]

it is a shame that this is nearly all the on screen presence that mcgann has, but his audio adventures are really excellent! a large number of them are available for free on spotify as well, and they’re lovely to listen to in the background while doing some chores. would highly recommend

[@timaustin2000]

"Have you suffered due to medical negligence or malpractice,...?"

[@WaIkers]

My favourite intro theme, and a gorgeous interior. Not my favourite outing of McGann, but the Audios absolutely redeem him as one of my all time favourite doctors. I'd recommend listening to them at some point, Lucie Miller's series is a great place to start. The cofunding by Fox was in the hope of garnering a US TV audience to make a US TV series of the show where Daleks and Cybermen would have been extremely redesigned and the Gallifrey lore changed up. It's likely a good thing that it didn't happen, given the concept art. I'd recommend a read around the topic. I've seen a good commentary on 7s regeneration: given how he manipulates and always works several steps ahead, it makes sense that he's caught out by something he cant factor in, which imo makes sense, and I've been able to come to terms with over the yeats

[@The-Cosmic-Hobo]

About the theme tune... A few months before the telemovie aired, Philip Segal played the theme at a sci-fi convention. That music file soon made its way online, and yes - it absolutely gave me chills hearing it! It's probably my 2nd or 3rd favourite version of the theme. However - it was changed by the time the movie aired, and I think for the worse. Here is the original version of the theme: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j5zTfKVpqqdon5o See what you think... (Disclaimer - the above is on my own channel.)

[@bananasaregood8655]

American audiences were so confused since dr who wasn’t much of a thing in the states, and this movie chucks you in the deep end assuming you know about the 7th dr, regeneration, the master etc. so it alienated American audiences (no pun intended)

[@Eltonlaleham]

The one question that has always nagged at me with this film, was the non presence of Ace, was well strange and it seemed strange that the 7th Doctor had no companion with hm the Master in this film is clean-shaven opposed to been bearded for two incarnations.

[@hornorsilk2901]

At least Big Finish has helped show the progression of the 7th Doctor, and the audios which are near the end of his incarnation show him in a way which explains how he could become so careless as to leave the TARDIS as he did. He went from one who had to have control of everything, to having worn himself out, slowly tiring from all his experience with all the dark and dangerous gods and monsters...

[@darynvoss7883]

That's a nice top.

[@papalaz4444244]

This got 9m+ REAL viewers, watching it LIVE on BBC1 in the UK. The show doesn't get figures anything like that today, even adding up views over a week. And there are no time goblins in a magic ship singing and dancing in this.... so criticism is a relative thing.

[@Darren79]

No doubt your Patrons mentioned. The BBC stopped making the show and said the show would continue made by an independent production company. The spoke with various companies but eventually got hooked by Philip Segal who worked for Steven Spielberg's company at the time and he managed to get together a load of other TV companies involved. It went through a lot of scripts and ideas until they got to this one. The BBC hoped to get a series going from this pilot TV film but with so many other companies involved - too many cooks - by the time it got to completing the production, the chances of it going to series were soooo slim.

[@detectivesquirrel2621]

Paul McGann got just this movie, as it was part paid for by Americans but didn't do well in American. He got the minisode Night of the Doctor and appeared in Power of the Doctor. The original idea was t launch in America. Not the first time. In 1980/81 they tried to launch an American version of Doctor Who. The American Doctor was cast, with a backup in case the first became unavailable. Unfortunately those choices didn't weather the test of time. The American Doctor Who was going to be... Michael Jackson. And if MJ became unavailable the backup choice was Bill Cosby.

[@gigteevee6118]

I brought this on VHS a week before it was broadcast from HMV for £9.99, my friends said I was cheating but it was worth every penny at the time, but imagine if they tried to do premium access episodes a week early now!

[@eclecticdog2k901]

This movie is one of my favorite Doctor Who stories, period. It looks visually better than Doctor Who ever has before or since. Paul McGann is instantly iconic as the Doctor, one of the greats. Eric Roberts is one of my all-time favorite Masters. The opening theme tune is fantastic. Chang Lee is one of my favorite guest characters. I definitely understand how the American thing is offputting to a British audience, and I’m probably slightly biased as an American myself (albeit not remotely a patriotic one)-I’d never want Doctor Who to go fully American, so for that reason I’m glad this movie didn’t go to series (although I’m also heartbroken we never got a full series with Paul McGann, he’s so so so good and just a quintessential Doctor kind of like Tom Baker), but I’ll never say no to a story or two set over here.

[@alexfletcher5192]

There was always going to be complaints about 'the Americanisation of Doctor Who', but it was a British lead, a British Director, a British Producer (Phil Segal was an ex-pat who had been working for Spielberg - another lost link in the chain to this coming to fruition) and the whole location shoot was in Vancouver - which, in terms of the show's DNA, is not far off its ancestral home...

[@The-Cosmic-Hobo]

Can't remember if I said it in the comments on Survival, but - Effectively, Philip Segal, producer of this telemovie, killed the original series of Doctor Who when he wrote to the BBC asking for the rights to make a US/UK production of the show, and suggesting that the show should be "rested" for a while. Philip Segal however ultimately was unsuccessful in obtaining a greenlight for a tv-series, so instead they were HOPING that this telemovie would effectively become a "back door pilot" to a new series, if it rated well. Unfortunately, amongst other factors, the Telemovie went up against the final episode of Rosanne in the USA, and so basically everyone was watching that. If it had been greenlight to become a series, it would probably have been mostly set in America, as it would have been filmed in either America or Canada.

[@josephryan362]

The tv moive is not a good doctor who story but paul Mcgann is amazing as the eight doctor

[@Eltonlaleham]

I think Marie-Clare the Master been american is certainly different, I like Grace and she is awesome I think the idea of the Daleks killing the Master sounds bizarre and not entirely convincing I would guess the Master that was exterminated was still Tony Ainley the Master from the 80s stories from Logopolis to Survival with the story Survival for me Marie-Clare was a very strange story there was no explanation for the way the Master ended up on the planet of the Cheetahs and also it was not explained how the Master got out of his last scrape with the Doctor in the Trial of a Time Lord in the Ultimate Foe not even the target book explains the Master,s escape anymore than the broadcast serial I thought in 89 the year I was 20 Doctor Who would hopefully continue for another ten years or more but because we go into the wilderness years in the 90s apart from repeats of classic Dr Who serials and video releases the 90s without Doctor Who felt very empty.

[@thomasjohnson8391]

The master was finally in trial

[@gus4u2c]

8:40 Eric Roberts and Kelly Cunningham, American Actress Emma Robert’s parents

[@ihateunicorns867]

This was made in 1996, not 1999. It was set in 'the future'.

[@stickytapenrust6869]

There was a brief “in memory of Jon Pertwee” caption after the end of the original BBC1 broadcast of this. kzbin.info/www/bejne/kIHSpYl9qZWehKssi=PPhAtFWvfEjVwFGV

[@seanryan3020]

There seem to be quite a few Pertwee-era Easter eggs: the title font, the TARDIS key, and the Doctor getting his outfit and basically beginning his tenure in a hospital!

[@dtuk22]

Paul Mcgann 8th Doctor is kinda like the George Lazenby of the show in so far as its he's only story on screen.....but he's no less an important part of cannon. *Years later he did Night of the Doctor.

[@alexfletcher5192]

If you had skipped this and gone straight from 'Survival' to 'Rose', you might think the jump in scale and and effects and budget, the orchestral music, the big console room etc, were all simply a product of the new regime in 2003 onwards. But it's very obvious from the effects to John Debney's score that this is an interim step from the old days of TV Centre to what we have now; facilitated, incidentally, by an injection of money from Universal, in shades of what is happening today. Indeed, I think this special cost twice as much as the whole of Season 26! It's just a bit unfortunate they spent so much of it on the Tardis and not Paul's wig!

[@bjgandalf69]

While this movie and another short produced by RTD years later are the only TV produced with Paul McGann, there are plenty of Big Finish audios of the 8th Doctor. Also, it is interesting if you research how this attempt at an American based reboot happened that Steven Spielberg was involved in making of this pilot/movie and would have been involved had a series been made.

[@paulkelly1726]

The doctor who tv movie was my frist time I watched doctor who

[@seanryan3020]

Glad it didn't appear to drive you away from Doctor Who!

[@Rik77]

It is a bit weird to bring back doctor who and just completely reset it in the US, I think it's because they've clearly tried to make it look like an American tv show but failed. But this was a time in TV where British shows did not get airtime in the US so they must have thought it would sell better there. That changed in the 2000s.

[@Stephen-Fox]

McCoy gives the best performance he gave in his run in this, while McGann and Roberts performances are easily the best parts of this for me. I enjoy it, but it does seem to trip over itself to make me annoyed at it in a lot of cases. This was a 1996 pilot for a Fox/BBC coproduction on a series. The ratings were good enough for that in the UK, but in the US it was put up against the penultimate episode of the penultimate season long-running, hugely popular, sitcom Rosanne, meaning that version of the show never got made. That it's both attempting to be a relaunch for a new audience (namely, America) and starts with a lore dump and then the 7th Doctor didn't exactly help matters - Compare and contrast with how Rose introduced the show to a new audience in 2005.

[@TreyMcDonaldAnimator]

I didn't want to count the movie as canon at first, it is so Americanized in parts, it's ridiculous. I have a love hate relationship with this movie, the best parts of course being both McCoy and McGann in the role of the Doctor.

[@neilmcdonald9164]

Eric Roberts is Julia Roberts estranged brother 🎩

[@seanryan3020]

I didn't know he was estranged! Why?

[@MegaDratsab]

And there goes your American audience.

[@johngurnhill8743]

Should try 8th doctor audios

[@gumdeo]

This movie never felt like Who to me.

[@seanryan3020]

Or to just about anyone who had already been a fan of the show at the time!

[@jvieceli]

I feel, this production was very much of its day and very influenced by shows like the X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer . Many of us who saw it back in the day at the time would grown up with Classico, very much like Paul McGann, but we’re very disappointed in the actual script and realization. Most of us disliked Eric Roberts, and I don’t think it’s xenophobic to be familiar with a certain cultural character to art and to see it missing and miss it, I missed it too. Doctor Who is British. Period. Full stop. I think this new series of Doctor Who is gonna be very much a product of its time and influenced by the formula. Expectations of Disney. That very clear from yesterday‘s episode.

[@neilmcdonald9164]

American money helped make this,hence American cast and settings🎩

[@Jamienomore]

The BBC wanted to bring Doctor Who back and this was actually the Pilot. However, they did the worst thing possible. They Involved American Companies for the Production. Universal Studios and BBC Worldwide so it was Americanized. It went down badly so they called it Doctor Who The Movie and no further Episodes were intended.

[@seanryan3020]

They were actually trying to revive the series in the US, which was why it was aired there and had US companies involved. It was actually shot in Vancouver. It went over so badly because it alienated fans of the original series and made no sense to people to whom Doctor Who was introduced for the first time (a redundant sentence, I know)!

[@Jamienomore]

@@seanryan3020 It was shown in Canada 15 Days before it was shown in the UK.

[@seanryan3020]

@Jamienomore Stands to reason.

[@frankrossi6972]

As a native Yank, even I found it to be insulting and condescending tripe that risked damaging Classic Who’s legacy. The short shrift that Seven gets, the goofy master (Eric Roberts is a great actor, particularly as a villain, but your “Top Gun” comparison was apt), the U.S. setting-----just a few of the problems with this. The only great thing was McGann, who played it well considering the rubbish script he had to work with. I can provide some perspective on Fox, though. Fox was a relatively new network when this was conceived in the early ‘90s, having begun in ’87. This is the kind of stunt project that they liked doing to gin up ratings. They cynically transported Who to the U.S. obviously because they figured we Yanks can’t relate to anything UK unless they watered it down and removed as much British atmosphere, culture, and sensibilities as possible, even though we’ve been getting British imports---from Python and Benny Hill, to Masterpiece Theater and Upstairs Downstairs on PBS---for decades. In fact, this Who film is a microcosm for what BBC Americas has become. When it began, BBC America showed the classics: Python, Who, Q.I., et al.----then over time, it watered down its content with American movies and TV series (No, BBCA exes, “Star Trek: The Next Generation” is not a British show just because Patrick Stewart is at the helm). Today, the only UK content left is “Graham Norton,” Attenborough nature docs, and the occasional Bond movie marathon. Disney made a deal with the BBC: new Who’s now only on Disney streaming outside the UK, and we refuse to pay for streaming services on top of your cable bill.

[@eddherring4972]

Just looking at the clips from this vid I’m reminded of how awful the movie was, by far the worst, trailing in way behind the Cushing movies. It’s not McGann, but it is everything else. Eric Roberts hasn’t got a clue about the Master and neither do the writers. Bearing in mind this is from ‘96 and Survival was ‘89. Dr Who fans were missing the show and this was a rumour in the early 90’s and when it finally became fact the hype was intense, Dr Who had always been slated for its cheapness and having a movie budget thrown at it was also going to make it the best Dr Who ever. However what we got was absolute garbage. I watched it once and that was it. It’s got no redeeming qualities whatsoever. The fact that a series didn’t come off the back of this tells you that it absolutely panned. I’d give it 3/10 because Paul McGann is great.

[@Cruithneach]

On Big Finish, Paul is a superb Doctor; on this one, not so much...

[@deggsymarley]

it shows what works & can go wrong when you throw lots money into a long running show, liked 8 be good if go back in TARDIS film in UK

[@delorangeade]

I've only watched this once, when it first aired. and don't feel the need ever to see it again. The Americanisation of it just didn't feel right to me. The parochial Britishness of the show is a great part of its history, tradition and essential appeal, having grown up with the show over nearly sixty years. I think, if they were going to do it this way, they should have done away with the regeneration, as RTD did with Eccleston, maybe he learned from this, and started with a clean slate. Less chance of alienating a casual audience with unnecessary lore from the start, and more time for establishing the character of Paul McGann's doctor from the beginning. I didn't feel like that at the time, as a fan I thought the continuity mattered, but in the end McGann was wasted in this and the BBC missed an opportunity.

[@Rik77]

I love Paul mcgann, but as a script this was a terrible episode to introduce Who to a new American audience. The plot is a mash up of 90s TV culture tropes, opening with a lore dump and the main character introduced with a different actor for 5 mins. The master has zero characterisation.

[@lapelcelery42]

Hearing that exposition at the very beginning always makes me think of the original release of David Lynch's Dune, where when you went to see it at the cinema they apparently put a small booklet on the seats so that when the film started you would know what the hell was happening.

[@Jamestopboy]

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