DVD Reviews

Doctor Who: The Movie – DVD Review

By Jeff Swindoll Feb 22, 2011, 16:31 GMT

This highly requested TV movie aired on Fox on May 14, 1995, and is available on North American video for the first time. The Doctor is returning home to Gallifrey with the remains of his arch-nemesis, the Master. Forced off course, the TARDIS arrives in San Francisco on New Year’s Eve 1999, where the Doctor is critically wounded in a gangland gun battle. At the local hospital, Dr. Grace Holloway ...more

Doctor Who was unceremoniously cancelled by the BBC in 1989.  That didn’t deter fan Philip David Segal who lobbied for a BBC/American co-production for a new television show.  That never came to fruition, but a television movie happened and perhaps that kept the show alive enough for it to be revived in 2005. 

The Master is apparently exterminated by the Daleks on Skaro, and the Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) agrees to take his remains, as per his last request, back to Gallifrey in the TARDIS. The Master is not really dead, however, but has transformed into a shapeless snakelike creature. He causes the TARDIS to make an emergency landing on Earth, in the city of San Francisco, in the year 1999. 

The Doctor emerges from the TARDIS to find himself in the midst of a street battle between rival gangs. He sustains gunshot wounds and is taken to hospital by surviving gang member Chang Lee (Yee Jee Tso). Surgeon Dr Grace Holloway (Daphne Ashbrook) attempts to save the Doctor’s life but, failing to understand his alien physiology, actually causes his apparent death.

The Doctor’s body is taken to the morgue but later regenerates into a new body (Paul McGann).  The Master has temporarily taken over the body of an ambulance driver named Bruce (Eric Roberts) but that can’t last as the body is already dying. He gains access to the Doctor's TARDIS and convinces Chang Lee that the Doctor has stolen the TARDIS from him and stolen his body as well. 

So the duo needs to defeat the “evil” Doctor to make things right for the “righteous” Master by switching bodies.  The Master also manages to open the Eye of Harmony for that purpose, but the open Eye will eventually lead to the Earth’s destruction at midnight on December 31st. 

Meanwhile, The Doctor manages to convince Grace that he is the same man with two hearts that she thought had died on her operating table, but he’s also developed a case of amnesia thanks to the anesthesia.  When the Doctor does get his memory back he has to race against time to find an atomic clock to close the Eye of Harmony and defeat the Master – all in a day’s work for a Timelord even if he is human on his mother’s side.

The BBC pulled the plug on the long-running sci-fi show in 1989.  Wanting to give the show a rest… a twenty year rest is mentioned in one of the documentaries on this disc!  Amblin producer Philip David Segal was a fan and saw potential in a new show, even if the BBC didn’t.  He began to pitch a new series that was a co-production with Amblin, Steven Spielberg’s production company, and the BBC. 

The first script produced was too much like Doctor Who meets Indiana Jones’ Last Crusade so Spielberg washed his hands of the project.  An undeterred Segal soldiered on trying to bring Who back to the small screen.  He would succeed when a fellow Brit became head of TV movie production for Fox.  The hope was that the resulting TV movie would serve as a backdoor series pilot. 

Unfortunately, it rated poorly on its American airing even if it was a hit in the UK.  I can imagine that those American viewers unfamiliar with the UK series were thoroughly confused by the whole concept.  We fans can appreciate the fact that Segal insisted on a regeneration scene.  I can remember seeing this originally on Fox and the hairs on the back of the neck stood up when the theme tune came on.  It was a hope that a new series was to follow.  It would but not until 2005. 

I would imagine that it might have never come if this TV movie hadn’t paved the way.  The new series did make a few changes that the TV movie stumbled on (such as establishing itself before going back to the old series homages).

He only got one trip in the TARDIS but Paul McGann is an excellent Doctor and it’s a shame that he wasn’t seen more.  Dictates instructed that the cast had to have an American and Eric Roberts’ price was right.  He gets campier as the film goes on.  Not exactly terrible as Roberts has a villainous look, but it is eons away from how the character was on the series.  Whovians shall debate the whole “half-human on my mother’s side” till the end of time. 

Doctor Who is presented in fullscreen.  Disc one’s special feature has a host of audio options: a commentary with director Geoffrey Sax, a commentary with Doctors McCoy and McGann moderated by Nicholas Briggs, an isolated music track, and 4 of the songs from the film.  The film also has a pop-up trivia track.  The 53 minute “Seven Year Hitch” examines the journey from cancellation to television movie. 

The 17 minute “Doctor’s Strange Love” has two writers and a comedienne detailing what’s to love about the movie but also some head-scratching moments.  You also get a PDF of the Radio Times Listing and a coming soon trailer for the next Who release.  On disc two under “Pre-production” you get the 7 minute McGann audition, a 50 second 1994 special effects test, and a 2 minute 1996 effects test.

Under “Production” you get a 15 minute electronic press kit, 4 minutes of behind-the-scenes, the 2 minute tour of the TARDIS set, and 1 minute of alternative takes.  “Special Features” has 1 minute of BBC trails (aka commercials), the 26 minute “Who Peter 1989-2009” about appearances on the children’s show, the 23 minute “Wilderness Years” about how Who was kept alive during the great hiatus, the 19 minute “Stripped for Action” about the 8th Doctor in comics, and the 10 minute “Tomorrow’s Times” focuses on the 8th Doctor’s press on the TV movie. 
   
The Movie may not have been the return to form that fans wanted, but it offered hope to fans that the show would return.  It has and has gone from being the red-headed stepchild of the BBC to its flagship show.  Iconic, innit? 

We can only imagine what McGann might’ve done, but at least he got this one chance.  This edition adds a grand amount of features to make it a big winner for fans.

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