Doctor Who: The Movie (TV film review).
I haven’t seen ‘Doctor Who: The Movie’ since its first release but thought I ought to rewatch it in sequence before the series resurrection. A mismatch of British and American money gave some noted messes, including declaring the Doctor was half-human. What is it with Americans and hybrids? With two audio commentaries, there’s also a need to spread things out a bit. A bit different from the situation we now have. Back then, the Beeb weren’t going to resurrect the series and didn’t mind what really happened, so they had no overall supervision.
Do I need to recount the film or point out the oddities of the Doctor (actor Sylvester McCoy) returning the Master’s ashes to Gallifrey? I mean, the TARDIS can go anywhere instantly, so why would the Doctor delay things? Watching the film three times over, other things sunk in. Why was the Master on trail on Skaro, the home of the Daleks? Since when was the Doctor stupid enough to step outside without checking the monitor first? All, no doubt, contrived to get a regeneration. Surgeon Doctor Grace Holloway (actress Daphne Ashbrook) messes up her surgery with his unknown physiology and not believing the x-ray showing his twin hearts. They might not have believed their x-rays, but you would think their cardiograph machine would have spotted twin heartbeats. The thing about having twin hearts is that you do have a lower metabolic rate, as pointed out in the original ‘The Making of Doctor Who’ book in the 1970s and used as a bible for Gallifreyan specs since.
While the Doctor lies in the morgue, the Master is seeking out a new body and takes over medic Bruce (actor Eric Roberts). So to regenerate, the Doctor has a new body, looking remarkably like actor Paul McGann.
Shang Lei (actor Yee Jee Tso), who was involved in the Doctor’s shooting, has his possessions and gets into the TARDIS with the key. So how did the Master get in without realising it until you realised Lei left the door open? The Master claims it’s his TARDIS, which we know it isn’t, but he is convincing Lei that the Doctor is evil. It is the Master who declares the Doctor to be half-human, and he isn’t exactly known for telling the truth, even if the Doctor says the same thing further in.
How does the Doctor get a bag of jelly babies when he has nowhere to go to get them as they appear not to be available in the USA? The rest you can watch for yourself, as the Doctor needs a clock CPU, confront the Master and win.
Despite the lovey-dovey stuff, Paul McGann would have been a good Doctor, even watching it again now. Considering how earlier Doctors have come up again in anniversaries, it’s a shame that they haven’t brought back the eighth. It would certainly go down well if they did.
There are a lot of extras on the first disk. The 55-minute-long ‘The Seven Year Hitch’ has American producer Philip Segal telling of his career moving from company to company to get ‘Doctor Who’ a start in the USA. We know the history from our perspective, as the BBC didn’t like the show and saw it as a failure to be ignored. It does make me wonder when you compare the ease of getting financing from Disney today.
Running at 17 minutes, ‘The Doctor’s Strange Love’, has nothing to do with the Time Lord kissing Grace Holloway, but writers Simon Guerrier and Joseph Lidster talk with comedian Josie Long about what they liked about this story. A 4-minute ‘Photo Gallery’, and you would think at least once, Paul McGann could have smiled. Finally, in the 6-minute ‘Night of the Doctor’, the McGann Doctor turns into the Hurt War Doctor. Looking at it objectively, you would think a sonic screwdriver would have broken through any deadlock.
Two audio commentaries. The first is with director Geoffrey Sax, recorded in 2000, although I have to confess it’s a mess to flip back to the film. It would probably be quicker to use your Blu-ray player’s controls. Sax explains his decisions and some of the visual tricks. This is the American version, and the gun fight was reduced for the British market because of the Dunblane shooting. Apart from the leads, every other actor was from Vancouver, where it was recorded, and all were given high regard. There’s lots to digest here.
The second audio commentary is with actors Paul McGann and Sylvester McCoy, with Nick Briggs as host. McGann has only seen the film once before. There’s a lot of information here that makes it worth listening to about acting conditions and people. The Americans see ‘Doctor Who’ as an adult show, not a family show. It’s also rather interesting how they compare working over the pond and some of Eric Roberts’ aspects of professionalism. I like the use of his make-up artist to ensure a facial scar doesn’t show. They do discuss some of the ‘Doctor Who’ lore, and McCann certainly knows more now.
For this second disc, we have three divisions, and under ‘Pre-Production’, there is ‘Paul McGann’s Auditions’, running for 8 minutes. The opening part is two different interpretations of the Doctor being told he’s half-human and being sent back to Gallifrey. Considering current showrunner Russell T. Davies is playing around with the mythology, you do end up wondering whether he is going to resolve this issue. From an actor’s perspective, if you are ever doing auditions, understanding emotional content and how it can change dialogue will be a useful lesson. The ‘VFX Test 1994’, a minute of Amblin’ production of the opening ‘Doctor Who’ logo. The ‘VFX Media 1996’ has no sound but shows some of the effects over 2½ minutes.
Under ‘Production’, a juicy 15-minute ‘Behind the Scenes’ showing what was used in promotion and then the extended interviews with actors Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Daphne Ashbrook, and director Geoffrey Sax. ‘Philip Segal’s Tour of the TARDIS’ is just that, 2½ minutes showing the little extras around the set. Is it just me, but is the American obsession with showing clocks as a reminder that the Doctor is a Time Lord a bit excessive? I mean, if the Doctor were a Space Lord, would that mean having him walk around in a spacesuit or have spacious rooms? The ‘Alternate Takes’, running at a minute, are only slight changes.
Under the ‘Special Features’ section, things get a lot longer. ‘Who Peter: 1989–2009’, running for 27 minutes, shows the connection between BBC TV’s long-running magazine programme and ‘Doctor Who’, which it predates. In the period when it wasn’t on TV, ‘Blue Peter’ did the odd reminder. Although producer Richard Marson (1994–2008) was a fan, he also noted the viewing figures going up every time they did a ‘Doctor Who’ feature.
‘The Wilderness Years’, running for 23 minutes, covers the various media after the end of the McCoy years that kept the fanbase alive, including magazines, books, films, and audio productions.
‘Striped for Action: The Eighth Doctor’, running for 20 minutes, covers the comicstrips in ‘Doctor Who Magazine’ and the ‘Radio Times’ using the McCann Doctor as their lead protagonist.
Finally, actor Nicholas Courtney is the host and has 11 minutes to show the newspaper reactions to the movie. Considering the number of media magazines that were out there back in the 1990s, you would have thought that this could have been covered as well.
The production values still hold up reasonably well even today, and, if you haven’t seen it, it’s worth seeing just to say you’ve seen it.
GF Willmetts
February 2024
(pub: BBC. 2 blu-ray disks 85 minute film with extras. Price: varies. ASIN: VFC26318)
cast: Paul McGann, Sylvester McCoy, Eric Roberts, Daphne Ashbrook and Yee Jee Tso
