Doctor Who: The Movie

Right time for a quick look at yet another Doctor Who post on this blog, which will be about the revamped version of the swhow in the format of the Doctor Who: The Movie made back in 1996.  So let's have a look at it (this post was actually written as a small part of my review on the Doctor Who: Revisitations 1 DVD set, so I've expanded it more here).  So the movie saw the resurgance of the series albeit for the briefest of times, where Paul McGann stepped in and played the Doctor in fine style.  So let's have a quick look at the plot...

OK so the story starts with the Doctor in his seventh incarnation (played by Sylvester McCoy) returning to Gallifrey with the remains of his old enemy, the Master, encased in a casket.  However the casket breaks open, which causes the TARDIS to malfunction, and the Doctor is forced to make an emergency landing.  The TARDIS materialises in San Francisco in 1999 on December 30, where the Doctor is shot on exiting his ship by some Asian gang members.  The Doctor is then taken to hospital, by a young gang member who was being chased the gang, Chang Lee (Yee Jee Tso).  At the hospital the Doctor is operated on by Dr Grace Holloway, a cardiologist, and the Doctor briefly awakens to tell her he needs a beryllium atomic clock, however Grace, confused by his two heart anatomy, fails to save him and he dies on the table.  Meanwhile the Master's remains, which is a snake like shaped goo, has escaped from the TARDIS and takes over the body of an ambulance driver, Bruce (Eric Roberts).

The Doctor meanwhile has been placed in the hospital morgue, but overnight he regenerates into his new incarnation (Paul McGann) who then leaves the morgue in a state of confusion.  The Doctor then looks through the staff hospital lockers and finds a fancy dress costume, with turns out to be clothes for a Wild Bill Hicock costume (a famous Western folk hero) which he puts on.  Meanwhile Grace argues with the hospital administrator who burns the X-ray film of the Doctor's two hearts, and Grace refuses to argree to cover up the mess of her operation and quits her job.  On leaving the Doctor follows her into her car, and he removes a piece of tubing from his chest, that Grace inserted into his hearts, and he tells Grace to drive off, which she reluctantly does.  Back at Grace's home she examines the Doctor's chest again, amazed to find that he really does have two hearts.  The two of them take a walk outside where the Doctor's memory slowly comes back to him and he kisses Grace in delight, when he realises who he is. 

Meanwhile the Master has caught up with Lee, who had stolen the Doctor's things, including his sonic screwdriver and the TARDIS key.  The Master enters the TARDIS with Lee and get's him to open the eye of Harmony, the power source of the Time Lord's time travel, but once it is open the Doctor sees what is going on through a psychic link and that the Master is loose.  The Doctor then tells Grace that is the Eye is not closed before midnight the whole planet will be sucked inside out and that he needs an atomic clock to set the timing mechanism on the TARDIS so he can put things to rights.  The Master and Lee soon track the Doctor to Grace's house, and they arrive in an ambulance where the Doctor, unaware of the Master's presence at this point, to drive them to the Institute of Technological Advancement and Research.  Enroute the Doctor susses the Master's identity and attacks him with a fire extinuisher and he and Grace escape.  At the institute the Doctor and Grace manage to steal the atomic clock chip and return to the TARDIS, where he finds that from the TARDIS's instruments that the eye has been open too long, and in order to save the Universe they must go back in time before it was opened.  However its not long before the Master catches up with them, which leads into a climactic battle between the two rival Time Lords.....   

With Doctor Who: The Movie the series was brought back in fine style, and Paul McGann here delivers an excellent performance as the Doctor, with his light scouser accent he brings some nice touches to the Doctor, where he also infused it with some of his neurotic character from Withnail and I, and gave the story some romantic overtones.  This in fact proved to be quite controversial at the time, where the Doctor has a romantic attachment to his new and lovely companion Grace (Daphne Ashbrook) and sees the Doctor kissing his companion for a change, and not in a platonic way, probably in part this is to do with the revelation the Doctor is half human (on his mother's side).   At the time I thought it detracted from the movie, but in retrospect I don't think it did it any harm, as since in the new series, the romantic overtones have always been brought into the show, especially with David Tennant who had to have at least one snog per series!  McGann as the Doctor provides some nice moments in the story as Grace examines his chest with a stethoscope she is amazed at his extra cardiovascular system and he says "you see that is no echo!" referring to his second heart.  Also in the scene where tries on Graces' ex-boyfriend's shoes, as they walk around outside, his memory comes back to him and he says "Yes! These shoes! They fit perfectly!".  Also there is the moment where he steals a police officer's gun and points it at his chest as he wants to take the officer's motorbike and he says "now stand aside before I shoot myself!".  McGann also has fine dramatic moments, particularly in the scene where he has been captured by the Master in the TARDIS and strapped into some weird equipment, with some strange eyepieces around his eyes, that resembles the ones that Malcolm McDowell wore in A Clockwork Orange.   

Daphne Ashbrook also gives a pretty good performance as Grace, and the fact that she is attacted to the Doctor adds a completely different aspect to the series, which as I already mentioned was further expanded during the new series and the Tennant era, where his companions Rose and Martha were both attracted to him also.  Daphne has some nice moments in her performance as well, especially in the scene where the Doctor kisses her and he says "I know who I am!  I am the Doctor!" and she replies smitten "Great! Now do that again!".  And later they escape they drive to the institue on a police bike and she says "I finally meet the right guy and he's from another planet!".  

Eric Roberts (brother of Julia), as the Master is great from the get go and I thought he was excellent in his role as the Doctor's arch nemesis.  Roberts brings a sly charm to his portrayal as well as a real sense of menace and danger, it also saw some rather violent scenes in the film (Bruce the man who's body the Master has taken over, at one point chokes his wife to death (not seen of course), and breaking Chang Lee's neck.  Some of Roberts highlights include the scene where he asks at the hospital where the Doctor's body is and his things, and she tells him that Chang Lee stole them, and he says "Ah the Asian child" and the nurse replies "Oh, Bruce you are sick!" and the Master gives a wry smile and says "Thank you!".  He also as the Master also mainpulates Lee towards his way of thinking and tells him how it is the Doctor that is evil, and he tells him that the Doc was once Genghis Khan "That was him!" to which Lee says "No way!" and the Master replies "Yes way!".  Of course towards the end, the Master dons his Gallifreyan Time Lord robes as he has captured the Doctor in order to steal his body he says "I always dress for the occassion!".    Yao Tse Loo who I will briefly mention also does a good job as the gang member, Lee, who turns out to be not too bad a kid after all, and he is manipulated by the Master, but towards the end he soon comes around.  Near the end of the show the Doctor gives Lee his bags of gold dust and Lee says "I better get out of here before you change your mind!".   

I also can't leave without mentioning Sylvester McCoy's performance as the seventh doctor, as it is a nice swansong for his incarnation, who I always thought was underrated as the Doctor, and it showed him bow out with dignity, and it was also a shrewd move I thought from the producer of the movie Phil Segal to include Sly into the show to justify his reason for regenerating into Paul McGann.   

In terms of the movie's flaws, a fair criticism raised at the film from some fans was that it took a bit too long for Paul McGann's doctor to come into it, as its only about 86 minutes long and he doesn't appear for the first 25 minutes!  Also another bone of contention for me with the film is how they decide to have the eye of harmony placed in the Doctor's TARDIS, which is in actual fact the entire power source of time travel for the Time Lords!  And it seems bizzare the Doctor would actually have it in his TARDIS, as in the Tom Baker story, The Deadly Assassin, the eye of harmony was on Gallifrey, so I can't quite see how they transferred into his ship!  Not unless of course they constructed another one just for the Doctor due to all the good work he had done throughout time and space (but even that seems a bit far fetched by Doctor Who's standards!). 

So overall Doctor Who The Movie is very entertaining and it saw a welcome return of the show, but sadly I think due to poor ratings the American networks wouldn't take it on for a whole series.  And ultimately a lot of good US series have missed out or been cancelled due to poor ratings (Firefly, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip to name a couple, also Family guy and Futurama were cancelled before they were brought back due to popular demand), which shows the networks know hee haw about quality TV!

And that's it for my look at the Doctor's flick.