It's easy to see why the 1996 Doctor Who TV movie is often dismissed as a flop. The film was designed to revive the fortunes of the BBC's vintage sci-fi series, launching a new series with Paul McGann at the TARDIS controls.
It didn't. So, as a pilot, the film is a failure.
"Back in '96 / '97, when the pilot failed to go to a series, sure you're disappointed for a day but only 'cos maybe you saw pound signs," McGann told Digital Spy 20 years on, in 2016. "My kids were little and that might've taken care of them – it was a nice big contract.
"But that's what living in the arts is like. One minute it's there, the next it's gone and you're doing something else."
But does that mean the TV movie is a total disappointment, devoid of redeeming qualities? Not a bit of it.
By 1996, Doctor Who had been off the air for seven years. The original series had never been formally cancelled, the BBC simply never commissioned another series after 1989. (Truly, an ignominious fate for a series that had been broadcasting for 26 years.)
It was TV producer Philip Segal – once vice-president of Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, where he oversaw shows including seaQuest DSV and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – who led the effort to bring it back.
Segal had hoped to secure a commission from a US network, but the sole interested party, FOX, would only commit to a one-off TV movie, with the proviso that it might lead to a series if successful. It was FOX who offered up the lion's share of the film's $5 million budget – $2.5m, compared to BBC Television's $300,000, and $1.1 million each from BBC Worldwide and Universal Television.
With so many cooks in the kitchen, all with conflicting interests, it's remarkable that the end product was even remotely watchable. But in fact, there's plenty across the film's 85-odd minutes that works brilliantly.
Most notably – and this is something that even the movie's sternest critics tend to acknowledge – Paul McGann is absolutely fantastic. The TV movie features one of the best and most confident debut performances from any Doctor.
The TV movie's Time Lord is instantly charming and funny, but there's also a kind of dangerous desperation to McGann's frenetic performance that works well with the film's Race Against Time plot.
Over nine million people in the UK tuned it to watch his Doctor be born (in a fantastically evocative regeneration sequence, intercut with clips from 1931's Frankenstein) but numbers in the US were considerably lower – just 5.6 million. While FOX wasn't convinced that Doctor Who was right for it, there's no doubt that McGann would've been the right man to lead a series had it gone ahead.
Daphne Ashbrook is also impressive as companion figure Dr Grace Holloway. A medical professional with real hopes and dreams, she's a far cry from the cliché of the screaming 'Doctor Who girl', even opting not to travel in the TARDIS at the film's conclusion, instead insisting that the Doctor stay behind with her. Quite right, too!
The major player who attracts most criticism for their performance in the film is Eric Roberts, but the memory cheats. Much of the flak that Roberts has copped is down to his work in the film's final act, in which his Master – having captured the Doctor and locked him up in the TARDIS – decides to don flamboyant Time Lord robes.
Having been forced to wear a ridiculous outfit, Roberts clearly shifts his performance accordingly – he's far more cartoonish and flamboyant from this point on ("I always drezzzzz for the occasion!") compared to the early parts of the movie.
Go back and watch the film again: for much of it, Roberts is superbly chilly and deadpan (and certainly far more restrained than John Simm was 10 years later). "You're sick!" a nurse accuses in one scene. "Thank you," Roberts' Master smirks back, cool as anything. Later, when the Doctor mentions that he knew Madame Curie "intimately", Grace asks, "Does she kiss as good as me?" and has her grammar corrected by a brilliantly petty Master. "As well as you."
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It's a terrific exchange in a script that, admittedly, does include its fair share of plot holes (why does the TARDIS travelling back in time reverse the deaths of Grace and Yee Jee Tso's gang youth Chang-Lee?) and clunky dialogue ("I finally meet the right guy, and he's from another planet!").
Much of the criticism the movie received at the time was down to its writing. Many fans balked at what they perceived as an Americanisation of Doctor Who, with the Doctor snogging his lady friend and embarking on a motorbike chase through the streets of San Francisco.
Of course, two decades later and neither element seems particularly alien (no pun intended) to Doctor Who. The series post-2005 has absolutely amped up the action, and recast the Doctor as more of a romantic figure.
It's also been said that the film is too convoluted, too confusing for newcomers, too reliant on the show's history – and while that's an accusation that gets levelled a lot at Doctor Who, it's not even particularly true of the TV movie.
Granted, things start off badly with an opening spiel (a last-minute addition) that has McGann's Doctor reference the Master, the Daleks and their home planet Skaro, and the Time Lords and their home planet Gallifrey, all in the film's opening 30 seconds.
But beyond that, the film's plot – for all its trappings involving the Eye of Harmony, atomic clocks and stealing regenerations – actually just boils down to a dying villain attempting to steal the hero's body. It's a relatively simple tale of good vs evil.
Then, finally, there's fan frustration with the fate of the seventh Doctor. It was again Philip Segal who campaigned for Sylvester McCoy to reprise his role. FOX had wanted Tom Baker to appear as the film's "old Doctor" – arguably a more mainstream choice, but one which, continuity-wise, would have made zero sense.
If one discounts his very final scenes, struggling on an operating table, then McCoy's Doctor does admittedly get a rather abrupt exit – stepping out of the TARDIS, the Doctor is shot down, caught in the crossfire between two warring gangs.
But there's a terrific, if cruel, irony to this undignified demise. McCoy's Doctor had, in his later years, been positioned as a shadowy figure who was always pulling strings, always 10 steps ahead of his enemies. So there's something just right about him being felled by a stray bullet – the master manipulator who dies because, just once, he forgot to check the TARDIS scanner.
No, the Doctor Who TV movie isn't perfect. And in the long run, it's probably for the best that it didn't lead to a series. McGann again, in 2016: "People say it's a shame that it never went to series and I go, 'OK, well, let's just take a minute to imagine that it had. How much do you like Matt Smith and David Tennant? They might never have happened if there'd be some other history!' So you've got to be careful what you wish for."
But taken as a one-off, it's perfectly enjoyable and certainly nowhere near as bad as its reputation suggests. At its best, the film is colourful, funny, good-hearted and just a little bit scary (the Master-snake sliding down a sleeping Bruce's throat... brrrrr). In short, it's everything that good Doctor Who should be.
And, again, it's important to remember that we could have got something so much worse. You only have to watch Paul McGann's original audition (above) to realise that. Again, he's superb – it's obvious why he beat the likes of Anthony Head and Liam Cunningham to win the role – but here, he's working from an earlier draft of the script.
Clearly designed as a more dramatic reboot of Doctor Who than the final film ended up being, the draft script requires McGann to ramble on about the legendary Time Lord Ulysses, Rassilon's holy sash and a surprising family connection ("The Master... is my brother?!").
Suddenly, a half-human Doctor doesn't seem so bad.
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