Skip to content
TARDIS Guide

Overview

Released

Monday, May 27, 1996

Production Code

TVM

Written by

Matthew Jacobs

Directed by

Geoffrey Sax

Runtime

86 minutes

Time Travel

Future

Tropes (Potential Spoilers!)

Doctor kisses, Master of Disguise, Mind Control

Inventory (Potential Spoilers!)

Eye of Harmony, Jelly Babies, Sonic Screwdriver

Location (Potential Spoilers!)

Earth, San Francisco, The Cloister Room, USA

UK Viewers

9.87 million

Appreciation Index

75

Synopsis

The Doctor, nearing the end of his seventh life, is charged with transporting the remains of his fellow Time Lord, the Master, back to their home planet. Despite his precautions, his old enemy is not only not dead, but is out for revenge. Creating a timing malfunction in the TARDIS, and bringing the Doctor to San Francisco in 1999, the Master escapes and puts his plans into motion. The Doctor must find a beryllium atomic clock and stop the Master, but after being shot down by members of a street gang, how will he succeed?

Add Review Edit Review Log a repeat

Edit date completed

Characters

How to find Doctor Who (The TV Movie):

Reviews

Add Review Edit Review

18 reviews

I wish we'd gotten a chance to have Grace Holloway as an actual companion.

This was my first exposure to Paul Mcgann, immediately fell in love.

My friends and I quote this movie to each other all the time.

Goo-snake master makes no sense. How'd he do that?

I love the regeneration - Frankenstein comparison.


CptnOfTheYellowSub

View profile


Doctor Who is a 1996 motion picture based on the long-running sci-fi show Doctor Who. It is directed by Geoffrey Sax and stars Paul McGunn as a dazzling new Eight Doctor

The film tells the story of how the freshly-regenerated Doctor tries to rescue his time travelling machine called the TARDIS from another Time Lord the Master played by Eric Roberts. His companion for this film is a doctor Grace Holloway who helps him to regain his memory

This film is a delightful watch to any fan of the programme, but it also can be a good starting point for people who have never seen the famous TV show. The perfomances, especially Eric Roberts', are hilariously campy, and the new opening theme is a marvellous rendition of the classic tune. This film quite literally screams that it was produced in the 90s, and if you love this era of films and television then you'll certainly enjoy the movie. The screenplay by Matthew Jacobs is perfectly serviceable except for one infamous line that divides the whole fandom till this day (I won't say which line exactly, but if you know you know)

Overall, Doctor Who is a masterpiece in eyes of many fans who sometimes consider it to be a comfort watch and especially nice way to celebrate New Year's Eve, but casual viewers can also enjoy this film. I definently recommend it to everyone


VoRus1

View profile


Transferring my review from the old bad rating site for the badge:

What an absolute mess of a movie! In many ways better than I remember it, and in many ways just as bad.

McGann shines. He is The Doctor from start to finish, and for the most part even most of his lines (though not all) honestly feel in character. He's so pretty! His energy is electric and fun. While not amazing, Ashbrook isn't too bad and does her best with the material she's given. The first 10-15 minutes until we get to the hospital has an incredible atmosphere, and honestly I love it. This may have both my favourite rendition of the theme AND my favourite TARDIS interior.

Unfortunately, the script is a little all over the place, as is the direction. The tone shifts constantly, and often the movie is too on the nose with little respect for the audience watching (wow, he's reading H.G. Wells' The Time Machine while listening to a song that loops on the word time!! His regeneration is like Frankenstein, but we have to juxtapose that with the actual film just so you know this!!!). The non Doctor comedy beats never land, and feel almost like I'm watching a kid's movie that's exclusively for kids, and not for everyone. And speaking of demographics, who is this even for? It's got too much continuity randomly name dropped and shown to ever be a good reboot, but it's got too much of what I just criticised (as well as what I'm about to discuss) to really be for die-hards.

I love Roberts in Big Finish, but here his direction just kinda sucks. He has a couple scenes where he feels like The Master, and he *is* a fun time when he hams it up, but when he hams it up and for most of the movie he's not The Master. He's just a weird comic book villain? And it's just a weird choice that doesn't work when the movie is trying to appeal to both die-hard fans and new ones. I'm also not a fan of Yee Jee Tso's performance; finding it very stiff.

And as fun as most of this is.... The final 20 minutes are just a lot of screaming and yelling, and it's just all too over the top and silly to take seriously as a climax. When I think about how I used to hate this movie and how it had the reputation it used to have, it's because of that final act.

But overall? I was more impressed than not! While I can see why this never took off the way they had planned it to, there are gems of things here that just needed polished a bit.


BSCTDrayden

View profile


I love Doctor Who (1996), I say this genuinely, it's one of my favourite films and 8 one of my favourite Doctors. More than that, though, Doctor Who (1996) teaches us an important lesson: films do not have to be good to be good


greenLetterT

View profile


This review contains spoilers!

I'd heard a lot about this in the past, so I wasn't sure what I'd think about it. Well, I finally watched it, and it was actually pretty good.

Now, don't get me wrong, there's still a lot that wasn't great in it. (The master is a translucent snake? The Doctor is half-human?) But I loved Paul McGann and Eric Robert's acting, the music was great, the TARDIS set is gorgeous, and it was overall just a fun ride.

Not sure what I think about the Seventh Doctor dying because of a medical procedure...

I would recommend to fans of the Eighth Doctor or for a look at what could have been.


whitestar1993

View profile


Open in new window

Statistics

AVG. Rating716 members
3.58 / 5

Trakt.tv

AVG. Rating541 votes
3.25 / 5

Member Statistics

Completed

1088

Favourited

211

Reviewed

18

Saved

8

Skipped

1

Quotes

Add Quote

DOCTOR: I love humans. Always seeing patterns in things that aren’t there.

— Eighth Doctor, Doctor Who (The TV Movie)

Open in new window

Transcript Needs checking

(Cold Open)

DOCTOR [OC]: It was on the planet Skaro that my old enemy the Master was finally put on trial. They say he listened calmly as his list of evil was read and sentence passed. Then he made his last, and I thought somewhat curious, request. He demanded that I, the Doctor, a rival Time Lord, should take his remains back to our home planet, Gallifrey.

[Skaro]

DALEKS: Exterminate! Exterminate.

(The Master is atomised.)


Open in new window