I have so much to say about this film.

Cinema fr.

They got him like Markiplier and the LA Gangs.

In a feminist retelling, the Doctor takes on the role of the classic who female companion - For the majority of the film, he is tied up and screaming.

Eric Roberts is banned in the UK now.

Why is The Master just Satan???

He hated. that. wig. He hated it.

Now would you stand aside before he shoots himself?

His shoes.

They fit perfectly.

This launched the audio drama cinematic universe of 8 and Charley's insane situationship that ended in them both f**king dying. Think about that. THIS movie spawned the EDAs.

This is my all time, no contest, favorite bad movie. 100 shitty wigs out of 5 possible car chases.

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

This could have been a disaster. The show had been away for six years after reaching a particularly low ebb in UK public consciousness. It was being brought back via a BBC/ Fox co-production that had to chop the classic show into some kind of acceptable shape for a mostly uninitiated American audience. Doctor Who had to change but it wasn’t clear what should stay and what should go. Was this a show that even made sense in the 1990s?

If this 85 minute show was split into four episodes, part one would be rock solid. Perfect for anyone with some awareness of Doctor Who and regeneration. Some fans have said having two versions of the same main character in this production is confusing for newcomers - but honestly, I disagree. McCoy didn’t *need* to be in the story but the plot surrounding his death, and how it introduces The Doctor to his new friends is terrifically handled (and for fans, it ties the eras together). I understand though that it gives us only an hour with the newly introduced 8th Doctor, with every second being precious they don’t use all of Paul McGann’s time wisely.

As is often the way with the mid tier episodes of Doctor Who, it devolves into a runaround with a rushed conclusion - but the characters and the journey make this all worth it. McGann is a strong Doctor, even if he is hampered with the cliched pompous old boy look and dialogue - his performance shines through this. The violent gangs, opera visiting Doctors (love Grace’s dress SO MUCH) and enthusiastic morgue staff make you feel like the Doctor’s world is significantly bigger than before this story.

I've always been very hard on Eric Roberts' portrayal as The Master as it varies wildly in tone throughout the story. He can't decide whether he wants to be brooding and sinister or bubbly and camp. He seems to forget what he is doing as he goes through the shoot and the acting consistently leaves something to be desired. This time through though I did not mind the portrayal as much. To be honest, he is probably better than Ainsley.

The TV Movie is also a nice oddity right? Totally different from any other era of the show. What would Doctor Who be like had it been made in the 1990s in Toronto with a schlocky US focus? Well now we know!

Thank God the team at Big Finish did such a good job of doing this Doctor justice in the years to follow, making him into a fully fleshed out, nuanced Doctor.

The TV movie, to me, finds itself in a fascinating place in the fandom.

I feel like up until watching the film, I had only really known it by a somewhat infamous reputation. People get so up in arms over the half-human thing they tend to downplay the movie's strengths, so I was pretty surprised to find the movie not that bad of an experience.

Paul McGann and Eric Roberts are both excellent as the Doctor and Master respectively. Their success in Big Finish I think nicely reflects that the two were well cast, even if maybe they weren't well used. While the Master himself was done well, his alien snake CGI effects do not hold up to the effects of time. There's a lot of stuff in the movie like that, much of which feels predictive of the New Who series (like romantic tension between Doctor and Companion along with a new TARDIS desktop theme) - yet in equal part just as dated.

The Doctor losing his memories and the whole business around his potential humanity are real problems. It would be one thing if these were random bits of the movie but rather they are very integral to the plot and hard to ignore. It's not that something like this couldn't work, it is that it isn't used for any benefit to the story. Nothing is gained by the Doctor being partially human in this story, or, as far as I know, any other, so the whole idea is kind of pointless. This twist also doesn't fit with what we know of the Doctor nor what I find most appealing about the character.

It is very cool how they brought back McCoy, but I think it derails the story in a way that is prohibitive to new fans and not a great idea for a new potential era of Doctor Who. It probably would have been fine on its own, but coupled with the other weird decisions I mentioned in the last paragraph make this a very meandering, unfocused story.

It's neat seeing a more "Americanized" production but I definitely think that works as a one-off curiosity more than a long-term choice for a TV series as was planned as a possibility with the movie. In some ways, I am glad things worked out the way they did, but I do feel remorseful this is all we got of a gorgeous TARDIS set with a lot of potential to it and some real value in the production that had been lacking in the 1980s. So, yeah, all things considered, the movie is definitely worth watching at least once for Doctor Who fans and yeah, I didn't have a bad time with it.

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.

I think that the TV movie has some cool concepts, and I also feel that it looks good visually with nice costumes and sets (particularly the TARDIS console room). However, I feel that the plot is a bit messy with a few plot holes, and the romance elements didn't interest me at all. It's not too offensive, but it's also not too incredible.

Horribly camp in all the best ways possible. What many people seem to gloss over though, is that it’s not just camp. The TV Movie/The Enemy Within is often dismissed after the previous compliment, which I think is unfair. It’s absolutely an accurate observation in my opinion, but just because it’s full of cliche American Hollywood tropes doesn’t mean that it’s just that, and not also still really good Doctor Who.

Matthew Jacobs has a really poetic vision of the Doctor in my opinion, which I think can be seen best in the scene where he talks with Grace about her being a doctor. Paul McGann sells these types of moments extra well, and he was not only perfectly cast as Doctor Who (like every single actor has been) but also perfect for this vision of Jacobs. He’s like a fairytale figure, but not in the way that Matt Smith’s version is. Eight is less a magical hero, and more a mysterious being of age old wiseness and unhingedness. He takes a very passive role for a big chunk of the movie, and even as the main character, manages to come off as a wanderer who passes by.

Right i was talking about poeticisms. Eight literally picking up where Seven left off both as the main star of the franchise, and the book they are reading. That’s cool, I like that. The Doctor forgetting who he was being a perfect premise for a soft reboot without constraints of the past, but the story actively fighting against that, and embracing its history, not letting Doctor Who end up as an oddity that stumbles through America. Hey why not, f**k it. Look at this. We can see the Master and his American accent as a metaphor for the American entertainment market in general, trying to claim everything for themselves. Trying to claim that Doctor Who’s regenerations are actually his. Another body to be stolen by the Master. But not this time. Sometimes they might succeed, but not at getting the Doctor. No matter what he goes through, Doctor Who stays what they are. They hold onto the power and richness in who and what they are, and won’t let itself be taken only to be used up quickly and then thrown away to let the next one come in. Doctor Who isn’t that kind of TV show. He’s an alien. A really stubborn alien. Like an Englishman in New York. Or something like that.

There’s also parts to criticize about the movie, like for example, making the Doctor a romantic figure. But while it may feel out of place after the classic series, it could be as easily said that this part was actually far ahead of its time, considering what Russel T Davies would later do. It’s not something one could be more critical of then of the modern series. Neither am I of the opinion that such things as the Doctor being half human can be seen as genuine points of critique. I really don’t think relating the Doctor’s interest of Earth to him wanting to connect to his mother’s culture is an inherently bad idea. Like in the end I find a lot of people’s dislikes come more from them not liking stylistic choices than the movie being ‘objectively’ badly made.

There’s some pacing issues (though i find that more another fun camp element), and the ending I find really vague. Like I had no clue what was actually going on. But that might be me. I could possibly require a rewatch. But for the rest, issa just very enjoyable doccy who man, idk whatchu wan. Imo is ofc v good.

It's like that one post that goes "who was the target audience for this movie?" "me, i was the target audience".

People that dislike this movie have no concept of joy, no whimsy. I made a casual, nuwho friend watch it with me and spent at least one hour explaining how the plot makes sense, actually, if you ignore the fact that the Eye of Harmony can do anything, the fact that you need a human eye to open it (honestly, what was up with that??), and some other things as well. Hilarious that poor Seven gets killed not by the bullets, but by the doctors investigating why his heart rate is so damn high. Grace is living the life as a companion: gets to kill and snog the Doctor in the span of two days! But really, she's a pretty solid companion, and Daphne Ashbrook and Paul McGann have great chemistry. Roberts' Master is fun and camp ("I always drezzz for the occasion") and also scary and I like him, okay? I also like it when the Master has a little companion, and Chang Lee is a good gullible accomplice for him.

Now. The real reason this movie somehow works in the end is Paul McGann. People complain about the memory loss, but idk, it's not a problem for me. The audience gets to figure out who he is alongside himself and Grace, and I thought that was nice, actually. The regeneration in the morgue bit was great, the "WHO. AM. I." was unprecedented in levels of ham. "These shoes! They fit perfectly!". His delivery of that "so that he will live and I will DIE! NO!" line lives in my head rent free. I liked him from the very first second, but was 100% sold when he steals that cop's gun and threatens to shoot... himself. C'mon. What's not to like. Love everything about him. Also, Paul McGann shouts very well?? He shouts "GO!" I'm like "yessir" and I'm out, fast. He can put a lot of authority on it and it's very impressive considering he can also be extremely soft spoken. I'm very glad got into his BF audio dramas, where this talent is very well utilized indeed.

Maybe my fav Doctor. Considering his further characterization in the novels and BF dramas, to me he's a combination of my favorite traits of the previous (and future, actually) Doctors. He's usually kind, very caring, self-sacrificing, full of child-like wonder and love, and quite ditsy. He's great at sleight of hand (love this gimmick), believably a genius, very alien. He has a lot of gravitas, can go from polite to commanding to cold in a split second, and can be quite manipulative too. Of course it's not all present in a 90min movie, but it does start here. Also, I love the outfit! It matches his personality very well and that's important to me.

Def my fav TARDIS interior!!! It makes Fifteenth's look like the inside of a fridge. Monstrous crime that this is the only time we see it.

Bottom line, this is definitely a comfort movie for me, and very much not a guilty pleasure, because I feel no guilt at all. Not to mention it doubles as a New Years movie, so I have a great excuse to watch it every year.

Doctor Who - The Movie is a curious part of Doctor Who history. Intended to launch a new TV series produced by the BBC, Fox and Universal, instead due to poor viewing figures in America it has become something of a missing link between the classic and new series. So what was at fault?

Well, it feels like it was a mistake to include Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor at the beginning of the movie. This would no doubt have been confusing for new viewers who didn't previously follow the series; the TV movie did, after all, air seven years after the last episode of the classic series. The mistake was later corrected when Russell T Davies brought the show back in 2005, when he opted to start without a regeneration.

It's a shame that executive producer Paul Segal made the decision to include Sylvester McCoy although it's understandable. He is a Whovian after all, so the temptation to include a regeneration sequence was likely too much to resist. Overall, he did make a great movie though with an engaging plot and great actors.

The plot of the Master trying to steal the Doctor's remaining regenerations and nearly causing the end of the world by opening the Eye of Harmony is a good one that feels largely in character for the Master. Paul McGann and Daphne Ashbrook are fantastic as the Doctor and Grace Holloway too; so believable in their roles that many wish to see them reunited in the form of a Big Finish audio. I don't even mind the idea that the Doctor is half human on his mother's side; it makes sense given his fascination with Earth. My only real complaint besides what probably didn't work for new viewers is at times the Master appears more Count Dracula than the Master himself; this is largely down to Eric Roberts' performance, who seems too theatrical and hams it up a little.

Overall, the Doctor Who TV Movie is a great film that should have been successful but is let down by a couple of poor decisions like bringing Sylvester McCoy back as the Seventh Doctor for a regeneration scene and Eric Roberts playing the Master too much like Dracula.

The Doctor Who TV Movie my beautiful baby girl... a camp masterpiece......

The doctor steps out of the Tardis in the US and is immediately shot in a gang dispute but its the medical malpractice that gets him. The goo snake Master is horrible and disgusting to look at (affectionate). The Master, having possesed a random man, says "I need the Doctor's body". well you WOULD be saying that. There are over the top and entirely unsubtle Frankenstein parallels. The Doctor follows Grace home like some sort of a puppy or a manic pixie dream girl and it WORKS. He's generally a manic pixie dream girl in this one. "I always drezzzz for the occasion"... is one of the lines of all time. The Doctor's Oscar Wilde swag and Tardis interior are amazing- Eight is absolutely my favorite Doctor aesthetically. This movie was made in a lab for me specifically to enjoy and I'm never going to stop thinking about it.

Considering this was a joint BBC & Fox production with the intent of reintroducing the show and gaining new fans from both a largely uninitiated American audience, as well as from a generation of younger Brits who might have some cultural knowledge of the show, but were too young to watch the series when it was being released. It was not only meant to be a movie, but a pilot for a new TV show to be launched. Viewed in that context I'm sad to say I believe this story is a disaster. I do hate to say it because I adore Paul McGann's 8th Doctor, but this was an unquestionable failure. Thankfully Big Finish were later able to give 8 the attention and stories McGann deserved.

This movie begins with an establishing shot of a big red planet with text telling us this planet is called Skaro (we never spend any time on Skaro, nor does the name/look of the planet have any relevance to anything in this story really) and voiceover from McGann that says

"It was on the planet Skaro that my old enemy the Master was finally put on trial."

Now imagine you're a 14 year American with basically no context for Doctor Who. That opening sentence is completely meaningless without context, and honestly I'm not sure this story ever provides adequate context for any of the lore heavy opening narration. This may not be much of a problem for us Whovians. But if the goal is to attract enough new or casual fans, then this movie immediately drops the ball.

We’re then told that the Master has been executed for his evil deeds and is last request was for the Doctor to take his remains back to their home planet Gallifrey. This isn’t particularly compelling but it least sets up that both the Master & the Doctor are aliens, and tells us our starting point. Then we’re told that these aliens have 13 lives and the Master has used all of his up, but that “I, the Doctor” still can’t trust him even in death. After we hear the Doctor (in McGann’s voice) say “I, the Doctor”, we see and hear Sylvester McCoy. Someone who looks and sounds nothing like Paul McGann. This is just a baffling decision from the filmmakers here.

I’ll speed through the rest of the opening act. The Master escapes as a slimy, transparent snake creature (which is never really explained), causing the TARDIS to malfunction and have to make an emergency landing on Earth, more specifically December 30th 1999 in San Francisco. Here a gang fight seems to break out as the Doctor steps out of his TARDIS, and is then shot dead. So we hear the Doctor played by one actor, see him played by a different actor, but this actor is then immediately gotten rid of. It’s needlessly messy and depending on how much a casual audience member (the audience this story should’ve been most heavily catered towards) potentially confusing.

There’s then a bunch of stuff happening involving the hospital and its staff including the goopy serpent Master possessing Bruce, the ambulance driver who took the Doctor to the hospital. Also the Doctor dies thanks to a mistake at the hospital (due to his 2 hearts which is a detail I like, but again not sure how new viewer friendly it is) until finally, at the 20 minute mark 7 regenerates into 8, who then wanders around a (bizarrely abandoned)  hospital wing confused for like 5 minutes. We don’t really get the 8th Doctor or the Bruce Master as actual characters in this 85 minute story until the 25 minute mark. So far it’s just been lore-heavy table setting. So we’re told immediately who the good guy and bad guy are, then more than 20 minutes later we get to actually meet them. If any new viewers are able to understand what’s happening (I’d totally understand if some people didn’t), I don’t think they’ve been given much reason to care (at least from a character perspective, although I honestly think from a story perspective as well).

I can understand the argument that people might like it when a story doesn’t treat its audience like children. But this is Doctor Who; it should be made with an audience of children in mind. But even if you subscribe to this notion here, what’s the point in all the lore about Daleks & Skaro etc… it literally has zero relevance to the rest of the story. It pointless lore for the sake of including some pointless lore, and the lore they’ve added doesn’t really make any sense. Why are the Daleks putting the Master on trial, in fact why are the Daleks conducting any trials at all? Daleks don’t need a trial to justify killing their enemies, they just ‘exterminate’.

The crazy thing is not just how much of a mess this story is for new viewers, or how much of a failure this is at establishing a new version of Doctor Who. This movie also managed to alienate some older fans at the time as well. It could be superficial changes (like the opening theme) or big lore altering changes (the Doctor’s now half-human for some reason), but there was definitely a contingent of the existing DW Fandom that felt this wasn’t their Doctor Who. Even Grace as a romantic interest and the 8th Doctor as a more traditionally romantic lead character were scorned by some older fans. This honestly seems kind of hilarious after 20 years of modern Doctor Who where this is much more normalised, but it was somewhat controversial at the time.

So basically this story managed to both scare off new fans, and piss off old ones as well. Like I said at the start, as a soft reboot this was pretty much a disaster at the time.

The plot such as it is, revolves around the Master needing a Time Lords body in order to survive. So he opens the Eye of Harmony in the TARDIS which should allow him to take over the Doctors body, not only ensuring his own survival but the Doctor’s death as well. Unfortunately this will also weaken the fabric of reality and destroy the Earth. So the Doctor has to stop the Master and save the world.

It’s a decent enough plot and it allows the movie to show off some effects that although look dated now, were bigger (from a CGI perspective at least) than anything the classic series was ever really able to do. In fact this movie looks kinda great. There’s some wonderful lighting and cinematography, that looks more dramatic and expensive than the classic series was often able to pull off. I also love the TARDIS interior. In fact this might be the biggest the TARDIS has ever felt. It’s cool that the TARDIS is bigger on the inside, but that usually just feels like there’s 1 control room within this small, blue box (I know canonically there are other rooms, and the show occasionally explores them, but most of the time this is how it feels). In this movie the interior of the TARDIS doesn’t just feel like 1 control room, but like there’s an entire Cathedral within. It looks great and feels huge.

I don’t know if I can call Eric Roberts’ performance as the Master good, but there is certainly some camp fun to be had with it. He’s having a good time chewing the scenery. This does cause some problems though, because the plot requires Chang Lee to believe the Master and trust him, which requires some suspension of disbelief when Roberts is giving such a cartoonishly villainous performance. Honestly this whole aspect of the story really does Chang Lee as disservice, considering how much persuading it takes at the end to convince him that the obviously villainous character, doing the obviously villain things is actually the villain. That might be more of an issue with the writing and not the performance, but nevertheless it still makes Chang Lee look pretty stupid.

But obviously the star of the show and the biggest redeeming quality of this production is Paul McGann as the 8th Doctor. It’s an entirely charming performance that effortlessly flits between a graceful calm, to a boyish sense of curiosity and enthusiasm. Who doesn’t feel this Doctor’s delight at those shoes fitting? I may not be sold on a new series based on this interpretation of the show, but I’m very interested in a new series based on this interpretation of the character.

Looking back now when we know that this movie didn’t kill the series (although it probably did set it back) we can now look back on it 30 years later with more forgiveness. There is some fun to be had here. It’s an odd little curio and the only really good look we get at Paul McGann as the Doctor. Luckily he was able to show us more of what he was capable of in audio form, so thank you again Big Finish.

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.

one of my fav televised dw episodes and a fun look at what could have been. doesn't work as a regeneration story but that's because it isn't; it's fun, silly sci-fi. grace is nice, wish we had more of her. overall, it's tonally nuwho with all the camp of classic. 9/10

I cannot in good consciousness recommend this to anyone. this is my comfort movie. whilst it may not be the best movie ever produced it's fantastic doctor who; it's messy, confusing, and largely breaks away from the conventions of the televised show. the movie is a celebration of existence and the wonder that ultimately entails. the wonder and chaos of eight figuring out who he is, is set across the backdrop of the turn of the millennium which is the perfect time for change. my favourite scene has to be eight dancing with joy because he is alive and his shoes fit. it reminds me to enjoy the smaller moments of wonder and excitement something I always so desperately need. the TARDIS interior is hands down my favourite it's so homely and cozy

Wow! This movie sucked! I loved it!

Everyone should be subjected to this horrible campy fever dream masterpiece.

5 stars.

Beginning of the best doctor

Wish Mcgann got his own show

This movie is the best thing I've ever seen

Everyone needs to watch it once a month

You haven't lived until you've seen this one.

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

The plot was a mess, especially that ending. But i loved the characters!  Especially the eighth ofc!

Paul McGann gives such a strong performance through this, it just feels so accomplished.

The story itself and the Master strings along, not always working, but still enjoyable - but it's the Doctor here who makes this shine

This wasn't bad, but it certainly wasn't great.

Nonetheless, I like the story, and rewatching clips of the movie always reminds me of what could've been. There definitely should've been a 90s Doctor Who series with McGann as the Doctor.