Audience Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 5024165675212
Format: Closed-captioned, HiFi Sound, PAL
Label: 2 Entertain Video
Languages: EnglishOriginal LanguageAnalog
Manufacturer: 2 Entertain Video
Number Of Discs: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: 2 Entertain Video
Release Date: May 22, 1996
Running Time: 90 minutes
Studio: 2 Entertain Video
Theatrical Release Date: May 14, 1996
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Editorial Review:Amazon.co.uk Review:Made to re-launch television's most famous time traveller,
Doctor Who: The Movie is an expensive feature-length episode which attempts to continue the classic series and work as a stand-alone film. Transporting the remains of the Master, Sylvester McCoy's Seventh Doctor is diverted to San Francisco in 1999. Regenerating in the form of Paul McGann, the Doctor gains a new companion in heart surgeon Dr Grace Holloway (Daphne Ashbrook) and must stop the Master from destroying the world. All of which might have been fine, had not the most eccentrically British of programmes been almost entirely assimilated by the requirements of American network broadcasting. Matthew Jacobs' screenplay is literally nonsense, dependent on arbitrary, unexplained events while introducing numerous elements that contradict established
Doctor Who mythology. The Tardis is re-imagined as a bizarre pre-Raphaelite/Gothic folly, while the Doctor, now half-human, becomes romantically involved with his lady companion. From the West Coast setting to metallic CGI morphing, from the look of Eric Roberts as the Master to a motorcycle/truck freeway chase, director Geoffrey Sax borrows freely from James Cameron's
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991).
Doctor Who fans should feel relieved this travesty was not successful enough to lead to lead to a series, though McGann himself does have the potential to make a fine Doctor. This is the slightly more violent US TV edit, rather than the cut version previously released on video.
On the DVD: There are two BBC trailers and a Fox promo "introducing the Doctor" to American audiences. The interview section features Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Eric Roberts, Daphne Ashbrook, director Geoffrey Sax and executive producer Philip Segal, twice. The main interviews are on-set promotional sound-bites. However, Segal's second interview was filmed in 2001 and finds him spending 10 minutes explaining why the programme turned out as it did, and coming very close to apologising for it. He also offers a two-minute tour of the new Tardis set. Alongside a gallery of 50 promotional stills is a four-minute compilation of behind-the-scenes "making of" footage. There are alternative versions of two scenes, though the "Puccini!" scene is so short as to be pointless. As usual with
Doctor Who DVDs there are optional production subtitles and these offer a wealth of background information. Four songs used in the film are available as separate audio tracks, and John Debney's musical score can be listened to in isolation. Finally there is a commentary track by Geoffrey Sax, which contains some interesting material but does tend to state the obvious a lot. The sound is very strong stereo and the 4:3 picture is excellent with only the slightest grain. --
Gary S Dalkin
Average Rating:
Rating:
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Doctor Who - The Movie [1996] [1963] This is perhaps one of the most underated DVD's in the whole Doctor Who series both new and classic. The main problem is the bad guy or more specifically the actor who portrays him, Eric Roberts is a great bad guy in lots of B'Movies but just wasn't right for this film (his choice was forced on the writers/director due to pressure from the american backers). On the whole though the film is a great little jaunt, the interior of the TARDIS is fantastic and McGann ...
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Rating:
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I really have to say that I like Paul McGann as the eighth Doctor. I enjoyed the series of the 8th Doc bookwise, audio cd wise (i.e. Big Finish), and I like this movie. Now I realize that this movie is not perfect. We all know that. So much was thrown into this and well Fox wouldn't allow for a payoff, in my humble opinion, and even worse, it seems that Fox (at least that's what I understand) doesn't ever want this DVD over here in the states, which is a horrific shame. I was able to get it through ...
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By far the worst so called "Dr Who" story every broadcast, this TV movie was made in America by Americans who didn't know or understand Dr Who and the result is an abomination that has none of the charm, style, intelligence, or wit of the classic series and instead is a typically shallow, gung-ho americanized travesty of the british show with an almost non-existent plot, resembling more of a cross between The X Files and some American cop show. Thank god a series never emerged out of this. It's only saving ...
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The Doctor Who TV movie, a British-American joint venture aimed at potentially launching a new TV series, is routinely slammed among Doctor Who fans as nasty and aborted chapter in Doctor Who history best locked away and forgotten.
But it's not that bad.
Paul McGann's Doctor is funny, quirky and intense - perfect to follow Sylvester McCoy's reign as the Time Lord. In fact, McCoy gets the first twenty minutes of the film to himself before the Frankenstein-themed regeneration sequence. ...
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Remember May 14, 1996? The FOX TV Movie of the Week was a new Doctor Who story (It was also aired in the UK a couple of weeks later). The first TV story since 1989's Survival, which saw a send-off for Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor and an introduction of Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor. The movie was a co-production between FOX, Universal, and BBC Worldwide (the merchandising arm of the BBC).
While getting only average ratings in the US it was a big hit in the UK. Unfortunately BBC TV ignored ...
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