Doctor Who: The Movie

[Aotrs Commander]

I agree with Chuck (albeit me being in the British audience and a fan anyway); this were a crap movie, but that wasn't the 8th Doctor's fault. I didn't know about McGann's tenure in the comics or at Big Finish until much later, but I was very gratified to learn that the movie wasn't all he got. (In the same way I was pleased to learn that we got one series out of John Hurt as the War Doctor before he passed on as well.)



[Tangent]I find this a bit bittersweet actually, since it's coming as we go into the first Doctor Who series that... I am not watching. It's not the Doctor (she's fine) or the companions (they're alright), but actually comparitive to this movie, it's the stories that are just not doing it for me. They might have been going for First Doctor feel, but I never was a fan of the historical episodes, and the lack of any old villains (who are a good 50% of what I watch the show for) and lack of arc means... It just doesn't work for me. It's not bad (maybe a little heavy-handed on the social stuff), but... it's "fine." But "Fine" is no longer enough for me to devote my time to watching in a week (I now can count on the fingers of one hand how many TV shows I actually bother to wacth and that number just dropped by a significant percentage). When I realised that I was going to have to more or less force myself to watch episode four - I would rather watch QI - or Chuck - than Doctor Who, it was a bit depressing.

And we don't even get a Christmas special (possibly one on New Year's instead).

But it feels like I might have to just wait until things change around again (maybe next season, maybe next Doctor) before it's going to be something that I want to watch again.

(By comparison, Moffat's run was my favourite, especially during Smith's era and double-especially the 50th. Eleven's first season that was the first time I religiously watched every episode of the new series, not just the majority.)[/Tangent]

[ChrisTheLovableJerk]

The TV movie is somewhat of a guilty pleasure, I really like Paul McGann, who really tends to get screwed over between this film failing to kickstart a new series and the theatrical cut of Alien 3 deleting most of his role, but he does a good job here and I remember liking the relationship he had with Grace.

Eric Roberts' Master is ridiculous and hammy, but certainly memorable. I like Roberts as an actor, but the guy never learned to say 'no' to any script.

I as well love how the Tardis looks here, like they took 'bigger on the inside' to a fantastic degree and the set looks wonderful. Hopefully they'll do a new Tardis interior like this film's one day.

[Durandal_1707]

I only got around to watching this movie a short while ago, but in my opinion, its worst flaw is that it's all about the Doctor. The person who is in trouble is the Doctor, and the entire threat is to the Doctor. And even then, the threat—having his remaining lives stolen—is something isn't really relatable to those of us who've never had twelve lives or a time machine to begin with and have still been getting along anyway. The Doctor isn't the hero in this story—he's the damsel in distress, begging the locals to help him instead of being there to help someone in need. This kind of story can work if the audience already loves the character, but in a movie that's meant to draw in a brand-new audience, it's just a terrible call. No wonder Grace decides not to travel with 8 in the end.

Imagine you're a first-time viewer who's never heard of Doctor Who before. Which of these plots will make you empathize with the main character and want to see more of his adventures?

1. We've got danger! Either Earth is under attack, or someone else is in trouble somewhere. Suddenly, a mysterious stranger appears, who is a bit quirky and weird, but over the course of the story proves able to save the day, with a little help from a viewpoint character he meets along the way! He doesn't ask for any reward or anything, this is just what he does. At the end he heads off to his next adventure!

or:

2. We're just hanging around minding our business! Suddenly, a couple of mysterious strangers appear and go all Vorlon and Shadow on each other, fighting each other on our turf. Each of them ropes in a bystander to help in the battle against the other. Apparently they both have multiple lives or something, and each one claims that the other one is trying to steal his extra lives, but we know that one of them is actually the good guy because his name came first in the credits and they had the other one look like a snake or something. Eventually one of the aliens manages to survive the other alien's attack, and leaves for more adventures!

Basically, what I'm saying is, there's a reason Option #1 was used to introduce all the reboot Doctors (as well as most of the more successful classic ones).

[King of the owls]

This movie is a massive mess. But I don't think it's the worst Doctor Who has ever produced. In fact I would even there's almost endearing charm to this movie.

[Shuboy07]

The commentary track with McCoy and McGann has a rather prophetic observation. I seem to recall McCoy had the idea that the movie should have centered around a newly regenerated Eighth Doctor going off on an adventure without anyone seeing the regeneration. Which is what the revival ended up doing in Rose. However I think I can honestly say it was still nice to see the Seventh Doctor even though his death was badly written. Otherwise it would have been difficult to connect the movie to the original series.

Also I just wanted to mention Eric Roberts is coming back to play The Master for Big Finish. So he's clearly had a change of heart over the years about the role.

[thisithis]

I remember when I first of the Doctor when I was a kid going through the child protective services of Texas and one of my Foster parents had a kid that was a huge Doctor Who fan. Every day I had to watch Doctor Who shows on PBS. And after I was adopted, a few years later the show stopped and then went on Fox, and then went away again. It wasn't until the Sci-Fi Channel brought the show back. Until finally BBC America took the show over.

But ultimately I agree with sfdebris about this film. looks nice and is well shot, but the story is shit. Kinda like Star Trek: Discovery and Star Gate: Universe was. Nicely shot and all, but given crappy stories.

[clearspira]

This movie is a massive mess. But I don't think it's the worst Doctor Who has ever produced. In fact I would even there's almost endearing charm to this movie.

This film is gold dust in comparison to the one with Mr Penis Dalek Face, the one with the black girl who cannot act that draws things whose mother is a neglectful idiot, the one where the Doctor sentences a woman to become a slab of blowjob concrete, and the one with Six strangling Peri. I could look up the names of these episodes but I find my descriptions to be more in line with how little I care about them.

PS I would also take this film over any episode of Torchwood.

[clearspira]

I agree with Chuck (albeit me being in the British audience and a fan anyway); this were a crap movie, but that wasn't the 8th Doctor's fault. I didn't know about McGann's tenure in the comics or at Big Finish until much later, but I was very gratified to learn that the movie wasn't all he got. (In the same way I was pleased to learn that we got one series out of John Hurt as the War Doctor before he passed on as well.)



[Tangent]I find this a bit bittersweet actually, since it's coming as we go into the first Doctor Who series that... I am not watching. It's not the Doctor (she's fine) or the companions (they're alright), but actually comparitive to this movie, it's the stories that are just not doing it for me. They might have been going for First Doctor feel, but I never was a fan of the historical episodes, and the lack of any old villains (who are a good 50% of what I watch the show for) and lack of arc means... It just doesn't work for me. It's not bad (maybe a little heavy-handed on the social stuff), but... it's "fine." But "Fine" is no longer enough for me to devote my time to watching in a week (I now can count on the fingers of one hand how many TV shows I actually bother to wacth and that number just dropped by a significant percentage). When I realised that I was going to have to more or less force myself to watch episode four - I would rather watch QI - or Chuck - than Doctor Who, it was a bit depressing.

And we don't even get a Christmas special (possibly one on New Year's instead).

But it feels like I might have to just wait until things change around again (maybe next season, maybe next Doctor) before it's going to be something that I want to watch again.

(By comparison, Moffat's run was my favourite, especially during Smith's era and double-especially the 50th. Eleven's first season that was the first time I religiously watched every episode of the new series, not just the majority.)[/Tangent]

I'm not going to get into my thoughts on the female Doctor again. Once was enough. But I will say that the viewing figures are exactly how I expected them to be: sky high for the first few episodes as everyone tuned in to give her a chance and/or see her fail, and have now leveled into just average. I will give the female Doctor one thing: I think the viewing figures are what you would expect from such an old and saturated show, it is facing the exact problem that Trek did in the early 2000s. Something radical such as the sex change is actually what the show needs, but it needs to go way further than that. Its the same old show - but now with a woman.

My suggestion would be a complete retool of the series by bringing back the eight part stories that we used to have but now with a 2018 budget. That way you can have multi-layered galaxy spanning stories with Game of Thrones style intrigue that will not only be new ground for this stale old show, but will make the universe seem bigger than just one guy/girl with a box turning up and fixing things. I sense though that the BBC will not take any radical risks with this cash cow.

[Darth Wedgius]

I'm not going to get into my thoughts on the female Doctor again. Once was enough. But I will say that the viewing figures are exactly how I expected them to be: sky high for the first few episodes as everyone tuned in to give her a chance and/or see her fail, and have now leveled into just average. I will give the female Doctor one thing: I think the viewing figures are what you would expect from such an old and saturated show, it is facing the exact problem that Trek did in the early 2000s. Something radical such as the sex change is actually what the show needs, but it needs to go way further than that. Its the same old show - but now with a woman.

That gives me an idea for a Trek reboot...

[clearspira]

I'm not going to get into my thoughts on the female Doctor again. Once was enough. But I will say that the viewing figures are exactly how I expected them to be: sky high for the first few episodes as everyone tuned in to give her a chance and/or see her fail, and have now leveled into just average. I will give the female Doctor one thing: I think the viewing figures are what you would expect from such an old and saturated show, it is facing the exact problem that Trek did in the early 2000s. Something radical such as the sex change is actually what the show needs, but it needs to go way further than that. Its the same old show - but now with a woman.

That gives me an idea for a Trek reboot...

The two on the right have good costumes, not sure about the leather mini on the left.