One Episode (TV Movie)
Aired on 14th May 1996
Written by Matthew Jacobs
Produced by Peter V. Ware
Directed by Geoffrey Sax
Synopsis
In a monologue, the Doctor explains how the Time Lords and the Daleks had a treaty to punish the evil Time Lord and old time nemesis, The Master, on their home planet of Skaro. The Daleks executed the Master and according with his last wishes, the Doctor is taking them back to Galifrey.
Some time has clearly passed since last we saw him as he has changed his outfit, grown his hair, and Ace is no longer with him. The TARDIS has changed significantly too, presenting as a rather gothic interior, complete with live bats.
After locking The Master's urn into another box with the aid of a new (but looking like an old) sonic screwdriver, he sits back and relaxed with jelly babies and jazz.
Little known to him, the box starts to shake and as the Doctor is investigating the music as it starts to skip, it breaks open and a gelatinous snake like thing slithers out, moving across the floor to the console, where it causes all sorts of havoc. The Doctor is forced to bring the machine out of the vortex and make an emergency landing on Earth.
Meanwhile, on Earth, it is December 30th 1999. The eve of the millennium. A trio of Chinese kids run through the streets of San Francisco, being chased by the cops. These are evidently gangers, and no sooner do they escape those, they are caught in a firefight with rival gang members. Two of the three are shot and killed, leaving only a young man, Chang Lee alive. He is about to be executed too, but the gangers pause in confusion as the TARDIS materialises in the alleyway right in front of Lee. The Doctor steps out of the TARDIS and is promptly shot by the others, who run away.
Lee approaches the Doctor who is bleeding out. He sees the Master's snake like form, oozing out of the keyhole and tries to warn Lee, but doesn't get his message across before falling unconscious.
Lee calls an ambulance and rides it with him to the hospital. Unknown to him, the snake-like Master, slips onboard the ambulance.
Once at the hospital, the staff become puzzled as the x-rays show two hearts. They assume it's double exposure and dismiss it, but realise the Doctor needs urgent surgery. In they call Dr Grace Holloway away from enjoying an opera with her boyfriend, who is not pleased at her having to leave again.
Grace scrubs up and tries to use a micro camera to examine the problem the Doctor has, but to her astonishment, he comes back conscious, trying to tell her he's not human. Through her efforts to treat him, unfortunately, the Doctor dies on the table.
Grace goes to tell Lee about the death, and hand over the possessions, but quickly realises that he doesn't know the Doctor at all. Lee races off with the Doctor's stuff.
Elsewhere, the Doctor's body is taken to the morgue for an autopsy later on. The attendants discuss their costumes for the new year's party happening the day after. One says he's going as Wild Bill Hickock. As the technician goes off to watch an old Frankenstien movie, the Doctor regenerates within the freezer.
He begins to kick the door down and frightens the technician into fainting.
As this is happening, the snake-like Master has stowed away in the paramedic, Bruce's jacket. Once he's home asleep, the Master slithers inside his throat, possessing him.
The newly resurrected Doctor wanders through the hospital and finds an old disused wing. Confused he cries out "who am I?" Taking time to pull himself together, he steals the Wild Bill Hickock outfit and wanders off.
Now alone, Lee goes through the Doctor's belongings, finding a sonic screwdriver, a yo-yo, jelly babies, pocket watch and most importantly, the TARDIS key.
Back at Bruce's house, the Master in his new form callously kills this body's wife and smiles as he beings to formulate a plan to find the Doctor.
Over at the Hospital, the Doctor is hanging about in reception, trying to cure his amnesia, until he sees Grace leaving. He follows her to her car and tries to get her to tell him his identity, he recognises her, but not from where. She thinks he's crazy and tries to leave, but he turns up in her car, screaming in agony. He pulls out the broken probe from his operation and that proves to Grace he's the man who died on the table. She takes him off to her home.
"Bruce" goes to the Hospital to find the Doctor. Instead he finds out he died but the body is missing and a boy took his stuff.
At Grace's home, she finds that her boyfriend has left her, but he has left a pair of his shoes that the Doctor uses. In the meanwhile, he's gaining some of his memories and fills Grace in on a few Time lord facts e.g. has thirteen lives, two hearts etc.
Lee makes it back to the TARDIS and goes inside, astonished at the fact it's bigger on the inside.
He meets the Master there, who hypnotises him into passing over the possessions. He forces Lee to help him find the Doctor in exchange for his own life. He tells Lee of the regeneration process and says the Doctor is still alive. He lies to Lee and says that the Doctor is a bad Time Lord that stole the Master's body, using it's incarnations to do bad things. He gives Lee $5,000,000 in gold dust as payment for him to help return the Doctor's body.
Lee agrees and the Master takes him to the Cloister Room where he uses Lee to open the Eye of Harmony. a neutron star that powers the TARDIS. He somehow uses the Eye to watch over the Doctor.
Back at Grace's house, the Doctor regains his memories and kisses Grace in excitement who asks him to do it again. He however suddenly becomes aware that the Master has opened the eye, and closes his own so that they cannot scrye into his whereabouts. The Doctor then tells Grace of the Master's plan to force him to look into the Eye of Harmony, thus destroying his soul and allowing the Master to possess his body. The Master tells Lee he is lying, but Lee is worried Grace will believe it.
The Doctor goes on to say the TARDIS is not working right because of what the Master's done to it and he needs access to a Beryllium Atomic Clock in which to grab a vital component to fix it. This is a step too far for Grace and she runs to the house, convinced he's mad. The Doctor proves existence is in jeopardy by walking through the glass patio window as the structure of the universe is unravelling slowly and will be destroyed if they don't find the component in time, which conveniently is midnight on new year's eve.
Grace calls for an ambulance, and hearing this, the Master decides to use his disguise as Bruce to commandeer one and go to her.
As they are waiting, the Doctor and Grace turn on the TV, watching reports of wild weather as a result of the Eye opening, and the fact that an atomic clock is being unveiled at the Institute for Technological Advancement and Research (ITAR). This happens to be a building Grace has access to and the source of a new year's eve party.
The master and Lee arrive as paramedics and play along with the charade, reckoning to take them to the ITAR building on the orders of Grace to humour the patient. The disguise is foiled when the Master's glasses fall off as Lee jerks the ambulance to a stop at some lights. They fight and the Doctor and Grace manage to escape.
As they run, they encounter a Policeman on a motorbike. The Doctor takes his gun and points it at himself to commandeer the bike. They race off on the bike to the ITAR building but find the ambulance already there, empty.
Going into the party, the Doctor and Grace blag their way to the atomic clock's creator, stealing a security pass from him.
They then take a vital component from it and spot the Master and Chang Lee in the crowd. They set off the fire alarm and escape from the roof by lowering themselves over the side using a fire hose.
With the component in hand, they race to the TARDIS and using an emergency key placed above the P on the name plate above the door, they open the TARDIS. The Doctor manages to close the eye, but a quick scan reveals that it's been open for too long and he needs to use the TARDIS to fix it. He starts work on the console to kick start the ship, having being drained of power. He asks Grace to help him, but finds out she's been possessed by the Master's will. She knocks the Doctor out and joins the bad guys as they enter the TARDIS.
When he wakes, the Doctor finds himself strung up in the Cloister Room, with a strange crown on his head to help drain the regenerations out of him.
The Master has changed into Galifreyan robes for the occasion, and Lee is still helping him.
The Doctor points out where the Master is lying to him and Lee turns against the Master, refusing to help any longer, prompting the Master to simply kill him.
The Doctor then tells the Master he still needs Grace to look into the eye, but she can't do it with human eyes whilst she is possessed. The Master releases his grip, but forces her to look into the eye.
The Doctor implores her to jump start the TARDIS and stop all this, as his remaining lives are being drained away.
The world begins to turn to chaos, and Grace, free of the Master's control, goes to the console, remembering that the Doctor told her starting it is like setting an alarm clock. She throws the ship into a Temporal Orbit and goes to free the Doctor. The Master attacks them again and throws Grace off the balcony, killing her too. After a brief struggle though, the Master is thrown into the Eye. The Doctor does try to save him, but he rejects the help and falls to his apparent death.
The TARDIS goes back in time from one second to midnight and energy from the Eye travels into Grace and Lee, reviving them both before it closes.
All being well, the Doctor shows Lee and Grace Gallifrey from his observation deck and then drops them off in a park exactly one minute past midnight on new year's day, crisis averted.
He let's Lee keep the gold dust and warns him not to be in San-Fran next year. In exchange, Lee passes him back his possessions. He smiles and leaves.
The Doctor then asks Grace to come with him, but she refuses and asks him to stay with her. He can't do that so they say goodbye after one final kiss.
He sets off once more, getting back to his Jazz, jelly babies and novel, asking the TARDIS "where will we go next?" The music begins to skip again and the Doctor groans "Oh no! Not again!"
Trivia
- Ok, strap in because this might be slightly longer than usual. It all began as Doctor Who was cancelled from terrestrial TV in 1989. Philip Segal, Canadian producer on an American TV network decided that, after reminiscing about when his family used to show him the show in childhood, he would love to do a movie on the show.
- In a ludicrously short version, Segal who was working on Seaquest DSV, happened to approach then head of BBC, Alan Yentob. He convinced him that he would be able to put together something great with American TV backing from none other than Ambelin Entertainment - Steven Speilberg's production company. Yentob said yes.
- In the following two years, the project went into production hell, with multiple scripts surfacing and both American companies, and BBC worldwide trying to get the lions share of their ideas agreed.
- The production eventually went to Universal pictures, with Segal becoming producer of it. He had less than two months to come up with a cast and full script before they started to film for the 1994 season.
- One of the conditions of the agreement reached was that Universal script writer, John Leekley was to be used, as opposed to British writers
- A series bible was produced with Leekleys help to show how the show could go. It had Cardinal Borusa chronicling the adventures, with the Doctor and Master being half brothers of a Time Lord known as Ulysses. Borusa was their grandfather. When Borusa dies, the Doctor goes off in a TARDIS to find his father and finds Borusa's spirit in it, allowing him to "advise" the Doctor as he goes on adventures
- This series treatment was not met with enthusiasm by Spielberg. He asked Segal to try again, this time using another writer.
- Segal teamed up with Robert DeLaurentis and tried again. This script follows the same start, but ended up travelling to WW2 London and saw a companion called Lizzie joining in. The Doctor's father was revealed to have had a plot to assassinate Hitler. He meets him and the gang all get transported to Skaro where they have a showdown with the Master who eventually escapes with the Daleks.
- At this point, the BBC put in Jo Wright to oversee their interests in the project
- With the new script, Jo and Segal touted it to the networks but practically none were interested. The only one to come through was Fox who offered a one off special with the option for another if it went well. They wanted a change in script though.
- So, on Fox's advice, they went to Young Indiana Jones writer, Matthew Jacobs. This time, they didn't keep the old stuff, starting from scratch. This script is a lot closer to what we get, but it's in New Orleans and is around Halloween. This script was constantly revised as filming closed in until we got what we saw on screen.
- Actors looked at to play this new Doctor included Rowan Atkinson, Michael Crawford, Derek Jacobi and Jim Carrey. When they agreed on McGann, Universal insisted that the Master be American
- The show in Britain received halfway decent reviews, but more for nostalgia reasons. It gave however a clear shot in the arm to the franchise that had continued to exist in the books and audios during these wilderness years and would prove that the appetite for Doctor Who was still there.
- In America however, the show flopped, with a huge portion of potential viewers missing out due to the final episode of Rosanne airing at the same time. As a result, the series was never picked up and that was it
- Unless you've been living under a rock though, that wasn't it for Paul McGann who many found to not have had a decent crack at the whip. So, Big Finish went on to produce many many audio dramas starring McGann as the Eight Doctor, and the Dr Who magazine featuring many stories in their comic strip of his ongoing adventures.
The Review
Before this TV movie, all the die hard fans were calling for a resurrection, after it, they all accepted the fact that it wasn't going to be on TV again. That probably says something about this.
Many of the guides and reviews will criticise this show for being too Americanised for it's own good, stating that the company took the Doctor Who template, threw it out the window except for a few in your face props and name drops, and then turned it into a quintessential 90's TV show like X-Files, Roswell, Alien Nation etc. This is not untrue, but I remember the time it came out, and nobody really hated it for that. Everyone knew this was the price to bring Doctor Who back to the TV. There was apprehension there, sure, but that was weighed by the cool looking Doctor and the bigger budget that came with it.
Watching the show, it really does have a 90s feel with bike chases for the sake of it. There is also a lot of wasted potential here, mangling the history with the Time Lords and the Daleks and just being damn awkward with the overly long expositions and convenient plot points e.g. the atomic clock just happening to be in San Francisco where Grace can get to it. I would go as far to say that if it wasn't for the insertion of Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, or the big blue box, this would have absolutely nothing to do with Doctor Who at all - it would be a totally different show.
But for all the tedious plot holes and inconsistencies, it is reasonably fun to watch. McGann saves a lot of it by his glimpses of child like wonder, but those only come after 45 mins of boring set up. McCoy does a great job in it too. The sets are good although weird, and the music is very moviesque with a big orchestra feel - that will be one of the things kept from now on.
All in all, this is an hour and a half of silliness which was never consistent enough to be any good, but if you don't concentrate too hard, it can be fun at times and after seven years of no Doctor Who, this was an effort people shrugged at. But as said above, the one thing it did do was keep the already thriving community alive and prove that Doctor Who was very much still wanted by the British population
Rating
5 out of 10
Re-Watchability Factor
3 out of 10
Watch this if you liked...
- The Parting of the Ways (Doctor Who, Series 1)
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