It seems impossible, but the evidence is all there. Twenty years have passed since Paul McGann gurned his way into Doctor Who. It shouldn't come as that big a surprise since we've passed the revived show's tenth anniversary, the first episode's fiftieth anniversary and the classic series only ran for 26 years ("only" he says as if it were a blink of an eye!). What I have actually found all the more surprising are the other factors that put the TV Movie into context by also being twenty years old, things that I have just casually come across recently by coincidence. Alisha's Attic for instance. I knew the TV Movie was some time ago but I was shocked to discover "I Am, I Feel" was also from 1996, as was the Ford Ka, the original "Three Lions" single, Take That split up and Alanis Morissette's "Jagged Little Pill" all over the album chart. In a television context, "The X Files" had already been on air for three years!
So here we are on 27th May 2016 looking back twenty years and celebrating what was a pivotal moment for Doctor Who. The show had been off air for just over six years and the quoted word "indefinitely" was really starting to make itself felt with an emphasis on "ongoing with no sign of ending". We'd been treated, teased and pacified with repeats of classic episodes (which was great, by the way) but it all just reminded us that we were lacking what we really wanted. Continuation. Then suddenly it was promised, almost, with a pilot, so-called, for a new series boosted by American money. The Doctor was returning with what would either secure the show's future or condemn it once and for all...
There was a problem though. A problem that was ironically painful. The American investment that could provide the show with the gloss and top notch effects it needed to survive, meant that American influence would also be part of the deal. It barely seemed relevant at the time, but the final Sylvester McCoy series ran in parallel with "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and looking at the two now gives the impression that they were a decade apart. If the show were to return permanently, it would need to at least be at a comparable level ("Star Trek: TNG" had ended in 1994) and would now be competing with the likes of "Babylon 5" and the aforementioned "X Files". The JNT and Andrew Cartmel era was long gone and would not be enough.
To cut to the chase, the TV Movie left me very disappointed. Sure, I was happy for new Doctor Who. I was definitely happy that they had included Sylvester McCoy for a regeneration sequence. Unfortunately, I was hating the American input. I suppose I was also hating the redesign that I now know was necessary. That last paragraph all comes from 39 year old me and my understanding of how things were and how things would eventually be when the series did return (spoiler alert: it wasn't a result of the TV Movie). All 19 year old me knew was that the TARDIS interior was all wrong, the music was ruined and the whole thing had been 'Americanised' (or should that be 'Americanized'?!) with a dark filmic look. It was set in America, the would-be companion was American, the Master had for no discernible reason become a snakelike goo that took on the body of, yes, an American and to top it all, to add insult to injury, the narrative had America taking over from Greenwich Mean Time! There was kissing and car chases and although it was denied, Paul McGann took on Jesus-like resurrection symbolism after the regeneration. "That's it," I thought, "Doctor Who is over. It can never come back from this" and it felt oddly like a disappointing relief. I could continue my life without wondering when the show would be made again, happy in the knowledge that I had at least been there when it was. This was a one-off feature that didn't really belong to the series so I could shrug it off along with the Peter Cushing films - worth seeing but not really Doctor Who.
It would be fourteen years before I saw it again and I did so with a sense of intrigue, but mostly fear and anticipation of disappointment all over again. I had cringed at The Twin Dilemma and I was ready to cringe again...Actually, I bought it a year before The Twin Dilemma and I wasn't chronologically ready to watch it for another three years, so I'm not sure that last statement is actually true!
So here I am marking the twentieth anniversary by watching it again. Incredibly, it must be six years since I last saw it and while I know I discovered that it had matured well, I still approached it with a little trepidation. Of course, this time it is after seeing Paul McGann in The Night Of The Doctor and the animated version of Shada and with the knowledge that it isn't quite as bad as I first thought...
Watching the trailers on the DVD first surprised me. The BBC were going big on promotion in 1996 with the tag line "Planet Earth, 1999. He's Back, and it's about time!" we hear a Dalek scream "Exterminate", a slightly dubious orchestrated version of the theme tune and we're told "Paul McGann is Doctor Who!" (I really wish they wouldn't say it like it was his name!) Another trailer tells us "A new face meets and old master" accompanied by a clip of a man in heavy Gallifreyan robes saying "I always dress for the occasion!" in a slightly camp, definitely melodramatic way with the "dress" sounding more like "drezz". Both exciting and concerning. As the episode itself opens, we hear McGann explaining how the Master finally went on trial for all his wrong doing on Skaro and we see him caged and executed in a completely black background amid weird burbling Dalek voices. (Spoiler alert: That's it for the Daleks in the episode!) We see the Doctor seal the Master's remains in a casket with his sonic screwdriver (which hadn't been seen since it was destroyed during Peter Davison's early days!) and it sounds... odd. The Doctor is sat in a quasi Victorian panelled room which is revealed to be the TARDIS interior, evidenced by the distinctive shape of the console (albeit redesigned and made of wood!) He is reading Jules Vern's "The Time Machine" whilst eating Jelly Babies and listening to an old record that gets stuck on the word "Time" as the casket cracks in half and slime oozes out of it. The TARDIS goes into emergency landing sequence and the titles roll...
That's a lot of heavy introduction that nearly all feels wrong but is presented with such glorious quality that you give it the benefit of the doubt out. Then there's that new heavily orchestrated theme tune full of pomp and triumpancy that all sounds a little too jolly but actually isn't half bad! The visuals are pretty lush with a mix of the McCoy era flying-through-space-with meteors and the Pertwee era flying-down-a-warpy-time-tunnel. The meteors are far superior to McCoys and the text flies past with great whooshing sounds and decent design. The music gets a bit of odd piano towards the end which is unsettling, but over all I like the title sequence today! It's actually very similar to what was used when the series finally returned.
I've written lots of notes, as I usually do for writing reviews. But I don't think it's appropriate to go through them al now. I've already picked out my reasons for disliking the TV Movie and I'll save the finer details for when I eventually write the full review. The point tonight is that despite these flaws, on third viewing the TV Movie stands up much better. Seen within the context of the twenty-first century series, it maybe still looks too American but it's not all that far from any of the feature length specials. In a way, it can be viewed as a distant pilot for the revived series because it set the new standard and proved that Doctor Who could work again with the right budget and care. There were mistakes that could be shrugged off, but the biggest was the way it was scheduled in America... against the final episode of one of the most popular shows in the country, "Rosanne"! It needed the be a big success in America for the investors and networks to take it forward and that was never going to happen. The UK reception was actually very good and it remains one of the most viewed episodes in the show's history, despite both the novelisation and video being released in advance of the broadcast! It just felt wrong at the time because the Doctor Who we knew and loved was a broken and neglected thing, a sick pet that we cared for deeply, while here was an example of what it should have naturally become had the BBC kept the faith, been brave enough to evolve rather than repress and modernised its budget calculations.
Happy twentieth TV Movie! Without you, we might never have had the massive success that we have today and which even America is embracing.
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