Doctor Who: The Movie is the 1996 TV movie that brings back the Doctor for a brief adventure. Sylvester McCoy appears as the 7th Doctor but he's killed right quick and Paul McGann takes his place. Eric Roberts plays The Master. The script is by Matthew Jacobs and the director is by Geoffrey Sax. Jacobs had written some episodes of Young Indiana Jones and his father Anthony Jacobs had appeared in the 1966 Doctor Who serial The Gunfighters and taken his son to visit the set. Saks would direct lots of British TV like The New Statesman, Lovejoy, Bergerac and Blandings.
The Master has been tried on Skaros and the Doctor is recruited to take his remains back to Gallifrey for burial. The remains escape and force the Tardis to land in Chinatown San Francisco the night of 12-30-1999. The Doctor is shot by some Asian gang members and he winds up in the hospital where Doctor Grace Holloway kills him while trying to save his life. The Doctor gets stuffed in the morgue where he revives. The Master inhabits Eric Roberts and goes about his evil plans. The revived Doctor stumbles around for a while, gets some new clothes, and gets befriended by Grace.
The Master chases after the Doctor, he wants the Doc's body since there are more regenerations left in it. You only get 13 regenerations or some such. He gets into the Tardis and, with the help of a young Asian guy named Lee, opens the Eye of Harmony. It will destroy the Earth so there's that ticking away. The Doc gets caught and The Master kills Lee and Grace. The Doc beats The Master down and lets him fall into the Eye Of Harmony. It closes and he takes the Tardis back a couple of days so that Grace and Lee are alive again. The last action makes me wonder why he didn't do this in the past. It seems kind of a cheat.
Lee leaves with a couple of bags of gold. The Doctor asks Grace if she wants to go with him but she turns him down. He leaves in the Tardis for more adventures. It would take 9 years before we learn what happens too him next. I had seen the movie when it was on TV in 1996 but I wasn't really a fan of the show and hadn't seen it since. I thought it was ok but less entertaining than some of the better TV serials.
I got the 2 disc Special Edition of the movie from the library. There a commentary with Geoffrey Saks and a second one with Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann and Nick Briggs. It's got a 53 minute documentary on the making of the movie with all the film makers, a shorter interview with Josie Long, Simon Guerrier and Joseph Lidster discussing the movie. There's a Coming Soon trailer, info track, Radio Times listings, an isolated music track and a photo gallery. The second disc has more extras: Making of featurettes, lots of interviews and some behind the scenes footage, a bit on the 8th Doctor and another on his comic appearances, and a special on Blue Peter's love of Doctor Who.
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