Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3393 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-08-13
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 90 minutes

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

Special Features
4:3
DVD 9
English
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital Stereo English
Dolby Digital Stereo
Interviews
Behind The Scenes
Alternate Versions Of Scenes
Photo Gallery

Synopsis
In this 1996 DOCTOR WHO TV movie, the seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) is returning to Gallifrey with the remains of the Master when the TARDIS malfunctions and lands in San Francisco on the eve of the new millennium. Events lead to the Doctor's eighth incarnation (Paul McGann) facing off against the not-so-dead Master, now in physical form (Eric Roberts). The understandably confused Doctor, fortunately, is aided by an attractive surgeon (Daphne Ashbrook).

Customer Reviews

Not what I call doctor who.
Any comeback of doctor who needed to recapture the essence that made the originals so great.

Whilst the movie does stay true to some of the basic elements of doctor who, it feels like these parts are there for the sake of it amoungst the very noticable 'americanisation'.

Suddenly, in this movie the doctor is openly refured to as being 'british', and the doctor seems to reflect the US stereotype of a British eccentric. The over used clitches are all there: a greater emphasis on special effects than a dramatic involving plot, love scenes, gun battles ect.

The film did seem promising at the beginning- the brief but dramatic appearance of Sylvestor McCoy and the regeneration scenes where very good, but after that I slowly lost interest, as I felt i was no longer even watching what I would class as a proper doctor who adventure.

I do not see this film as having anything to set it apart from your average US action/adventure. I find it very hard to relate to this as a film that compliments the originality of the doctor who that many fans grew to love so much.

McGann was robbed of the Doctor!
I enjoy this movie very much but it made far too many mistakes to recieve more than 3 stars.Its americanisation is understandable considering it was a collaboration with Fox but the doctor was the ONLY british thing apart from the tourist poster for London in the background when the Tardis materialises in San francisco. There were 2 doctors, sylvester Mccoy provides a great turn as our hero but is let down by his over the top death sequence. McGann is an amazing doctor and while watching this i couldn't help but think about the tragedy that he never got his own tv series. He is the same childish joyful man we have seen before and it is important for who fans because this is the last time we will se that man on screen before the 'time war' and the scarred doctors of the new series.

Ok now i'm going too deep so here are my main issues, the story(too many coincidences e.g 'i need an atomic clock' looks to TV, the reporter talks about an atomic clock!), an over the top campy master, a companion who thinks she's an intellectual equal with the doctor when she is clearly not(she is clever for one of us apes though :)) and a romance that wasn't necessary and cheesy in the extreme. If you want a good doctor who romance watch the new series with the doctor and rose!

A great purchase
I actually find this Movie rather underrated. Paul McGann is, quite rightfully considered a great Doctor, and indeed, he does play the part to perfection with the right look and exactly the right style(the only faults being the revelation that the Doctor is half-human and his romantic relationship with Grace). He is quite clearly the highlight of the Movie. The plot is fine, with a great threat from the Master, who plans not only to take the Doctor's existence, but to destroy the world in the process! And as for the Master, I think Eric Roberts is great, making him camply over-the-top, and if the series had continued, he would make a very good Master. The music and direction are very impressive, and the CGI Master-snake is very effective indeed(shame it's not in very often, only for a few scenes, but it really creeps you out.) The new interior, the Bat-Cave style TARDIS is the best ever, and the small part Sylvestor McCoy plays is the icing on the cake, with a very good regeneration scene, probably the best in years. Yes, it's been Americanised, but it's just like watching a Batman or Terminator movie, a typical hero vs. villain story and a very good Doctor Who story that I thoroughly recommend. My only critiscm is the obsession with continuity and the strongly rewritten past(shouldn't Skaro have been destroyed? What happened to Ace?)but that's not enough to spoil your viewing pleasure.