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Doctor Who: The Movie, sometimes known as Doctor
Who: The Enemy Within, Paul McGann as The Doctor is engaging. His early confusion with his post-regenerative amnesia makes him charming as he wanders through fragments of memory about Puccini and da Vinci. And when he does know who he is he is full of frenetic energy. I also like that the TARDIS can bring people back to life. Something that it would be nice to see it do again, though not too often. Extras Commentary by director, Geoffrey Sax. Geoffrey is British
born but works in the USA. This gives him a unique position as a director
of an American version of a British TV icon. Unfortunately, over 85
minutes he gets a bit boring to listen to. Commentaries work best
with more than one speaker. They can bounce off each other. One man
on his own just dries up. It also works best with a director and an
actor, so that we get the different viewpoints of making the film.
8/10 BBC trailers. Interesting to see how the BBC presented the film to viewers in two slightly different trailers with the tag ‘He’s back, and it’s about time’. It wasn’t necessary to explain who ‘He’ is. Everyone knew. Nor was it necessary to give away too much about the plot. 10/10 Fox Promo. Brash, Americanised. The trailer explains that the Doctor is a time traveller who can change his body and has to fight an old enemy before a series of interview snippers with Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Daphne Ashbrook, Geoffrey Sax, Eric Roberts and Philip Segal (executive producer) punctuated with scenes from the film and a lot of plugs for the Fox network. A rather annoying presentation style that would not do on British TV. 8/10 Interviews. Longer versions of the interviews shown in the Fox promo. Not enough time given to McCoy and McGann who speak with intelligence and authority about Doctor Who and the role of The Doctor. Eric Roberts talks enthusiastically about being the
villain of his childhood games. He admits to being a longtime fan.
Daphne Ashbrook speaks about her part quite well, but in her case the short interview is long enough. Philip Segal speaks of two stories within the film – the science fiction one and the ‘love story’ for non-fans, which I think is very much what alienated fans, as well as the fact that they are described as an ‘underground’ fan base, as if consigning them to geekdom. The idea that two separate elements, one for fans, and one for everyone else is actually VERY insulting. Fans might have accepted the romance element if they were not being treated this way. Geoffrey Sax’s interview starts mid-sentence. Where is the rest? The fact that he is explaining Doctor Who to an American audience in a dumbed down way is a bit off-putting for British viewers. He speaks lovingly of The Doctor as a character, the casting of Daphne and Eric and other casting. It is obvious that he is answering questions which are not heard on camera and it makes the interview very stilted. The best of the interviews is that with Philip Segal in 2001, in which he speaks retrospectively about the making of the movie and the failure of the Fox Network to pick up on the series. This is a much better interview than the one before. He speaks of being a Doctor Who fan, of pursuing the idea of an American Doctor Who film, how originally it was going to be a Spielburg production and many other issues. Slightly annoying is the habit of the Americans of saying ‘Doctor Who’ when they mean ‘The Doctor’. Very annoying is the fact that there is no ‘play all’ function and it goes back to a menu after each interview. 8/10 Behind the Scenes compilation. Fly on the wall documentary style. Mostly the big outdoor scenes including the gang shoot out at the start and the motorcycle cop scene. Not too bad as this sort of thing goes. 9/10 Philip Segal tours the TARDIS. Not as good as the tour by production sesigner Edward Thomas on thr 2005 box set for the new TARDIS set. But engaging in its way. 9/10 Photo Gallery as standard. 10/10 Production Subtitles – more interesting than the commentary. 10/10 Isolated Music Score – very nice to listen to. 10/10 Extended scenes. Two scenes, The Doctor and Grace in the lift talking about Puccini and the scene with the motorcycle cop were originally going to be longer than the final broadcast versions. 10/10 Overall, not as bad as it good be, not as good as it should be
8 out of 10
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is a film that Doctor Who fans either love or hate. I like it a lot.
I LIKE the fact that the new, young, dare we say it, sexy, Doctor
has a kiss with Grace Holloway. I actually LIKE Eric Roberts as a
camp, megalomaniac Master. There are a few plot holes and there are
some issues raised in this story that play havoc with the cannon of
history of Doctor Who, such as the revelation that he is half human,
although I like THAT, too. I think it explains a lot about The Doctor.
I don’t like that it is so Americanised. And I think it is a
good thing that it was never turned into an American TV series. They
would have messed it up.
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