Doctor Who (TV story): Difference between revisions

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[[Image:Title-8b.jpg|thumb|left|Title logo for "Doctor Who: The TV Movie"]] '''Doctor Who: The TV Movie''' was a [[1996]] co-production between the [[BBC]] and [[Universal Pictures]].  Its executive producer, [[Philip Segal]], had hoped that it might be a "back-door pilot" for a new series of ''[[Doctor Who]]'', but poor ratings in the [[United States]] prevented this.
{|border=2 align=right
|+ '''Doctor Who: The TV Movie'''
| '''Season:''' || None
|-
| '''Doctor:''' || [[Eighth Doctor]]
|-
| '''Companion''' || [[Grace Holloway | Grace]]
|-
| '''Original Airdate:''' || [[27th May]] [[1996]]
|-
| '''Format:''' || 1 85-minute episodes
|-
| '''Production Code:''' || 8A
|-
| '''Writer:''' || [[Matthew Jacobs]]  
|-
| '''Director:''' || [[Geoffrey Sax]]
|-
| '''Producer:''' || [[Philip Segal]]
|-
|}
 
 
 
== Cast ==
 
 
 
 
== Crew ==


The TV Movie was broadcast on [[Fox Television]] in America on 14 May, 1996, and on [[BBC1]] on 27 May, 1996.  Both during production and during its airing, it was referred to only as "Doctor Who".  Philip Segal later told a convention audience that if fans wanted a distinct title for the TV Movie, they could call it "Enemy Within", but this name was never used in any official capacity.


The TV Movie is about a struggle between the newly-[[regeneration|regenerated]] [[Eighth Doctor]] and [[the Master]] in [[San Francisco]].




== Summary ==
== Bad Guys ==
The Master has apparently been executed on [[Skaro]], and the [[Seventh Doctor]] is bringing his remains back to [[Gallifrey]].  However, the Master is not really dead, but transformed into a snake-like [[morphant]] creature.  He causes a [[timing malfunction]] in the [[TARDIS]], and the Doctor is forced to make an emergency landing on [[Earth]]: specifically, in [[San Francisco]] on December 30, [[1999]].  As soon as the Doctor leaves the TARDIS, he is caught in the cross-fire between two Chinese-American gangs.  One of the gang members, [[Chang Lee]], accompanies the wounded Doctor in an [[ambulance]] to [[Walker General Hospital]].  Unseen, the Master stows away in the ambulance.


At the hospital, a surgeon removes the bullets, but the Doctor's two hearts confuse the medical team.  They assume he is fibrillating and that the X-rays showing two hearts must be a double exposure.  A cardiologist, Dr. [[Grace Holloway]], is summoned from a date at the opera and attempts to stabilize the Doctor's hearts.  He attempts to stop the operation, but is anesthetized.  The Doctor's anatomy confuses Grace, and he appears to die under anaesthesia.


The Doctor's body is placed in the morgue, where he regenerates.  Around the same time, the morphant Master takes over the sleeping body of the ambulance driver [[Bruce]].  As [[Pete]], the morgue attendant watches the [[1931]] film version of ''[[Frankenstein]]'', the newly-regenerated Doctor bursts out of the morgue, clad in only a shroud. Pete takes afright. The Doctor stumbles into a deserted wing of the hospital where he sees himself in a broken mirror and cries out, "''Who am I?''"


The next morning, the Doctor finds a [[Wild Bill Hickok]] Hallowe'en costume and dresses in it, while Chang Lee goes through the Doctor's possessions (which he had pilfered from Grace at the hospital).  Meanwhile, the Master realizes that his occupation of Bruce's body will not last; he needs the Doctor's body.  He kills [[Miranda|Bruce's wife]].  At the hospital, the Doctor recognizes Grace (who has quit her hospital job after an argument with the hospital administrator over the surgery), and follows her to the parking lot.  In her car, he removes the surgical probe which Grace had left in him the previous night, a sight which convinces her that this strange man is in fact her supposedly dead patient.


"Bruce" goes to the hospital, where he learns that the Doctor died during surgery and that his body is missing.  Grace takes the Doctor to her house, where she discovers that her boyfriend has left her and taken some of her furniture to boot.  She listens to the Doctor's hearts and takes a sample of his blood, while the Doctor's spotty memory begins to return with anecdotes about [[Giacomo Puccini|Puccini]] and [[Leonardo da Vinci]].  Chang Lee uses the [[TARDIS key]] to enter the TARDIS.  There he encounters the Master, who lies to him and convinces him that he has been wronged by the Doctor.  The Master and Chang Lee go to the TARDIS's [[Cloister Room]], where the Master uses Chang Lee's human eyes to open the [[Eye of Harmony]], the TARDIS's power source.  As the eye opens, the Doctor's memories come flooding back.  In a fit of enthusiasm, the Doctor announces, "I am the Doctor!" and kisses Grace.  In the Cloister Room, the Master sees a series of images: the old Doctor, the new Doctor, and a human retina.  The last causes him to assert, "The Doctor is [[half-human]]."  Just as the Master sees an image of Grace, the Doctor becomes aware of the Master's actions, and shuts his own eyes, blocking the images in the Eye of Harmony.
== Story Notes ==


The Doctor explains the Master's plan: he hopes to force the Doctor to look into the Eye of Harmony, which will allow him to take over the Doctor's body.  However, if the Eye is not closed by midnight the entire planet will be sucked into it.  The Doctor will need a [[beryllium atomic clock]] to fix the TARDIS before then.  Grace finds all this quite improbable, and calls an ambulance for the Doctor (who she now suspects to be insane).  A television news report informs the Doctor of strange weather phenomena, and of a beryllium atomic clock about to be inaugurated at the [[Institute for Technological Advancement and Research]] (ITAR).


When the ambulance arrives, the EMT is the Master, and the unseen driver is Chang Lee.  The Doctor asks to be taken to ITAR.  Grace is still skeptical, but indicates for the driver to play along.  However, a sudden stop at a traffic jam reveals the Master's inhuman eyes, and the Doctor recognizes him.  His identity revealed, the Master spits a burning viscous substance on Grace's arm, but the Doctor temporarily blinds him with a fire extinguisher.  He and Grace escape into the stopped traffic, and the Doctor bluffs a policeman into giving him his motorcycle.  On the motorcycle, Grace realizes that the Doctor's improbable story is true.  Chang Lee and the Master pursue the Doctor and Grace, but Chang Lee takes a shortcut and arrives at ITAR before the Doctor does.


Grace, a board member of ITAR, introduces the Doctor to [[Professor Wagg]], creator of the clock.  As the Doctor tells Professor Wagg "a secret" ("I'm half-human on my mother's side"), he surreptitiously removes Wagg's security pass.  Grace and the Doctor steal a small component from the clock.  They spot the Master and Chang Lee in the crowd, but escape by lowering themselves from a fire hose.  They flee on the motorcycle, and arrive at the TARDIS, where the Doctor remembers that he keeps a spare key in the cubbyhole above the letter "P" in "[[Police Box]]".  They enter the TARDIS, where the [[cloister bell]] is ringing.  The Doctor is able to close the Eye of Harmony; however, a quick temporal scan confirms that the Eye has been open too long, and the Earth is still in danger.  The only solution is to take the TARDIS back to a time before the Eye was opened — but since the Eye was open so long, the TARDIS now has no power.  The Doctor attempts to jump-start the TARDIS by drawing energy directly from the eye.  Suddenly Grace's eyes turn black, and she knocks the Doctor out with the [[neutron ram]].
=== Myths ===


Grace has been taken over by the Master's will, infected when he spat on her in the ambulance.  The Doctor awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney in the Cloister Room.  The possessed Grace and Chang Lee chain the Doctor to a balcony, under the supervision of the Master.  Taunting the Doctor, the Master inadvertently contradicts his earlier lies to Chang Lee, who attempts to help the Doctor.  The Master breaks Chang Lee's neck.  He then removes his control over Grace so that her human eyes will be able to open the Eye; this he does quickly, while Grace is disoriented.  As the Master begins to absorb the Doctor's life-energy, the Doctor asks Grace to return to the console room and jump-start the TARDIS.
== Statistics ==


As the Earth celebrates the approaching new year, Grace manages to start the TARDIS one second before midnight.  The TARDIS enters a [[temporal orbit]].  She returns to the cloister room and frees the Doctor, but the Master attacks them both.  He throws her off the balcony, and she appears to die.  The Doctor and the Master struggle over the open Eye, and the Master falls in; the Doctor attempts to save him, but the Master rejects his hand and is sucked into the Eye.


The TARDIS slips back in time from midnight.  Energy travels from the Eye to the bodies of Grace and Chang Lee, reviving them, and the Eye closes.  The Doctor takes Grace and Chang Lee back to San Francisco on New Year's Eve.  The Doctor gives Chang Lee a bag of gold dust, and tells him not to be in San Francisco next Christmas.  The Doctor asks Grace to come with him, and she asks him to stay with her.  They kiss and say their farewells.  The Doctor leaves in the TARDIS, off to a new adventure.


== Background Information ==
=== Broadcast Dates ===
British-born television producer Philip Segal had a longtime ambition to create ''Doctor Who''.  While working at various American production companies, including Steven Spielberg's Amblin, he attempted to develop a ''Doctor Who'' series or film.  Eventually he was able to arrange a coproduction between Universal Pictures and the BBC.  The script went through several different forms, including some which would have started ''Doctor Who'' continuity over again.


The eventual script by [[Matthew Jacobs]] continued from the BBC series, including a substantial role for [[Sylvester McCoy]], the last occupant of the role of the Doctor.  The story was filmed in [[Vancouver]], British Columbia, [[Canada]] from 15 January to 21 February 1996.


== Notes ==
Several aspects of this story appear to be at variance with established ''Doctor Who'' continuity, most notably the assertion that the Doctor is half-human.  Several [[BBC Eighth Doctor novels]] deal with this issue, notably ''[[Unnatural History]]'', which also deals with the consequences of this adventure.


The [[Big Finish]] audio adventure "[[The Apocalypse Element]]" attempts to explain why the Eye of Harmony, Gallifreyan technology, could be opened only by a human eye.


== Story Arcs and Themes ==
=== Duration ===
[[Mystery of the Doctor]] <br>
[[The Doctor's Family]] <br>
[[The Doctor and the Master]]


== Cast ==
*[[The Doctor]] — [[Paul McGann]]
*[[The Master]] — [[Eric Roberts]]
*[[Dr. Grace Holloway]] — [[Daphne Ashbrook]]
*[[The Seventh Doctor]] — [[Sylvester McCoy]] (credited as "The Old Doctor")
*[[Chang Lee]] — [[Yee Jee Tso]]
*[[Salinger]] — [[John Novak]]
*[[Dr. Swift]] — [[Michael David Simms]]
*[[Wheeler]] — [[Catherine Lough]]
*[[Curtis]] — [[Delores Drake]]
*[[Pete]] — [[William Sasso]]
*[[Gareth]] — [[Jeremy Radick]]
*[[Bruce]] - [[Eric Roberts]]
*[[Miranda]] — [[Eliza Roberts]]
*[[Motorcycle Policeman]] — [[Ron James]]
*[[Professor Wagg]] — [[Dave Hurtubise]]
*[[Ted]] — [[Joel Wirkunnen]]
*[[Security Man]] — [[Dee Jay Jackson]]
*[[The Old Master]] — [[Gordon Tipple]]
*[[News Anchor]] — [[Mi-Jung Lee]]
*News Anchor — [[Joanna Piros]]


== References ==
[[Brian]]; [[cloaking device]]; [[Dalek]]s; [[Genghis Khan]]; [[Hawaii]]; [[jelly baby]]; [[John Smith]]; ''[[Madame Butterfly]]''; [[Marie Curie]]; [[Rassilon]]; [[Rassilon Era]];  [[Richard Nixon]]; [[scanner]]; [[scarf]]; [[Sigmund Freud]]; [[Seal of Rassilon]]; [[sonic screwdriver]]; [[tea]]; [[Time Lord]]; ''[[The Time Machine]]''; [[United States]]; [[H.G. Wells]]
 
=== [[Ratings]] ===
 
 
 
 
== Continuity ==
 
 
 
 
== Cultural References ==
 
 
 
 
=== Influences ===
 
 
 
 
== Location Filming ==
 
 
 
== Quotes ==
 
 
 
== Story Arcs ==
 
 
 
 
== Errors and Plot Holes ==
 
 
 
 
== More Info ==
 
 
* [[Doctor Who: The TV Movie Synopsis | Story Synopsis]]
 
* [[Doctor Who: The TV Movie Transcript | Story Transcript]]
 
* [[Doctor Who: The TV Movie Novelization | Story Novelization]]
 
* [[Doctor Who: The TV Movie DVD | DVD Release]]
 
* [[Doctor Who: The TV Movie Video | Video Release]]
 
 
== External Links ==
 
 
 
'''Television'''
 
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== External links ==


[http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/episodeguide/tvmovie/index.shtml BBC.co.uk Episode Guide] <br>
'''All Media'''
[http://www.gallifreyone.com/episode.php?id=8a Outpost Gallifrey Episode Guide] <br>
[http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_mov1.htm Doctor Who Reference Guide] <br>


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| class="prev" | '''Previous story''':<br />[[Survival]]
| class="prev" | '''Previous story''':<br />''[[Notre Dame du Temps]]''
| class="topic" |  [[Eighth Doctor stories ]]<br />[[Doctor Who: The TV Movie]]
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| class="next" | '''Next story''':<br />[[Rose]]
| class="next" | '''Next story''':<br />''[[The Eight Doctors]]''
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[[Category:Television stories | Doctor Who: The TV Movie]]
 
[[Category:Doctor Who stories | Doctor Who: The TV Movie]]
 
[[Category:Television stories]]
[[Category:Doctor Who stories]]

Revision as of 16:25, 30 May 2005

Doctor Who: The TV Movie
Season: None
Doctor: Eighth Doctor
Companion Grace
Original Airdate: 27th May 1996
Format: 1 85-minute episodes
Production Code: 8A
Writer: Matthew Jacobs
Director: Geoffrey Sax
Producer: Philip Segal


Cast

Crew

Bad Guys

Story Notes

Myths

Statistics

Broadcast Dates

Duration

Ratings

Continuity

Cultural References

Influences

Location Filming

Quotes

Story Arcs

Errors and Plot Holes

More Info


External Links

Television

Previous story:
Survival
Next story:
Rose


All Media

Previous story:
Notre Dame du Temps
Next story:
The Eight Doctors