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.
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-regenerated Eighth Doctor and the Master in San Francisco.
Summary
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. The newly-regenerated Doctor bursts out of the morgue (to the shock of Pete, the morgue attendant) and, clad in only a shroud, stumbles into a deserted wing of the hospital. There, he sees himself in a broken mirror and cries out, "Who am I?"
The Doctor finds a Wild Bill Hickock 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 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 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 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.
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). When the ambulance arrives, the driver is the Master.
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Background Information
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Speculation
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Misc. Notes
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Story Arcs and Themes
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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
- 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
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