"Doctor Who"

Doctor Who had been apparently dead for seven years when, unexpectedly, it returned for one night only. This was Doctor Who as we had never seen before- shot on 35mm film, boasting state-of-the-art CG effects and, most crucially, very American. These days, it seems that every new season in the US broadcast calendar produces a programme worth watching- some of the best TV dramas of all time have emerged from the USA in the last 15 years. However, I believe that, from the advent of colour television all the way to the early 1990s, American TV drama was nothing like as good as British TV drama. The writing was hampered by unadventurous house styles; the production was unimaginative, with shows being made on 35mm film that were so shoddily shot and lit that they might as well have been made on videotape. These factors, combined with (to us) puritanical broadcast restrictions severely inhibited real quality. There were a handful of notable exceptions, of course, but the considerable talent that has always existed in the US TV system meant that something good had to pop up from time to time. This had started to change in the early 1990s (if I was to credit any programme, it would probably be The Simpsons, strangely enough) and American TV drama was certainly improving by the time this story was broadcast. It was a huge success in the UK (much less so in the USA) and it is easy to see why. There was a generation of teenagers and children who had watched the show who had entered into young adulthood and they were presented with Doctor Who with the budget the programme had always deserved but never got. There were the not-so-young hardcore fans whose prayers had finally been answered- this was an event which needed to succeed, to prove that Doctor Who could live again. I remember loving this when it was broadcast, but when I inserted the DVD to watch it for this marathon something hit me- although I had seen various highlights of the story since, I had never watched the whole thing again. It is now time to look at it more objectively.

I tend to avoid excessive hyperbole, but I have to say that the script by Matthew Jacobs is one of the worst ever produced under the name Doctor Who. This may seem excessive, but let me take you through it. The basic premise is based on The Deadly Assassin (the Master seeks to be reborn by opening the Eye of Harmony) with a sprinkling of Spearhead from Space (the hospitalised Doctor). This leaves the wholly original parts- the Doctor regenerates and has to stop the Master by stealing a piece of an atomic clock. He is too late and has to go back to 'before he arrives'. The Master, however, has taken control of Grace, the Doctor's companion, but the Master eventually kills her and Chang Lee, his own companion. However, the Master is stopped and the Doctor brings Grace and Lee back to life. This is a lazily conceived and frankly dull plotline, made worse by the wholly predictable and clichéd situations the script creates, where too many things happen for no reason. Then there's the appalling structure- however nice it was to see Sylvester McCoy again, having him turn up simply to regenerate is terrible, in story terms, especially considering the utterly idiotic way he meets his end. Worse still is the dialogue- not so much the words said, but their placement. The Doctor randomly info-dumps for no reason and Grace spouts lines that seem to have been dropped into the script at random- her saying 'I finally meet the right guy and he's from another planet' apropos of nothing makes no sense in the context of the scene. An incredibly basic rule of writing is ‘things happen- people react to them’- and there are times when this is not followed. It is not surprising that characterisation goes out of the window- only the Master actually seems like a proper character at all. The fact that the Master is more memorable than the Doctor shows another of the many faults of the script- it is the Master who is treated as the main character. The Doctor is not a hero, a man who inspires others to be better- he's a wandering weirdo who is, let's not forget 'Briddish'.

The production values are very impressive- the set for the interior of the TARDIS is the only unqualified triumph of the whole story. However, the story manages to accomplish the feat of being well-shot, without being well directed. Apart from the wonderful montage that forms the prologue, memorable scenes are few and far between- there are lots of interesting shots, but they seem to only be there to look cool, not to serve the story. Some scenes are botched completely- look at the terribly rendered scene of the regenerated Doctor causing the orderly to faint. Beyond this, we have a car chase that completely fails to make an impression and scenes from the climax which only register because of the genuine wonder of the fantastic TARDIS set. Having praised the set, however, I must say that the revelation of the TARDIS’s dimensionally transcendental nature is totally botched by director Geoffrey Sax. When Barbara barged into the TARDIS in "An Unearthly Child", it was a jolt to both viewer and character. However, we are immediately shown the Doctor inside the ship (which must have confused the casual American viewer no end- there is no indication given that this is the interior of that odd blue box they have just seen). The moment where Chang Lee steps into the TARDIS should have been our first revelation about the ship, a real moment of wonder- yet, as the nature of the ship has already been artlessly revealed, it comes off as being merely a feeble comic double-take. In the end, the ultimate failure of Sax's direction can be seen by the fact that here are only a couple of scenes that would even qualify for what I would consider to be ‘Doctor Who moments’- the only one I can think of offhand is the discovery of the security guards that the Master has paralysed. Sax has proved a good enough director before and since, so I can forgive his mistakes and blame them on the travesty of a script and interference from The Man.

The minor cast consists of typically competent, if unspectacular American TV performers, a description that stretches to Yee Jee Tso's Chang Lee. Daphne Ashbrook is engaging enough, but is not helped by a script and a director that has no idea of who the character is. This leaves us with the Time Lords. Sylvester McCoy puts in a very good performance, but is wasted- his shooting by the gang members is stupidly directed as well as stupidly written. Paul McGann totally convinces as the Doctor- for a handful of scenes. Most of the time, he spouts what, to the average American viewer, must have seemed like absolute gibberish, conforming at all times to the average American TV Executive’s idea of what we crazy tea-drinking, left-hand drive, ‘Briddish’ are like. McGann has given some fine performances, but if he had it in him to play the Doctor, he doesn't show it here. Eric Roberts, on the other hand, relishes playing the Master and his flamboyant performance mixes urbane villainy with real bestial fury as effectively as Ainley at his best, but with a very different performance.

There are those who hate this story because of the kiss and/ or the revelation that the Doctor is half-human. The first doesn’t bother me in the slightest, the second is a little annoying, but really not too important. It is for far more fundamental reasons that this film fails both as Doctor Who and decent drama. It fails both as a continuation of the BBC series and as a good American version of a BBC original. It would really have been best if it had been ignored and then forgotten after broadcast. Unfortunately, McCoy's presence means that this uninspired 85 minutes has a guaranteed place in Doctor Who history that it does not, in any way, deserve.