Doctor Who: The Movie (1996)

• Cert:
• Cat.no: BBCDVD 1043
• Running time: 86 minutes
• Year: 1996
• Pressing: 2000
• Region(s): 2, 4 (UK PAL)
• Chapters: 24 plus extras
• Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Stereo)
• Languages: English
• Subtitles: English
• Fullscreen: 4:3
• 16:9-enhanced: No
• Macrovision: No
• Disc Format: DVD 9
• Price: £19.99
• Extras: Exclusive Footage, Cast and Crew interviews, Behind the scenes features,Photo Gallery, Music-only track, Trailers, Alternate Scenes, On-screen ProductionNotes, Director’s Commentary
  

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  Director:

  Geoffrey Sax

Producer:

Screenplay:

Music:

Cast:

The Doctor: Paul McGann / Sylvester McCoy
The Master: Eric Roberts
Dr. Grace Holloway: Daphne Ashbrook
Chang Lee: Yee Jee Tso
Salinger: John Novak
Dr. Swift: Michael David Simms
Wheeler: Catherine Lough

If anyone should’ve known when the new millennium started, it would be Doctor Who,but this story, broadcast on May 27th 1996, places us on New Year’s Eve in 1999,but then the Doctor could technically go to any point in time and space andsee in a new year every day, but I digress.

“He’s back.. and it’s about time”, spake the billing for this adventurewhich finds the Doctor (as Sylvester McCoy) accidentally ending up inSan Francisco, getting fatally wounded in the middle of a gun battle (perhaps heshould’ve chosen somewhere safer like New York or Moss Side?) and having toregenerate into Paul McGann to survive. Ok, so it may have been “abouttime” for his return, but the BBC definitely shot themselves in the foot bysaying that, getting involved with this episode and then doing sweet F.A. allabout Doctor Who afterwards!

But then, perhaps that’s down to the unique way in which they’re funded?

The Master decides that anything the Doctor can do, he can do better, so getsa new visage himself in the form of Eric Roberts and sets out to wreakhavoc on the world by ensuring its demise on the stroke of midnight, just whenthe rest of us should be having the piss-up of our lives. What a spoilsport!

Overall, this one-off was a rather nonsensical Americanised, over-hyped andover-produced affair, seeming more like a parody of itself than attempting tocontinue an existing genre and one wonders whether the BBC were contractuallyforced to have a hand in it given that absolutely nothing came afterwards.

I’m not sure if this 12-certificate version has been censored as badly as theoriginal video release in 1996, given that that suffered cuts of one minute andsix seconds, mainly for violence and gunshots since it was released in the sameyear as the Dunblane tragedy and the politically-correct brigade were still outand about. Comparing the running time on the BBFC site with this it looks uncutnow, but there’s no update on their site for this release and the directorstates on the commentary track that we’re now watching the full version asshown on American TV (later cut for the BBC screening). The original versiondid have even more gunshots, but those were edited out by the director afterhe was asked to tone it down and he agreed he’d gone a bit too far.

Street punks kill off Doctor Who…
…something the BBC have wanted to do for years.

Picture-wise, this DVD is fine, but then you’d expect that given that it’s onlya five-year-old print. It’s presented in the original 4:3 aspect ratio withno artifacts present and the average bitrate is 7.19Mb/s, but varies wildlythroughout.

The soundtrack is plain Dolby Stereo, with precious little going on in therears. What’s there is clear enough, but why didn’t anyone go to the troubleof remastering it in Dolby Digital 5.1 or even DTS?

First up in the extras are two 30-second-or-so Trailers for the originalBBC1 broadcast and a 4-minute Fox promo for when it was shown in theUS. It’s a mini-featurette that mixes in film clips with soundbites from thecast and the obligatory deep-voiced voiceover.

The Interviews section gives a couple of minutes over to each of themain cast members, as well as executive producer Philip Segal and directorGeoffrey Sax, for soundbites, some of which were used in theaforementioned Fox promo. There’s an extra 9-minute segment recorded inFebruary 2001 by Segal in which he rather optimistically states that he looksforward to seeing more of the Doctor.

An Isolated Music Score from composer John Debney is an option as isthe chance to listen to four music excerpts: “In a Dream” by Pat Hodge,the full version of the track played on the Doctor’s gramophone in the Tardis,the rock track “Ride into the Moonlight” played on the Hospital’s New Yearparty, “All Dressed Up” which was played in the morgue and a traditional versionof “Auld Lang Syne”, recorded for the final scenes, but not used.

The Photo Gallery contains 49 on-set production stills and theInformation Text is a third set of subtitles that provides extra infoabout the programme as it runs. The Behind the scenes compilation is5 minutes of on-set B-roll footage showing work in progress and the castgenerally hanging about.

Philip Segal tours the Tardis set for 2½ minutes talking aboutwhat went into creating it. Two Alternate Scenes are included – anextension of Grace and the Doctor with the motorcycle cop and an earlierversion of the pair in the hospital lift. Finally comes the feature-lengthDirector’s Commentary which also includes its own subtitles.

There are 24 chapters spread throughout the 86-minute film which is fine.The language and subtitles are in English, while the menus contain suitableanimation and sound in film clips.

FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS


OVERALL