The TV Movie

Sylvester McCoy returns for the first 15 minutes.

1996 saw the relaunch which failed of Doctor Who.  Aiming primarily at the American market, the ‘TV Movie’ as it’s known in fan circles attempted to bridge the gap between the British and the American set in San Francisco but filmed in Vancouver, Canada. Philip Seagal was the driving force by this bid which went no further than the movie, and he cast Paul McGann in the lead role as the Doctor in what is so far his only TV appearance as the Doctor.

Daphne Ashbrook as the 'sort-of' companion, Dr Grace Holloway.

Let’s start there because it’s good to start at something they got right. Paul McGann effortlessly steps into the role of the Doctor. I have heard criticism that he was a bit ‘generic’, but in my mind that’s a tad unfair because the guy only had 90 minutes to prove himself really. He is certainly charming and fits into the Doctor’s shoes with ease.

If you want to ask the logical questions, why did this not result in a full series (which was the aim) there are a lot of reasons like publicity and timeslot, but let’s concentrate on the storyline which quite frankly is nearly as baffling as Season 26 and makes less sense.

Sax delivered some great visuals in the movie.

Launching in the States, they would have wanted to capture a new market, so they needed to start off somewhat from scratch. You can’t imply any sort of knowledge from the viewers, and hence it is an interesting decision to bring McCoy back for the first ten minutes and do a regeneration story. Not only are the audience dealing with ideas such as the TARDIS and who the Doctor is, they have to get their heads around a regeneration 15 minutes into the story. It was really nice for continuity to have McCoy come over the Vancouver to be involved, but we could have been spending time discovering the character rather than having him pronounced dead and the pointless exposition that went along with. The TARDIS however looked magnificent, I really took to the new design. It’s a pity that so much of the explanation for things was done at breakneck speed. I think it was hard to follow.

The new Doctor, Paul McGann, up close and personal in a lift. Wait, no, elevator.

The Eye of Harmony, last seen on Gallifrey in ‘The Deadly Assassin’ if my memory serves me correctly, is now in the TARDIS. That didn’t really make sense to me. But the real issue is the resolution. By going back to before he arrived, the Doctor saved the day. At no point did he undo anything. What about the two TARDISes being in the same place? How was everything undone? He didn’t turn back time, as far as I could see. It really made no sense at all I’m afraid.

Eric Roberts as the Master

It’s very American, it’s odd it feels like a different show with various Doctor Who elements included. I didn’t mind it, but obviously it was full of stuff which made me raise an eyebrow or three. The ‘half-human’ thing for instance. Dear oh dear!

Action aplenty!

However there’s a great motorbike chase, it looks great, and I think Geoffrey Sax’s direction is very good, his shot selection is top notch. I liked the referencing of ‘Frankenstein’ as the Doctor regenerates that was a very nice touch. Eric Roberts as the Master was… actually not that different to the previous guys, camp, silly and

over the top. But American, there’s the difference.

McGann has several nice moments, especially when he gets happy about the shoes fitting perfectly. Grace Holloway played by Daphne Ashbrook would have made a somewhat different companion I suspect, I’m not sure the character would have worked long term, I think they would have brought in a romantic angle with her and the Doctor and that would have been very strange. The begins of it are there in the movie.

OH NO! I LOOK RIDICULOUS!

All in all, I didn’t hate it at all.

6.5/10

Survival

The final story in the show’s first 26 years, before a break of seven years, is quite a good one written by Rona Munroe, one of a select group of women to have ever written for Doctor Who. When you look back through the first 26 years to find a female writer for Doctor Who is not easy. There’s Jane Baker, part of the husband and wife team, Barbara Clegg, there aren’t many others which is really disappointing. It could ask the question – is Doctor Who a male-only domain. Verity Lambert was the first producer, but again the only female in that role too. It is definitely disappointing.

Hale and Pace guest star,

Nevertheless, here’s a writer that created a story somewhat simpler than the other three in season 26, and that certainly didn’t harm the story. But it’s not that it’s not complex, just compared to ‘The Curse of Fenric’ it unravels in a far more straight forward way. Add the use of great music (Dominic Glynn) and special effects, great dialogue, the show finishes at least on a high.

It features the return of Anthony Ainley to the series as the Master, a more base and desperate Master, which worked rather well. He was certainly less camp than in the past which was obviously a good thing.

The Master's new look.

The use of modern (at the time obviously) Perivale as a location was great too. It’s very rare Doctor Who goes into domestic lives, if ever, but it did here. We go back and forth from the planet of the Cheetah people to Perivale.

I liked and was intrigued by the idea that the cheetah people were connected to their planet. I wanted to learn a bit more about that relationship and how it came about. The idea that the fighting would destroy the world, whilst literal in the sense of the storyline I think was also meant metaphorically to the human race (and I guess also a little literally as well, fighting will destroy the Earth).

Near the end we have a huge explosion on top of a hill as a supposed result of two bikes crashing into each other (when of course that never happened) and that looks great from the effects team. The cheetah-people costumes have copped a fair bit of criticism though from fans. I can see why in some respects, the heads, although the mouths move rather well, are bulky and fluffy and the actors couldn’t move smoothly in them like real cheetahs. To be honest I didn’t mind them and had a hard time picturing what else they could have done. I guess they expected them to be more human and less cheetah, but that would have aroused criticism as well I suspect.

26 years of Doctor Who, And I have got through it all since February! The only ‘cheat’ in all that time was watching the condensed versions of Marco Polo and Galaxy Four, although Galaxy Four was much closer to full length. Since then I have also seen Enemy of the World and Web of Fear, returned to the BBC recently in their entirety. It’s been a great ride, BUT it is not yet over. I think by the end of the year I can cover ever televised adventure, so it’s on to the TV movie next, and then the new series.

To see it all as a whole is interesting, in the order intended. In some ways the

final season of the show was really starting to produce some interesting television, however the stories were very complicated and I suspect the casual audience may at times have felt alienated and unable to follow. The show had its ups and downs through the years, but was strongest and most stable through the Pertwee and Tom Baker years. But most fans would say as much. The John Nathan-Turner Years, from season 18 through 26, had great highs and lows. Most seasons, save season 24, had at least one really

good story, but always there was dud or two where the production team dropped the ball. Now things change, budgets increase, and for a one-off movie, we head to America…

8.5/10

The Doctor and Ace walk off for the final time...

The Curse of Fenric

Dinsdale Landen as Doctor Judson.

A veritable giant as far as classics go, ‘The Curse of Fenric’ has an awful lot going for it. Compelling characters, good use of Ace, wonderful performances, perfect location. However, I can’t help but think its status as ‘classic’ should be seriously questioned. Whilst I for one second would not say it isn’t a very good story, I can’t put it up with the best of the best for several reasons.

Tied into a bundle though, it, as always, comes down to the writing. There is a lot of good writing in here, but it felt like Ian Briggs was at times putting too much into script. We have vampires, Russians, evil Generals, a

Nicholas Parsons.

cripple who’s a genius, Various subplots, a curse affecting almost every character, Ace’s mum as a baby, and we have Fenric, who isn’t quite defined at any point (not an issue) but described as ‘evil’. The issue comes with how you destroy ‘evil’. Apparently, you gas it to death.

When the Doctor turns on Ace, I find it hard to believe Ace would not have seen it as an obvious ploy. It’s very obvious to the audience. In my opinion it needed time to build up over an episode or more until Ace just snaps, but it was a plot device and thus wasn’t worked through as well as it could have. The whole point of the chess game

Alfred Lynch as Millington.

too seemed chucked in there either to tie up loose ends or because the writer was looking for an ‘out’. The idea that the Doctor and Fenric were locked in a chess game, then Fenric was trapped in a flask, and the Ultima machine – a super computer, was needed to let him loose didn’t make sense to me at all. The resolution of the game, with black and white pawns fighting together, makes no sense either, it just seemed like an out. It clearly doesn’t happen in a chess game.

It’s a pity because the point where Sorin (Tomek Bork) is revealed as Fenric is wonderfully chilling. The story in its original form (and for once I watched the special version, which has a lot of material added to it) had a lot of stuff cut out. In fact every season 26 story did, and none are particularly easy to follow. Cartmel must shoulder the bulk of

the blame for that. It seems by this time telling a good solid story wasn’t high on the priority list for the script editor. This one is not really that complicated, but a lot of things don’t make an awful lot of sense.

Which is a pity because a bit more nutting down of the script basics would have helped enormously. I’m not sure the point of having vampires in the story was if they are not the focus of the story. It’s just a strange addition to the plot where Briggs’ decides he wants to explain what vampires REALLY are. They still could have used the ancient one, who was a pretty decent monsters. Most of the monsters were decent in this one, if not all.

Alfred Lynch and Dinsdale Landen as Commander Millington and Doctor Judson, two wonderfully twisted characters, certainly shine in this story. Millington comes across as not just twisted, but also sad at the same time. It’s actually a beautiful performance in many ways. Nicholas Parsons as Reverend Wainwright is the best example of stunt casting in Doctor Who’s first 26 years. A game show presenter, he also did have an acting background. It’s a wonderful heartfelt performance, coloured with true sorrow and fear. Sophie Aldred is very good except for the well-known seduction scene which I personally didn’t buy at all – she admits to being so cold at that point that acting was almost impossible and I really like Ace so that is forgiven. McCoy is ok except when he has long angry speeches to deliver which I’m really sorry to say still do not convince me.

The Ancient One.

Mark Ayres’ music is generally very good, but I don’t like the stuff he uses on action sequences. Apart from that he is a fantastic composer. Visually the story is almost perfect, but it is spoiled by being shot on OB video again. It was all shot on location, and if they could have seen their way to shooting the whole thing on film, the atmosphere would have been even more sinister and dark. At least the quality is sharper than ‘Ghostlight’ – more light helps, but also they still had the master tapes when making the DVD.

Unfortunately the skies were far too bright though, it really could have done with some storm clouds.

This again comes across as quite negative, I’m sorry because as I said, I think it’s pretty good but over rated. The plotline is very important to me and when I feel it’s doesn’t quite make sense or work, then it affects my viewing. Nevertheless, a great, solid story.

7/10

Ghostlight

The Doctor and Ace meet Redvers Fenn Cooper

Marc Platt had apparently been trying to get a gig as a Doctor Who writer for some time, and finally in the 26^th season of the show, he got his chance with ‘Ghostlight’, after his initial submission proved unworkable (a story set on Gallifrey called ‘Lungbarrow’).

‘Ghostlight’ is a very different story again from the rest of the season, the rest of the McCoy era, and indeed Doctor Who in general. In my opinion, this is clearly the best Sylvester McCoy story of all, with only two issues. One – Sylvester McCoy is generally excellent through

John Nettleton as the Reverend Ernest Matthews.

Katherine Schlelsinger as Gwendoline

the three episodes, however in the final episode there’s a moment where he tells Light to leave Earth, and to be frank I’m not sure what he’s doing. Whenever he has to act really angry he screws up his face, holds out a hand and loses the audience. It’s a bizarre step out of the world he is in to what appears to be some desperate acting. Alan Wareing should have been on to that and reshot it at the very least, but it remains in there for all to see. It’s not the only time he’s done something like that, but this stands out because generally the rest of the story is McCoy at his best, playing games with Ace and being mysterious.

My second issue is with the picture quality. There wasn’t much that could be done when making the DVD, sadly most of the original video tapes with original footage were wiped so they couldn’t remaster them particularly. They had to work off the finished product which does look like it’s down a generation or two. Remembering that in the days before digital TV to edit video you basically had to copy it and lose a generation. With ‘Ghostlight’ being such a low-lit story, the issues are compounded and there is a lot of grain for something not shot on film. Such is life, it doesn’t detract too much from the story.

Sophie Aldred as Ace

The story is about a survey team sent to Earth to catalogue life. We have the control subject – ‘Control’(Sharon Duce), and the survey – Josiah Samuel Smith (Ian Hogg). In charge of the survey we have ‘Light’. The idea is that Control stays the same, whilst Josiah evolves with the planet. Light is fed up with the constant evolution and decides to destroy Earth, but instead the ship is taken away from Earth and continues its search for life with Control and Redvers Fenn Cooper (Michael Cochrane) at the helm.

Ian Hogg (Josiah) mencaces Ace held back by Sylvia Syms

The plot is all there, but there was a lot of scenes cut for timing reasons which may have helped the plot to be clearer. Andrew Cartmel laughs at people who were confused on the DVD, but although I understand the thing, it is the sort of story which requires the audience to piece it all together to comprehend what is going on. For a young audience that would be hard. I think watching this story in one sitting is advisable too, allowing the viewer to connect threads throughout the three parts rather than desperately trying to remember things from the previous week (presuming they watched an episode a week as it was originally broadcast).

Having said that, there’s nothing wrong with a plot which requires effort from its audience at all. The music, although a little loud at times, is excellent, the house is very well done and the vision presented by the director is amazing. Wareing has really brought to life a Victorian house in Perivale, made it creepy and sinister, and his casting was impeccable. From John Hallam as Light down to Brenda Kempner as Mrs Grose, every character was played by the perfect person for the part.

John Hallam as Light

Being contained entirely within a house probably helped curtail the budget, but it meant that every little detail could be gotten right, and they did. This is a wonderful example of a story that unfolds, that peels itself piece by piece, to reveal a clever if somewhat confronting at times plot. We have the struggle between theories of life – religion versus evolution, although the story certainly is on the side of the evolutionist. Set in Victorian times, this was a hot issue on the tails of Darwin’s theories.

This story has no Daleks or Cybermen, no epic battles and no alien worlds. And it is the better for it. It shows that a strong cast, a strong director and a cracking script is all that is needed to produce a brilliant piece of Doctor Who.

9.5/10

Battlefield

Nic Courtney and Jean Marsh.

‘Battlefield’ to me is a prime example of what goes wrong when a writer has a thousand ideas he wants to include in the one story and doesn’t want to let go of some of them to make a story work. Instead we have a lot of rushing around from scene to scene, location to location, trying mix the elements together but we don’t really get a coherent story. We get instead a hotchpotch of scenes and concepts that don’t really gel.

Let’s see. We have knights from another dimension. We have the return of UNIT. We have the return

Cast pic!

of the Brigadier. We have a nuclear missile. We have King Arthur. We have Morgaine played by the amazing Jean Marsh. We have Bessie. We have the destroyer. We have a war. We have the hunt for Excalibur. We have a space ship in Vortigan’s Lake.

The sum total of which is – not much. It’s a grade A flop. Ben Aaronvitch’s first story, ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’ also suffers from the same sort of issues, however it pulls together a hell of a lot better than ‘Battlefield’. It’s a pity because much of ‘Battlefield’ is well done. The idea that the Doctor is Merlin has merit, but there is very little purpose to the story. Morgaine is after Excalibur, right? She gets the sword, and

disappears presumably back to her own dimension. But instead she returns to the battlefield where her soldiers lie dead and decides to destroy as much as she can with the nuclear missile.

The story needed to start with the convoy arriving at the lake and having troubles. Why couldn’t they get the thing moving after a few hours let alone a few days? Why was Brigadier Bambera not with the convey at the very start? Why are the knights propelled through space just wearing armour when they come from a different dimension?

Their armour looks like traditional armour with chain mail underneath. It is made quite clear that shooting them in the head would kill them, so how can they

survive being propelled across space and dimensions. Ancelyn is next to a grenade when it goes off and he flies through the air and into the beer shed. He’s a little dazed. It’s just really lazy writing when something more conceivable could have written in to get characters from point A to point B. In my opinion at least.

We have the beautifully sculpted mask ever in Doctor Who for the blue destroyer. It’s a pity he wasn’t more relevant to the storyline. He wasn’t used all that badly though. The music is dreadful, my favourite composer Keff McCulloch is at it again. Drum machine much?

So how could this story have worked? How about the Doctor and Ace actually meeting King Arthur? The real one, none of this alternate dimension nonsense which was pretty meaningless to me. I don’t know if the characters in this are the ones from the legend, or a version of them in another dimension. Maybe it shouldn’t matter but I get caught up on these things from time to time. Arthur thinks the Doctor is Merlin, which puts the Doctor in a scrape, and the story builds from there. It could still feature science fiction aspects. But honestly, it seems like Aaronovitch woke up one day and thought – ‘UNIT fighting knights from another dimension? Awesome!’ and wrote ‘Battlefield’.

It is good to see Nicholas Courtney, and the casting is strong at least with the one exception of Shou Yuing (Ling Tai) who is rather dreadful at times. McCoy has good and bad moments throughout, as is the norm for him. The direction is ok but the music dictates far too much of the story and is enough to drive you mad. Seriously.

3/10

The Greatest Show in the Galaxy

The fantastic Ian Reddington.

I think that so far, without a doubt, this is the best Sylvester McCoy story. It is let down by the final episode which is rather impossible to follow and when you look at it closely doesn’t make a lot of sense, but all in all Steven Wyatt’s second story is creepy, full of great characters, well directed, well shot and achieves everything that ‘Paradise Towers’ was lacking in atmosphere.

It’s just a pity that episode four, or to be more exact the last 10-15 minutes of the story, is so bewildering. The reveal of the ‘Gods of Ragnarock’ is something of an anti-climax because

really, who are they? They don’t have a place in Doctor Who folklore yet the Doctor says he has been hunting them all through time, so that’s somewhat strange. The polystyrene circus in another dimension is not the most impressive set, well it isn’t when it crumbles, but the show was millimetres away from being cancelled so these things can easily be forgiven. But the events of the final episode need to be addressed because it really left this viewer mystified as to what had gone on.

Mags (Jessica Martin) and the Doctor.

King Pin has the medallion, which he needs to get to the Doctor in the ‘dark circus’. Now despite never discussing how this was to be done, the Doctor spends his time trying to entertain the Gods of Ragnarock whilst constantly looking at his watch as if  waiting for the appointed time at which the medallion is to arrive. Either that or he is worried about how long he can survive. He then points a sword which he created from nothing (well a small piece of metal he just happened to have) at the ground, in the ‘real’ dimension the medallion falls down the pit aimed at the eye, and it appears at the end of the sword. How was this pre-organised? Then the Gods fire at the Doctor and he uses the medallion to deflect the ‘laser beams’ (for want of a better word) back at the Gods and the circus itself. That was the plan?  I’m sorry maybe people were so taken by McCoy’s bag of magic tricks (most of which are achieved by trick photography although he is in his element here which is great to see) that they didn’t notice the illogical nature of the plot and the way it was all resolved.

The somewhat dodgy Gods of Ragnarock.

At the end of the day, no matter how good the story is the audience wants a good resolution that they can understand. The better the story, the more disappointing a dud resolution is and that’s exactly the case with ‘The Greatest Show in the Galaxy’.

The first three and a half episodes are the best stuff for a long time. The clowns, led by the amazing Ian Reddington are wonderfully creepy. TP McKenna’s Captain Cook is a truly superbly realised character, double-crossing, back stabbing, killed and then brought back to life. Jessica Martin as Mags is again perfect casting, I even liked the Whiz Kid (Gian Sammarco).

As sick as I am of quarries, I didn’t mind the location so much either. It suited the story. All in all the story is very enjoyable, creepy, with a magnificent atmosphere. The music by Mark Ayres is perfect and Alan Wareing’s direction is spot on, both first timers. Considering the production was nearly cancelled like ‘Shada’, and the studio worked was instead mounted in a tent in a car park, it just goes to show that working under duress can really bring a production team together to create something amazing. This was heading for full marks until the final episode. I

Ace puts a big robot out of action.

especially liked the ending to episode one, which is not the traditional ‘peril-style’ cliff-hanger, but instead a dilemma when Ace is asked by the Doctor ‘Are we going in or aren’t we’ as we hear screams coming from inside the circus. Also, a great effort from McCoy and Aldred, supported by a great guest cast.

8/10

Silver Nemesis

Anton Differing.

Bleh. What total and utter bleh. I don’t know what to say, but this story is rubbish. The Cybermen are rubbish. Cricket glove hands and a fallibility not just to gold but to gold coins. Nazis? Totally superfluous to the plot, indulgent crap by writer Kevin Clarke who thankfully never wrote for Doctor Who again. Not his fault though that this story has a nearly identical plot with a carbon copy resolution to ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’. Andrew Cartmel, why did you let this through?

'Excellent'? No. Not even a little.

Fiona Walker as Peinforte.

This sudden mysteriousness of the Doctor is offset by the fact that McCoy is not very mysterious. I liked Lady Peinforte – beautifully cast, Fiona Walker was perfect. Anton Differing as De Flores, the Nazi, is hilarious as he doesn’t seem to know what his lines mean, let alone what the story is about. In fact the casting is great, but it doesn’t get them out because the script is utter shite and the story looks very very cheap. It’s supposed to be the 25^th anniversary special for Pete’s sake! Not even the brilliance of the Dolores Gray cameo can save this.

It’s just a run around for three

The Nemesis statue.

episodes, with a lot of setups for jokes and amusing situations which would work in a sketch comedy show, but there’s no substance to this at all. Everyone wants the nemesis statue and they round around fields for three episodes trying to get it and then it destroys the Cyber-fleet. This Doctor likes destroying things it seems.

Delores Gray.

Nice shots of Ace up on the gantries in the factory shooting Cybermen with coins. Pity the idea Cybermen could be so easily killed in bollocks. I mean the whole thing features some great locations, but there is no substance to the story at ALL. Terence Dudley’s scripts have more to them. ‘Delta and the Bannerman’ had more to it. Pft.

1/10

The Happiness Patrol

The Kandy Man watches as Gilbert M looks for the Doctor.

‘The Happiness Patrol’, by Graeme Curry, is a studio-bound adventure which has a lot to like but fails to fully deliver on good ideas completely. Why? Well, most of it is down to production values sadly. It seems to have been a stretch for the production team to make everything as good as it needed to be, and sadly that increases the level of disbelief for the viewer.

The premise is good, and the casting on the whole is superb, supremely led by Sheila Hancock as Helen A, the ruler of the colony Terra Alpha, where it is law to be happy. Curry used Margaret Thatcher to base this character on, and Shelia Hancock’s portrayal is sublime. She has a pet called Fifi, is it a dog or a large rodent, or something in between? Unfortunately the puppet doesn’t stand up well enough and it’s hard to see how it could do much damage to a person if they had a hard implement in their hands.

In the waiting zone.

The Kandy man does her dirty work, using his ‘fondant surprise’ to execute people, and I for one loved the design although I may be in the minority there. I thought it worked very well, being made liquorice allsorts.

Joseph C overseas a 'fondant surprise'.

What lets the story down more than anything are the streets. Sad to say, but even though it all happens at night I don’t get the sense that people are outside. The surface is a shiny black – just the painted studio floor, which is a dead giveaway. The lighting is suitably dark, thank goodness, but yet it doesn’t give the impression of being outside. I don’t know if the waiting zone, for example, is meant to be in or outside. We don’t see people entering or leaving buildings at any stage, we don’t see the entrance for buildings, and that also is puzzling as a viewer.

The amazing Shelia Hancock as Helen A.

The Kandy kitchen and Helen A’s headquarters, on the other hand, are beautiful. Ronald Frazer and Harold Innocent as Jospeh C and Gilbert M, the two main male characters turn in wonderful performances. Some bits, mostly with Ace (no fault of Sophie Aldred) are a little squeamish, and whilst sometime McCoy really shines as the Doctor, he also made me squirm at other moments – especially at the forum when he was laughing. He has certainly improved, but moments where he drops the ball seem to creep out in every story.

Whilst much of the story may be about Thatcher’s Britain in the 1980s, the theme of people telling you to be happy is something most of us can relate to. Sometimes we are not happy. This is a truth. People will always tell you how to feel and what to feel and how to react to a situation. Don’t let them, the truth lies within.

A flawed but ultimately interesting story with wonderful guest

performances from those mentioned as well as Georgina Hale and Rachel Bell.

7.5/10