 I remember when I first saw Doctor Who,
the TV Movie. I was fourteen years old, recently immersed
in fandom, soon to go to my first big convention, still
heartbroken at the death of Jon Pertwee, and with little
time for anything so mundane as girls and alcohol (oh
for the days… so much cheaper…) It was Thursday
the 23rd of May, 1996, the day after the video release.
I went to the bookshop after school, bought the novel
and the video, scurried home and watched ninety minutes
of the finest Doctor Who in seven years unfold, in a
room quarantined from the rest of my family, without
lights and without blinking.
I remember the stunning pre-credits
sequence, not caring that there were now production
credits at the beginning and no individual story title
(oddly enough, because I might well have done. I was
that sort of child).
The story certainly moved. First
impressions were gobsmacking - the vortex with it’s
barrelling asteroids, the brassy arrangement of the
theme, Sylvester McCoy, the TARDIS, the console. Doubts
that this was some spoilt bastard offspring of the show
I loved vanished with a pop. Doctor Who was back, and
about bloody time! Upsets were fleeting and unaffecting.
I remember noticing straight away the jarring editing
of the gun-fight, and not being terribly keen on the
hospital scenes, (I’m not terribly keen on being in
hospitals) but my interest soon picked up again. I remember
the stunning adrenaline rush thereafter, as McGann,
Ashbrook, Yee Jee Tso and Roberts shone, the wonderful
dialogue, and the assured, imaginative direction. The
kisses didn’t annoy me at all - all fairly innocent
and justified. The half-human bumph would later piss
me off something rotten for a while, but it was only
a minor irritation at the time.
The ending was a little
unclear but the gist of it was there (they’d already
closed the eye, but it was too late to stop it’s effects,
so they had to bend time around the TARDIS - a temporal
orbit - and thus shunt everything back. Like Superman
saving Lois Lane in one of the films. See?). So
I loved it.
And so a long weekend passed.
The TV movie’s transmission, with one fell swoop one
bank holiday Monday in May, stopped the mockery at school
for being a Doctor Who fan. Rather like an Alan Turing
who loved cheap sci-fi instead of sums, I’d been unashamedly,
obliviously ‘out’ as a Who fan since I was young and
often paid the price, until then. I’ll always love it
for that. Better - Insanely better -than any other
Who we’d had since Survival - Paradise of Death, The
Ghosts of N-Space and the paltry pseudo-Who, Dimensions
In Time. (which bloody well is NOT canon!) it gave immense
hope for the future.
Five years later...
Well, there wasn’t a future.
But never mind - the movie was beautiful, witty, made
with real care and a great ride. As a one-night stand,
hard to beat. I’ve relived the TV Movie quite
a bit since that first time. One bored, slightly drunken
night, I thought about watching it with the Children
In Need 3D specs and, due to the constantly sweeping
camera work, it worked splendidly.
I’ve read the novel. Digested
the utterly superb Regeneration book by Gary Russell
and Philip Segal. Bought the video. Watched the UK transmission.
Watched the unedited UK repeat. Read umpteen reviews,
page after page of fan review and analysis, and come
to an odd conclusion. This is a Doctor Who
story that I love just as much for the same reasons
as I did when I was fourteen years old. The Nth
Doctor and Regeneration make us harshly aware of how
utterly appalling the story could have been - fathers,
brothers, Gallifrey, redesigned Daleks… We got off so
lightly with the half-human malarkey, it’s untrue, and
the Eye of Harmony being in the TARDIS doesn’t really
matter. It may be called ‘THE Eye’ in lazy conversation,
but then we always say “THE TARDIS” when we know there’s
more than one of them knocking around, so who’s to say
AN Eye of Harmony isn’t in every TARDIS? If the
ending is vague, that doesn’t really matter. Resurrection
of The Daleks has no story at all and people love that.
The Jon Pertwee era WAS car/bike/hovercraft chases,
and people love that. Sometimes on a night, when your
head’s a bit fuzzy, and you’re having / remembering
a wonderful time, it’s OK to give the attractive girl
nearby a spontaneous smacker on the lips. If she doesn’t
slap you, there’s nothing lost. With small supporting
roles dotted here and there, all played by very capable
and memorable actors no less, the four leads dominate
the story.
What the story lacks in
textual depth, it makes up for by well and truly being
about the Doctor, so that once we meet the eighth incarnation,
he’s rarely out of our sight, exactly how it should
be. Paul McGann, the reluctant Doctor behind the scenes,
takes to the part like a duck to water. With his enthusiastic
return to the Big Finish soundstage, I have a theory
about why he was hesitant at the time to take on the
role. I wonder if he was afraid he might enjoy something
seen by many as… well, childish. Later, as we all do
at some point, he realised that it’s far too much fun
to care what other people may think, and good on him.
At the time of writing, I understand Paul’s going to
make his first con appearance - good luck matey, and
don’t let the more… ahem… eccentric members of the audience
put you off!
Daphne Ashbrook has great
teeth, doesn’t she? She’s also a very, very good actress
who’s chemistry with McGann is excellently judged and
it’s a shame she doesn’t tag along at the end - especially
as it would have saved us the woeful Sam Jones in the
books…
Yee Jee Tso is also perfectly
cast - young and cocky but very likeable, and again,
a very traditional sort of companion who had the potential
to stay. The villain’s lackey he may be, but because
he has no idea what is really going on, you’re with
him all the way.
Warning - *I’m going to
uses the word ‘ooze’ in a moment. It’s utterly predictable
and clichéd to do so I know, and a thousand reviewers
have applied it in this context since the crack of doom.
But I don’t care.
Eric Roberts oozes charm
and camp and evil. Oozes, oozes, oozes! There is no
other way to put it. He’s having a whale of a time,
so we do too. He and makes the Master menacing for the
first time since AT LEAST Delgado’s first few stories.
Why is he a snake? What’s with the oozy goo? Who cares
when he’s played this well?
Story wise, for the third
time, a principal lead seems to have been left behind
for ever at the end of the story - and if I didn’t know
better, I’d almost do a complete manifesto volte face
(in my campaign for zero referencing) and beg somebody
to actually bring this particular old villain back.
See, we’re all fallible! With the happy ending, and
a moving, touching suggestion of the companion asking
the Doctor to stay for a change, the future looked bright.
Unfortunately there wasn’t one, we’re told.
But does it really stop there?
The Movie on DVD is just as lovely a package. Crisp
and clean as we should expect the picture and sound
to be, you really get a better opportunity to take in
Richard Hudolin’s magnificent sets and the dramatic,
distinctive score.
Sax’s commentary is very
much a technical one, and little of the actual information
he imparts will surprise you if you’ve read Regeneration,
but he still comes across as enthusiastic and personable.
The on-screen captions by Richard Molesworth are a very
nice feature which do bring up some interesting new
points - locations, and most notably, the end of each
‘Act’ as it was shown on American TV (the points where
the commercials interject.)
Segal is interviewed at
length, both then and now, and is typically frank. It’s
a shame the most vociferous whingers of fandom have
reduced this guy to apologising for much of the show,
and I felt a bit sorry for him in places. I’m sure he
wasn’t the reason Doctor Who was cancelled in 1989,
and though we know he did away with The Dark Dimension,
having read the story outline, I for one am not shedding
tears at the loss of that calibre of unashamed fanwank,
Graham Harper or no Graham Harper.
You get a nice music feature,
the BBC trailers (I must have seen them at the time
but I don’t remember them) and the Fox promo, which
divorced from clippage is a fascinating insight into
American TV tactics in it’s own right if you aren’t
familiar with them.
All in all, this is a superb
value package for a really fine production, and crusty
detractors would do well to remember that… yes…
actually… come to think of it… there
was a future! The BBC felt the need to actively promote
the series again, and the merchandise drive that followed
wasn’t just cash-cow cynicism, but a golden opportunity
to bring Who back to respectable public consciousness
that actually worked. We’ve got audio dramas now. We’ve
got a radio series that’s actually got potential. Tom
bless the TV Movie - and all Who sale in her.
There’s life - and there’s hope.
» Review by Handbag, Copyright 2001.
|
