Doctor Who movie (1996)

[annavere]

Last night I finally watched the Doctor Who movie with Paul McGann, which I've had on my watch pile for a while and postponed because I needed a break after the exhausted end of the Moffat era. I was also expecting it to be of questionable merit, and it was, but it was also very fun. Mostly because it was so stupidly over the top. The whole Frankenstein-intercut regeneration and resulting mirror scene was so try-hard it was rather cute.

The script was clunky. I know the basic lore, and was still astonished by all the drab info-dumps cluttering the script. I can't imagine what a fresh audience was supposed to take away from this, but obviously it didn't work.

The TARDIS set was cool beyond cool. Absolutely the best it has ever looked of what I've seen. Also, compared to the modern show playing coy with the interior, this one just dove right into the place. It also made sense of why the Doctor, finding trouble as he does, didn't burn through all his lives in about 100 years, because this version is an actual vast ship one can picture him living in very contentedly. Wonderful use of 90s TV movie budget.

Also looking great was Paul McGann, the most beautiful Doctor ever. The pre-Raphaelite curls, the sad eyes, the Michelangelo's Next Top Model semi-shirtlessness, the dressy attire. He made the perfect objet d'art, and more seriously, tried his darnedest to sell the script. By the time he got Clockwork-Oranged (seriously, the creative team behind the camera wanted to show off their arthouse chops so badly and their every choice was so Extra) no acting could really be done. In result: The script plummeting like a clay pigeon while their lead tries to emote with every tool out of reach.

The Master was actually slightly less cartoonish than I expected, in the middle of the film developing a sardonic wit and a passion for grammar that made him amusing. Also, the insane level of homoeroticism directed by him toward the Doctor's body had me outright laughing. Like dude, control yourself.

I laughed a lot in this film. Which is very good for me.

I was predisposed to like the idea of Grace, a doctor swept into events. The writing unfortunately went with a bit too realistic an approach and made her complain constantly, so there wasn't much for me to latch on to, and she was clearly only putting up with the Doctor because he was a beautiful objet d'art. RTD improved that formula and jettisoned the parts that didn't work when introducing Donna.

The plot was nonsense all around. The romantic bits were extremely tacked on. They did some kind of 'Big Bang' jumpstart the universe thing at the end (with Grace hotwiring the TARDIS like it's a Chevy), and this somehow brought two dead characters back to life, so the tradition of ridiculous handwavy endings to overegged disaster pudding plots was still going strong back in the 90s.

I had a remarkably great time watching this.

Comments

[brightknightie]

You've reminded me amusingly of my experience watching this for the first and only time way back then, in the family living room, by myself because no one else had hooked themselves on Doctor Who via the reruns on our local PBS station. :-)

I vividly remember literally leaping to my feet in outrage twice over specific things I considered outrageous -- OUTRAGEOUS -- deviations from canon (I may not yet have had command of the word "canon" in a fannish context, though I did read Starlog, so maybe). IIRC, I believe that the two items that so outraged past!me were the Doctor getting romantic with the Companion and the assertion that the Doctor's mother was a human from Earth. :-)

[annavere]

I can see why you would have found it unsatisfying! I had the advantage of being forearmed with knowledge of both alterations - and since I'm coming at it backwards from the 2005 series, the Doctor being romantic is just part of the character for me. However, it was still an unnecessary addition, bringing nothing to this particular storyline. Meanwhile, the half-human thing seemed like it was born from a worry the audience wouldn't relate to an entirely alien lead. Very silly and justifiably ignored.

It was a flawed script, but I could see a lot of stylistic elements which would be funneled into the 2005 return. I look forward to checking out the Classic run.

[teratornis]

I haven't seen this and sort of fell out of interest in Doctor Who some time back, but I might have to give this a watch. I do love a good objectively-bad-but-fun movie.

Also I fully lost it at your description of McGann, especially the Michelangelo's Next Top Model bit.

[annavere]

Adjust your settings to "snark" and it might prove entertaining!

And thank you, I was very proud of that turn of phrase. :)

[havocthecat]

I enjoyed it when I first watched it, having seen maybe half a dozen minutes of Old Who and New Who not having existed yet, and my college friend who was a hardcore Whovian had nothing but ire for it, not to mention voluble outrage, which I did not understand.

It was not, per se, good, but as a veteran of such media as the new Mission: Impossible and the 1991 Dark Shadows (don't laugh at me, Small Me had a major crush on Joanna Going, I never mind Lysette Anthony - you may recognize her as the actress-in-need-of-a-bodyguard from HL: The Raven - and a shirtless pre-Pretender Michael T. Weiss), I was very familiar with "bad material, fantastic actors." In addition to my crush actors, 1991's Dark Shadows had poor Ben Cross, Barbara Steele, Jean goddamn Simmons and Roy Thinnes doing their absolute best with that material, but it was doomed to cancellation by a) being Dark Shadows and b) the First Gulf War.

Also it had Adrian Paul guest-starring in the historical flashbacks! I remain convinced it helped him obtain his Highlander role. I think his wig was better in Dark Shadows than in s1 Highlander, though.

In later years, once I'd seen more Old and New Who, because I have married a Whovian, I rewatched it and now I understand people's ire, but I still kind of enjoy it. And I love Paul McGann, who is delightfully serious in the utterly ridiculous Queen of the Damned. And Eric Roberts is Eric Roberts, who is pretty good, and got his RDA of scenery in that the Eighth Doctor film.

I do not always watch good media. But I always watch media I enjoy. And I cannot be sorry about it.

And I'm so glad you got a lot of laughs out of all of this, because seriously. Worth it for that alone.

[annavere]

Yep, we think alike in approaching such things. A film or show might not be good in technical matters but if it's a good time, I hardly care.

Dark Shadows is one of those shows which time constraints is likely to forbid me ever attempting. The 91 show at least looks manageable. And ooh, Adrian Paul? I am tempted.

[havocthecat]

Elder Dark Shadows is too much for me. I checked out the movies, because why not? They were easy. And the 1991 series was a one-season investment. Nice and easy!

And Baby's First Adrian Paul. Plus the early days of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who is a prestigious actor now.

[annavere]

If the movies were House of Dark Shadows and Night of Dark Shadows, then I saw those as a not very intrepid teenager. I do not remember which was which, but one had buckets of blood and vampire carnage, and the other was a creepy haunted house mystery I actually really loved until the twist ending rained on that parade.

Then a couple years later I discovered Buffy, who would have fixed all those wagons (you know, if she's gone through a time warp).

Eta: I saw the Highlander episode 'Turnabout' at roughly the same time as the Dark Shadows films and between them, the name Quentin was irrevocably ruined.