Doctor Who movie (1996)
Oct. 14th, 2025 02:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annavereLast 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.
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.
no subject
Date: 2025-10-14 03:26 pm (UTC)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. :-)
no subject
Date: 2025-10-14 07:50 pm (UTC)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.