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Doctor Who (1996)
Encyclopedia
Doctor Who is a television movie
based on the British
science fiction television series Doctor Who
. Developed as a co-production amongst Universal Television
, BBC Television
, BBC Worldwide
, and the American
network FOX
, the 1996 television film premiered on 12 May 1996 on CITV
in Edmonton, Alberta
, Canada
, 15 days before its first showing in the United Kingdom
on BBC One
, and two days before being broadcast in the United States
on FOX.
The film was the first attempt to revive Doctor Who, following its cancellation in 1989. It was intended as a back-door pilot for a new American-produced Doctor Who TV series, and introduced Paul McGann
as the Eighth Doctor
in his only televised appearance as the character. Although a ratings success in the United Kingdom, the film did not fare well on American television, and no new series was purchased. The series was later relaunched on the BBC in 2005.
Although the film was primarily produced by different hands from the 1963-89 series, and intended for an American audience, the producers chose not to produce a "reimagining" or "reboot" of the series (examples of such proposals can be found in Jean-Marc Lofficier's book The Nth Doctor (Virgin Publishing, 1997)), but rather a continuation of the original narrative. The production was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, to date the only episode of Doctor Who filmed in Canada
.
has been tried on Skaro
and found guilty of a "list of evil crimes,". His death sentence at the hands of the Daleks has been carried out. His last wish was for his remains to be returned to Gallifrey
by his archenemy, the Doctor
, currently in his seventh incarnation
.
During the trip back to Gallifrey in the Doctor's TARDIS
, the vessel shakes, causing the box containing the Master's remains to shatter and allowing a sentient ooze to escape from it. The ooze enters the TARDIS controls and forces an emergency landing in Chinatown
in San Francisco, California
on New Year's Eve 1999. As the Doctor steps from the TARDIS to find his bearings, he is shot by a gang who are chasing down Chang Lee, a young Chinese-American man. Lee calls for an ambulance, and the Doctor is rushed to a nearby hospital. The surgeons find, through X-ray
s, that the Doctor has two hearts, but they assume the X-ray image is a double exposure. As cardiologist
Dr. Grace Holloway
starts to operate with a cardiac probe, the Doctor wakes up, tells her that he needs a beryllium
atomic clock
, and then falls into a seizure, eventually flat-lining. Dr. Holloway declares the Doctor dead, and his body is placed into a morgue
. Lee steals the Doctor's possessions, including the TARDIS key, and runs off. Meanwhile, the ooze, which had stowed itself away on the ambulance, attacks and takes over the body of the ambulance driver, Bruce. When Bruce's wife questions his odd behaviour, the Master, now controlling his body, murders her.
Late in the night, the Doctor regenerates into a new body
, and leaves the morgue in a state of confusion, donning parts of costumes intended for the New Year's party later that night. He follows Dr. Holloway as she leaves the hospital, and convinces her that he is the same man she operated on earlier. Dr. Holloway, who has resigned from her job at the hospital, after the hospital covering up the Doctor's presence there, takes the Doctor to her home. Meanwhile, Lee has returned to the TARDIS with the key, and entered the time machine. The Master arrives soon afterwards and tells Lee that the Doctor stole the TARDIS from him, as well as his body, which he wants to retrieve. He convinces Lee to open the Eye of Harmony
, thanks to his human retina
l pattern. The Doctor recovers his memory and tries to keep his own eyes shut to prevent the Master from seeing through them, as that would allow him to take over the Doctor's body. The Doctor also warns Dr. Holloway that if they do not shut the Eye before midnight, the entire planet may be sucked into it, and that to close it, he needs an atomic clock. Dr. Holloway disbelieves the Doctor initially, but when he demonstrates that the nature of reality is already changing by walking through her bay windows without breaking them, she agrees to take him to the unveiling of an atomic clock at the San Francisco Institute of Technological Advancement and Research. They are given a lift to the Institute in an ambulance driven by Lee and the Master, whom the Doctor does not yet recognise. However, when the Master removes his shades, revealing non-human eyes, the Doctor and Dr. Holloway abandon the ambulance and steal a police motorcycle, but not before the Master is able to shoot Dr. Holloway's wrist with a strange, bile-like fluid.
At the Institute, the Doctor and Dr. Holloway manage to collect the integrated circuit
chip with the atomic clock mechanism by subterfuge, and make their way back to the TARDIS. Once there, the Doctor is able to install the chip and close the Eye, but discovers that that Eye has been open far too long, and that they must revert time to before the Eye was opened to prevent the destruction of the Earth. However, before the Doctor can route power to the TARDIS, the Master is able to use the bile on Dr. Holloway's wrist to control her, and forces her to knock out the Doctor. The Doctor is chained above the Eye, his eyes forced open so as to allow the Master to take his remaining regenerations. When the Doctor awakes, he tries to talk Lee out of the Master's spell but to no avail; however, when the Master lies to Lee in order to get him to open the Eye again, Lee refuses, causing the Master to break his neck. The Master then uses his control of Dr. Holloway to open the Eye, though this breaks his control of her. While the Master begins the process of transferring the Doctor's remaining regenerations to him, Dr. Holloway is able to connect the last power circuit in the console room, sending the TARDIS into a time-holding pattern just moments after the turn of midnight, staving off destruction of the Earth. When Dr. Holloway tries to return to help the Doctor, she is thrown over a balcony and killed by the Master, but her interference has given the Doctor enough time to push the Master into the Eye itself, apparently killing him. The action causes the Eye to close, and time to revert back to a few moments before midnight, bringing both Dr. Holloway and Lee back to life.
As the three recover, they find the world is safe. As Lee departs after returning the rest of the Doctor's possessions, the Doctor warns him not to be in San Francisco next year during New Year's Eve. The Doctor then asks Dr. Holloway to travel with him in the TARDIS, but she politely refuses and also leaves. The Doctor returns to the TARDIS and pilots her off to a new adventure.
had been trying for some years to launch a new American-produced series of Doctor Who, but the Fox Network — the only American network that showed any interest — was only prepared to commit to a single telemovie. It was hoped that, would the telemovie be successful, Fox might be persuaded to reconsider a series; however, the telemovie's ratings performance in America was not strong enough to hold Fox's interest.
The production budget for the movie (as revealed in the book Doctor Who: Regeneration) was US$5 million, with the Fox Network spending $2.5 million, BBC Television
contributing $300,000, and the remaining $2.2 million split between BBC Worldwide
and Universal Television
.
The producers of the television movie compiled several lists of actors to consider for the part of the Doctor. Among early thoughts were Michael Crawford
, Tim Curry
, Eric Idle
, Billy Connolly
, Trevor Eve
, Michael Palin
, Robert Lindsay
, and Jonathan Pryce
. All were uninterested in the project, or unavailable for the intended filming dates.
Casting sessions took place in March 1994; actors who actually auditioned for the role include Liam Cunningham, Mark McGann
, Robert Lindsay, Tim McInnerny
, Nathaniel Parker
, Peter Woodward
, John Sessions
, Anthony Head
, and Tony Slattery
. Paul McGann was first considered around the time of these auditions, but did not formally audition for the part until later.
Anthony Head would later work on a number of Doctor Who-related projects — including audio dramas, narrating Doctor Who Confidential
, and guest-starring in the 2006 episode School Reunion
— as would Tim McInnerny in the 2008 story "Planet of the Ood
".
story The Two Doctors
was originally planned for New Orleans). It is, to date, the only Doctor Who production to be entirely mounted outside of the UK (whereas all previous episodes shot on foreign soil included at least some studio taping in the UK).
In the 2005 Doctor Who Confidential
episode "Weird Science", Sylvester McCoy reveals that during the sequence where he locks the casket with his sonic screwdriver
, he held the tool pointing the wrong way around (although in the original series, it is seen being used both ways). The sonic screwdriver was blurred in post-production to conceal the error. This is also the only time the Seventh Doctor was seen using a sonic screwdriver.
Writer Matthew Jacobs's father, Anthony Jacobs, played the role of Doc Holliday
in the 1966 First Doctor
serial The Gunfighters
; the young Matthew visited the studio during production.
, as the Master observes Rowan Atkinson
's Doctor.
Instead of designing a new Doctor Who logo for this film, it was decided instead to use a modified version of the logo that was used for the Jon Pertwee
era of the original series (with the exception of the final season). This logo, being the last logo used on an "official" Doctor Who broadcast before the 2005 revival, is to this day used by the BBC for most Doctor Who merchandise relating to the first eight Doctors.
John Debney
was commissioned to write the score for this film, and intended to replace Ron Grainer
's original theme with a new composition. Ultimately Debney did in fact use an arrangement of Grainer's music for the theme, although Grainer goes uncredited.
releases are labelled Doctor Who and The Movie. The VHS
release contains both the name Doctor Who and the name The Sensational Feature Length Film (this one probably intended to be a subtitle). The most common fan usage appears to refer to it as "the television movie", the "TVM", or variations thereof.
Upon translation into French
, this film was renamed Le Seigneur du Temps ("The Timelord").
"TVM" is the production code used in the BBC's online episode guide. The actual code used during production is 50/LDX071Y/01X. Doctor Who Magazine
's "Complete Eighth Doctor Special" gives the production code as #83705. Big Finish Productions
uses the code 8A, and numbers its subsequent Eighth Doctor stories correspondingly.
station on 12 May, two days prior to its Fox Network broadcast.
Commercials on the Fox network advertising the film used special effects footage from the 1986 story The Trial of a Time Lord
, although this footage was not used in the movie. This marked the first time that footage from the original BBC series had been shown on a major American network. The advertisements also used a different arrangement of the Doctor Who theme music than that heard in the film.
The movie received disappointing US ratings (partly due to the popularity of the programmes it was up against, partly because of poor marketing by the Fox Network, and partly because of unfamiliarity with the British series amongst a mainstream American TV audience). It received 5.6 million viewers, a total 9% share of the audience. However, when shown on BBC One
in the United Kingdom
on Monday 27 May at 8.30pm, thirteen days after its American broadcast, it received over 9 million viewers in the UK alone (the highest drama ratings in Britain for the whole week).
Third Doctor
actor Jon Pertwee
died a few days after the US broadcast of the film, and the UK broadcast included an epitaph to the actor. The UK broadcast was also edited for broadcast in a pre-Watershed
timeslot. The scenes where Chang Lee's friends are fired upon was cut because of the gun violence
(particularly in light of the Dunblane massacre
which took place three months before). The operating room scene was also extensively cut, in particular the seventh Doctor's dying scream.
for Best Television Presentation
.
in the United Kingdom several weeks before broadcast to capitalize on the interest in the series returning. However, the British Board of Film Classification
required the video release to have the same edits as the broadcast version, and so the release was delayed to a week prior to its debut broadcast on BBC One. Hundreds of fans queued in London at midnight in order to buy a copy at the earliest possible moment, however overall sales were impacted by the now-imminent broadcast.
A Laserdisc
release of the movie was released exclusively in Hong Kong by Universal in 1997.
The unedited version was released on DVD
in the UK in 2001 titled as Doctor Who: The Movie, and was re-released in 2007 as a limited edition with an alternative cover sleeve (but with no change in content) as part of a series of classic series re-releases aimed at attracting fans of the revived series to the older shows.
Both the edited and unedited versions have also been released in countries such as Australia and New Zealand.
The 2010 DVD box set Revisitations contains the movie with a new, updated Special Edition DVD features. It included a new commentary with Paul McGann and Sylvester McCoy, an hour-long documentary on the time in between the film and the series' cancellation in 1989, a documentary on the 7 years it took to get the film made, a documentary on the 8th Doctor's comic strip adventures, a documentary on the media reaction the 8th Doctor, a documentary on the ties with Blue Peter and Doctor Who as well as all of the original features including the original commentary with Geoffrey Sax. On August 25, 2010, Dan Hall of 2entertain confirmed that this updated version would be released in North America sometime in the next twelve months following extensive negotiations with Universal Studios
. Two months afterward, a North American DVD release date for the 2-disc Doctor Who: The Movie - Special Edition was announced to be February 8, 2011.
. Additional music was contributed by John Sponsler and Louis Febre
.
CD Edited and mastered by James Nelson at Digital Outland
CD Art direction: Mark Banning
Front Cover concept: David Hirsch
Special Thanks to Ryan K. Johnson
by Gary Russell
and published by BBC Books
in May 1996. It was the first novelisation of a televised Doctor Who story to not be published by Target Books
(or related companies) since Doctor Who and the Crusaders
in 1965. It is also the last novelisation of a televised story to date.
Basing the adaptation on an early draft of the script, Russell adjusted some details to make it more consistent with the original series, and the novelisation also contains elements that were cut from the shooting script for timing reasons.
The canonicity of the novelisation, like all spin-off fiction, is unclear.
The novelisation was the first Doctor Who novel published by BBC Books. The book was actually published prior to the conclusion of Virgin Books
' contract for publishing original Doctor Who fiction, so the next release by BBC Books did not occur for about a year when the Eighth Doctor Adventures
series began with The Eight Doctors
. The novelisation was released as a standalone work and is not considered part of this series. The Eighth Doctor Adventures series ran until 2005 when it was discontinued.
In 1997, the novel was also released as an audio book
, read by Paul McGann. This reading was later included on the 2004 MP3 CD
Tales from the TARDIS Volume Two.
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
based on the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
science fiction television series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
. Developed as a co-production amongst Universal Television
Universal Television
Universal Television is the television production arm of the NBCUniversal Television Group, and by extension, the NBC television network...
, BBC Television
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation, which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927, has produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television...
, BBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide Limited is the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in 1995. In the year to 31 March 2010 it made a profit of £145m on a turnover of £1.074bn. The company had made a profit of £106m...
, and the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
network FOX
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
, the 1996 television film premiered on 12 May 1996 on CITV
CITV-TV
CITV-DT is a television station in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Known on air as Global Edmonton, the station is owned by Shaw Media, and is an owned-and-operated station of the Global Television Network. It transmits on channel 13 and cable 8 in Edmonton, and is carried on the Bell TV and Shaw...
in Edmonton, Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, 15 days before its first showing in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
on BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
, and two days before being broadcast in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on FOX.
The film was the first attempt to revive Doctor Who, following its cancellation in 1989. It was intended as a back-door pilot for a new American-produced Doctor Who TV series, and introduced Paul McGann
Paul McGann
Paul McGann is an English actor who made his name on the BBC serial The Monocled Mutineer, in which he played the lead role...
as the Eighth Doctor
Eighth Doctor
The Eighth Doctor is the eighth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by Paul McGann...
in his only televised appearance as the character. Although a ratings success in the United Kingdom, the film did not fare well on American television, and no new series was purchased. The series was later relaunched on the BBC in 2005.
Although the film was primarily produced by different hands from the 1963-89 series, and intended for an American audience, the producers chose not to produce a "reimagining" or "reboot" of the series (examples of such proposals can be found in Jean-Marc Lofficier's book The Nth Doctor (Virgin Publishing, 1997)), but rather a continuation of the original narrative. The production was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, to date the only episode of Doctor Who filmed in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
Plot
As the film opens, The MasterMaster (Doctor Who)
The Master is a recurring character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He is a renegade Time Lord and the archenemy of the Doctor....
has been tried on Skaro
Skaro
Skaro is a fictional planet from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who created by the writer Terry Nation as the home planet of the Daleks and, at times, the centre of the Dalek Empire....
and found guilty of a "list of evil crimes,". His death sentence at the hands of the Daleks has been carried out. His last wish was for his remains to be returned to Gallifrey
Gallifrey
Gallifrey is a fictional planet in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who and is the homeworld of the Doctor and the Time Lords...
by his archenemy, the Doctor
Doctor (Doctor Who)
The Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....
, currently in his seventh incarnation
Seventh Doctor
The Seventh Doctor is the seventh incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by the actor Sylvester McCoy....
.
During the trip back to Gallifrey in the Doctor's TARDIS
TARDIS
The TARDISGenerally, TARDIS is written in all upper case letters—this convention was popularised by the Target novelisations of the 1970s...
, the vessel shakes, causing the box containing the Master's remains to shatter and allowing a sentient ooze to escape from it. The ooze enters the TARDIS controls and forces an emergency landing in Chinatown
Chinatown
A Chinatown is an ethnic enclave of overseas Chinese people, although it is often generalized to include various Southeast Asian people. Chinatowns exist throughout the world, including East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Americas, Australasia, and Europe. Binondo's Chinatown located in Manila,...
in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
on New Year's Eve 1999. As the Doctor steps from the TARDIS to find his bearings, he is shot by a gang who are chasing down Chang Lee, a young Chinese-American man. Lee calls for an ambulance, and the Doctor is rushed to a nearby hospital. The surgeons find, through X-ray
X-ray
X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
s, that the Doctor has two hearts, but they assume the X-ray image is a double exposure. As cardiologist
Cardiology
Cardiology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the heart . The field includes diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular heart disease and electrophysiology...
Dr. Grace Holloway
Grace Holloway
Dr. Grace Holloway is a fictional character played by Daphne Ashbrook in the 1996 television movie Doctor Who, a continuation of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
starts to operate with a cardiac probe, the Doctor wakes up, tells her that he needs a beryllium
Beryllium
Beryllium is the chemical element with the symbol Be and atomic number 4. It is a divalent element which occurs naturally only in combination with other elements in minerals. Notable gemstones which contain beryllium include beryl and chrysoberyl...
atomic clock
Atomic clock
An atomic clock is a clock that uses an electronic transition frequency in the microwave, optical, or ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum of atoms as a frequency standard for its timekeeping element...
, and then falls into a seizure, eventually flat-lining. Dr. Holloway declares the Doctor dead, and his body is placed into a morgue
Morgue
A morgue or mortuary is used for the storage of human corpses awaiting identification, or removal for autopsy or disposal by burial, cremation or otherwise...
. Lee steals the Doctor's possessions, including the TARDIS key, and runs off. Meanwhile, the ooze, which had stowed itself away on the ambulance, attacks and takes over the body of the ambulance driver, Bruce. When Bruce's wife questions his odd behaviour, the Master, now controlling his body, murders her.
Late in the night, the Doctor regenerates into a new body
Eighth Doctor
The Eighth Doctor is the eighth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by Paul McGann...
, and leaves the morgue in a state of confusion, donning parts of costumes intended for the New Year's party later that night. He follows Dr. Holloway as she leaves the hospital, and convinces her that he is the same man she operated on earlier. Dr. Holloway, who has resigned from her job at the hospital, after the hospital covering up the Doctor's presence there, takes the Doctor to her home. Meanwhile, Lee has returned to the TARDIS with the key, and entered the time machine. The Master arrives soon afterwards and tells Lee that the Doctor stole the TARDIS from him, as well as his body, which he wants to retrieve. He convinces Lee to open the Eye of Harmony
Eye of Harmony
The Eye of Harmony is an artificial black hole created by the Time Lords to provide energy for their home world of Gallifrey and their time travel technology in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.-First appearances:...
, thanks to his human retina
Retina
The vertebrate retina is a light-sensitive tissue lining the inner surface of the eye. The optics of the eye create an image of the visual world on the retina, which serves much the same function as the film in a camera. Light striking the retina initiates a cascade of chemical and electrical...
l pattern. The Doctor recovers his memory and tries to keep his own eyes shut to prevent the Master from seeing through them, as that would allow him to take over the Doctor's body. The Doctor also warns Dr. Holloway that if they do not shut the Eye before midnight, the entire planet may be sucked into it, and that to close it, he needs an atomic clock. Dr. Holloway disbelieves the Doctor initially, but when he demonstrates that the nature of reality is already changing by walking through her bay windows without breaking them, she agrees to take him to the unveiling of an atomic clock at the San Francisco Institute of Technological Advancement and Research. They are given a lift to the Institute in an ambulance driven by Lee and the Master, whom the Doctor does not yet recognise. However, when the Master removes his shades, revealing non-human eyes, the Doctor and Dr. Holloway abandon the ambulance and steal a police motorcycle, but not before the Master is able to shoot Dr. Holloway's wrist with a strange, bile-like fluid.
At the Institute, the Doctor and Dr. Holloway manage to collect the integrated circuit
Integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...
chip with the atomic clock mechanism by subterfuge, and make their way back to the TARDIS. Once there, the Doctor is able to install the chip and close the Eye, but discovers that that Eye has been open far too long, and that they must revert time to before the Eye was opened to prevent the destruction of the Earth. However, before the Doctor can route power to the TARDIS, the Master is able to use the bile on Dr. Holloway's wrist to control her, and forces her to knock out the Doctor. The Doctor is chained above the Eye, his eyes forced open so as to allow the Master to take his remaining regenerations. When the Doctor awakes, he tries to talk Lee out of the Master's spell but to no avail; however, when the Master lies to Lee in order to get him to open the Eye again, Lee refuses, causing the Master to break his neck. The Master then uses his control of Dr. Holloway to open the Eye, though this breaks his control of her. While the Master begins the process of transferring the Doctor's remaining regenerations to him, Dr. Holloway is able to connect the last power circuit in the console room, sending the TARDIS into a time-holding pattern just moments after the turn of midnight, staving off destruction of the Earth. When Dr. Holloway tries to return to help the Doctor, she is thrown over a balcony and killed by the Master, but her interference has given the Doctor enough time to push the Master into the Eye itself, apparently killing him. The action causes the Eye to close, and time to revert back to a few moments before midnight, bringing both Dr. Holloway and Lee back to life.
As the three recover, they find the world is safe. As Lee departs after returning the rest of the Doctor's possessions, the Doctor warns him not to be in San Francisco next year during New Year's Eve. The Doctor then asks Dr. Holloway to travel with him in the TARDIS, but she politely refuses and also leaves. The Doctor returns to the TARDIS and pilots her off to a new adventure.
The Doctor
- The television movie remains Paul McGannPaul McGannPaul McGann is an English actor who made his name on the BBC serial The Monocled Mutineer, in which he played the lead role...
's sole televised story as the Doctor. It has nonetheless had a significant impact on the Doctor Who mythos, with an ongoing Doctor Who novel lineEighth Doctor AdventuresThe Eighth Doctor Adventures are a series of spin off novels based on the long running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who and published under the BBC Books imprint. 73 books were published overall...
, comic strip, and audio seriesBig Finish ProductionsBig Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...
that featured the Eighth Doctor for years, until and beyond the TV series' return in 2005. The Eighth Doctor has also featured in a series of BBC7 audio plays since 2007. - The Seventh Doctor is seen wearing a different costume from the one he wore during his 1987-1989 tenure: gone are the question markQuestion markThe question mark , is a punctuation mark that replaces the full stop at the end of an interrogative sentence in English and many other languages. The question mark is not used for indirect questions...
pulloverPulloverPullover may refer to:* Pullover Productions, UK producer of the children's television programme Pullover in the early 1980s* Sweater or hoodie, a piece of clothing "pulled over" the head instead of buttoned or zipped-up...
and umbrellaUmbrellaAn umbrella or parasol is a canopy designed to protect against rain or sunlight. The term parasol usually refers to an item designed to protect from the sun; umbrella refers to a device more suited to protect from rain...
. The costume does include the original hat, which is actually owned by Sylvester McCoy. - When reluctantly filling out an emergency medical treatment form, Chang Lee (who had only met the semi-conscious Seventh Doctor minutes earlier and did not know his identity) gives the Doctor's name as "John Smith", a recurring alias originally given to the Second DoctorSecond DoctorThe Second Doctor is the second incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by character actor Patrick Troughton....
by companion Jamie McCrimmonJamie McCrimmonJames Robert "Jamie" McCrimmon is a fictional character played by Frazer Hines in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A piper of the Clan McLaren who lived in 18th century Scotland, he was a companion of the Second Doctor and a regular in the programme from 1966...
in The Wheel in SpaceThe Wheel in SpaceThe Wheel in Space is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from 27 April to 1 June 1968...
. - On-screen dialogue confirms that the Seventh Doctor "dies" at 10:03 PM on 30 December 1999, with regeneration occurring early on 31 December. The position of prop clocks would suggest this regeneration to have occurred some time around 1:00 to 1:15 AM on that day, leading to some argument that it may have taken place over a prolonged period of time, unlike other regenerations.
- Although the Doctor has never regenerated the same way twice (although his 9th and 10th regenerations were similar to each other), the depiction here is particularly unusual in that, unlike all previous (and later) regenerations, it sets in long after the Doctor's apparent "death", a condition apparently caused by the anaesthetic in the Doctor's system.
- While rummaging through lockers in search of clothing, the Doctor momentarily examines a long, multi-coloured scarf, similar to that worn by the Fourth DoctorFourth DoctorThe Fourth Doctor is the fourth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC British television science-fiction series Doctor Who....
. The Eighth Doctor also offers a policeman a jelly babyJelly babyJelly babies are a type of soft confectionery that look like little babies in a variety of colours. There are currently several brands of jelly babies, most predominantly Trebor Bassett , Rowntree , Norfolk Manor, and Haribo.Jelly babies were launched by Bassett's in 1918 in Sheffield...
, a favourite confectionery of the Second, Fourth and (as seen in the opening scenes) Seventh Doctors. A 900-year diary is also fleetingly visible in the TARDIS. - This marks the second time when the newly-regenerated Doctor dons his new clothes by taking them from a hospital, the Third DoctorThird DoctorThe Third Doctor is the third incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by actor Jon Pertwee....
having previously taken the clothes belonging to a consultant in Spearhead from SpaceSpearhead from SpaceSpearhead from Space is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 3 January to 24 January 1970. The serial opened Series 7 of the show and was the first to be produced in colour. The serial introduced Jon Pertwee as the...
; the Eleventh DoctorEleventh DoctorThe Eleventh Doctor is the eleventh incarnation of the protagonist of the BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. Matt Smith plays this incarnation, replacing David Tennant's Tenth Doctor in the 2010 episode "The End of Time, Part Two"...
would again steal his clothes from a hospital in The Eleventh HourThe Eleventh Hour (Doctor Who)"The Eleventh Hour" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One and BBC HD on 3 April 2010....
. - Significant to the plot is the premise that the Doctor is half-human, "on [his] mother's side". This fact has proved extremely controversial among series' fans. The issue was referenced a number of times in the BBC books featuring the Eighth Doctor, which either seek to explain it or elaborate on it. Alien BodiesAlien BodiesAlien Bodies is an original novel written by Lawrence Miles and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Eighth Doctor and Sam. This story marks the first appearance of Faction Paradox, a time travelling Gallifreyan voodoo cult...
subtly suggests that it is just the Eighth Doctor who is half-human, while others books (such as Unnatural HistoryUnnatural History (Doctor Who)Unnatural History is an original novel written by Jonathan Blum and Kate Orman and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
and The Gallifrey ChroniclesThe Gallifrey ChroniclesThe Gallifrey Chronicles may refer to:*The Gallifrey Chronicles , a Doctor Who book written by John Peel*The Gallifrey Chronicles , a Doctor Who novel written by Lance Parkin...
) suggest that the Doctor's human mother is a Victorian Lady called Penelope Gate, and his Time Lord father is called Ulysses. Another explanation is offered in The Taking of Planet 5The Taking of Planet 5The Taking of Planet 5 is a BBC Books original novel written by Simon Bucher-Jones & Mark Clapham and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Eighth Doctor, Fitz and Compassion. It is, in part, a sequel to the television serial Image of the...
, where it is suggested that the Doctor has become half-human as a result of repeated regenerations around humans, where he absorbed bits of their DNA. The issue was not addressed on-screen again, though in "Journey's EndJourney's End (Doctor Who)"Journey's End" is the thirteenth episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who first broadcast on BBC One on 5 July 2008. It is the second episode of a two-part crossover story featuring the characters of spin-off shows Torchwood and The Sarah Jane...
", a second version of the Doctor is created whose physiology had, through the unique circumstances involved, been created as a combination of the Doctor's and his human companion's physiologies; the new Doctor unenthusiastically explores his newly half-human body. In the 2008 Doctor Who comic book The Forgotten the Doctor states that, prior to regenerating, he used the Chameleon Arch to create the fiction of being half-human in order to deceive the Master. - Although the Doctor experienced some arguably romantic situations in stories such as The AztecsThe Aztecs (Doctor Who)-VHS and DVD releases:*The serial was released on VHS in 1992.*On 21 October 2002, it was released on Region 2 DVD. This release was the first Doctor Who DVD to use the VidFIRE process throughout the whole production.-External links:Fan reviews...
, the movie is the first time the Doctor's sexuality is overtly explored on-screen. This tendency carries over to the revived series, and its portrayal of the NinthNinth DoctorThe Ninth Doctor is the ninth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by Christopher Eccleston....
and Tenth DoctorTenth DoctorThe Tenth Doctor is the tenth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by David Tennant, who appears in three series, as well as eight specials...
s. - In the 2007 episode "Human NatureHuman Nature (Doctor Who episode)"Human Nature" is the eighth episode of the third series of the revived British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is the first episode of a two-part story written by Paul Cornell adapted from his 1995 Doctor Who novel Human Nature...
", in which the Doctor presented sketches of his previous incarnations, the Eighth Doctor appears most prominently. In 2008, the Eighth Doctor made another cameo in "The Next Doctor", in a sequence of clips, counting up the ten Doctors to date, followed by two similar cameos in 2010 in "The Eleventh HourThe Eleventh Hour (Doctor Who)"The Eleventh Hour" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One and BBC HD on 3 April 2010....
" and "The LodgerThe Lodger (Doctor Who)"The Lodger" is the eleventh episode of the fifth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, first broadcast on BBC One on 12 June 2010...
".
Daleks and the Master
- Although the Doctor's most famous alien adversaries, the DalekDalekThe Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Within the series, Daleks are cyborgs from the planet Skaro, created by the scientist Davros during the final years of a thousand-year war against the Thals...
s, are not seen in the film, they are heard condemning the Master to death during the film's opening sequence (sporting their trademark war cry of: "EX-TER-MIN-ATE!"). - This remains Eric RobertsEric RobertsEric Anthony Roberts is an American actor. His career began with King of the Gypsies , earning a Golden Globe nomination for best actor debut. He starred as the protagonist in the 1980 dramatisation of Willa Cather's 1905 short story, Paul's Case...
' sole appearance as the Master. See also Celebrity appearances in Doctor WhoCelebrity appearances in Doctor WhoThis is a list of actors who have made guest appearances in Doctor Who.-First Doctor stories:-Second Doctor stories:-Third Doctor stories:-Fourth Doctor stories:-Fifth Doctor stories:-Sixth Doctor stories:-Seventh Doctor stories:...
. - This would also be the Master's last official television appearance in Doctor Who until the 2007 episode "UtopiaUtopia (Doctor Who)"Utopia" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 16 June 2007 and is the eleventh episode of series three of the revived Doctor Who series...
". In the following episode, "The Sound of DrumsThe Sound of Drums"The Sound of Drums" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 23 June 2007, and is the twelfth episode of Series 3 of the revived Doctor Who series...
", it is stated that the Time Lords themselves resurrected him to use him in the Time WarTime War (Doctor Who)The Time War, more specifically called The Last Great Time War, is a conflict within the fictional universe of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
. - The Master tried to use the Eye of Harmony to obtain a new set of regenerations before, in The Deadly AssassinThe Deadly AssassinThe Deadly Assassin is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 30 October to 20 November 1976...
. He was also offered a new set of regenerations by the Time Lords in The Five DoctorsThe Five DoctorsThe Five Doctors is a special feature-length episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, produced in celebration of the programme's twentieth anniversary. It had its world premiere in the United States, on the Chicago PBS station WTTW and various other PBS member stations...
, but his continued quest for regenerations in later stories like Planet of FirePlanet of FirePlanet of Fire is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts from 23 February to 2 March 1984...
implies that he never received them. - The Master's snake form is given an explanation in the spin-off novel The Eight DoctorsThe Eight DoctorsThe Eight Doctors is a BBC Books original novel written by Terrance Dicks and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was the first of the Eighth Doctor Adventures range and features the Eighth Doctor and introduces his new companion, Sam Jones.The novel...
and in the Doctor Who MagazineDoctor Who MagazineDoctor Who Magazine is a magazine devoted to the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
comic strip "The Fallen".
The TARDIS
- Although the TARDIS interior changed several times throughout the original series, the movie's set was the most dramatic change yet, replacing the sterile white corridors and "roundel"-based design with a steampunkSteampunkSteampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually Victorian era Britain or "Wild West"-era United...
theme reminiscent of Jules VerneJules VerneJules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
. Several subsequent tie-in novels attempted to explain the change. In the 2005 series, the interior changed once again, just as dramatically. In a later interview with Doctor Who MagazineDoctor Who MagazineDoctor Who Magazine is a magazine devoted to the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
, series producer Russell T Davies mused that the TARDIS interior is probably "skinnable", like WinampWinampWinamp is a media player for Windows-based PCs and Android devices, written by Nullsoft, now a subsidiary of AOL. It is proprietary freeware/shareware, multi-format, extensible with plug-ins and skins, and is noted for its graphical sound visualization, playlist, and media library features.Winamp...
. This seems to be confirmed in the multi-Doctor special "Time CrashTime Crash"Time Crash" is a mini-episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on 16 November 2007, as part of the BBC One telethon for the children's charity Children in Need...
" where the Fifth DoctorFifth DoctorThe Fifth Doctor is the fifth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is portrayed by Peter Davison....
remarks that the Tenth DoctorTenth DoctorThe Tenth Doctor is the tenth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by David Tennant, who appears in three series, as well as eight specials...
had "changed the desktop theme." However, the Fourth DoctorFourth DoctorThe Fourth Doctor is the fourth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC British television science-fiction series Doctor Who....
era serial The Masque of MandragoraThe Masque of MandragoraThe Masque of Mandragora is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 4 September to 25 September 1976. It opened Season 14 of the series.-Synopsis:...
also introduced the idea that the TARDIS has at least one secondary console room, later confirmed in the Eleventh DoctorEleventh DoctorThe Eleventh Doctor is the eleventh incarnation of the protagonist of the BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. Matt Smith plays this incarnation, replacing David Tennant's Tenth Doctor in the 2010 episode "The End of Time, Part Two"...
episode The Doctor's WifeThe Doctor's Wife (Doctor Who)"The Doctor's Wife" is the fourth episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was broadcast on 14 May 2011 in the United Kingdom, as well as in the United States...
. Another change to the console room was made in The Eleventh HourThe Eleventh Hour (Doctor Who)"The Eleventh Hour" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One and BBC HD on 3 April 2010....
just after the Doctor regenerated into his eleventh incarnationEleventh DoctorThe Eleventh Doctor is the eleventh incarnation of the protagonist of the BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. Matt Smith plays this incarnation, replacing David Tennant's Tenth Doctor in the 2010 episode "The End of Time, Part Two"...
. It had been critically damaged and, as explained by the Doctor, it was "rebuilding itself", thus confirming how such changes were made to the room. - This film introduces the idea of including earth-like elements on the TARDIS control console, such as an early 20th-Century automobile handbrake, apparently used for a similar purpose. This was used again in the 2005 and 2010 designs of the console.
- As established in The Deadly AssassinThe Deadly AssassinThe Deadly Assassin is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 30 October to 20 November 1976...
(1976), the Eye of Harmony is held on Gallifrey; its presence on the TARDIS therefore seems a peculiar inclusion for the movie. Fan theory quickly resolved the conflict by speculating that the "Eye" on the TARDIS was merely a spatiotemporal link to the actual Eye on Gallifrey, a feature presumably contained on all TARDIS craft as a source of energy. This theory soon found its way into licensed material such as the BBC novel range. Notably, in the revived series, in which Gallifrey has been destroyed, the TARDIS lacks its own power source, and must draw power from fissures in the fabric of reality. A later episode, The Sound of DrumsThe Sound of Drums"The Sound of Drums" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 23 June 2007, and is the twelfth episode of Series 3 of the revived Doctor Who series...
, may also support the link theory; it is revealed that after falling into the Eye, the Master is revived by the Time Lords without the Doctor's knowledge. - The film further states that the "Eye" can only be opened with the scan of a human retinaRetinaThe vertebrate retina is a light-sensitive tissue lining the inner surface of the eye. The optics of the eye create an image of the visual world on the retina, which serves much the same function as the film in a camera. Light striking the retina initiates a cascade of chemical and electrical...
, a fact apparently tied to the Doctor's own human retinal pattern. The 2000 Big FinishBig Finish ProductionsBig Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...
audio play The Apocalypse ElementThe Apocalypse ElementThe Apocalypse Element is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It forms the second serial in the Dalek Empire arc, following on from events in The Genocide Machine...
attempts to explain this decision by introducing a plot point in which the eye of the Sixth DoctorSixth DoctorThe Sixth Doctor is the sixth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by Colin Baker...
's companion Evelyn SmytheEvelyn SmytheDr. Evelyn Smythe is a fictional character played by Maggie Stables in a series of audio plays produced by Big Finish Productions based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A professor of history from the 20th century with a fondness for chocolate, she is a...
is keyed to a Gallifreyan security system so as to confound enemy expectations by allowing entry only to the most unlikely of candidates, the Doctor speculating after the crisis is over that the TARDIS may retain some sensitivity to human eyes in the future. - The golden "fairy dust" emitted from the Eye that resurrects Grace and Chang Lee, though unprecedented within the series and unexplained within the movie, is to some extent evoked in several episodes of the revived series. Those references include "The Parting of the WaysThe Parting of the Ways"The Parting of the Ways" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on 18 June 2005. It was the second episode of the two-part story that featured Christopher Eccleston making his last appearance as the Ninth Doctor...
", in which Rose TylerRose TylerRose Marion Tyler is a fictional character portrayed by Billie Piper in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and was created by series producer Russell T Davies...
wrenches open the console to absorb the energies of the Time VortexTime vortex (Doctor Who)In the science fiction television series Doctor Who, the time vortex is the medium that the TARDIS and other time machines travel through...
, thereby obtaining control over life and death. In this case, the Vortex energies are again depicted as a sort of golden dust. Furthermore, shortly after their respective regenerations in The Christmas InvasionThe Christmas Invasion"The Christmas Invasion" is a 60-minute special episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is Christmas, but there is little cause for celebration as planet Earth is invaded by aliens known as the Sycorax...
and The Eleventh HourThe Eleventh Hour (Doctor Who)"The Eleventh Hour" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One and BBC HD on 3 April 2010....
, both the Tenth DoctorTenth DoctorThe Tenth Doctor is the tenth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by David Tennant, who appears in three series, as well as eight specials...
and the Eleventh DoctorEleventh DoctorThe Eleventh Doctor is the eleventh incarnation of the protagonist of the BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. Matt Smith plays this incarnation, replacing David Tennant's Tenth Doctor in the 2010 episode "The End of Time, Part Two"...
are seen to emit this golden dust from their mouths. - The Doctor's reference to the Chameleon Circuit as a "cloaking device" was for a while another point of criticism within the fan community. As with "regeneration", the device has taken on many names throughout the history of the series. Russell T Davies referenced the criticism in the 2005 episode "Boom TownBoom Town (Doctor Who)"Boom Town" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on 4 June 2005. The Doctor, Rose and Jack travel to modern-day Cardiff and meet up with Rose's boyfriend, Mickey...
"; when at one point Rose TylerRose TylerRose Marion Tyler is a fictional character portrayed by Billie Piper in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and was created by series producer Russell T Davies...
refers to a cloaking device, the Doctor corrects her.
Production
Pre-production
Producer Philip SegalPhilip Segal
Philip David Segal is a television producer. He emigrated to the United States in 1974 at the age of twelve, where he studied film at San Diego State University...
had been trying for some years to launch a new American-produced series of Doctor Who, but the Fox Network — the only American network that showed any interest — was only prepared to commit to a single telemovie. It was hoped that, would the telemovie be successful, Fox might be persuaded to reconsider a series; however, the telemovie's ratings performance in America was not strong enough to hold Fox's interest.
The production budget for the movie (as revealed in the book Doctor Who: Regeneration) was US$5 million, with the Fox Network spending $2.5 million, BBC Television
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation, which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927, has produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television...
contributing $300,000, and the remaining $2.2 million split between BBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide Limited is the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in 1995. In the year to 31 March 2010 it made a profit of £145m on a turnover of £1.074bn. The company had made a profit of £106m...
and Universal Television
Universal Television
Universal Television is the television production arm of the NBCUniversal Television Group, and by extension, the NBC television network...
.
Casting
Miranda, the wife of Bruce, is played by Eric Roberts' real-life wife, Eliza Roberts.The producers of the television movie compiled several lists of actors to consider for the part of the Doctor. Among early thoughts were Michael Crawford
Michael Crawford
Michael Crawford OBE is an English actor and singer. He has garnered great critical acclaim and won numerous awards during his career, which covers radio, television, film, and stagework on both London's West End and on Broadway in New York City...
, Tim Curry
Tim Curry
Timothy James "Tim" Curry is a British actor, singer, composer and voice actor, known for his work in a diverse range of theatre, film and television productions. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California....
, Eric Idle
Eric Idle
Eric Idle is an English comedian, actor, author, singer, writer, and comedic composer. He was as a member of the British comedy group Monty Python, a member of the The Rutles on Saturday Night Live and author of the play, Spamalot....
, Billy Connolly
Billy Connolly
William "Billy" Connolly, Jr., CBE is a Scottish comedian, musician, presenter and actor. He is sometimes known, especially in his native Scotland, by the nickname The Big Yin...
, Trevor Eve
Trevor Eve
Trevor John Eve is a British film and television actor. In 1979 he gained fame as the eponymous lead in the detective series Shoestring and is also known for his role as Detective Superintendent Peter Boyd in BBC television drama Waking the Dead.-Early life:Eve was born in Sutton Coldfield,...
, Michael Palin
Michael Palin
Michael Edward Palin, CBE FRGS is an English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries....
, Robert Lindsay
Robert Lindsay (actor)
Robert Lindsay is an English actor who is best known for his television work, especially his roles of Wolfie Smith in Citizen Smith, Michael Murray in G.B.H., Captain Sir Edward Pellew in Hornblower and Ben Harper in My Family which has been on television screens since 2000.-Early life:Lindsay was...
, and Jonathan Pryce
Jonathan Pryce
Jonathan Pryce, CBE is a Welsh stage and film actor and singer. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and meeting his longtime partner English actress Kate Fahy in 1974, he began his career as a stage actor in the 1970s...
. All were uninterested in the project, or unavailable for the intended filming dates.
Casting sessions took place in March 1994; actors who actually auditioned for the role include Liam Cunningham, Mark McGann
Mark McGann
Mark McGann is an English actor, director and musician.- Acting career :McGann first appeared on stage in 1981 in the production Lennon at the Everyman Theatre and the London Astoria where he portrayed John Lennon, role which won him the first of his two Olivier Award nominations for best actor in...
, Robert Lindsay, Tim McInnerny
Tim McInnerny
Tim McInnerny is an English actor. He is known for his role as Percy in Blackadder and Blackadder II, and as Captain Darling in Blackadder Goes Forth...
, Nathaniel Parker
Nathaniel Parker
Nathaniel Parker is an English actor best known for playing Detective Inspector Thomas "Tommy" Lynley in the BBC crime drama series The Inspector Lynley Mysteries.-Personal life:...
, Peter Woodward
Peter Woodward
Peter Woodward is an English actor, stuntman and screenwriter. He is probably best known for his role as Galen in the Babylon 5 spin-offs Babylon 5: A Call to Arms, Crusade and Babylon 5: The Lost Tales....
, John Sessions
John Sessions
John Gibb Marshall , better known by the stage name John Sessions, is a Scottish actor and comedian. He is known for comedy improvisation in television shows such as Whose Line Is It Anyway?; as a panellist on QI; and as a character actor in numerous films, both in the UK and in Hollywood.-Early...
, Anthony Head
Anthony Head
Anthony Stewart Head , usually credited as Anthony Head, is an English actor and musician. He rose to fame in the UK following his role in television advertisements for Nescafé Gold Blend , and is known for his roles as Rupert Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and as Uther Pendragon in...
, and Tony Slattery
Tony Slattery
Anthony Declan James "Tony" Slattery is an English actor and comedian who has appeared on British television regularly since the mid 1980s, most notably as a regular on the Channel 4 improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway? As a film actor, both comedic and serious, his credits include The...
. Paul McGann was first considered around the time of these auditions, but did not formally audition for the part until later.
Anthony Head would later work on a number of Doctor Who-related projects — including audio dramas, narrating Doctor Who Confidential
Doctor Who Confidential
Doctor Who Confidential is a documentary series created by the British Broadcasting Corporation to complement the revival of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Each episode was broadcast on BBC Three on Saturdays, immediately after the broadcast of the weekly...
, and guest-starring in the 2006 episode School Reunion
School Reunion (Doctor Who)
"School Reunion" is the third episode in the second series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It first aired on 29 April 2006. The episode's narrative takes place some time after the events of "The Christmas Invasion"...
— as would Tim McInnerny in the 2008 story "Planet of the Ood
Planet of the Ood
"Planet of the Ood" is the third episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 19 April 2008. It features the return of the Ood, who appeared in the second series episodes "The Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit".The episode...
".
Production
The movie was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, the first time any Doctor Who story had been filmed in North America (although the 1985 Sixth DoctorSixth Doctor
The Sixth Doctor is the sixth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by Colin Baker...
story The Two Doctors
The Two Doctors
The Two Doctors is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in three weekly parts from 16 February to 2 March 1985. It starred Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant as the Sixth Doctor and his companion Peri, respectively...
was originally planned for New Orleans). It is, to date, the only Doctor Who production to be entirely mounted outside of the UK (whereas all previous episodes shot on foreign soil included at least some studio taping in the UK).
In the 2005 Doctor Who Confidential
Doctor Who Confidential
Doctor Who Confidential is a documentary series created by the British Broadcasting Corporation to complement the revival of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Each episode was broadcast on BBC Three on Saturdays, immediately after the broadcast of the weekly...
episode "Weird Science", Sylvester McCoy reveals that during the sequence where he locks the casket with his sonic screwdriver
Sonic screwdriver
The sonic screwdriver is a fictional tool in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who and its spinoffs. It is a multifunctional tool used by The Doctor. Its most common function is that of a lockpick, but can be used to perform other operations such as performing medical scans,...
, he held the tool pointing the wrong way around (although in the original series, it is seen being used both ways). The sonic screwdriver was blurred in post-production to conceal the error. This is also the only time the Seventh Doctor was seen using a sonic screwdriver.
Writer Matthew Jacobs's father, Anthony Jacobs, played the role of Doc Holliday
Doc Holliday
John Henry "Doc" Holliday was an American gambler, gunfighter and dentist of the American Old West, who is usually remembered for his friendship with Wyatt Earp and his involvement in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral...
in the 1966 First Doctor
First Doctor
The First Doctor is the initial incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by the actor William Hartnell from 1963 to 1966. Hartnell reprised the role in the tenth anniversary story The Three Doctors in 1973 - albeit in a...
serial The Gunfighters
The Gunfighters
The Gunfighters is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, set in 19th Century America on the days leading up to the famous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral...
; the young Matthew visited the studio during production.
Post-production
The opening pre-credits sequence went through a number of modifications, with several different voice-overs recorded. At one stage the voice-over was to be made by the old Master, played by Gordon Tipple; in the end this was not used. Tipple is still credited as "The Old Master", though in the final edit his appearance is very brief, stationary, and mute. Had the original pre-titles voice-over been used, it would have been unclear what incarnation of the Doctor Sylvester McCoy portrays in the movie (as he is simply credited as "The Old Doctor"). Only the rewritten narration (as read by Paul McGann) makes his number of regenerations clear. The sequence of the TARDIS flying through the time vortex was briefly reused in the opening of Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal DeathDoctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death
Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death is a four-episode special of Doctor Who made for the Red Nose Day charity telethon in the United Kingdom, and broadcast on BBC One on 12 March 1999...
, as the Master observes Rowan Atkinson
Rowan Atkinson
Rowan Sebastian Atkinson is a British actor, comedian, and screenwriter. He is most famous for his work on the satirical sketch comedy show Not The Nine O'Clock News, and the sitcoms Blackadder, Mr. Bean and The Thin Blue Line...
's Doctor.
Instead of designing a new Doctor Who logo for this film, it was decided instead to use a modified version of the logo that was used for the Jon Pertwee
Jon Pertwee
John Devon Roland Pertwee , was an English actor. Pertwee is best known for his role in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, in which he played the third incarnation of the Doctor from 1970 to 1974, and as the title character in the series Worzel Gummidge...
era of the original series (with the exception of the final season). This logo, being the last logo used on an "official" Doctor Who broadcast before the 2005 revival, is to this day used by the BBC for most Doctor Who merchandise relating to the first eight Doctors.
John Debney
John Debney
John C. Debney is an American film composer. He received an Academy Award nomination for his score for Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ...
was commissioned to write the score for this film, and intended to replace Ron Grainer
Ron Grainer
Ronald Erle “Ron” Grainer was an Australian-born composer who worked for most of his professional career in the United Kingdom. He is mostly remembered for his film and television music.- Biography :...
's original theme with a new composition. Ultimately Debney did in fact use an arrangement of Grainer's music for the theme, although Grainer goes uncredited.
Alternative titles and labelling
There is some disagreement over exactly what the movie should be called. The production documentation only referred to the project as Doctor Who. Segal suggested the unofficial title Enemy Within as an alternative at Manopticon 5, apparently after being repeatedly asked what the actual title for the movie was. Both Region 2 DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
releases are labelled Doctor Who and The Movie. The VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
release contains both the name Doctor Who and the name The Sensational Feature Length Film (this one probably intended to be a subtitle). The most common fan usage appears to refer to it as "the television movie", the "TVM", or variations thereof.
Upon translation into French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, this film was renamed Le Seigneur du Temps ("The Timelord").
"TVM" is the production code used in the BBC's online episode guide. The actual code used during production is 50/LDX071Y/01X. Doctor Who Magazine
Doctor Who Magazine
Doctor Who Magazine is a magazine devoted to the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
's "Complete Eighth Doctor Special" gives the production code as #83705. Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...
uses the code 8A, and numbers its subsequent Eighth Doctor stories correspondingly.
Cast notes
- Yee Jee Tso would later return in 2002 to play Major Jal Brant in the Seventh DoctorSeventh DoctorThe Seventh Doctor is the seventh incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by the actor Sylvester McCoy....
audio drama Excelis DecaysExcelis DecaysExcelis Decays is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is the final part of the Excelis trilogy which commenced in Excelis Dawns and continued in Excelis Rising...
and Doctor Reece Goddard in the Sixth DoctorSixth DoctorThe Sixth Doctor is the sixth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by Colin Baker...
webcast Real Time. - Daphne Ashbrook would later return in 2004 alongside Paul McGannPaul McGannPaul McGann is an English actor who made his name on the BBC serial The Monocled Mutineer, in which he played the lead role...
's Eighth DoctorEighth DoctorThe Eighth Doctor is the eighth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by Paul McGann...
as Perfection in the audio drama The Next LifeThe Next LifeThe Next Life is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is the culmination of the "Divergent Universe" saga.-Plot:...
.
Broadcast and reception
The movie debuted on the Edmonton, Alberta CITV-TVCITV-TV
CITV-DT is a television station in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Known on air as Global Edmonton, the station is owned by Shaw Media, and is an owned-and-operated station of the Global Television Network. It transmits on channel 13 and cable 8 in Edmonton, and is carried on the Bell TV and Shaw...
station on 12 May, two days prior to its Fox Network broadcast.
Commercials on the Fox network advertising the film used special effects footage from the 1986 story The Trial of a Time Lord
The Trial of a Time Lord
The Trial of a Time Lord is a fourteen-part British science fiction serial of the long running BBC series Doctor Who. The serial, produced as the twenty-third season of the Doctor Who television series, aired in weekly episodes from 6 September to 6 December 1986...
, although this footage was not used in the movie. This marked the first time that footage from the original BBC series had been shown on a major American network. The advertisements also used a different arrangement of the Doctor Who theme music than that heard in the film.
The movie received disappointing US ratings (partly due to the popularity of the programmes it was up against, partly because of poor marketing by the Fox Network, and partly because of unfamiliarity with the British series amongst a mainstream American TV audience). It received 5.6 million viewers, a total 9% share of the audience. However, when shown on BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
on Monday 27 May at 8.30pm, thirteen days after its American broadcast, it received over 9 million viewers in the UK alone (the highest drama ratings in Britain for the whole week).
Third Doctor
Third Doctor
The Third Doctor is the third incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by actor Jon Pertwee....
actor Jon Pertwee
Jon Pertwee
John Devon Roland Pertwee , was an English actor. Pertwee is best known for his role in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, in which he played the third incarnation of the Doctor from 1970 to 1974, and as the title character in the series Worzel Gummidge...
died a few days after the US broadcast of the film, and the UK broadcast included an epitaph to the actor. The UK broadcast was also edited for broadcast in a pre-Watershed
Watershed (television)
In television, the term watershed denotes the time period in a television schedule during which programs with adult content can air....
timeslot. The scenes where Chang Lee's friends are fired upon was cut because of the gun violence
Gun violence
Gun violence defined literally means the use of a firearm to threaten or inflict violence or harm. Gun violence may be broadly defined as a category of violence and crime committed with the use of a firearm; it may or may not include actions ruled as self-defense, actions for law enforcement, or...
(particularly in light of the Dunblane massacre
Dunblane massacre
The Dunblane massacre was a multiple murder-suicide which occurred at Dunblane Primary School in the Scottish town of Dunblane on 13 March 1996. Sixteen children and one adult were killed by Thomas Hamilton before he committed suicide.-Timeline of events:...
which took place three months before). The operating room scene was also extensively cut, in particular the seventh Doctor's dying scream.
Awards
The television movie won the 1996 Saturn AwardSaturn Award
The Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Saturn Awards were devised by Dr. Donald A. Reed in 1972, who felt that films within...
for Best Television Presentation
Saturn Award for Best Television Presentation
The following are a list of Saturn Award winners for Best Television Presentation:N.B. Year column refers to year of eligibility, the actual ceremonies are held the following year to those stated....
.
Commercial releases
The movie was scheduled to be released on home videoHome video
Home video is a blanket term used for pre-recorded media that is either sold or rented/hired for home cinema entertainment. The term originates from the VHS/Betamax era but has carried over into current optical disc formats like DVD and Blu-ray Disc and, to a lesser extent, into methods of digital...
in the United Kingdom several weeks before broadcast to capitalize on the interest in the series returning. However, the British Board of Film Classification
British Board of Film Classification
The British Board of Film Classification , originally British Board of Film Censors, is a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom...
required the video release to have the same edits as the broadcast version, and so the release was delayed to a week prior to its debut broadcast on BBC One. Hundreds of fans queued in London at midnight in order to buy a copy at the earliest possible moment, however overall sales were impacted by the now-imminent broadcast.
A Laserdisc
Laserdisc
LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
release of the movie was released exclusively in Hong Kong by Universal in 1997.
The unedited version was released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
in the UK in 2001 titled as Doctor Who: The Movie, and was re-released in 2007 as a limited edition with an alternative cover sleeve (but with no change in content) as part of a series of classic series re-releases aimed at attracting fans of the revived series to the older shows.
Both the edited and unedited versions have also been released in countries such as Australia and New Zealand.
The 2010 DVD box set Revisitations contains the movie with a new, updated Special Edition DVD features. It included a new commentary with Paul McGann and Sylvester McCoy, an hour-long documentary on the time in between the film and the series' cancellation in 1989, a documentary on the 7 years it took to get the film made, a documentary on the 8th Doctor's comic strip adventures, a documentary on the media reaction the 8th Doctor, a documentary on the ties with Blue Peter and Doctor Who as well as all of the original features including the original commentary with Geoffrey Sax. On August 25, 2010, Dan Hall of 2entertain confirmed that this updated version would be released in North America sometime in the next twelve months following extensive negotiations with Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
. Two months afterward, a North American DVD release date for the 2-disc Doctor Who: The Movie - Special Edition was announced to be February 8, 2011.
Soundtrack release
Music from the movie was on a promotional-only soundtrack album published by the composer, John DebneyJohn Debney
John C. Debney is an American film composer. He received an Academy Award nomination for his score for Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ...
. Additional music was contributed by John Sponsler and Louis Febre
Louis Febre
Louis Febre is a Mexican born composer, best known for his work on the television series Smallville. He also won an Emmy Award for his score to The Cape in 1997.- Life :...
.
Track listing
- Prologue: Skaro / "DOCTOR WHO" Theme
- Breakout
- Wimps / Doctor #7 is Shot
- Aftermath
- X-Ray / Snake in the Bathroom
- "Who Am I?"
- City Scape
- Time
- Primitive Wiring / The Unbruce
- Two Hearts
- The Tardis / True Identity
- Night Walk
- The Eye of Harmony / Half Human
- Until Midnight / Atomic Clock
- Green Eyes
- The Chase
- Beryllium Clock / Bragg's Key
- Slimed
- Under the Influence
- Crown of Nails
- Lee's Last Chance
- "Open The Eye"
- "Reroute Power!" / Temporal Orbit
- To Hold Death Back
- Farewell
- End Credits - "DOCTOR WHO" Theme
CD credits
- Music Score produced by John Debney
- Executive album producers: John J. Alcantar III and Thomas C. Stewart
- Music Editor: Laurie Slomka
CD Edited and mastered by James Nelson at Digital Outland
CD Art direction: Mark Banning
Front Cover concept: David Hirsch
Special Thanks to Ryan K. Johnson
In print
The television movie was novelisedNovelization
A novelization is a novel that is written based on some other media story form rather than as an original work.Novelizations of films usually add background material not found in the original work to flesh out the story, because novels are generally longer than screenplays...
by Gary Russell
Gary Russell
Gary James Russell is a freelance writer and former child actor. As a writer, he is best known for his work in connection with the television series Doctor Who and its spin-offs in other media...
and published by BBC Books
BBC Books
BBC Books is an imprint majority owned and managed by Random House. The minority shareholder is BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation...
in May 1996. It was the first novelisation of a televised Doctor Who story to not be published by Target Books
Target Books
Target Books was a British publishing imprint, established in 1973 by Universal-Tandem Publishing Co Ltd, a paperback publishing company. The imprint was established as a children's imprint to complement the adult Tandem imprint, and became well known for their highly successful range of...
(or related companies) since Doctor Who and the Crusaders
The Crusade (Doctor Who)
The Crusade is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from March 27 to April 17, 1965. The story is set in Palestine, near Jerusalem, during the Third Crusade.-Plot:...
in 1965. It is also the last novelisation of a televised story to date.
Basing the adaptation on an early draft of the script, Russell adjusted some details to make it more consistent with the original series, and the novelisation also contains elements that were cut from the shooting script for timing reasons.
- The novel begins with the Seventh Doctor receiving a telepathic summons from the Master (similar to The Deadly AssassinThe Deadly AssassinThe Deadly Assassin is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 30 October to 20 November 1976...
) to collect his remains from Skaro and a short prologue detailing how the Doctor escapes from the planet with the casket. This was originally intended to be a pre-credits sequence in the movie, and was subsequently contradicted by the ending of the novel LungbarrowLungbarrowLungbarrow is an original novel written by Marc Platt and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
, where RomanaRomanaRomana, short for Romanadvoratrelundar, is a fictional character in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
gives the Seventh Doctor the assignment to retrieve the Master's remains. - More detail is given to Chang Lee and Grace's backstory, including his recruitment into the Triads and his seeking a father figure as well as flashbacks to Grace's childhood.
- The Eighth Doctor finds the Seventh Doctor's clothing in the hospital rather than the Fourth Doctor's scarf. Also, the sequence where Chang Lee and the Master see the Seventh Doctor in the Eye of Harmony features all the previous Doctors as originally drafted.
- The scene where the Doctor and Grace meet the motorcycle police officer is relocated to a traffic jam on the Golden Gate bridgeGolden Gate BridgeThe Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening of the San Francisco Bay into the Pacific Ocean. As part of both U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1, the structure links the city of San Francisco, on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula, to...
(impossible to film in the movie since it was shot on location in VancouverVancouverVancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
). - When the Doctor first kisses Grace, he immediately pulls back, grins apologetically and murmurs, "I'm sorry, don't know what came over me there." This makes the romantic nature of the kiss more ambiguous. Instead of the second kiss at the end, he gives her the Seventh Doctor's straw hat as a memento.
- The Doctor is still referred to as half-human, to which the Master comments, "The Doctor once claimed to be more than just a Time Lord — He should really have said less than a Time Lord!" This was a reference to a line cut from Remembrance of the DaleksRemembrance of the DaleksRemembrance of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 5 October to 26 October 1988....
, although its unclear how the Master knew the Doctor said this. - Instead of dying and being brought back to life, Grace and Lee are merely rendered unconscious, though aware of what is happening around them. Russell also spends some time showing the Doctor and them discussing what a "temporal orbit" is.
The canonicity of the novelisation, like all spin-off fiction, is unclear.
The novelisation was the first Doctor Who novel published by BBC Books. The book was actually published prior to the conclusion of Virgin Books
Virgin Books
Virgin Books is a United Kingdom book publisher 90% owned by the publishing group Random House, and 10% owned by Virgin Enterprises, the company originally set up by Richard Branson as a record company.-History:...
' contract for publishing original Doctor Who fiction, so the next release by BBC Books did not occur for about a year when the Eighth Doctor Adventures
Eighth Doctor Adventures
The Eighth Doctor Adventures are a series of spin off novels based on the long running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who and published under the BBC Books imprint. 73 books were published overall...
series began with The Eight Doctors
The Eight Doctors
The Eight Doctors is a BBC Books original novel written by Terrance Dicks and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was the first of the Eighth Doctor Adventures range and features the Eighth Doctor and introduces his new companion, Sam Jones.The novel...
. The novelisation was released as a standalone work and is not considered part of this series. The Eighth Doctor Adventures series ran until 2005 when it was discontinued.
In 1997, the novel was also released as an audio book
Doctor Who audio releases
There have been many official and unofficial Doctor Who and related spin-offs released on audio, as LPs, audio cassettes, audio CDs and MP3 CDs. Recordings here are listed by their original release date.-Television soundtracks:...
, read by Paul McGann. This reading was later included on the 2004 MP3 CD
MP3 CD
An MP3 CD is a Compact Disc that contains digital audio in the MP3 file format. Discs are written in the Yellow Book standard data format , as opposed to the Red Book standard audio format ....
Tales from the TARDIS Volume Two.