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Elizabeth Sandifer

Elizabeth Sandifer created Eruditorum Press. She’s not really sure why she did that, and she apologizes for the inconvenience. She currently writes Last War in Albion, a history of the magical war between Alan Moore and Grant Morrison. She used to write TARDIS Eruditorum, a history of Britain told through the lens of a ropey sci-fi series. She also wrote Neoreaction a Basilisk, writes comics these days, and has ADHD so will probably just randomly write some other shit sooner or later. Support Elizabeth on Patreon.

69 Comments

  1. Kit Power
    September 17, 2013 @ 12:04 am

    Except, thankfully, it doesn't/didn't. 🙂

    Reply

  2. Nick Smale
    September 17, 2013 @ 12:38 am

    Doctor Who becomes just another sci-fi franchise.

    The sad thing is, that in the desert years of the nineties, when the show was dead and seemingly never coming back, we would have been overjoyed to have even that…

    Reply

  3. Lewis Christian
    September 17, 2013 @ 12:45 am

    I was hoping you'd copy over your book reviews too. Poor McGann all alone, again :p

    The TV Movie is a great bridge. Not the best thing ever, but not bad. Clearly made with a lot of love and it amuses me how the show is literally all about change, yet fandom cries out that this is full of "omg nooooo" changes. Nah, sod them. It's a decent little movie. Flawed, but enjoyable.

    Reply

  4. Daibhid C
    September 17, 2013 @ 1:26 am

    In a way, the fact it was clearly made with a lot of love is more tragic than if they'd thought "Ah, who cares, it's just Doctor Who". Someone worked really hard at creating what they thought Doctor Who was about, and came up with this? (Then again, someone worked really hard at creating what they thought Doctor Who was about and came up with Attack of the Cybermen. And this is at least better than Attack of the Cybermen.)

    Reply

  5. Ross
    September 17, 2013 @ 1:30 am

    The sad thing is that by the 90s, that's what we all thought it was supposed to be anyway.

    Reply

  6. Lewis Christian
    September 17, 2013 @ 2:43 am

    There is that side, yeah. (I'm in the "next showrunner after Moffat should be less of a fan and is just focused on doing a great drama" sort of camp, so I see that POV.)

    But then, with Fox at the helm, "ah, who cares" could've given us far far far worse than what we got.

    Reply

  7. Julian
    September 17, 2013 @ 2:44 am

    It really is a bridge between the two series – I've long wanted to do a movie night where I subject people to Survival, the TV Movie and then Rose, because despite the fact they cross 15 years you can actually see a progression between them. Completely unintentional, sure, and the TV movie is definitely the weak link, but it's there.

    Reply

  8. Bennett
    September 17, 2013 @ 2:58 am

    Once you get past the fact that it completely fails to capture the essence of Doctor Who* I find there's a lot to love about The TV Movie. Grace hits the holy trifecta of being capable, humorous and sympathetic (I particularly enjoy the scene where she asks The Doctor to join her on her adventures). Jacobs writes dialogue very well, and there's a lot of wit in this script (which often takes the piss out of itself before the fans even get a chance to). And they cast the role of the Doctor perfectly – making a choice that was intelligent and unexpected rather than going for stunt-casting or one of those "he'd-be-perfect-as-the-Doctor" actors.

    Of course, if this was the only televised Doctor Who I had to watch over sixteen years, then I'd probably despise it too.

    *which in retrospect it was never going to do, because one of things that defines Doctor Who is serialisation.

    Reply

  9. Anton B
    September 17, 2013 @ 3:00 am

    I wouldn't have been 'overjoyed to have had even that' nor did I think that's what 'it was supposed to be' either. I've never understood the idea that you can slap a Doctor Who logo on any old piece of crap and all fandom will be satisfied. I enjoyed the 90's for what it was – an overlong but entirely necessary moment of death before the Doctor regenerated, sat up and said 'I'm back and it's fantastic!'

    As to the TV movie. It's watchable, it's arguably Doctor Who, it probably reads more sensibly to a New Who fan coming at it from this direction than it did to me as an old school classic fan. I didn't hate it, I didn't love it either. What I did love was the way it scattered canon busting continuity bombs all over the show. The Doctor kisses girls! The Doctor's half human! The Doctor can change history! The Tardis interior is a retro steam-punk cathedral! Containing the Eye of Harmony! The Master is a Shape Shifting Snakey Thing that escapes through the keyhole! etc. etc. This mishegus I think, was what allowed RTD to quietly restore a lot of the classic series tropes when he became show-runner, because if we can allow all that nonsense we can also allow Time Lords and Sontarans and sentient Tardises.

    Reply

  10. Henry R. Kujawa
    September 17, 2013 @ 3:16 am

    I've seen it twice. The first time, I came away thinking Paul McGann was either the best thing about it, or, the ONLY good thing about it.

    The second time… I didn't like Paul McGann at all. Did not see that coming. I mean, SERIOUSLY, I'd rather watch Colin Baker! (AND I HAVE, many times since then. His run is even better when you just happily SKIP the stories you can't stand! Which also goes for Peter Davison… and Jon Pertwee. AND William Hartnell.)

    When I decided a couple years ago it was time to watch every single WHO and WHO-related story in my entire collection, in chronological order– and keep in mind, a FEW of them, as I was watching, I had the perverse thought "Well, I'll NEVER have to suffer thru THIS thing again!" to keep me going… and keep in mind I don't have a single episode of the revival in my collection (yet)… I couldn't allow this THING to be the "grand finale". No F***ing way.

    So after I watched it, the next night, I dug out INVASION EARTH 2150 A.D.

    Ahhhhhhhhhhhh. MUCH better!!! (On every single level.)

    Reply

  11. prandeamus
    September 17, 2013 @ 4:22 am

    > I've never understood the idea that you can slap a Doctor Who logo on any old piece of crap and all fandom will be satisfied. <<

    Frankly, some parts of fandom will never be satisfied.

    Reply

  12. prandeamus
    September 17, 2013 @ 4:37 am

    There some things about the TVM that are great. I love the new TARDIS design and you must admit it's had some effect on the new series. It did fairly well when broadcast in the UK, because there was a lingering knowledge of what "Doctor Who" was. I'm not surprised it bombed in the USA, because it's full of pointless continuity callbacks (Segal's Kisses to the Past). There are so many gratuitious references it must be hugely confusing to anyone who isn't familiar with the existing series. And, as a back-door pilot, that's a failure of TARDIS-interior size. Before Davison jettisoned the zero room. Segal wasn't kissing the past, he was suggesting that they get a room.

    I never minded the snogging of Grace. It's full of life, and I have no objection to a doctor who snogs.

    Daleks: Wasted. Pointless.

    McCoy: Takes the money and gets a trip to Vancouver. I certainly would. But it makes no sense to a non-Who persion. You can't invest in his character and therefore don't care when he dies. When he falls out of the TARDIS into the gunfire, is there any explanation of the Ship being dimensionally transcendental? Otherwise, the casual viewer will wonder why he steps out of a blue cupboard.

    Theme tune: Starts with the bridge, in a major key. Looses all impact.

    The Master: Meh. I mean, Eric Roberts is OK, but by having the character there in the first place it sets the parameters for what the new series might have been about – two camp alien guys. Not exploring worlds, or genre collisions, or monsters that must be fought. Just a couple of knock-off superhero types with elaborate cloaks.

    But "half-human" still grates the most. It's not that I would have actually minded if it were accepted as "canon" but it's such a cliche. American TV is (or was, you tell me) obsessed with Spocking things up like this. My pet theory, which I am happy to be disabused of in the face of relevant facts, is that the UK is relatively open when it comes to mixed-race relationships, compared to the USA. Therefore, mixed parentage is closer to dangerous/edgy compared to Britain. True? You tell me.

    I don't hate it. It's a lovely way of whiling away a wet Sunday afternoon, but it could have been so much better, and that's the real sadness.

    Oh, I do love the regeneration scenes intercut with Frankenstein. Nice direction.

    Reply

  13. Lewis Christian
    September 17, 2013 @ 4:38 am

    Erm.

    Reply

  14. Ross
    September 17, 2013 @ 4:42 am

    Fox was going to either take this to series, or commission another season of Sliders. There's no honest way to say they made the wrong choice

    After years of desperately trying to nail Doctor Who down and turn it into one specific thing, force it to conform to one exact mold so that everything could be neatly filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed and numbered, and their lists would be complete, we got Doctor Who done exactly the way the fanboys had been implicitly saying it should be — as a stiff, lifeless franchise in the cult sci-fi model. And the fanboys recoiled in horror. Though mostly because it had icky girls in it.

    You're right that Fox made the right decision. In 1996, Sliders was the show where "anything could happen". Doctor Who had become the show where only this one thing could happen.

    The thing about the TV movie is that it didn't come out of nowhere. It was the projection of the direction the show had been going since 1980. In the TVM, we get to see exactly what would have happened if the JNT-era had ever actually managed to pull off what it had been trying for*. A lot of people thought the problem with the TVM was that it was too far afield from what the show had been before. I suspect the actual problem is that it wasn't far enough. The TVM is what's at the end of the road folks like Saward wanted to go down.

    (* I will bracket for the sake of argument the brief renaissance in the last season or two where the show made an honest if insufficient stab at actually getting back to being wonderful)

    Reply

  15. jane
    September 17, 2013 @ 4:54 am

    Happily skipping the stories I can't stand in Sixie's run leaves only two stories. That isn't a run, it's a stumble.

    Reply

  16. prandeamus
    September 17, 2013 @ 4:59 am

    Oh yes, and one more thing. If Gary Russell is asked to dumb down the novelisation and he has concerns about that, you have have to wonder. GR, bless his cotton socks, is not my favourite writer. But he thinks that the novelisation is childish? Train-wreck.

    Reply

  17. Spacewarp
    September 17, 2013 @ 5:04 am

    I've always thought it would make great trailers, as it's so full of really lovely little scenes that work fantastically on their own (mostly McGann soundbites and bits in the TARDIS), but just not together in a movie. Those bits are all "parts", and a movie should be greater than the sum of it's parts. The TVM somehow isn't.

    Reply

  18. brownstudy
    September 17, 2013 @ 5:13 am

    Apropos of nothing, I think a lively Saturday Waffling topic would be suggestions for Review Blog titles. As I got out of the car today I thought, "I want a review blog just like the review blog that married dear old dad."

    Reply

  19. Wm Keith
    September 17, 2013 @ 5:48 am

    It's less "made with a lot of love", more "made by a stalker".

    Reply

  20. Lewis Christian
    September 17, 2013 @ 6:25 am

    Bizarre.

    Reply

  21. prandeamus
    September 17, 2013 @ 6:54 am

    I want a review blog like Mum (US:Mom) used to make.

    Reply

  22. Travis Butler
    September 17, 2013 @ 6:56 am

    It's not just 'omg nooooo' changes… it's the fact that most of them were stupid. Take the Dalek throwaway reference, for example… people who weren't fans of the classic series wouldn't get it, people who did get it would be annoyed by it. And as the icing on the cake, it has essentially no relevance to the plot – it was thrown in just to make the reference.

    All that said, those were far from the worst things about the TVM. The parts that annoyed me the most were the shifts in tone, and attempts to appeal to the X-Files audience: the plays for the horror/grotesque audience like the Master spitting snot; the overwrought GothEmo posturing and heavy-handed Christ references in the post-regeneration hospital scene…

    Overall, I was left with the impression that McGann could make an excellent Doctor, some of the set design was well-done, but the writers needed an injunction to keep them away from the property at all costs. 🙂

    Reply

  23. Elizabeth Sandifer
    September 17, 2013 @ 7:10 am

    I will copy the book reviews. The era lines here are done idiosyncratically, however; because a section is finished when GallifreyBase hits the last year of its run, I'm running things in chronological order of when they ended, not when they began. And the Eighth Doctor television era was finished before the Virgin era. Books are probably next Tuesday.

    Reply

  24. Monicker
    September 17, 2013 @ 8:04 am

    Which two stories are those, as a matter of interest?

    Reply

  25. Daibhid C
    September 17, 2013 @ 8:27 am

    When he falls out of the TARDIS into the gunfire, is there any explanation of the Ship being dimensionally transcendental? Otherwise, the casual viewer will wonder why he steps out of a blue cupboard.

    That is without a doubt the most wrong thing the TVM does. To convey the TARDIS to a new viewer, you show them a blue box and then reveal there's a vast control room inside it. Showing them a vast control room and then revealing it's inside a blue box doesn't work, especially not if the reveal doesn't actually get this across.

    Reply

  26. Daibhid C
    September 17, 2013 @ 8:28 am

    Yes! We have no review blogs!

    Reply

  27. Anton B
    September 17, 2013 @ 8:28 am

    That is of course true.

    Reply

  28. Anton B
    September 17, 2013 @ 8:44 am

    I'm review (blogg)ing the situation

    A room with a (re)view (blog)

    Captain's (review b)log

    review blog reshmoo blog

    These are not the review blogs you seek

    The review blog of reasonable comfort

    Bat anti-review blog

    Reply

  29. Ken
    September 17, 2013 @ 9:23 am

    Fox was going to either take this to series, or commission another season of Sliders.

    From what Segal said at Gallifrey (the convention) Fox gave Universal the choice. Universal chose Sliders because it was entirely their property, and Doctor Who wasn't.

    Reply

  30. Nyq Only
    September 17, 2013 @ 9:35 am

    For Torchwood episodes "viewer glob"

    Reply

  31. Ross
    September 17, 2013 @ 9:40 am

    Which plays into the fact that the notion of the TVM being a "massive flop" is itself a myth; it wasn't. It was, in fact, only a very modest flop. It got exactly the ratings you would expect for what it was: a watchable but not terrific piece of deliberately-cultish 1990s cult science fiction. It's just that the only way it would have gotten picked up was if it had been The Next X-Files.

    Reply

  32. encyclops
    September 17, 2013 @ 10:23 am

    I'm glad I've never met any of these anorak fanboys. I like imagining that they're apocryphal.

    Reply

  33. Spacewarp
    September 17, 2013 @ 10:43 am

    I've always understood it did very well in the UK, but in the US was put up against the final episode of Rosanne, which produced as bad a result as you'd imagine it would.

    Reply

  34. BerserkRL
    September 17, 2013 @ 10:50 am

    I love the new TARDIS design and you must admit it's had some effect on the new series.

    Also the regeneration scene, particularly with the post-regen mist coming out of his mouth, was a major influence on the way the new series would portray regenerations.

    And his picking his outfit from other people's clothing in a hospital looks back to "Spearhead from Space" and forward to "The Eleventh Hour."

    Reply

  35. BerserkRL
    September 17, 2013 @ 10:51 am

    Showing them a vast control room and then revealing it's inside a blue box doesn't work, especially not if the reveal doesn't actually get this across.

    Though the scene with the motorcyclist later on helps.

    Reply

  36. Lewis Christian
    September 17, 2013 @ 12:07 pm

    Travis,

    Fair points, but the Daleks were only ever intended as a cheeky reference. The Daleks = Doctor Who for many people, so it was fair play that they wanted a quick nod. They should've worked in a different way of referencing them though, but a Dalek reference/audio nugget is fine.

    The Christ imagery, interestingly, was never intended.

    Reply

  37. Triturus
    September 17, 2013 @ 12:07 pm

    It may have done OK in the UK terms of numbers of viewers, but I think most of them hated it. No-one I knew was at all bothered when it didn't get recommissioned (although I didn't know any hardcore fans, just people like myself who watched Dr Who in the 70s and 80s but gave up somewhere between Trial of a Timelord and the end of McCoy's era).

    Reply

  38. Lewis Christian
    September 17, 2013 @ 12:12 pm

    Daibhid C, agreed.

    The TV Movie shunts a lot of stuff into its opening when, really, it should've spread it out more. "Rose" does this brilliantly. Introduce the threat, introduce the weird bloke, introduce the idea that they're aliens and that this chap has a sonic / funky gadgets, introduce the Police Box, reintroduce the Doctor, get to the Police Box again but this time go from the outside to the inside (mid-way through the story) and then hit the ground running to the climax.

    What the TV Movie needed was a 10-minute run-down of facts and stuff before it aired so new viewers could "catch up". Instead, as you say, impact is lost when Chang enters the TARDIS because we've seen the inside earlier (and before we've seen the outside) and the story appears to be told mainly from the Doctor's POV when it should've been a lot more from Grace's POV. (Though giving him temporary amnesia probably didn't help because Grace doesn't know who he is, Chang doesn't know who he is, the ruddy man himself doesn't know who he is, and so how are audiences meant to know or care for ages?!)

    Reply

  39. Iain Coleman
    September 17, 2013 @ 1:12 pm

    American TV is (or was, you tell me) obsessed with Spocking things up like this. My pet theory, which I am happy to be disabused of in the face of relevant facts, is that the UK is relatively open when it comes to mixed-race relationships, compared to the USA. Therefore, mixed parentage is closer to dangerous/edgy compared to Britain.

    I think it may have more to do with the way so many Americans seem to set great store by being half Irish, a quarter Russian, three-sixteenths Basque or whatever, whereas Brits don't generally give a toss.

    Reply

  40. Clay Hickman
    September 17, 2013 @ 1:41 pm

    The thing that the TV Movie's lost over the years is that, for such a long time, it was, I thought, the only time we'd get to see Doctor Who made glossily and big budget-ly and with modern special effects and a filmic feel. And that made it unique.

    Now, of course, we get all the time. So it's lost that place it held and now the nice direction is less noticeable it sort of just sits there sadly.

    The main thing I feel about the TV Movie these days is a sense of relief that we dodged so many bullets – "Power up the Crystals, Cardinal!" Spider-Daleks, Ulysses Who, etc – and it does, if you squint, feel pretty much like Doctor Who a lot of the time. There's the theme, there's the police box TARDIS, there's a pretty good Doctor, there's a nice, fun assistant, there's a camp villain, there's a few good jokes.

    The plot is useless, and the beginning is a terrible miscalculation, but when I think what we COULD have got it makes me treat the TV Movie with slightly more kindness.

    Only slightly more, though. I think the only thing that would make me want to watch it again is if they found the original film footage (and a bit of money to re-do the CGI) and bunged it out in HD on Blu-Ray. Even then I'd be fast forwarding through a lot of the second half.

    Reply

  41. T. Hartwell
    September 17, 2013 @ 2:35 pm

    I like to watch a lot of Doctor Who with my parents- they're primarily fans of the new series, but quite enjoy the older stuff as well (my mom's favorite Doctor is I think Hartnell). The TV movie was the only episode of the show I was outright embarrassed to watch with them, and we've watched the entirety of Trial of a Time Lord together. Let that sink in for a moment.

    I mean, yeah, obviously this isn't the worst Doctor Who episode ever. But it's in my mind one of the most embarrassing things to come out of the show because it almost feels like it's afraid to be Doctor Who and so tries to be like the other "big things" of the time. And when it's kinda crappy at being that, it's just really hard to watch.

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  42. T. Hartwell
    September 17, 2013 @ 2:37 pm

    I really hate that Blogger won't let you edit a comment after it's posted, because a better way to phrase that last sentence would be "and when it's not even good at being that, it's just really hard to watch".

    Reply

  43. ferret
    September 17, 2013 @ 2:56 pm

    Rose travelled through space and time, and all I got was this review blog

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  44. Alan
    September 17, 2013 @ 3:17 pm

    It is still interesting to me to compare The Movie with Rose because I could swear that RTD must have watched The Movie obsessively to analyze what went wrong and make sure he didn't make any of the same missteps.

    In Rose, we start off with the companion's perspective, introduce the Doctor at about the five minute mark, the TARDIS at the 15 minute mark, the interior of the TARDIS at the 30 minute and don't find out until the very end that it's a time machine. It's practically a tutorial for people who've never seen Doctor Who before.

    In contrast, The Movie starts with the (incomprehensible to newbies) line that the Doctor has multiple lives (spoken by Eight who won't show up onscreen for another 30 minutes or so), followed by references to Time Lords, the introduction of the Master just before his execution, and the utterly cryptic reference to the Daleks all before the opening credits! In the first scene, the interior of the TARDIS is shown before the exterior with no explanation. Oh, and the Master is alive but is now a snake. It was confusing as hell to a fan. I can't even imagine what people who'd never seen the show before thought of it.

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  45. Alan
    September 17, 2013 @ 3:23 pm

    In 1996, Sliders was the show where "anything could happen".

    Unfortunately, most of the things that did actually happen were profoundly stupid.

    Reply

  46. Ross
    September 17, 2013 @ 4:25 pm

    Y'know, though, I don't see this being any different than, say, the Babylon 5 TV movie. You see it as being incomprehsenible to new audiences only because you already know it's important. To actual new audiences, it's not "an incomprehensible reference to episodes I haven't seen"; it's foreshadowing of backstory yet-to-be revealed.

    (Mostly. Having the plot hinge on a time lord having thirteen lives and the Master having used all of his up and wanting more is a misstep. Even that, though, is less a misstep because it relies on the details of past continuity as because it is in and of itself an overly complex setup for what boils down to "Zombie Space Jelly-Snake wants to possess the hero's body")

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  47. Elizabeth Sandifer
    September 17, 2013 @ 4:43 pm

    That said, the observation that they screw up revealing the TARDIS is spot on. I agree that audiences are likely fine with "oh there's a lot of backstory here, OK, it'll probably be explained." The opening is no worse than kicking off Fellowship of the Rings with the "Three rings for the Elven-kings" poem.

    But they actually do structure the TARDIS reveal as "it's smaller on the outside." And then swallow the reveal so that the incongruity isn't remarked upon by anybody at all. That's inept exposition.

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  48. C.
    September 17, 2013 @ 5:10 pm

    "the final episode of Rosanne, which produced as bad a result as you'd imagine it would."

    this is a fan myth that just won't die. It wasn't the final episode, it was just an "event" episode of a still-massively-popular sitcom (John Goodman's character has a heart attack, if I recall correctly).

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  49. Ross
    September 17, 2013 @ 5:48 pm

    Actually, it is the finale. This just doesn't become clear until the series ends a year or so later.

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  50. jane
    September 17, 2013 @ 6:16 pm

    Mind you, one of these stories is only redeemed by having a better Doctor around, even if he isn't quite the real McCoy. The other, well, I have a soft spot for gratuitous acid.

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  51. jane
    September 17, 2013 @ 6:17 pm

    They should have borrowed a page from The Snowmen.

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  52. Doctor Memory
    September 17, 2013 @ 6:57 pm

    Alan: that sort of comparison isn't really so much in our gracious host's wheelhouse, but I'd love to see, f'rinstance, Sean Erik Fagen (of a number of places including occasionally the Onion AV Club) do an in-depth comparison between TVM and Rose. Because you're quite right: between the two them is a master class in how to — and how not to — introduce new viewers to a complicated storyline. And it's really amazing just how well Rose does the job, and just how badly "The Enemy Within" botches it.

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  53. Doctor Memory
    September 17, 2013 @ 6:58 pm

    Er, Scott Eric Kaufman, not Sean Erik Fagen; not the first nor probably the last time I've made that blunder, sigh.

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  54. T. Hartwell
    September 17, 2013 @ 8:32 pm

    Now I have Oliver! stuck in my head.

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  55. Bennett
    September 17, 2013 @ 9:58 pm

    Alan:It is still interesting to me to compare The Movie with Rose because I could swear that RTD must have watched The Movie obsessively to analyze what went wrong and make sure he didn't make any of the same missteps.

    I think it's more a case of Davies watching An Unearthly Child to analyse what went right.

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  56. Nick Smale
    September 17, 2013 @ 10:04 pm

    It may have done OK in the UK terms of numbers of viewers, but I think most of them hated it.

    That wasn't my experience. The day after it was broadcast many of my co-workers told me that they'd enjoyed it, and asked when there would be more.

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  57. elvwood
    September 17, 2013 @ 11:11 pm

    "I've been reviewed. It's part of the TARDIS. Without it I couldn't survive."

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  58. elvwood
    September 17, 2013 @ 11:18 pm

    You're mostly right, Iain, but there are a sizeable chunk of English folk who damp down their colonial guilt by clinging to whatever scraps of non-English heritage we have. For instance, I place excessive store in being descended from Huguenots who fled here all those centuries ago, while my wife and two friends with whom we've shared houses all place emphasis on their Irish heritage.

    It's not an ideal way of dealing with the guilt, but hey.

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  59. Daru
    September 17, 2013 @ 11:29 pm

    I kinda love the TV Movie now even though it does often leave me feeling that something is missing. I love the visuals though and the bravado of it.

    I remember though at the time when I watched it live on the BBC in 1996, I was unbelievably excited at watching it! I had dropped completely out of watching Doctor Who around the point of Greatest Show in the Galaxy and felt sorely disappointed in the programme as a whole. I have since learned the error of my ways and ADORE Sylvester's era – but then I felt cynical.

    So with this feeling I had an enormous sense of anticipation that the show I loved and remembered was really coming back – properly! I recall the feeling of enjoyment as I was getting right into the movie, but what stayed with me was some kind of feeling of loss or missed opportunity once it had finished. I liked it, but….

    But it certainly did not feel like a show that would bring Doctor Who back. I have since come to enjoy the movie as some kid of odd cousin in a large extended family – much loved, especially for how individual and quirky they are.

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  60. prandeamus
    September 18, 2013 @ 12:21 am

    I've never felt guilty about what my ancestors did. That is, I acknowledge that some of them did some pretty appalling things, but guilt is a personal emotion and not and geographic one. As a country, there are situations where we must recognise that a wrong was done and provide restitution, perhaps. But guilt over Cromwell? Never.

    As a Brit I am am aware of my varied parentage – a quarter of my blood line comes from South German immigrants, and there's a scattering of Irish and possibly Romany and Jewish in there too, to add spice to the base English stock. But it never defines me in the sense that some people will cling on to being three-tenths Comanche or or whatever.

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  61. Ross
    September 18, 2013 @ 2:22 am

    I feel much the same way about the TVM as I do about the current season of Power Rangers or Abrams's Star Trek or Disney Child Stars. It looks very nice and has some moments that are pleasant to watch and when you look at, it's hard to see any specific flaws. But upon closer inspection it quickly becomes obvious that it has no soul.

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  62. Anton B
    September 18, 2013 @ 3:34 am

    For Sarah Jane Adventures (and probably only making sense to British viewers of a certain vintage) – 'Junior Points of (re)View (blog).

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  63. Harry Olson
    September 19, 2013 @ 9:46 pm

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    Reply

  64. Ross
    September 20, 2013 @ 5:28 pm

    Sudden realization on my drive home from work today: the TV Movie has basically the same plot as the pilot for the 2009 Knight Rider revival.

    (Namely, the bad guys chase the recently-recreated super-car to steal its secret power, which will threaten the entire world if unleashed, culminating in a race against time to repair a critical system, culminating in all the bad guys being conveniently killed by running into the macguffin. KITT plays both the Doctor and the TARDIS, the obvious Blackwater expies play The Master, the secret backdoor to sieze control of all US military satellites is the Eye of Harmony, and the poor man's Chris Pine plays Grace)

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  65. encyclops
    September 20, 2013 @ 10:47 pm

    Is KITT half-human? Because I would probably watch that.

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  66. Ross
    September 21, 2013 @ 5:39 am

    Worse; he's half Val Kilmer.

    Reply

  67. TheGhostSquirrels
    February 11, 2015 @ 9:57 am

    More important, does Kitt get to kiss anyone?

    Reply

  68. papereyes1871
    July 16, 2015 @ 3:31 am

    … except he also borrows 1 or 2 shots – I'm thinking of one with the Dr and companion running, holding hands.

    Reply

  69. papereyes1871
    July 16, 2015 @ 3:35 am

    So how could you structure it, keeping much the same plot, to make it work for a new viewer?

    Make Grace completely the POV character.

    have the same beats as Rose – "the Doctor at about the five minute mark, the TARDIS at the 15 minute mark, the interior of the TARDIS at the 30 minute and don't find out until the very end that it's a time machine." – I'd even use "did I mention it travels in time?" as the last line.

    how do you deal with McCoys death? You don't, or have McGann turn up as the John Doe (more Spearhead in Space).

    then the Master is there to make sure he dies.

    *the world-ending stuff has to impact on the public much, much more.

    It's definitely possible, I think.

    Reply

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