The Enemy Within/TV Movie: Too Americanized?

The 1996 FOX TV movie was an attempt at launching an US Doctor Who series but after a ratings failure and poor reviews, it never happened.

So what do you think of Paul Mcgann's solo televised adventure and what would you have said about an American series?

It's pretty terrible and a series would no doubt have sucked. That said, it might have at least been competently written on occasion, so probably would still have sucked less than New Who.

I was never much of fan, but McGann is good, and whatever faults it has, pale at the side of NuWho. Roberts was still a terrible Master though. But I'd swap Grace for Rose any day.

With the exception of McGann’s excellent performance as a potentially great Doctor, the film itself was terrible. It’s essentially a 90s version of NuWho, littered with cringeworthy Hollywoodised depictions of romance (the first kiss is OK, but the second could have easily come from RTD’s era- the melodramatic music and slow motion just hinders the scene), and a plot which makes next to fuck all in the way of sense (why the fuck is the eye of harmony located in the Tardis? Why would the Daleks realistically request that the Doctor take the Master’s remains to Gallifrey? How are Grace and Chang conveniently resurrected?). It’s cluttered with jarring Dutch angles too, often unnecessarily so, and the film features a very dated and staid 90s vibe to it akin to RTD’s 2000s vibe.

Ronnie wrote:I was never much of fan, but McGann is good, and whatever faults it has, pale at the side of NuWho. Roberts was still a terrible Master though. But I'd swap Grace for Rose any day.

I agree here on everything, in spite of my dislike of the film.

It's a bit hard to remember how I felt about it the first time I saw it, back in 1996, aged 14, back when The X Files was all the rage.

In all honesty I think for the first half an hour or so, it doesn't do that much wrong. The tension and atmosphere's there. There's bits of wit in the script that feel truer to the old characters than is given credit (i.e. "I knew even in death, I still couldn't trust him").

Unlike many, I can live with the cruel irony of McCoy meeting his demise just for being in the wrong place and the wrong time, on his favourite planet, gunned down senselessly by the very humans he's always protected.

The soap business with Grace's ex is stupid and annoying, but by God it seems subtle compared to the ridiculous amount of sub-Eastenders drivel we later got with Fathead.

I can live with the romance. But then I would've always been happy to have seen Tom's Doctor and Romana become an item in Season 17/18.

I think where it starts to go wrong is that bloody motorbike chase. And not because it's necessarily that out of the spirit of the show (The Pertwee era had its share of motorbike chases in The Daemons and Day of the Daleks). But because once they lose the pursuing Master, they still seem to try and force the urgency and speed to keep going out of nothing.

And that's the problem really. The film just does feel empty and like a lot of hollow sound and fury. It's unsatisfying because there just isn't much story substance to it (in some sense this is a relief because it means the writers have managed to cut out a lot of their more apocryphal mythology, but there's nothing really there in its place).

The Master still just feels like a tired villain who isn't enough to sustain a story's plot (though I actually don't think Roberts is necessarily bad in the role). RTD was right that the problem is, there wouldn't even be a dilemma for the Doctor to solve if he hadn't landed on Earth in the first place. And as Cartmel points out, I think I just wanted the film to be about a much more promising adversary. Like the Daleks or Cybermen. I mean for God's sake, weren't we meant to finally have the budget for them?

I think when they get back to the Tardis and realize the process can't be reversed, that's when the problems occur. When the stakes and goals just become impossible to understand, so it's hard to know what we're rooting on our heroes to do. It just feels like the writers wrote themselves into a corner and had to keep the film going regardless, almost as if the whole thing were an excuse for itself.

I still don't understand the ending one bit, and I remember at the time being baffled that the makers could consider this in any way a decent finish. And in hindsight it does look like a committee just couldn't agree on the ending and so they found ways to contrive to do every ending at once.

Yeah it turned into a bit of an unpromising disaster in the end, and it's a shame because they had the cast and resources available there to do so much better.

Would I have liked it to go to series, regardless? Hell yes!

I mean if nothing else it did seem to give the show a needed clean slate for the first time, after nine years of JNT's era seeing the show disappearing up its own continuity.

Star Trek: TNG started with a far worse pilot than this, and yet still managed by its third season to become a great quality show. It might've still happened. And it may not have ever been Chimes of Midnight or Natural History of Fear. At most likely, it would've been just like Sliders, but I could probably live with that. At worst, I don't think it could've been worse than the RTD and Moffat shite we did get instead.

Thinking about it, you’re not wrong about the first 30 minutes of the film. Looking back, they do display the occasion hint of grit and wit from time to time, and the scenes featuring McCoy on the operating table are very well directed.

It’s when the plot of the film concerning the eye of harmony actually kicks into gear that it starts to fall completely flat on its arse, in spite of McGann’s superb efforts.

I find it watchable enough. It has a lot in common with the other TV/DTV films I watch from the 1990s. It certainly has more charm than NuWho.

I must confess that I am not enamoured with the 8th Doctor.

Paul McGann is a good actor, but I don't think he was ever a good fit for the role in all honesty.

He's too conventional looking, isn't really that naturally eccentric or offbeat, is a bit young (I wouldn't exclude young guys, but middle aged and older is preferred.)

IMO Paul just played it as a more conventional hero. He wasn't awful, but not a Jon Pertwee or Tom Baker or William Hartnell, or Sylvester McCoy type either.

The plot to the movie is very basic, and a retread of the Deadly Assassin and yes the romance and half human retcon are shit.

Eric Roberts I think is actually one of the best things about it. His Master isn't as good as Delgado or Ainley of course, but his characterisation was spot on, and he was enjoyable enough in the role.

Eric Roberts is really the last decent Master we've ever had, (barring Jacobi who was sadly only in the role for 2 mins.)

Overall the movie is a not bad epilogue to the classic era. Ignoring the half human retcon which can be chalked up to being a clever lie to trick the Master (the Doctor always has human companions so maybe that's why it could only be opened by a human..) The movie ties up the Masters story quite well and leaves the Doctor in a good place. Its not essential, and would not have made a good template for a series, but it can be enjoyed as a farewell of the classic era.

burrunjor wrote:it can be enjoyed as a farewell of the classic era.

I'd very much agree there. It fits as a decent, conclusive enough capstone to the Doctor's adventures, and indeed the franchise could've just comfortably stopped there.

I think it would be a good conclusion

I don't see that at all. It's way more New Who than classic.
Survival is a far more fitting send-off.

TOO AMERICANIZED? There's no such thing as too Americanized! The American People, GOD BLESS THEM, took this boring, dusty old English relic and gave it a whole new lease of life! I guess we should expect nothing less from The Greatest Nation on Earth!

I compare often compare the TV movie to the Twin Dilemma. Both were first stories for a likable doctor that weren't so great in and of themselves. I can look past the Grace-snogging in the same way I can look past the Peri-strangling - the doctor gets weird when he regenerates. But I just choose to ignore the half-human bit, or pretend its some kind of ploy to keep the Master from accessing the Tardis. I think if Dr. Who ended after Twin Dilemma, we would probably want to ignore 6 too. But Colin got Attack next, one of his best stories, whereas McGann never got another.

And some of McGann's early audios were very good, even if they eventually turned to shit. I figure the show could have gone either way if it had actually happened, but if they had just televised some of the first ~10 or so BF audio stories, it would have been great. So in the end, yeah I do recognize McGann as the 8th Doctor, the combination of the TV movie and the audios is enough to do so - but I don't pay any attention to the audios after the first ~30. Once they went to that shorter format they weren't as good, and I certainly don't bother with anything that has any New Who crap in it.

GENKlMONK wrote:TOO AMERICANIZED? There's no such thing as too Americanized! The American People, GOD BLESS THEM, took this boring, dusty old English relic and gave it a whole new lease of life! I guess we should expect nothing less from The Greatest Nation on Earth!

It should've been sold to America in 1983.

I do think it was a bit too Americanized - "Oh great. I finally meet the right guy and he's from another planet" but despite awful moments like that, I confess, I still have a great fondness for the TVM. McGann is simply marvelous in the role, far better than any of the Nu varieties, (he seems to understand the character far more than later incarnations and he actually looks the part) plus I love the Jules Verne inspired Tardis interior.  I view it as the final shout for classic Doctor Who, indeed for the show as a whole, and not necessarily as a precursor to the BBC Wales reboot.

The TV Movie a waste of available life space.

I'd rather watch Timelash.

I did not care for how my doctor the seventh how he got fired upon by the Chinese gang like that I wish he could saved somebody first in the midst of it then got fired upon.

Doctor7 wrote:I did not care for how my doctor the seventh how he got fired upon by the Chinese gang like that I wish he could saved somebody first in the midst of it then got fired upon.

I quite like the irony of how out of all the Doctors to get involved in an accidental shooting, it happened to be the ''chessmaster'' Doctor who was always one step ahead.