What do you think of the TV movie?

I've gone for Good. Not brilliant but hardly a disgrace.

edit: Looks as if I've made a bit of a gaff with the poll. I trust you'll all be very mature and not vote for a line

I'm surprised someone voted as bad as New Who. Sorry I know the half human bit is shit, but its nowhere near as poisonous as New Who.

I voted for it is what it is.

There is a A LOT wrong with the Movie. The Doctor snogging, the half human bit, etc.

However I tend to go easier on it, as those were only there on the insistence of Fox who wanted to make the Doctor more of a conventional American hero.

Apart from that they seemed to at least try and make it like the old one. Paul's characterisation, apart from the kissing bit is spot on, his costume is also spot on, as is his overall look. Also the Master is perfectly fine. I like that they continue him having to steal bodies, his relationship and characterisation is completely spot on.

Not in love with the Doctor, desperate to prolong his life, tries to kill the Doctor, hypnotic, power hungry. I also like the way he manipulates Chang. That's very Master. Its like when he seduces Kassia, tricks Goth, seduces Queen Gaia, plays on Trenchards vanity and patriotism.

Eric Roberts performance is also fine. He's not as good as the first 4. Too camp at certain points, but he's not terrible, and certainly miles and miles ahead of John Simm and Michelle Gomez.

Its plot is okay too. Fairly bland, but at least it paid lip service to the previous and gave McCoy a fitting and moving send off, which is more than RTD did with McGann who he dumped.

I watch it every New Year's Eve. It's become somewhat of a tradition. It sure beats Jools Holland's Hootenanny rubbish that's obviously pre-recorded.

I actually rewatched the TV movie about a month or so ago for the first time in ages to see how well it held up and whether or not I would still actually like it. Personally, I don't think it holds up very well. It contains far too many goofy moments and performances in my opinion for me to call it anything other than mediocre at best.

Let's see... you have the Master turning into a fucking worm, you have the cringe worthy scene in the morgue where the Doctor breaks down a massive steel door with his bear hands before kneeling over and screaming "WHO AM I!?" in the corniest way possible, you have the Doctor repeatedly snogging Grace, you have the half human shit and you also have Grace and Chang Lee being resurrected with glowing fairy dust from the Eye of Harmony at the end (how very NuWho-esque). And I haven't even touched upon Eric Roberts' extremely cartoony portrayal of the Master.

Don't get me wrong, it does have a few good scenes here and there and Paul McGann does an excellent job with the material given to him. But it just has far too many flaws in my opinion to really call it "a good movie".

Not a lot. It's the pilot for New Who.

I'm slightly better disposed to it having seen what RTD and co would do to the series. I think it suffered from shoving a regeneration storyline into a fairly short film, even if the parallel of the Doctor and the Master was done quite we!l. Minus points for the chipmunk daleks (God that intro sucks!) and some of the dialogue given to Roberts - how can the Master telling Chang "you get to live!" if he helps him convince him he's a good guy! ? - but I liked the FX and McGann was great.

It is what it is. And what it is, is not very good.

I do NOT hold against it what it supported later, because it had no way of knowing the truly unforgiveable 8th Doctor Adventures would spawn from it (or did it?).

The 8DA really are, taken with Curse of Fatal Death, a stern warning to mankind of what was to come in NuWho. Truly the manifesto of the nomenklatura controlled Doctor Who of today, in fact some of the same clique are still in charge.

There are two major continuities in my mind - Classic Who without the TV Movie; Classic Who with the TV Movie.

It feels somewhere in between the Classic style and the NuWho style, not quite as bad as the latter. McCoy's being in it makes it a little harder to ignore, and I like McGann as the Eighth.

The film itself is a decent effort with only a few questionable moments. I would prefer to discount it in an idealised Season 27, but include McGann. A re-imagined version would be nice.

CDR Maxil wrote:I watch it every New Year's Eve. It's become somewhat of a tradition. It sure beats Jools Holland's Hootenanny rubbish that's obviously pre-recorded.

Sorry can't agree there. Jools Holland might not be the best musician in the world, but he had a knack for discovering the next big thing. I saw so many people that would become big favourites of mine there Amy Winehouse, Paloma Faith, Caro Emerald, V.V. Brown, the Noisettes, and even though I think she is VASTLY overrated, Adele I believe got her first start on his show. Him and Jonathan Ross had a knack for spotting these people, and there are some memorable performances from them on his show.

I'd take that over an inferior retread of the Deadly Assassin any day.





Not to get off topic, but IMO Paul Weller is terrible here. Never realised how weak his voice is. He gets drowned out by Amy so much, at times I'm not even sure when he is singing and when he's not!

Normally I wouldn't hold it against him, but when he slags off others like Freddie Mercury as being talentless compared to him, well lets just say I think Freddie could keep up with Amy a lot more than him.

While I concede the show has had many talented singers appear throughout the year, I just can't get into it before how false it is. The interviews with "drunk" celebrity crowd members are often cringe-worthy and shite. It's a practical joke on the viewer to make them think it's really happening when in reality it's shot in September/October. They got the timing completely wrong one year and missed the midnight celebration by a great many minutes. I think the artists have drastically gone downhill since 2014.