The 1996 TV Movie is, in so many ways, the biggest mistake the programme ever made. Faced with a chance to bring Doctor Who back to TV, the production team got almost every aspect of how to do it wrong. Everything is introduced too quickly, from starting with the Seventh Doctor and changing into the Eighth Doctor around 25 minutes in, meaning that we don't really get a chance to meet the Doctor properly until the 50 minute mark. They also ruin the chance of the revelation that the TARDIS is bigger on the inside, one of the greatest concepts behind the series, but treated as if it's nothing special here. Then there's the revelation that the Doctor is half-human which brings nothing to the story, or indeed the series, and just feels like pandering to an audience who may not be able to accept a fully alien protagonist.
So, with all of that in mind, why do I love this story completely? It's due to a number of factors, all of which make this story fun and worth watching over and over again. For a start, there's Geoffrey Sax's direction, which creates a beautiful action film. There are scenes like the motorcycle chase which have a series of quick cuts within them, increasing the pace of the scene dramatically, but then there are also scenes like the Doctor and Grace in the TARDIS, where the camera decides to shoot both of them through the central time rotor column, giving a beautiful effect and emphasising the other-worldly nature of the time-space machine.
There's also the performances. Eric Roberts, even though he is not a good actor, is still the funniest thing inside the entire film. He alternates between playing his scenes with enough ham to be mistaken for a pig, or playing all of his jokes completely straight. An example of the former is clearly the infamous "Drezz for the occasion" scene, which is so utterly joyful that you can't help but laugh, while the latter can clearly be seen in his interactions with Chang Lee, taking all of Lee's street mannerisms and having a lack of understanding of their correct context, which is easily one of the highlights of the adventure.
Paul McGann, in his sole television outing as the Doctor, impresses greatly, being a more adventurous and fun Doctor than his predecessors. He's the only Doctor who, when greeted with an emergency and escaping through the fire escape, smashes the fire alarm, just to make things a bit more exciting. He's got energy as he leaps through the story, running with glee as he tries to save the Universe from the Master once again. It's a shame that we never saw this Doctor on television again, as he's an amazing figure and severely underrated.
But that still doesn't quite explain why I love it so much. In order to find this out, we have to go back to 2003. I've just discovered about the series, and I'm reading through Doctor Who: The Television Companion. At the end of the book, there's a brief bit about the TV Movie, which looks reasonably interesting, and I note that I want to check it out at some point. A little while later, I find a website that has every Doctor Who theme on it, with accompanying video. The other ones don't excite me too much, I've seen them all before and they all appear fairly ordinary. But then McGann's theme came on. It was amazing, taking the foundation of the theme and making it awesome. I vowed to watch the story as soon as possible, which ended up being 7 years later when I found a second hand VHS copy. It lived up to my expectations, and occasionally exceeded them, and every viewing since has made me enjoy this episode more. And, really, as long as I'm enjoying it, what more could you want from Doctor Who?
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