Paul McGann is the Eighth Doctor

Paul McGann
IS
The Eighth Doctor

After years of rumours about who would play the Eighth Doctor in an American-financed Doctor Who (Eric Idle, David Hasslehoff, Richard O'Brien, Dudley Moore, Tom Baker, Sylvester Stallone, Tim Curry, John Cleese, Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, Sylvester McCoy, Pierce Brosnan, Tom Conti, Ian Holm, Peter Davison, Bill Cosby...) scouser Paul McGann was picked by Producer Philip Seagal.
McGann had previously been short-listed to succeed Michael Praed in Robin Of Sherwood, but the role went instead to the awful Jason Connery. He also began filming as the lead in the TV series of Sharpe, based on Bernard Cornwell's novels, but injured himself on location in Spain playing football, and was replaced by GoldenEye's Sean Bean.

The TV Movie

The TV-movie opens with the Eighth Doctor relating events from the planet Skaro. It seems that the Master has been put on trial on the Dalek's homeworld (the one destroyed in Remembrance Of The Daleks) for his evil crimes. Why the Daleks would do this is left unexplained, they are hardly likely to let him off with a slap on the wrist are they? Unless these are somehow reformed Daleks. They do have even crapper (if possible) voices than before. This insistance on including things for 'continuity' without them actually making any sense in the wider context of 'old' Doctor Who is one of the frustrating things about this pilot. I don't believe that continuity is very important to the series, far better to tell a good story than worry about whether it contradicts something that happened in an episode years ago, but why bother shoe-horning references in like this? It's like the Doctor taking the Master's remains back to Gallifrey during the 'Rassilon Era'. Why?!
I really like the new credits though, and together with the pre-title sequence make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
The Earth-based action opens with a shot very reminiscent of old Doctor Who stories. An old Chinese woman is decapitating a fish. Its blank, staring eyes eerily like those of a multitude of rubber aliens and monsters, like the Sea Devils.
Young Chang Lee (Yee Jee Tso) gets into a spot of bother in an alley. His two mates are gunned down by another gang. Of course in the version shown, and released on video, in Britain, this segement has been cut, so that Chang's pals just disappear as the TARDIS materialises. Though a body is visible shortly afterwards, they are never mentioned again. You'd think the police would want to question Chang about the bodies.
The other victim of the shooting is of course the Seventh Doctor. I find it quite ironic, given the manipulative nature of this incarnation, that he dies in such a stupid way. Without bothering to check the Scanner he steps out into a gang war and gets shot. Not fatally though. It is the intrusive medical attempts by Doctor Grace Holloway (Daphne Ashbrook).

After a nicely handled regeneration scene, juxtaposed with both an old Frankenstein movie, and the Master's own 're-birth', and complete with the now traditional costume-picking session for the Doctor, he goes home with his killer, Grace.
Grace is quite attractive. It certainly seems unreasonable of her boyfriend, Brian, to dump such a babe just for being called away on a medical emergency during an opera. It is difficult to say how serious their relationship was though; they lived together but Grace is putting the moves on the Doctor the same night Brian leaves her.
On the whole the new Doctor is very good, McGann is perfect for the part, having the all-important ability to switch between child-like and eccentric and deadly serious. What lets him down is the annoying insights he keeps giving, like telling Grace that she is "tired of living, but afraid to die." The less said about him claiming to be half-human "on his mother's side" and kissing Grace the better. It's just pointless and adds nothing to the production.

The new Master (Eric Roberts) is suprisingly good too, thankfully keeping the snarling camp menace that made his predecessors so memorable. He's quite funny too, particularly when trying to act like he thinks Bruce (the ambulance driver whose body he appropriated) would, and when talking to Chang Lee. But how does he get into the TARDIS? Even the Doctor cannot enter without a key, so how is he already in there waiting for Lee?
The re-designed TARDIS interior is superb. The console is particularly good, going for an old-fashioned look makes it more timeless (like the Doctor's costumes) than attempting a futuristic look.

The rest of the interior is equally impressive, it is easy to imagine any of the previous Doctors looking quite at home in there. There's an eclectic collection of stuff, and all the clocks and candles give it a nice homely atmosphere; while the new Time Rotor and massive metal girders suggest the machine's power.
It is a shame that we are introduced to the 'bigger on the inside' concept right at the beginning in such a poor way. Far better if Chang's entrance had been our first look. The suprise loses its impact by just being presented straight away.
The flaws in the TV movie come thick nad fast in its second half. Why can the Eye Of Harmony only be opened someone with human eyes? Surely a bit of

a design flaw on a Time Lord vessel? The problems stem not just from being contradictory to Doctor Who, but make no sense logically either. It might be suitably dramatic for the Doctor to have to save the world from being destroyed at Midnight on the eve of the new Millenium, but it makes no sense as the Master opened the Eye Of Harmony at a completely arbitary moment. And the way the Doctor saves the day by travelling back in time to before the disaster is awful, and was always forbidden in the BBC series. Even worse is the way Grace and Chang are brought back to life by going back to the point before they died. This doesn't make sense on any level.
The final confrontation between the two Time Lords is quite good, lots of verbal sparring, its a bit unusual for the Doctor and Master to resort to fisticuffs though. Also, the religious overtones get a bit much, with the Doctor trussed up in a crucifix-like device that he must have had lying round. It goes too far with talk of taking the Doctor's soul. This is not Doctor Who territory. The Master says that he has wasted all of his lives because of the Doctor. In fact they only became nemeses during the former's final natural incarnation. It is frustrating that continuity has been fussily adminstered to in some cases (having McGann dub over his "twelve lives" line with "thirteen"), and just not bothered with in others.

All in all, the problems with the TV movie all stem from the script. Paul McGann is excellent as The Doctor, the design and special effects are good. I believe that a series would have been very good, after all most pilots are pretty poor. Unfortunately Fox pulled the plug on a possible TV series, or series of TV movies.

The Eighth Doctor's adventures continue in the BBC Books range, and on Big Finish audio CDs.