The Doctor Who TV Movie, sometimes called Doctor Who: Enemy Within, was supposed to invigorate the Doctor Who community and to stir up enough public interest in the show to the point that it perhaps would return to the air. Unfortunately, the movie did little more than confuse (or irritate) the fan base and bewilder the casual viewer. Not a single TV network, in the USA or the United Kingdom, exercised their option to pick the show up. No one realistically talked about the possibility of Doctor Who coming back onto people's screens for seven years.
Having now watched the film, I can easily see why this would be the case. If anything, rather than presenting the series in an excitingly new light, the movie looks like one last hurrah from a show that had run its course and was now ready to bow out of the cinematic limelight. The direction is messy, the script is dissonant, and the plot is confusing. Despite its relatively hefty budget and swanky new Doctor in the form of Paul McGann, The Enemy Within fundamentally fails in its task of providing an interesting and well-told story. There are many reasons why this is the case, but for the sake of expedience, I have decided to look at three of them.
Having now watched the film, I can easily see why this would be the case. If anything, rather than presenting the series in an excitingly new light, the movie looks like one last hurrah from a show that had run its course and was now ready to bow out of the cinematic limelight. The direction is messy, the script is dissonant, and the plot is confusing. Despite its relatively hefty budget and swanky new Doctor in the form of Paul McGann, The Enemy Within fundamentally fails in its task of providing an interesting and well-told story. There are many reasons why this is the case, but for the sake of expedience, I have decided to look at three of them.
I didn't actually mind the Doctor being shot down in a back alley; (although I would say that similar situations have happened dozens of time to the Doctor already, and he has always been able to talk himself out of it. It is amusing that the gunmen finally decide to shoot first and ask questions later only when the writers need the Doctor to regenerate) on the contrary it was quite dramatic and unsuspected. What I did object to was how long and dreadful his death scene was. The Doctor pleads with his physician that he is not to be treated with conventional medicine several times to no avail. When the end does comes he lets out a horrible, "Raaaarggggh", and it is quite unsettling. Most Doctors go with a bit of stoicism and dignity, surrounded by friends and companions. The Seventh Doctor dies alone and scared, a scream upon his lips.
The Eighth Doctor's regeneration doesn't improve matters. While the guy on duty watches Frankenstein lightning bolts twitch around Sylvester McCoy's corpse. He strangely transforms into his Eighth incarnation and then proceeds to beat down the metal door holding him and the other dead bodies in the morgue prisoner. After terrifying the night guy, he enters some sort of storage room, and, realizing he is suffering from amnesia, drops to his knees crying out, "who am I!!" all while the thunder from a storm overheard whirls about (How often do thunder storms happen on New Year's Eve, by the way?). With the dark feel of these scenes, and the references to Frankenstein, the movie suggests the Doctor's regeneration is unnatural and horrific, rather than something to be optimistic about. The Eighth Doctor is portrayed as a monster rather than a hero in his first few scenes. For anybody who didn't know much about Doctor Who, and probably for quite a few who did, these scenes come across as confusing and distasteful. And people's TV sets are starting to turn off.........now.
2) Continuity Problems. What makes the TV movie so hard to understand for many long-standing Doctor Who fans is that there are major continuity problems. The problem with any DW story that relies heavily on its past is that a lot of research is required, and there is so much history that it is very easy to make a mistake or a slip-up; there are multiple stories for the Dalek's evolution, Romana's regeneration destroyed everything we thought we knew about the process in, and different Doctors contradict each other. Let's start at the beginning; the Doctor tells his audience that the Master has been judged and executed by the Daleks for crimes committed, and that the Master's last request was that the Doctor take his ashes back to Gallifrey. When have the Daleks gotten all ethical on us? When have they needed to prove somebody is a criminal before killing them? The Doctor is the Dalek's most hated enemy; would they really have felt obligated to honor the Master's request to allow the Doctor to come get his ashes?
Secondly, as a well-informed Doctor Who fan, I have a very big problem with the Eye of Harmony hanging around in the back of the Doctor's TARDIS. Isn't it supposed to be on Gallifrey underneath the main room of the Capitol? Seeing as how the whole of the plot revolves around the Eye of Harmony this creates a wee bit of a contradiction. Fans trying to come up with a feasible solution to this problem has led to many innovative ideas and theories, and of course, the occasional argument. I know because I researched the matter on various Doctor Who chatting forums.
Last but not least the movie gives us two humdingers that led to just about the whole of the Doctor Who community crying blasphemy; not only does the Doctor kiss a woman for the first time (first three times, actually) but he also claims to be half-human! What makes the whole thing so funny is the stark contrast between the series and the movie. For 26 seasons he barely looks at a woman (Tom Baker's line in City of Death sums up how indifferent and unaware of people's sexuality he is when he tells the countess, "you're a beautiful woman, probably."), and then not only does he have romantic feelings for someone and kisses her, but he kisses her three separate times (in two scenes)! For 26 seasons the Doctor hardly says anything about his family, but the movie goes to great lengths to let people know the Doctor is half-human on his mom's side! Just thinking about all these continuity problems gives me a headache.
Secondly, as a well-informed Doctor Who fan, I have a very big problem with the Eye of Harmony hanging around in the back of the Doctor's TARDIS. Isn't it supposed to be on Gallifrey underneath the main room of the Capitol? Seeing as how the whole of the plot revolves around the Eye of Harmony this creates a wee bit of a contradiction. Fans trying to come up with a feasible solution to this problem has led to many innovative ideas and theories, and of course, the occasional argument. I know because I researched the matter on various Doctor Who chatting forums.
Last but not least the movie gives us two humdingers that led to just about the whole of the Doctor Who community crying blasphemy; not only does the Doctor kiss a woman for the first time (first three times, actually) but he also claims to be half-human! What makes the whole thing so funny is the stark contrast between the series and the movie. For 26 seasons he barely looks at a woman (Tom Baker's line in City of Death sums up how indifferent and unaware of people's sexuality he is when he tells the countess, "you're a beautiful woman, probably."), and then not only does he have romantic feelings for someone and kisses her, but he kisses her three separate times (in two scenes)! For 26 seasons the Doctor hardly says anything about his family, but the movie goes to great lengths to let people know the Doctor is half-human on his mom's side! Just thinking about all these continuity problems gives me a headache.
3) Too many things don't make sense.
Secondly, the Eye of Harmony, for whatever reason, can only be opened with a retinal scan from a human eye. You'd think since it's a Time Lord device it might make more sense for a Time Lord to be able to open it, but that's just me. And of course, the last time we saw it was sitting comfortably on Gallifrey, so the Doctor must have picked it up and had it moved sometime in the interim as well. Again what explanation do the writers give for this? Nothing.
Those two are the first ones to come to mind, but there are many smaller problems that makes the viewer scratch his head; the Doctor's ability to resurrect Lee and Grace, the Doctor's ability to knock down huge metal doors, the Doctor agreeing with Grace's assessment that he is British, and the list goes on.
OK, I agree this one is a bit of a catch all, but it doesn't mean the criticism is invalid. The movie is interesting enough to keep the viewer watching through most of it, but this is due to its superficial sense of suspense rather than any sort of intriguing story-line. It's like the producers wanted to make sure the story moved quickly enough in the hope that the audience wouldn't notice the obvious plot problems. First of all, the Master is executed right? Not that we've ever heard of Daleks putting people on trial, but that's what they tell us. Somehow, he is able to keep his consciousness or soul alive, in the form of some sort of disembodied snake creature. He breaks out of the box the Doctor has put him in and forces the TARDIS to malfunction, making sure the Doctor has to land. He is then able to possess a helpless ambulance driver while he is sleeping. Oh, and of course he can shoot bile-like fluids from his mouth. How do the writers explain all this? That's right I remember, they don't. Secondly, the Eye of Harmony, for whatever reason, can only be opened with a retinal scan from a human eye. You'd think since it's a Time Lord device it might make more sense for a Time Lord to be able to open it, but that's just me. And of course, the last time we saw it was sitting comfortably on Gallifrey, so the Doctor must have picked it up and had it moved sometime in the interim as well. Again what explanation do the writers give for this? Nothing.
Those two are the first ones to come to mind, but there are many smaller problems that makes the viewer scratch his head; the Doctor's ability to resurrect Lee and Grace, the Doctor's ability to knock down huge metal doors, the Doctor agreeing with Grace's assessment that he is British, and the list goes on.
In my introduction, I claimed that the TV movie failed in producing a well-told story. To be more specific, they failed in producing a well-told story in the vein of classic Doctor Who. By focusing on marginal things like the Doctor's fondness for jelly-babies or his old style clothing, the producers neglected what really made the show well known and successful. Doctor Who, the Television Companion sums up the TV movie nicely by saying,
"Opinions differ as to what does actually constitute the true essence of Doctor Who, but key elements identified by commentators include: stories that work on more than one level, with deeper themes discernible beneath the superficial action and adventure; a greater emphasis on characterisation and well-plotted drama than on slick production and special effects; and a scary, almost subversive quality that regularly sent kids scurrying behind the sofa... The television movie possesses none of these attributes. The story works on one, relatively superficial level; characterisation is minimal and the plot full of gaping holes, while lavish attention is focused on the impressive visuals; and, although there are undoubtedly some scary scenes, the overall approach is more formulaic, with the inclusion of many stock elements of standard US adventure fare - a violent gun battle; a 'cartoon terrible' villain (to use Eric Roberts' own description of his incarnation of the Master); a youthful sidekick; a lengthy car chase scene; a romantic involvement between the star and the leading lady; and so on...."
Before we finish up I wanted to show you the trailer for The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot. I had never heard of it until recently, but I found it quite hilarious. The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot is the story of the classic doctor who actor's struggle to receive recognition in the limelight of the 50th anniversary. Frightened by the possibility that David Tennant and Matt Smith might be the only doctors to appear in the special, they decide to call the BBC and let them know they are available. As Steven Moffat ignores their calls in favor of playing with his 10th and 11th Doctor figurines, they decide to take desperate measures to ensure their place in Doctor Who history. Brilliantly written and produced by Peter Davison the cast and cameos include Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, David Tennant, Matt Smith, Jenna Coleman, Steven Moffat, Peter Jackson, Ian McKellen, John Barrowman, Sean Pertwee, and Janet Fielding. It is the perfect nod to the classic doctors; the whole thing just works perfectly. If you haven't seen it and you are a classic fan, you really need to check it out. It's pretty easy to find, but I do know it's not on youtube.
"Opinions differ as to what does actually constitute the true essence of Doctor Who, but key elements identified by commentators include: stories that work on more than one level, with deeper themes discernible beneath the superficial action and adventure; a greater emphasis on characterisation and well-plotted drama than on slick production and special effects; and a scary, almost subversive quality that regularly sent kids scurrying behind the sofa... The television movie possesses none of these attributes. The story works on one, relatively superficial level; characterisation is minimal and the plot full of gaping holes, while lavish attention is focused on the impressive visuals; and, although there are undoubtedly some scary scenes, the overall approach is more formulaic, with the inclusion of many stock elements of standard US adventure fare - a violent gun battle; a 'cartoon terrible' villain (to use Eric Roberts' own description of his incarnation of the Master); a youthful sidekick; a lengthy car chase scene; a romantic involvement between the star and the leading lady; and so on...."
Before we finish up I wanted to show you the trailer for The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot. I had never heard of it until recently, but I found it quite hilarious. The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot is the story of the classic doctor who actor's struggle to receive recognition in the limelight of the 50th anniversary. Frightened by the possibility that David Tennant and Matt Smith might be the only doctors to appear in the special, they decide to call the BBC and let them know they are available. As Steven Moffat ignores their calls in favor of playing with his 10th and 11th Doctor figurines, they decide to take desperate measures to ensure their place in Doctor Who history. Brilliantly written and produced by Peter Davison the cast and cameos include Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, David Tennant, Matt Smith, Jenna Coleman, Steven Moffat, Peter Jackson, Ian McKellen, John Barrowman, Sean Pertwee, and Janet Fielding. It is the perfect nod to the classic doctors; the whole thing just works perfectly. If you haven't seen it and you are a classic fan, you really need to check it out. It's pretty easy to find, but I do know it's not on youtube.
Thank you for visiting Sci-Fi Reflections, and I hope you visit us again. Feel free to look around as plenty of new changes are taking place; most notably the Episodes to Remember, Episodes to Forget Page. Since it was all getting too big, each Doctor has their own page now. Please let me know if one of the links doesn't work or something else because it did involve a lot of detail work, and it wouldn't surprise me if I made an error somewhere. Onto the new series!!