Doctor Who director Geoffrey Sax has revealed an alternative ending that was pitched for Paul McGann’s 1996 TV movie.
Speaking at a BFI screening of the TV movie – restored in 4K for a new home media release – Sax recalled how writer Matthew Jacobs’s script was initially vague when it came to the climactic showdown between the Eighth Doctor and Eric Roberts’s Master.
“For the big fight with the Master and Doctor… Matthew wrote, ‘They fight in a cool and interesting way,'” Sax said.
That left Sax and producer Philip Segal trying to work out exactly what the final battle would look like on screen.
“I remember Phil Segal and I were in the production office, and we said, ‘Matthew, what does that mean?’ He said, ‘Well, I’ll come up with something,'” Sax explained.
The finished TV movie sees the Doctor and the Master clash inside the TARDIS, with the Master ultimately being pulled into the Eye of Harmony. But according to Sax, there was at one point a more unusual version of the sequence on the table.
“At one point they were in pods, and floating around… it would’ve been so wonderful to do that.”
That version was ultimately abandoned for budgetary reasons, with the pair instead engaging in a more traditional physical bout.
The 1996 TV movie marked McGann’s first full appearance as the Doctor, following on from Sylvester McCoy’s Seventh Doctor and introducing a more romantic version of the Time Lord.
Although the film did not lead to a full series, McGann’s incarnation has gone on to become a firm fan favourite, later returning for 50th anniversary mini-episode The Night of the Doctor.
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Doctor Who: The Movie’s newly-restored edition will be released to mark the 30th anniversary of the film‘s original broadcast, with the episode restored from the original 35mm film elements.
The release – available as a Limited Edition Steelbook featuring the 90-minute adventure on both 4K UHD and Blu-ray, alongside standalone 4K and standard Blu-ray editions – will include both the uncensored UK version and the original US broadcast cut, plus newly-produced extras featuring Daphne Ashbrook, Eric Roberts, Yee Jee Tso, Sylvester McCoy and Janet Fielding.
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