Doctor Who TV movie director Geoffrey Sax has revealed that Eric Roberts was initially unsure about some of the Master’s more outlandish costume choices – before fully embracing the heightened reality of the film.

Roberts played the renegade Time Lord in the 1996 TV movie opposite Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor, delivering a performance that has become beloved by fans over the years for its melodrama and unapologetic camp.

One moment in particular has lived on in Doctor Who folklore: the Master’s dramatic costume change into full Time Lord finery, complete with Roberts’s theatrical delivery of the line: “I always dress for the occasion.”

Reflecting on Roberts’s initial response to the look, Sax told Radio Times: “From memory, Eric bought into it very early on, but he was a bit… I think some of the costumes he raised an eyebrow at.

“I remember going down to the costume department with him, and he was saying, ‘This just doesn’t feel right.'”

However, Sax recalled that Roberts’s view changed once he saw how the film was coming together.

“Then I invited him into the cutting room, and we showed him the assembly, what we’d done so far,” he said. “I think we’d been filming for about three weeks.

“He then realised that there was quite a lot of heightened reality, as it were, in the show, and he bought into it straight away. From then on he just really went for it.”

While Roberts’s Master proved a very different beast to previous incarnations of the villain, his performance has since become one of the most talked-about elements of the TV movie, especially among fans who enjoy the film’s more flamboyant touches.

Sax said he was struck by that reaction while recently watching the film again with an audience – during a screening at the BFI Southbank.

“Again, seeing it with an audience, I’d forgotten how many laughs [he got], even though he was the bad guy – because he was so sort of high camp at times.

“Because he did it with such conviction, I just think he got away with it.”

The 1996 TV movie was originally intended as a potential pilot for a new Doctor Who series, though a full revival starring McGann did not materialise.

Thirty years on from original brodcast, Doctor Who: The Movie has been remastered for a new 4K and Blu-ray home media release, with the TV movie newly restored from the original 35mm film elements to mark its 30th anniversary.

The release will be 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.=

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