Paul McGann has reflected on one of the great what-ifs in Doctor Who history, recalling the sense on set that the 1996 TV movie might be more than a one-off.
The feature-length adventure saw McGann debut as the Eighth Doctor, in what was designed as a transatlantic relaunch of the BBC sci-fi series.
A co-production between the BBC, Universal Television and FOX, the TV movie moved the Time Lord’s adventures to San Francisco and pitted McGann’s romantic new incarnation against Eric Roberts’s Master.
Of course, fans now know that the hoped-for continuation never materialised, with McGann’s only full TV outing as the Doctor standing alone for decades – despite his incarnation later enjoying a rich afterlife in audio dramas and the 50th anniversary mini-episode The Night of the Doctor.
But speaking at a BFI screening of Doctor Who: The Movie – restored in 4K for a new home media release – McGann suggested the cast and crew had high hopes at the time and had to approach the project as though they would be back for more.
“90 per cent of [pilots] will never get picked up, you know the odds, obviously, realistically – but of course you can’t work in that spirit, so you’ve got to assume that it’s all going to work and you’re going to come back… that was the atmosphere,” he said.
McGann also recalled that those involved were even saying to one another, “See you in six months,” underlining the expectation that the TV movie could mark the beginning of a new era rather than a solitary chapter.
Despite this, director Geoffrey Sax implied that he may not have returned had the project continued as a series. “The reason was that doing a pilot is very different than doing a series for a director, usually,” he said.
“With a pilot, it’s like directing a movie, you’re involved with all the prep all the way through shooting, obviously, and all the way through post-production, right to the minute… whereas [with] a series, often you’re given five days to prep… much shorter shooting time, and you do five days of editing, and then they say, ‘Thank you very much,’ and you’re off.”
For McGann, the possibility of a full series also came with major personal implications. The actor said it was a “strange gig” partly because Doctor Who had been off screen for several years, but also because the stakes felt so high.
“It was really [an] odd thought to come into, and of course, it had been gone for four or five years, so it felt it was a strange one,” he said.
“It felt like, wow, if this takes off… that was more a concern, you know, our children were babies, we’d have to go and live there… you’re looking at six weeks, six months, six years, but my kids would be Canadians… so you’re thinking of that as well. So there’s all kinds of considerations.”
The TV movie remains one of Doctor Who‘s most fascinating roads not taken – a version of the show that briefly pointed towards a very different future before the eventual 2005 revival took the series in another direction.
Doctor Who: The Movie is set to return in a newly-restored edition for its 30th anniversary, having been brought back to life from the original 35mm film elements for the first time.
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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