10 Dumbest Things In Doctor Who: The Movie
It may have given us Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor, but the Doctor Who movie isn't all great...
Doctor Who was not in the best shape in 1996. The series had been pulled from TV seven years earlier after a decline in popularity, and fans were desperate to see it make a comeback.
So, in a bold attempt to revitalise the sci-fi classic, a feature-length special was produced called Doctor Who: The Movie. But unfortunately, it just didn't do as well as was hoped.
Paul McGann may have impressed in his only major outing as the Time Lord and the American setting certainly made things interesting, but the Doctor Who movie is mostly remembered today for being more miss than hit, a project that failed to capture the imagination of anyone with enough cash to fund a new series.
As a result, Doctor Who was left in the void for a further nine years until it was revived by the BBC. So where did it all go wrong for the McGann-led movie? Why didn't it work?
Well, we're glad you asked, because these are some of the failings that dragged the whole thing down...
10. It Was On TV
Nothing says "this is going to be cheap and rubbish" quite like the phrase "TV movie."
When have you ever heard that phrase used in a positive sense? The only time it comes up is in relation to bad sequels to popular films, or Hallmark Christmas pictures.
Those can both be fun, but when your goal is to save a dwindling franchise, focusing solely on the small screen perhaps wasn't the best idea.
The likelihood is that this was probably the best they could get. Producer Philip Segal, who had desperately been trying to revive the show for years, managed to get some backing from the Fox Network. However, they only agreed to a single telemovie, rather than the full-blown series he was after.
While Segal did well enough by securing the TV film, imagine how much more professional it would've looked if it got a cinematic launch.
With a decent enough marketing campaign and the prestige of a wide theatrical release, many more eyeballs would've been drawn to the movie. Instead, it was sent out to die on American TV, where it was the 75th most-watched programme of the week. Ouch.