6 Times Doctor Who Was Nearly Cancelled (And The Time It Actually Was)
3. A Failed Pilot - 1996
7 years after Doctor Who’s cancellation, writer and producer Phillip Segal was just about the only man brave enough to still be pushing to relaunch Doctor Who. With the BBC still entirely disinterested due to the whole Grade/JNT/Baker debacle, Segal decided to instead pitch the show to an American audience. Needless to say, it was a tough sell: a quintessentially British show, with a marred reputation, that was cancelled to due to lack of interest. By some miracle, Segal managed to peak the interest of a single network: FOX. FOX were extremely hesitant to commit heavily to the series, but could see from its early years that if executed correctly, the show did have huge potential. To test the waters, FOX commissioned a TV movie as a backdoor pilot for a full series.
In order to appeal to a modern American audience, tweaks were made to the format. The movie would take place in present day U.S., and feature American companions and an American Master in the form of Eric Roberts (the less said about the latter, the better, but at least he had fun). Thankfully, it was agreed the Doctor still had to be British, and the crew settled on Paul McGann to be the face of the character’s Eighth incarnation. This modern Doctor was very different to his predecessors: handsome, more of a gentleman, and with a romantic streak. The pieces were set, all Segal had to do was pray the movie didn’t bomb…
It did.
The film has its strengths and weaknesses. It’s not a bad movie, but it’s not great either, despite a surprisingly strong casting of Paul McGann as The Doctor. Unfortunately, without the context of its long history, American viewers were disinterested and confused by the plot, whilst British fans struggled to come to terms with the Americansation of this British pop-culture icon. The film fell into an unfortunate middle ground where it excited no one, and whilst receiving mixed to favourable reviews, the viewing numbers were low (same old story). Following its release, FOX made the decision to not pursue a series, and you can’t blame them. Besides, if they had, who’s to say where the show would be today.
At least Paul McGann got his time to shine in Big Finish stories…