The Master would not be much of a villain if he did not have a Doctor to battle, and Paul McGann fit that description perfectly. His Doctor did get off to a rocky start, though; regenerating several hours after death instead of instantaneously negatively impacted his memories, leading to amnesia. This, in turn, made him more vulnerable because he needed to rely on others, particularly Grace, to help him. Once he had his memories back, though, there was no questioning that he was in charge of the situation. He was more subdued than some of his predecessors (or successors), but his quiet, matter-of-fact attitude managed to persuade others to trust him...although that didn't stop them from wondering if he had escaped from a psych ward! The Eighth Doctor may have started out quite lost, but by the time we see him again in The Night of the Doctor, we see how far he has come. He has developed a tougher edge but is still the quiet, matter-of-fact man we came to know in the movie. And if it hadn't been for the movie, we never would have had The Night of the Doctor or all of those wonderful audio adventures. I concede that the movie is not perfect; I concede that it could have been executed with much more skill. But like it or not, the 1996 TV movie plays an important role in Whovian lore, and our beloved Whoniverse would be much poorer without it.
Paula Luther hails from Pennsylvania and has been an avid Whovian since 2008. She enjoys writing (obviously), reading, dancing, video editing, and building websites. She has also self-published two books on Amazon, "Bart the Bard" and "Android Mae and Other Stories".
