Doctor Who: Every Doctor's First Episode Ranked Worst To Best

Say what you like about the 1996 TV Movie, there's no doubting Paul McGann's magnetic performance as the Eighth Doctor.

While it's a bit too mired in decades of Doctor Who continuity to be an effective introduction for a brand-new audience, it's still a pretty great introduction to a brand-new Doctor.

Grace Holloway is the Dana Scully to the Doctor's Fox Mulder, struggling to believe the impossible things she's seeing unfold before her very eyes. Paul McGann's breathless delivery and vibrant energy shows that he completely understands how to reinvent the character of the Doctor for a '90s audience.

While it leans heavily into the post-regenerative amnesia trope, Matthew Jacobs' script never forgets to make the Doctor our hero, giving him big romantic and heroic moments as he begins to remember who he is.

Sadly, the TV Movie never led to more live-action adventures for the Eighth Doctor, but its failure to take off in America was nothing to do with Paul McGann.