Every Doctor Who Debut Story Ranked From Worst To Best
10. The TV Movie
The TV Movie unashamedly adds religious connotations to the Doctor’s regeneration with the Eighth Doctor coming back from the dead whilst locked in the morgue and rising dressed in a white gown. At the same time the clever juxtaposition of the security guard watching the Frankenstein movie is a reminder that the unnatural events are not supernatural, but are part of the Doctor’s alien nature.
The movie includes a wonderful ‘I am the Doctor’, moment when after recovering from his amnesia, the Doctor shouts out those very words. From that point on, he is right there at the heart of the action, taking on the hero’s role with charm, enthusiasm and urgency as he sets about foiling the Master’s plans.
Once again the framing story makes little sense, but the naturalism of the dialogue particularly between the Doctor and Grace, and the unambiguous status of the Doctor as the hero, lift the TV Movie above Sylvester McCoy and Colin Baker’s debuts.
The TV Movie suffers from the decision to include McCoy and a regeneration part way through. It steals too much time away from the Eighth Doctor. There were enough continuity establishing references in the McGann sections (jelly babies, sonic screwdriver, the Master) without the horribly out of place accidental ending for the godlike Seventh Doctor.
By the end we almost want to come with the Eighth Doctor, but not quite, and rather tragically as if expecting the pilot to be a failure, the script ends with Grace turning down the Doctor’s offer to join him in the TARDIS.