Ah, the Doctor Who movie. You bought it on video. You bought it on DVD. You bought it on DVD again. You bought it on Blu-ray. Well now you can buy it in 4K, just in time for the 30th anniversary!
Now, for those of you who may baulk at the idea of quintuple-dipping, let us reassure you: The Doctor Who movie has never looked better. Even if you don’t have a 4K setup, we’re told that the newly-restored Blu-ray version is also excellent, having been painstakingly remastered from the original prints – something that wasn’t previously possible.
Apparently, AI upscaling has been used on certain portions of the Doctor Who movie that weren’t captured on raw 35mm film (we suspect the opening shot of the planet Skaro is one such moment, as rumour has it the production team never made it to the Daleks‘ home planet.) However, there is nothing ‘sloppy’ in evidence here; this is still the Doctor Who movie you know and love, or learnt to love. It’s just sharper and prettier, and if this doesn’t prove to be the ‘definitive’ release, then throw me in the Eye of Harmony.
And if you think you know the Doctor Who movie inside out, you may still find a surprise or two. For example, when you navigate to the Eric Roberts interview, you will notice that he has his arm around the actor Eliza Garrett, who played his wife in the film. Strange, you might say. Well it would be, if she weren’t his real world wife. Who knew?! (Lots of you, I suspect, although I’ll confess this was a new one by me…)
Honestly, this isn’t quite on the level of Myth Makers in terms of depth, and I daresay the concise Roberts and his gleaming smile would have benefitted from the Matthew Sweet treatment, but in fairness he is reflecting on a project that consumed only a couple of weeks of his life, 30 years ago. How much can he possibly say? It is fun to hear about his relationships with the other cast members though, particularly Yee Jee Tso (Chang Lee) with whom he had an almost paternal relationship. Roberts and Garrett describe how they took the young actor under their wings and mentored him.
But there are of course two sides to every story, and it’s fascinating to hear Tso’s reflections on working on the Doctor Who movie. He speaks positively of Roberts, although does confess there was a moment where he couldn’t be sure whether he’d upset him. Daphne Ashbrook (Grace) also notes that the mood on set quickly changed when Roberts entered, and people were less inclined to goof around, partly because of Roberts’ adoption of the ‘acting method.’ It was like trying to act alongside the Master himself.
And speaking of the Master, we’ve known for a long time that the Doctor Who movie’s opening sequence went through several iterations. Gordon Tipple was even hired to play the old Master for this sequence, and even though he is still present in the final cut, his voice-over was omitted.
Well, that voice over has been restored for the 4K version of the Doctor Who movie, albeit on the special features menu. Its deletion makes sense, as it would doubtless have confused first-time viewers, but it’s wonderful to see on this release. We still get the opening shot of Skaro, but this time it is Tipple’s Master narrating, expressing his wish for the Doctor to take his remains back to Gallifrey. We then get a caption: ‘Dalek Extermination Chamber. Condemned: The Master.’
Now all we need to decide is whether Tipple’s Master is a separate incarnation, or a re-casting of Ainley. See you in the comments section…
Another thing that you’ll notice with this release is that you have a couple of versions of the Doctor Who movie to choose from: you have the ‘uncensored’ UK version, and the US original. If you select the former, you’ll get the full San Fran gunfight with Chang Lee and co, which was trimmed for its UK broadcast, and an extended version of the surgery scene where the Seventh Doctor dies. I think these are the only ‘censored’ sequences. Interestingly, these were omitted from the VHS release too, and weren’t seen in the UK until BBC2’s Doctor Who Night in 1999.
If, however, you go for the American cut of the film, you’ll still get these sequences, but you’ll also get a few random fade-outs scattered throughout the feature, which were inserted to allow for commercial breaks on Fox.
One thing that will forever bug me, though, is the scene from the Doctor Who movie where the Doctor tells Grace that he has 13 lives. This has been dubbed; you can clearly see Paul McGann mouthing the word 12. This error was fixed in post production, and the amendment is retained on the 4K release, but I could have sworn that McGann said “12” in the VHS release. Can anybody substantiate this claim?
It’s not a massive thing, but it would be nice to have the un-dubbed audio as an option on the special features menu: call it the Alternate Reality Version, or something, where the Doctor does indeed only have 12 lives, and perishes in ‘The End of Time’ part two. It would be wonderfully nerdy.
Otherwise, it’s a shame that we don’t have more McGann on this edition of the Doctor Who movie, and I do hope he’s on Matthew Sweet’s interview list for some future release. I also can’t get enough Philip Segal (I could listen to his voice all day) but it is great to have a brand new interview with the director Geoffrey Sax, and of course a new feature with Sylvester McCoy and Janet Fielding, who share memories of working with the late Ken Campbell.
Overall, if you’re a fan of the Doctor Who movie and you’re in two minds as to whether you should add this release to your collection, there is definitely enough ‘newness’ for you to sink your teeth into – and that’s me speaking as a fan, not as a Doctor Who licensee (or the employee of one.)
And if you’ve already bought the Doctor Who movie in 4K, what did you think? Let us know in the comments below.
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