Paul McGann's time as the Doctor has deeply fascinated me. I have actually written quite a few different entries that specifically covered the notorious Telemovie in 1996 (for once, I'll just post a bunch of links at the end of the entry rather than right here). I see the whole thing as: "Doctor Who that Could Have Been" and have dreamt endlessly of what we might have had if the feature-length backdoor pilot had been picked up as an actual series.
Sadly, of course, that never happened. Instead, we're left with a single night in 1996 (up against the final episode of Roseanne, no less) where the Doctor briefly came back to life and gave us a bit of hope. And then disappeared as quickly as he had come.
This whole event creates a bit of a paradox for a hardcore fan such as myself. Where does The Enemy Within actually fit within the whole structure of the series? Do we consider it a sort of Coda to the Sylvester McCoy Era? Or is it a a pre-emptive strike that takes us toward New Who? I spent an entire entry debating this, once. And the honest answer is: Paul McGann is kinda doing his own thing!
Which means it should get its own separate section in my Season-by-Season Reviews. This is a very unique period in the show's history and ought to have a special entry all its own. But Paul's premiere in 1996 is not enough. I think we should also include his all-too-brief second appearance all those many years later where he ends up regenerating into the War Doctor. Put the two together and you have a nice comprehensive overview of the Paul McGann Era. There's not much to it, of course. But it still merits an entry all its own. So, for the next little while, I'll rant and rave about the scant video evidence that we have of the Eighth Doctor...
THE TRANSITION
The Paul McGann Era begins in the most curious of manners. It takes the trouble to bring back McCoy at the beginning and let us witness the regeneration (still the best visuals the process has ever received). At the same time, the Master goes through a regeneration of sorts, too.
The first fifteen minutes of the adventure handles some very heavy transitions in the show's Lore. One incarnation of the Doctor transforms into another while the Master takes over a new body. It's a lot to take in. No doubt, people exploring the show for the first time were probably a little overwhelmed. RTD, himself, points out how he specifically avoided doing something like this on his attempt to bring the show back. Many would even say that trying to link The Enemy Within so strongly to the first 26 seasons of Doctor Who was a huge factor in its failure. They should have started with a fresh brand-new Doctor already fully-formed like they did with Eccleston.
I do find myself agreeing with RTD's opinion. This was not the best way to bring the show back after it had rested for a good seven years. There would be a lot of people trying the show out for the first time. They would have heard about it but never seen it back when it was on. And would, therefore, be curious. And then there's also the fact that it was being broadcast on a major channel in North America. This would attract even more potential new viewers. Bogging down the first chunk of the story with a bunch of events that link it to its extended and contrived history certainly turned a lot of people off. Even some of my friends who had never seen Who before and wanted to finally give it a try told me how they just gave up on it after about 20 minutes. There was just too much going on that they didn't really understand.
Having said all that, I still actually adore the beginning of this story. I'm a hardcore fan so I found none of it particularly alienating. But I also just loved how the whole transition was executed. It moves along at a great pace as we watch Seven die and change into a bewildered Eight. At the same time, a gooey Master slowly forms into a cobra and takes over poor Bruce. The way the two sequences are interwoven works beautifully. The first time I watched all this, I was very excited. The Doctor and the Master were clearly getting ready for another big fight. They just needed to shed their previous skins first.
AMAZING GRACE
With transitions completed, we get on to the story, proper.
The Doctor losing his memory is a clever device, of course. As he remembers more and more who he is, he explains the premise of the show to a new audience. This is done quite well. Unfortunately, the uninitiated don't always make it this far and, thus, never get the exposition they needed. But this part of the story is still working fairly well.
The way the characters are distributed in the plot is, perhaps, a tad off-putting for a long-term fan such as myself. Aside from the Doctor, Grace, Chang-Lee and the Master, all other characters are very incidental. They are only getting two or three scenes, at best and then fade back out of the story. This is not the way supporting cast were used in the Classic Series. So it does throw me off a bit. Even makes the whole adventure seem, perhaps, a bit insubstantial. But, overall, I'm still okay with everything.
I'm especially happy with Grace. She's interesting and quirky and clearly a very intelligent woman. It's an absolute tragedy that she doesn't leave with the Doctor at the end. It's hoped that, if there had been a series, that the Doctor does something similar to what he did with Rose and pops back almost immediately to scoop Grace up. They would have made a great duo.
Of course, the super-controversial stuff happens around this time. Two big things occur in the span of a few minutes that had fans doing somersaults from the shock. We learn that the Doctor has been half-human all this time and we've never known it. And, more significantly, the Doctor actually kisses someone!!!!
While the half-human reveal is pretty massive, seeing the Doctor kiss was probably still the more brutal of the two. It was just so weird to see a character who had been so avuncular for so long suddenly seem to develop a libido of some sort. Of course, nowadays, it almost seems impossible for the Doctor to stop snogging! But this was big stuff back then.
"OPEN THE EYE!"
As Grace and the Doctor make it back to the TARDIS with the chip they needed, things do start to unravel a bit. Not as much as some fans might try to lead you to believe. But the story does still get pretty rough to watch for a while.
One could almost argue that The Enemy Within is maintaining the "Ambiguous Storytelling" traditions of Seasons Twenty-Five and Twenty-Six. But it would be a pretty big stretch to stand behind such a claim. The truth of the matter is: we need just a bit more of an explanation for what happens during the battle over the Eye of Harmony. I mean, if we're being really nitpicky, we need a bit more of an explanation of what the Eye of Harmony is! Last we heard, it was powering all of Gallifrey. Why is it in the TARDIS now?!
Naturally, I have my own headcannon for all of this. TARDISes are all linked to the Eye of Harmony as a power source and that's what we're actually seeing in the Cloister Room. It's a portal that takes you directly to the Eye so you can access its energy. Open that portal for too long, and it starts causing all sorts of damage to whatever point in Time and Space the TARDIS is in. You can, however, undo that damage if you re-route the power and complete a Temporal Orbit. When a TARDIS does this, it becomes a very rudimentary Time Manipulator (similar to the one the Rani was trying to create in Time and the Rani). You can, essentially, control a small portion of reality and bend it to your will. But you can only stay in Temporal Orbit for so long. Your TARDIS will, automatically, remove itself from this mode after a period of time. If it doesn't - it will blow up!
Who actually can manipulate time while a TARDIS is in temporal orbit works in a similar way to who controls reality when you're in the Matrix. Whoever has been there the longest has the strongest control. Since the Doctor has owned that TARDIS for centuries, he is the Master of the Universe! For the short time that the TARDIS is in temporal orbit, he's God. He uses these circumstances to save the Earth from being destroyed and resurrects Grace and Chang-Lee. Before he can do anything else, the TARDIS shuts things down and returns to just being a standard time vessel.
That explanation works for me, at least!
I do feel, however, that this is one of those situations where I am providing too much headcannon for why the TARDIS can sprinkle pixie dust on people and bring them back to life. We needed more from the actual script.
"YOUR KISS WAS A FLAME...."
After a fairly confusing Third Reel, we reach a nice open-ended conclusion. The Doctor is back in what is, easily, the best-looking console room. He's listening, once more, to the Torch Song he had on the record player at the beginning of the story. He resumes reading HG Wells (but has no one to brag to that he's actually met him!). He's ready to go adventuring again...
Clearly, Production is totally teasing things out for a series. And there was a great potential for one. Even if there would have been a fairly strong "American flavor" to the whole proceedings. McGann was brilliant in the role and I do think we could have gotten some very interesting stories over the next few seasons. The very fact that American writers would have been involved is intriguing. Plots would have flowed a bit differently from what we had gotten before. Which would have taken the show in some cool new directions. And it would have had a great budget!
It does seem, however, that trying to make Doctor Who into a hybrid of a British and American TV show was its ultimate undoing. American viewers felt alienated by how British some of it felt. And the English believed the show had sold itself out to the US! This version of Doctor Who couldn't find itself a home, anywhere. And, thus, was never developed.
But, seriously, what could have been....
"JUST NOT THE DOCTOR YOU WERE EXPECTING...."
Night of the Doctor is a tricky one to stay objective about. When it came out, it had been over fifteen years since Paul McGann had graced our screens as the Eighth Doctor. Fans seemed to have loved him during his all-too-brief stint (really, is there anyone out there who didn't enjoy his Doctor?!). Because of this, we were all just a bit aggravated that he'd never gotten a proper regeneration scene. It looked like it was going to be another damned Colin Baker situation.
But then, Steven Moffat gives us a beautiful gift during the 50th anniversary. A mini-sode is produced in secret and released on Youtube. The fans go mad. Finally, after all this time, we get to see Eight pass the baton to the next incarnation. Who we thought, initially, would be Christopher Eccleston. But things didn't quite go that way!
But, beyond the excitement of seeing Paul McGann back in the role and getting killed off, is this actually a good piece of entertainment? Admittedly, the mini-sodes that were being made at the time could be quite hit-or-miss. I found a very few of them to be genuinely enjoyable. Most were just, sort of, okay. And some were pretty awful. So, just because we're finally getting something we've always really wanted doesn't mean we're going to be genuinely happy with it once we've settled down.
"PHYSICIAN, HEAL THYSELF!"
Fortunately, even after the excitement has dulled, Night of the Doctor is still quite excellent. I'm amazed at just how well the Eighth Doctor is re-created. Both by the script and McGann's performance. In those few short minutes, several of Eight's more prominent traits are put on display. He still possesses his lofty principles and refuses to fight in the Time Wars. He also hasn't lost his wit as he mocks the Sisterhood of Karn and asks for knitting when he's told how much time he has left to live. And then, of course, there's that nice angry yell he can belt out from out of nowhere. He suddenly uses it when he wants to be alone to drink his poisoned chalice.
It's all quite brilliant to watch. And amazing that it gets compressed into about eight minutes!
It helps that Moffat didn't just give us this purely for fan service. It also relates to an arc he has been building over the last few episodes. Thanks to Night of the Doctor, we now understand where John Hurt's incarnation comes from. I like how Moff used a gap in the Lore's history to his advantage. We finally got to see something we've always wanted and the Road towards Day of the Doctor is now better-paved. That's some very clever multi-tasking!
"DOCTOR, NO MORE."
And so, as we see the reflection of a young John Hurt, we realize that the Eighth Doctor Era has come to an end. It was way too short. We should have gotten more. I know, I know, I could go listen to Big Finish. I have actually done that a bit. It's great stuff. But it's just not the same. A handsome fella like Paul McGann should be seen and not just heard.
This is far from the first time that I've watched Survival, The Enemy Within and Night of the Doctor in rapid succession. Usually when I do this, I decide to be super-chronological and watch Day of the Doctor and then Rose. I focus on the War Doctor during Day and imagine the story mainly from his perspective. If I'm trying to watch the whole series, I'll re-watch the 50th anniversary special again when I reach the appropriate moment in Eleven's timestream. It's super-pedantic, I know. But it is a fun way to view this set of stories. Give it a try sometime if you want!
For the sake of this particular exercise, however, we'll skip Day of the Doctor and resume watching the show in production order. Night of the Doctor was a bit of a cheat, I'll admit. But skipping to it allows us to, at least, make the Eighth Doctor Era a bit more comprehensive. But now that we've accomplished that, we'll get back to doing things the way they're meant to be.
Which means, of course, that it's time to embark upon the New Series....
Other entries about Paul McGann:
A silly way to watch the 96 Telemovie
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2020/05/complete-and-utter-silliness-if-96.html
Is The Enemy Within New or Classic Who?
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2020/01/points-of-debate-96-telemovie-new-or.html
Questioning what the Eye of Harmony is doing in the 96 Telemovie...
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/08/points-of-debate-what-is-up-with-eye-of.html
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