Doctor Who (TV story)


 * For other uses of Doctor Who, see Doctor Who (disambiguation).

Doctor Who was a 1996 Doctor Who made-for-TV movie. It was produced for both the BBC and Fox networks. Co-produced by British and American interests, and filmed in Canada, the telemovie introduced Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor and was an attempt at relaunching the Doctor Who television franchise both in the UK and abroad. The telemovie won a Saturn Award in 1996 for best television presentation.

Synopsis
"It was on the planet Skaro that my old enemy, the Master, was finally put on trial. They say he listened calmly as his list of evil crimes was read and sentence passed. Then he made his last, and I thought somewhat curious request. He demanded that I, the Doctor, a rival Time Lord, should take his remains back to our home planet, Gallifrey. It was a requst they should have never granted..."

Plot
The Master has been exterminated by the Daleks on Skaro as part of a treaty between them and the Time Lords for his terrible deeds. "As part of his final, and some what unsual, request", the Master asked that the Seventh Doctor escort his ashes back to Gallifrey for proper burial. However, the Doctor still does not trust the Master, even in death, thus ends up locking the container holding his ashes inside another box. After returning to the main control room, the Doctor enjoys a book as he eats a bowl of Jelly Babies and listens to a gramophone. Meanwhile, the casket containing the Master's ashes cracks open and a transparent serpent-like creature housing the Master's conciousness slithers out. A symbolic warning occurs as the record begins skipping and the Doctor's cup of tea crashes to the floor. Unseen by the Doctor, the Master quickly slithers into the TARDIS console, causing it to malfuction as sparks fly out of it. The Doctor tries to fix it, but is unsuccessful in doing so. This forces him to instead force the TARDIS to make an emergancy landing. Concerned that the Master may have played a hand in this, the Doctor quickly returns to where he left the ashes to see the box cracked open from the Master's escape. The Doctor only looks on with a shocked expression.

Meanwhile on Earth, San Francisco, December 30th, 1999, two local Chinese-American gangs a having a shoot-out, reducing one to just Chang Lee. When the other gangsters prepares to fire on him, the TARDIS materialization wind picks up and it appears in front of Lee. The gang fruitlessly fires at the TARDIS, emptying their guns. While they reload, the Doctor exits the TARDIS only to be shot by the gangsters, who flee upon hearing police sirens. Lee runs to the Doctor's side after they leave and the Doctor tries to warn him about the Master, who had slipped through the TARDIS keyhole. However, Lee doesn't turn around in time to see him and quickly runs to get an ambulance and accompanys the Doctor to Walker General Hospital. Unseen, the Master stows away in the ambulance.

At the hospital, a surgeon removes the bullets, but the Doctor's two hearts cause confusion for the medical team. They assume he is fibrillating and that the X-rays showing two hearts must be a double exposure. A cardiologist, Dr. Grace Holloway, is summoned from a date at the opera and attempts to stabilize the Doctor's hearts. Regaining conciousness, the Doctor attemts to stop the operation by explaining he has two hearts, but is anesthetised. The Doctor's anatomy confuses Grace, and he appears to die in the middle of the operation. When Grace attempts to comfort Lee with the death of the Doctor, she realizes he doesn't know him and is unsuccessful in stopping him from running off with the Doctor's possessions. Around the same time, the Master has hitched a ride to the home of the ambulance worker Bruce by hiding in his jacket.

The Doctor is placed in the morgue after the attendants make spa jokes to him. Elsewhere, the Master has entered Bruce's body, killing him and taking it for himself. Later that night, as Pete, a morgue attendant, watches the 1931 film version of Frankenstein, the Doctor undergoes his seventh regeneration. The Doctor begins baning on the door, attracting Pete's attention. When Pete arrives to see what is the sorce of the sound, the Eighth Doctor busts down the door, clad in just a shroud. This was mirrored by Frankenstein's awakening on the film at the same time. Pete faints from fright while the Doctor stumbles into a deserted wing of the hospital where he sees himself in broken piecers of mirror and cries out, "Who am I?"

The next morning, the Doctor, after going through numerous choices from hospital lockers, steals the Wild Bill Hickok costume that Pete's co-worker, Ted, intended to wear to the hospital's New Year's Eve costume party. Meanwhile, Chang Lee goes through the Doctor's possessions, finding his sonic screwdriver, pocketwatch, Jelly Babies, a yo-yo, and TARDIS key. Meanwhile, Bruce's wife awakes to find, unbeknowst to her, the Master staring out the window. As the Master talks to himself about Bruce's body not lasting long and his need to find the Doctor, she asks him to come back to bed. However after her failed attempts to be seductive, she realizes the Master isn't Bruce when she sees the cat-like eyes the Master aquired from his time on Cheetah World. The Master snaps her neck. At the hospital, the Doctor recognises Grace (who has quit her hospital job after an argument with the hospital administrator over the surgery), and follows her to the parking lot. In her car, he removes the surgical probe which Grace had left in him the previous night, a sight which convinces her that this strange man is in fact her supposedly dead patient.

"Bruce" goes to the hospital, where he learns that the Doctor died during surgery and that his body is missing along with Lee having taken his possesions. Grace takes the Doctor to her house, where she discovers that her boyfriend has left her and taken some of her furniture to boot. She listens to the Doctor's hearts, and takes a sample of his blood, while the Doctor's spotty memory begins to return with anecdotes about Puccini and Leonardo da Vinci. Elsewhere, Chang Lee uses the TARDIS key to enter the TARDIS. There he encounters the Master, who (through some unknown method) entered before him. After hypnotising Lee into giving him the Seventh Doctor's possessions, the Master lies to him and convinces the Doctor has taken his original body and used his past lives to commit terrible deeds. (Among the lies were the Doctor being Attila the Hun.) The Master and Chang Lee go to the TARDIS's Cloister Room, where the Master uses Chang Lee's human eyes to open the Eye of Harmony, the TARDIS' power source. In the meantime, the opening of the eye synchronizes with the Doctor, flooding his memories back into his mind. In a fit of enthusiasm, the Doctor announces, "I am the Doctor!" and kisses Grace. In the Cloister Room, the Master sees a series of images: the old Doctor, the new Doctor, and a human retina. The last causes him to assert, "The Doctor is half-human." Just as the Master sees an image of Grace, the Doctor becomes aware of the Master's actions, and shuts his own eyes, blocking the images they see coming from the Eye of Harmony.

The Doctor explains the Master's plan: he hopes to force the Doctor to look into the Eye of Harmony, which will allow him to take over the Doctor's body. However, if the Eye is not closed by midnight the entire planet will be sucked into it. The Doctor will need a beryllium atomic clock to fix the TARDIS before then. Grace finds all this quite improbable, and calls an ambulance for the Doctor (who she now suspects to be insane). A television news report informs the Doctor of strange weather phenomena, and of a beryllium atomic clock about to be inaugurated at the Institute for Technological Advancement and Research (ITAR).

When the ambulance arrives, the EMT is the Master, and the unseen driver is Chang Lee. The Doctor asks to be taken to ITAR. Grace is still skeptical, but indicates for the driver to play along. However, a sudden stop at a traffic jam causes he Master to lose the sun glasses he was using to hide his inhuman eyes, and the Doctor recognizes him. His identity revealed, the Master spits a burning viscous substance on Grace's arm, but the Doctor temporarily blinds him with a fire extinguisher. He and Grace escape into the stopped traffic. While talking with a policeman, the Doctor uses slight off hand to take his gun and bluffs him into giving up his motorcycle. On the motorcycle, Grace realises that the Doctor's improbable story is true. Chang Lee and the Master pursue the Doctor and Grace, but Chang Lee takes a shortcut and arrives at ITAR before the Doctor does.

Grace, a board member of ITAR, introduces the Doctor to Professor Wagg, creator of the clock. As the Doctor tells Professor Wagg "a secret" ("I'm half-human on my mother's side"), he surreptitiously removes Wagg's security pass. Grace and the Doctor steal a small component from the clock. They spot the Master and Chang Lee in the crowd, but escape by lowering themselves from a fire hose. They flee on the motorcycle, and arrive at the TARDIS, where the Doctor remembers that he keeps a spare key in the cubbyhole above the letter "P" in "Police box." They enter the TARDIS, where the cloister bell is ringing. The Doctor is able to close the Eye of Harmony; however, a quick temporal scan confirms that the Eye has been open too long, and the Earth is still in danger. The only solution is to take the TARDIS back to a time before the Eye was opened — but since the Eye was open so long, the TARDIS now has no power. The Doctor attempts to jump-start the TARDIS by drawing energy directly from the eye. While working under the console, the Doctor wonders why Grace is not helping and looks up to see Grace's eyes have turned black. She has been tkane over by the Master;s will, infectred when he spat on her in the ambulance. Grace knocks the Doctor out.

The Doctor awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney in the Cloister Room. Chang Lee and the possessed Grace chain the Doctor to a balcony, under the supervision of the Master (who had wasted time to "dress for the occasion"). Per the Doctor's slight manipulation, the Master inadvertently contradicts his earlier lies to Lee by claiming ot have used all his lives. Chang Lee now believes the Doctor and is hesitant to help the Master. Rather than waste more time by hypnotising Lee again, the Master breaks his neck. The Doctor then comment that only Grace is left to open the eye, but her eyes are not human. The Master taunts the Doctor and removes his influence on Grace by sucking the substance he spat on her out with a kiss then forces her to look into the Eye. As the Master begins to absorb the Doctor's life-energy, the Doctor implores Grace to return to the console room and jump-start the TARDIS.&nbsp

As the Earth celebrates the approaching new year, Grace manages to start the TARDIS one second before midnight. The TARDIS enters a temporal orbit. She returns to the cloister room and frees the Doctor, but the Master attacks them both. He throws her off the balcony, killing her. The Doctor and the Master struggle over the open Eye, and the Master falls in; the Doctor attempts to save him, but the Master rejects his hand and is sucked into the Eye.

The TARDIS slips back in time from midnight. Energy travels from the Eye to the bodies of Grace and Chang Lee, reviving them, and the Eye closes. They return to the console room where, through an high tech dome, the Doctor shows them alien galaxies and his home planet. Deciding where to leave them, the Doctor asks if they wish to be deposited back on the 29th. While Grace would rather not live through the day again, Lee knows he won't survive it; instead, the Doctor takes them to exactly the first minute of 2000 outside the San Fransisco river. The Doctor allows Lee to keep the bags of gold dust the Master origianlly bribed him with, and tells him not to be in San Francisco next Christmas. The Doctor asks Grace to travel with him, but she refuses and asks if the Doctor will stay with her. However, both know they wouldn't and kiss. Grace thanks the Doctor, but he retorts "No, thank you, doctor." The Doctor leaves in the TARDIS, off to a new adventure. He settles back in his armchair in the TARDIS control room to continue reading H G Wells' novel: The Time Machine. The gramophone record that he is listening to suddenly starts skipping (again). As the TARDIS continues back to Gallifrey, all the Doctor says is: 'Oh no, not again!'

Cast

 * The Doctor - Paul McGann
 * The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
 * Bruce/The Master - Eric Roberts
 * Grace Holloway - Daphne Ashbrook
 * Chang Lee - Yee Jee Tso
 * Salinger - John Novak
 * Dr. Swift - Michael David Simms
 * Wheeler - Catherine Lough
 * Curtis - Dolores Drake
 * Pete - Will Sasso
 * Gareth - Jeremy Radick
 * Miranda - Eliza Roberts
 * Motorcycle Policeman - Bill Croft
 * Professor Wagg - Dave Hurtubise
 * Ted - Joel Wirkunnen
 * Security Guard - Dee Jay Jackson
 * The Master - Gordon Tipple (cameo)
 * KKBE News Anchor - Mi-Jung Lee
 * KKBE News Anchor - Joanna Piros

Production

 * For Production see Doctor Who (1996)/Production

Foods and beverages

 * In the TARDIS the Seventh Doctor has a bowl of jelly babies, together with a cup of tea and The Time Machine by H. G. Wells.
 * When Gareth asks for what's in the Doctor's hand the Doctor presents him a jelly baby. He earlier offered jelly babies to a policeman, and had jelly babies amongst his possessions claimed at the hospital by Chang.
 * Grace takes a glass of Champagne at Professor Wagg's party.

Gallifrey

 * "Rassilon Era" appears on the TARDIS' console and screen.
 * The Seal of Rassilon is featured extensively throughout the TARDIS.
 * The Master uses the Eye of Harmony to spy on the Doctor and to transfer his lives.
 * Both the Doctor (in his narration) and the Master reaffirm that Time Lords can regenerate 12 times.

Individuals

 * The Master, the Doctor and Grace name-drop throughout this story by referring to Marie Curie ("does she kiss as good as me?"), Sigmund Freud, and Genghis Khan. (The Master also corrects Grace's grammar to "as well as you").


 * The Daleks put the Master on trial "for crimes he committed", possibly for deserting them at the end of DW: Frontier in Space. The "Old Master" who appears at the start of the film, played by Gordon Tipple, resembles the Tremas incarnation played by Anthony Ainley up until 1989 (and again in Destiny of the Doctors), but it is not indicated definitively on screen whether this is the same incarnation or a different one. The Master does, however, in both the pre-credits sequence and again after taking over Bruce, sport "cat's eyes", a possible reference to his condition on Cheetah World in Survival.


 * Grace obviously likes Madame Butterfly, and the Doctor has met its composer.


 * The Doctor's x-ray reveals the presence of two hearts.

Technology

 * The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver and asks Grace for the neutron ram.
 * The Doctor describes the chameleon circuit to Grace as a cloaking device.

The Doctor's TARDIS

 * The telefilm features a redesigned console room with a library and gothic architecture. Although this attracted criticism from fandom, in DW: Time Crash, it would be established that the console room design can be changed like a desktop theme, although the Tom Baker era also established that the TARDIS has more than one console room. The Series 6 episode The Doctor's Wife also established that the TARDIS archives all the prior control rooms, as well as some that haven't been seen yet.
 * The console itself is shown to be a hodge-podge of different technologies and objects, including a handbrake similar to that used on automobiles in the early 1900s, and a Magpie Electricals-style TV set/monitor. The series revival in 2005 would continue the theme of the console featuring bits and pieces from different objects, as if it had been cobbled together.
 * The Cloister Room appears again; however, it is the placement of the Eye of Harmony within the room, which the Master says is where the TARDIS gets its power. He also describes the Eye as the "heart of the structure". Only limited views of the Cloister Room had been offered before (in DW: The Keeper of Traken, etc.).
 * The odd-shaped TARDIS key, glimpsed on previous occasions, appears, and it is revealed that the Yale lock opening seen on the door is in fact a false front for the real keyhole underneath. (This differs from other views in the 1963-89 and 2005-present series in which the lock is shown functioning normally, but can be explained as being an example of the TARDIS exterior changing over the years).

Story notes

 * Doctor Who was a 1996 co-production between the BBC and Universal Pictures. Its executive producer, Philip Segal, had hoped that it might be a "back-door pilot" for a new series of Doctor Who, but poor ratings in the United States prevented this.
 * The TV Movie was broadcast on FOX in America on 14 May, 1996, and on BBC1 on 27 May, 1996.
 * During production and during its airing, it was referred to only as "Doctor Who." Philip Segal later told a convention audience that if fans wanted a distinct title for the TV Movie, they could call it "Enemy Within", but this name was never used in any official capacity. A wholly unofficial subtitle, Out of the Ashes, was given to the film by some fan groups; it subsequently was used in this capacity by the A Brief History of Time (Travel) website and by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in an online documentary promoting the 2005 series revival. The only on-screen title that appears is Doctor Who, making this technically the first story of the franchise to not carry an on-screen title; the 2005 Children in Need Special and 2009 Sarah Jane Adventures Comic Relief special, From Raxacoricofallapatorius With Love, are the only other examples to date of this.
 * British-born television producer Philip Segal had a longtime ambition to create Doctor Who. While working at various American production companies, including Steven Spielberg's Amblin, he attempted to develop a Doctor Who series or film. Eventually he was able to arrange a co-production between Universal Pictures and the BBC. The script went through several different forms, including some which would have started Doctor Who continuity over again.
 * The eventual script by Matthew Jacobs continued from the BBC series, including a substantial role for Sylvester McCoy, the last occupant of the role of the Doctor.
 * Doctor Who: Regeneration details the development of this story (and many of the previous attempts).
 * For the 'international release' (ie everywhere outside of the UK) the opening sequence within the TARDIS has the caption "Based on the series originally broadcast on the BBC". It is standard practice for American productions to give screen credit to a series/character creator, so this title card is used in lieu of crediting Sydney Newman or any of the others involved in the creation of the original series. In addition, Terry Nation does not receive screen credit for the Daleks, contrary to later practice.
 * Ron Grainer, the late composer of the Doctor Who Theme, is not given screen credit for his work. Only John Debney, commissioned to arrange the theme and compose new incidental music, is given main credit; this led to the mistaken impression that Debney also composed the Doctor Who Theme. (It was reported that Debney wanted to create a new theme, but was overridden by Segal). There is also screen credit given for "additional music" by John Sponsler and Louis Serbe. Similarly, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and Delia Derbyshire are uncredited for their creation of the TARDIS sound effect.
 * At the time of broadcast/release there was significant reaction to the Doctor kissing Grace as this was the first overtly romantic scene involving the Doctor. (The later revival series, however, would incorporate more of these elements).
 * Promotional advertisements for the telefilm shown on the Fox network incorporated footage from the opening sequence of the first episode of The Trial of a Time Lord - specifically the TARDIS being drawn into the giant space station - even though this footage does not appear anywhere in the telefilm. The arrangement of the Doctor Who theme heard during these ads doesn't correspond with the Debney arrangement heard in the film, either.
 * Neither Paul McGann nor Sylvester McCoy are actually credited on screen next to any character name. However the press kit for the film gives the official credits as being as "The Doctor" and "The Old Doctor", respectively. Although not used on screen, this is the last time the lead character is credited as "The Doctor" until the 2006 season, as the 2005 revival reverts to the old "Doctor Who" credit line.
 * The version of 1931's Frankenstein excerpted here is not the current restored version, but the earlier censored print that was commonly circulated on TV prior to the 1980s; this is evident from the fact Dr. Frankenstein's dialogue "Now I know what it feels like to be God" is not heard in the scene shown during the regeneration sequence. However, this portion of the film is still visible, just not audible.
 * Sylvester McCoy has in recent years been critical of aspects of this film, telling the premiere episode of Doctor Who Confidential that the film should not have featured him, but should have started with Paul McGann's Doctor and saved the story of how the regeneration occurred for an episode of the resulting series, if one had been commissioned.
 * This is the first televised Doctor Who to feature narration (one of the characters addressing the audience in voiceover) since DW: The Deadly Assassin — although William Hartnell's pre-credits sample from the The Dalek Invasion of Earth in The Five Doctors was re-contextualized so that it could be read as bit of omniscient narration. In this instance, the eighth Doctor sets the scene during the pre-credits sequence and immediately thereafter. This device would be used in each of the first five series of the BBC Wales series, in the following episodes: Father's Day, Army of Ghosts, The Family of Blood, Forest of the Dead, The End of Time and Cold Blood.
 * According to press coverage at the time, the redesigned TARDIS console room set -- clearly intended to have been an ongoing "standing set" in a series -- cost $1 million to build.
 * Of the regenerations actually depicted on screen, this was the first to show the Doctor undergoing the change while completely alone. This would next occur with the Tenth Doctor's regeneration in DW: The End of Time. (Two other regenerations, that of the Second Doctor after DW: The War Games and the regeneration of the Eighth Doctor into the Ninth Doctor, were never shown on screen so it is not known if they occurred in the presence of others).
 * This is the only Doctor Who story to be entirely shot on 35mm.
 * The original script called for Bruce's body to start visibly decaying after the Master's possession; This was later dropped when the prosthetics caused Eric Roberts severe skin irritation.
 * In the original script, the Doctor's father was given a greater mention, and named "Ulysses".

Ratings

 * BBC One: 9.08 million viewers
 * Fox: 5.6 million viewers/9 share

Awards

 * At the 1997 Saturn Awards ceremony, Doctor Who took home a statuette for "Best Single Genre Television Presentation", and Paul McGann lost in the category of "Best Genre TV Actor".

Myths

 * Many fan rumours surrounded the production, including one which suggested that a futuristically-redesigned version of the Daleks may appear. Ultimately, the Daleks are only heard, not seen in the pre-credits opening sequence and are name-dropped by the Doctor later in the film.
 * This movie had the working title The Enemy Within. (Executive producer Philip Segal suggested to fans that if they wanted a title for the movie other than just Doctor Who, they could refer to it as Enemy Within. However neither Enemy Within nor The Enemy Within was ever used as a working title during production; later, Fox televised an Alien Nation telefilm with this same title, which is also the title of an early episode of the original Star Trek).
 * It is often erroneously stated that the gunshot wounds are the cause of the Doctor's regeneration. This is incorrect as dialogue clearly indicates that the first bullet did no damage and the second was removed during a rather minor procedure. The Doctor's "death" was caused inadvertently during the exploratory heart surgery that followed.
 * It is often stated that the Doctor opens the eye of Harmony in the movie. (There is no such scene - only Grace and Chang Lee open the eye).
 * Fox chose to renew/commission (variations of the myth) the science fiction series Space: Above and Beyond rather than commission a new Doctor Who series from the movie. In reality, Space debuted in the fall of 1995 and was cancelled after a single season, with the final episode airing only a few weeks after the Doctor Who TV movie.
 * One reason why the film received such low ratings on Fox is because it had been scheduled opposite the final episode of the popular sitcom Roseanne. (The final episode of the series aired in May of 1997, not 1996.)

Filming locations

 * The story was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from 15 January to 21 February 1996. This was the first Doctor Who production mounted completely outside of the UK, and the last to be mounted in a major way outside Europe until the production of Planet of the Dead in the Middle East in 2009.
 * Ogden Avenue (No 1998), Vancouver, Canada
 * Plaza of Nations, Vancouver, Canada
 * East Georgia Street (No 218, rear), Vancouver, Canada
 * Keefer Street (No 222), Vancouver, Canada
 * Carrall Street/Keefer Street, Vancouver, Canada
 * Waterfront Road, Vancouver, Canada
 * Hadden Park, Vancouver, Canada
 * British Columbia Children's Hospital, 4480 Oak Street, Vancouver, Canada
 * East Georgia Street (alley), Vancouver, Canada (Alley where the TARDIS materialises)
 * Golden Crown Centre (car park), 211 East Georgia Street, Vancouver
 * Andy Livingstone Park, Vancouver, Canada
 * Eastlake Drive (no 8651), Burnaby, Canada (Location of studio)

Production errors

 * When the Eighth Doctor says he has 13 lives he isn't really saying it as he in actual fact says 'twelve'. In an issue of Doctor Who magazine it is revealed that Paul McGann had to redub the line to say thirteen rather than the incorrect 12. 

Continuity

 * Grace and Lee's resurrection is similar to that of Jenny's. The energy seen during this scene is very similar to that of normal regeneration/vortex energy.
 * NA: Lungbarrow sets up events for this story (including why the TARDIS interior looks the way it does, why the Doctor now has a sonic screwdriver and why the Doctor was rescuing the Master).
 * The Master has previously attempted to use the Eye of Harmony (DW: The Deadly Assassin).
 * BFA: The Apocalypse Element attempts to explain why the Eye of Harmony, Gallifreyan technology, could be opened only by a human eye.
 * The Master's statement that the Doctor made him waste all his lives has some grounding in MA: The Dark Path.
 * This is the last time the Master appears on-screen until DW: Utopia.
 * The cloister room, last seen DW: Logopolis, makes a return appearance.
 * Chang Lee gets the honour of doing the "TARDIS runaround" (character goes inside, sees how big it is, comes back out and walks around the TARDIS, disbelievingly, before going back inside). This occurs again by Rose Tyler in DW: Rose, Donna Noble in DW: The Runaway Bride and Turn Left, Martha Jones in DW: Smith and Jones, Jackson Lake in DW: The Next Doctor, Amy Pond in DW: The Eleventh Hour and Vincent van Gogh in DW: Vincent and the Doctor.
 * In 2008, the Eighth Doctor made another cameo in DW: The Next Doctor, in a sequence of clips, counting up all the ten Doctors to date, via means of a Cyberman infostamp. After a couple of ambiguous references, this on-screen appearance was the first to definitively confirm that the Eighth Doctor as depicted in this film did indeed share continuity with those that came before and after. A similar event happened in The Eleventh Hour.
 * It is later established that on the same day as the main events of the film (31st December 1999) the Torchwood Three team were murdered in Cardiff, save for Jack Harkness. (TW: Fragments) Based on time zone differences, these events happened at roughly the time the Doctor met Grace after regenerating. The main action of the film - the race towards midnight and the confrontation with the Master - would have taken place when it was early morning on January 1 in Cardiff.
 * The Doctor, whilst fleeing the Master, says that he is afraid of heights. His tenth incarnation showed a fear of heights in DW: The Idiot's Lantern and DW: Evolution of the Daleks. In the original script for The Idiot's Lantern, it was implied that the Doctor has this fear due to his fourth self's dying when falling from a height in DW: Logopolis.
 * This is the only time the Doctor is declared dead during a regeneration story. However, it is also stated that his body processes (specifically the regeneration process, but perhaps his other vitals as well) were slowed by the anesthesia so as to be undetectable. The Doctor's statement that he was 'dead too long' may simply have been a generalization. This would reconcile the movie with DW: The End of Time, where the Doctor states that regeneration cannot take place if he is killed outright before the process begins. It is also the only occasion prior to The End of Time in which the Doctor refers to the circumstances leading up to regeneration as a death.
 * The reason the Master's "Bruce" body is rapidly dying is probably very similar to the reason Donna Noble would have slowly died if the Tenth Doctor had not wiped her memories: a Time Lord consciousness in a human body simply cannot be.
 * The Master later escapes the Eye of Harmony in The Fallen and escapes again after being banished in The Glorious Dead. (ST: Forgotten)
 * The Doctor warns Chang lee not be in San Francisco in the coming Christmas; In EDA: Unnatural History, an Earthquake rocks the city around that time.

For the Doctor

 * Doctor Who (1996) occurs after: ST: Notre Dame du Temps
 * Doctor Who (1996) occurs before: EDA: The Eight Doctors

For the Master

 * Doctor Who (1996) occurs after: (parts of) EDA: The Eight Doctors
 * Doctor Who (1996) occurs before: (parts of) EDA: The Eight Doctors

Home video and audio releases
Despite the fact that the 1996 tele-film was made for American broadcast, it was until recently the only non-missing story which had not received a North American home video release in any format. Joint BBC/Universal ownership was problematic for North American publication, because the BBC are obliged to use Warner Brothers, and not Universal, for their Doctor Who DVD distribution. In August 2010 it was announced by Dan Hall, the commissioning editor of the Classic Doctor Who DVD range, that Universal had agreed on the release of the TV Movie outside the UK (including North America). Release finally occurred on 8th February 2011.

Several of the featurettes on the 2001 UK DVD were produced specifically for US audiences, and provided British home audiences with a look into the way Doctor Who was marketed in America.

Some snippets of footage from the movie have made their way onto Region 1 DVDs. In 2003, a special 40th anniversary music video that included footage from the film was added to a number of classic-series DVDs. In July 2009, the Region 1 DVD release of Planet of the Dead included an unedited edition of Doctor Who Confidential that includes part of a dialogue scene from the film. The Next Doctor, also released to DVD in Region 1 in 2009, includes a short piece of footage from the film.

A special edition DVD release was released 2010 in the UK as part of the Revisitations box set, with additional special features. It is this version that was also released to North America/Region 1 in February 2011.

2001


Released to DVD in the UK as Doctor Who: The Movie, this release was the fourth release of 2001.

Released:
 * Region 2 13th August 2001


 * PAL - BBC DVD BBCDVD1043

Contents:
 * Philip Segal - Talks about the making of the telemovie.
 * Electronic Press Kit - Cast & crew interviews/behind the scenes footage/tour of the TARDIS set.
 * Alternate/Extended Scenes
 * Music Feature - Songs from the story.
 * Music-only Option
 * Trailers
 * Photo Gallery
 * Production Subtitles
 * Easter Egg (The dedication to Jon Pertwee that proceeded the UK broadcast).
 * Commentary: Geoffrey Sax

Rear Credits:
 * By Matthew Jacobs
 * Executive Producers: Alex Beaton & Philip Segal
 * Executive Producer for the BBC: Jo Wright
 * Produced: Peter V. Ware
 * Co-Producer: Matthew Jacobs
 * Director: Geoffrey Sax
 * Incidental Music: John Debney, John Sponsler & Louis Febre

Notes:
 * The 'Based on the BBC Television series' caption used for the US broadcast has been removed from the DVD.
 * Editing for DVD release completed by Doctor Who Restoration Team.

2010
A 2 disc version was released in October 2010 in the UK and on 8th February 2011 in North America. It includes the following extras:


 * Electronic Press Kit - Cast & crew interviews/behind the scenes footage/tour of the TARDIS set (from the 2001 release)
 * Alternate/Extended Scenes (from the 2001 release)
 * Audio commentary by director Geoffrey Sax.
 * Second audio commentary by Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann, moderated by Nicholas Briggs
 * Isolated music soundtrack.
 * Four musical tracks taken from the soundtrack, including the song heard on the Doctor's record player.
 * The Seven Year Hitch - detailing Philip Segal's efforts to get Doctor Who back on air (which began before production of Season 26 had concluded).
 * Paul McGann's audition video, featuring two takes of him performing a scene from the early, rejected script for the film, set on Gallifrey.
 * FX test reels, including early concepts for the opening credits and a proposed redesign of the Daleks.
 * The Wilderness Years - The world of Doctor Who in between Survival and the TV Movie, featuring footage from several BBV and Reeltime Pictures productions.
 * Who Peter part 2 - 1989-2009
 * Stripped for Action - the Eighth Doctor
 * Tomorrow's Times - the Eighth Doctor
 * The Doctor's Strange Love - fans discuss the film
 * BBC trailers promoting the film
 * Radio Times listings (PDF)

VHS releases


Released as Doctor Who.

Released:
 * UK May 1996


 * PAL - BBC Video BBCV5882


 * Australia/NZ November 1996

Notes: Released in an edited form with the operating scene and gang gun battle trimmed.

Soundtrack

 * see: Doctor Who - Original Soundtrack Recording

Novelisation

 * Main article: Doctor Who - The Novel of the Film

BBC Books published a novelisation of the telefilm, written by Gary Russell. According to the introduction, it was written from the script without seeing the final production. The cover title is Doctor Who, but the spine title is Doctor Who - The Novel of the Film. Its publication marked the start of BBC Books' involvement with publishing Doctor Who fiction and the beginning of the end for Virgin Publishing's association with the franchise (though Virgin continued to publish Doctor Who fiction for another year). It is also the first non-Virgin/Target publication of a story novelisation and the last such adaptation until the publication of Scream of the Shalka in 2004.

A script book was also published.

Neither book was distributed in North America.

Press Kit
To promote the film among North American media, Fox issued a small, coil-bound press booklet detailing the film and also explaining a bit of the history of Doctor Who.

Contents

 * Introduction, a brief explanation of the film and the concept.
 * Main credits: This is the only place where Paul McGann and Sylvester McCoy are actually credited as The Doctor and The Old Doctor, respectively, or Eric Roberts as The Master, Daphne Ashbrook as Grace Holloway, and Yee Jee Tso as Chang Lee, as they are not credited with their character names in the televised film. As in the film, John Debney receives sole music credit, with no reference made to Ron Grainer. Also, although it is common practice for US productions to credit a creator(s) for the characters, no individuals are credited in this way for Doctor Who.
 * Production Notes: A primer on the concept of Doctor Who, including explanations of what regeneration is all about, what Time Lords are, The Master, etc., and includes actor comments on their characters.
 * About the Production: More on the making of the film, plus a discussion of the new TARDIS design, including a reference to the interior being covered by "round bells" (!).
 * History: Brief primer on the history of the series back to 1963.
 * Facts: Fast facts about the Doctor and the series. Interestingly, it makes reference to the Guinness Book of Records naming it the world's longest running SF series, even though official recognition of this would not occur until 2007. According to this section, the TV movie is the 695th installment of the television series.
 * Biographies: cast and crew biographies for the main actors.