Doctor Who: Blast from the Past Schedule

The entry forms for the ‘Blast from the Past’ special project have now been checked, and the list of stories to be reviewed is available below. Thank you to everyone who entered their chosen stories of the latest Doctors. ‘Blast from the Past’ will begin in January 2011 with the review of the 1996 TV Movie.

Eighth Doctor – The TV Movie
Ninth Doctor – The Unquiet Dead
Tenth Doctor – The Waters of Mars
Eleventh Doctor – Flesh and Stone

Billy Connolly Almost Cast as the Eighth Doctor

Billy Connolly has revealed that he was almost cast as the Eighth Doctor in the Doctor Who TV Movie, which was originally broadcast in May 1996. Eventually the role went to Paul McGann, who proved to be a very popular choice for the lead role, despite the story being a disappointment for many fans.

Connolly commented: “It was brought up in a meeting, apparently, but nobody told me until after they decided against it. If I had done it, he would have been angrier, a much angrier Doctor Who. I would have loved it. I'd have taken it.”

Doctor Who – The TV Movie DVD Release Confirmed for North America

The DVD company 2|Entertain have revealed that the Paul McGann 1996 TV Movie will finally be released in North American on 8th February 2011. The rights to release the story outside the UK were obtained by 2|entertain in August this year.

The story was released in the UK as part of the Revisitations box set this month, but will be released in North America as a single story on two discs, containing the same extras as the UK version. It has also been confirmed that the Third Doctor story ‘The Mutants’ will be released in North America on the same day.

A Matter of Time: The TV Movie

ORIGINAL BROADCAST: 27/05/1996
DOCTORS: Paul McGann, Sylvester McCoy
COMPANIONS: Daphne Ashbrook, Yee Jee Tso

STORY: The Seventh Doctor is shot during a gang fight on the streets of San Francisco, where he is helped by Chang Lee, who sends him to the hospital to be operated on. The injury is so severe that Dr. Holloway can’t save him, and he regenerates into a new Doctor. Without even knowing who he really is yet, the Eighth Doctor must prevent the Master’s evil plans, before the world ends on the new millennium. It really is a matter of time…

FACTS:
• The television movie remains as Paul McGann’s only televised story as the Doctor, although he has continued to appear as the role in novels, comic strips, and audio adventures.
• Although the Daleks are not seen in the film, they are heard condemning the Master to death during the opening sequence, where they scream their famous battle cry of ‘Exterminate’, albeit in a high-pitched voice.
• Producer Philip Segal had been trying to launch an American series of Doctor Who for a long time, but the Fox Network was only prepared to commit to a single tele-movie, and the poor ratings in America meant that no subsequent series followed.

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