Thoughts on National Character
The American Who
An Article on the lost episode reconstructions
(from a letter to a friend, who supplied me with a tape of the film...)
Thanks for the package! I watched the Dr. Who movie right away; it's almost the exact opposite of the two Dalek movies made in England during the sixties, which got the details ALL WRONG (to such an extent that Peter Cushing cannot even be regarded as playing the same role), but at least caught the spirit of the thing; whereas this gets the details almost exactly right but falls short in the spirit department. A few random observations to thoroughly bore you:
· The Americans succeeded quite well in their desire to produce something that would be much more palatable to Joe and Jane Average American Viewer than the original series could ever be. But, as Dickie Smothers said to Tommy Smothers, that is NOT a compliment!
· In terms of money spent, technological competance and pace, this is superior to the original. But talk about winning by default: if the Brits had had two million an episode to throw at the Doctor, and if their show had been designed to run as one-off episodes rather than serials, things would be a bit different. The British Doctor Who is, after all, a Soap Opera with a soap opera budget and structure. On those terms, the Brits did as well with it as anyone could have, at least on par with its only true counterpart, Dark Shadows.
· In the final years of the show, the Brits tried to re-establish an air of mystery about the Doctor -- leave it to the Americans to go in just the opposite direction and come out with all-new "facts" and revelations about the character! "Half-human" indeed! Leonard Nimoy ain't the only one justified in saying "I am not Spock!"
· McCoy's ending as the Doctor seemed senseless and depressing to start with -- now that I have seen some of his own work on the series it seems even more so. Given the changes to the character, why even bother trying to connect this movie with the television continuity?
· Interior of the TARDIS was EXCELLENT -- an expansion of the "alternative control room" introduced briefly during Baker's tenure. This, and casting of the title role, were the best parts about the movie.
· Eric Roberts is a total wash-out as The Master. His final confrontation with the Doctor is virtually a bigger-budgeted remake of Anthony Ainley's last battle with Sylvester McCoy in the final episode of the series, except that the flashy new version completely lacks the moral dimension of its predesessor, in which the Doctor simply refuses to fight.