Doctor Who
Tags: mystery

Plot synopsis:
Following the Master's trial and execution at the hands of the Daleks, the Doctor, currently in his seventh incarnation, is transporting the Master's remains to Gallifrey via his TARDIS. En route, the box with the remains breaks open and an ooze leaks out, infecting the TARDIS. The Doctor is forced to make an emergency materialisation in San Francisco's Chinatown on 30 December 1999.
As he exits and locks the TARDIS, the Doctor is shot by a gang chasing down Chang Lee, a young Chinese-American man. Lee calls for an ambulance and escorts the unconscious Doctor to a hospital, unaware the ooze from the TARDIS has gotten aboard. At the hospital, cardiologist Dr Grace Holloway attempts surgery to remove the bullet but is confused by his strange double-heart anatomy, and accidentally lodges a cardiac probe in the Doctor's body, apparently killing him. The Doctor's body is taken to the morgue, while Lee is given the Doctor's possessions including the TARDIS key. Meanwhile, the ooze takes over the body of the ambulance driver, Bruce, transforming him into a new body for the Master.
Later, the Doctor's body regenerates, and the new Doctor, suffering amnesia, gathers clothes from remnants of a recent party. He recognises Holloway, who has resigned from the hospital after the failed operation, and follows her to her car, proving to her he is the same man by pulling out the cardiac probe. Holloway takes him home to recover. Lee returns to the TARDIS where the Master arrives and puts him under his mind control by claiming the Doctor had stolen his body. The Master convinces Lee to open the TARDIS and then to open the Eye of Harmony within it, which requires a human retinal scan. When the Eye opens, the Doctor is flooded with memories and realises the Master is searching for him, and tries to block the scan. He warns Holloway that while the Eye is opened, the fabric of reality will weaken, and potentially destroy the Earth by midnight on New Year's Eve if they cannot close it. However, he needs an atomic clock to do so, and Holloway finds one on display at the San Francisco Institute of Technological Advancement and Research.
Outside, they find the ambulance with the Master and Lee waiting for them, offering them a ride. The Doctor does not immediately recognise the Master, but discovers his true identity en route, and he and Holloway escape, but not before the Master can spit an ooze-like substance on Holloway's wrist. The two continue to the Institute and obtain the clock, returning to the TARDIS. The Doctor installs the clock and successfully closes the Eye, but finds the damage to reality too great and that he must revert time before the Eye was opened to prevent the destruction of Earth. As he connects the proper TARDIS circuits to do this, the Master remotely takes control of Holloway's body, causing her eyes to become inhuman, and she strikes the Doctor unconscious.
The Doctor wakes to find himself chained above the Eye, the Master poised to take his remaining regenerations while Lee and Holloway watch. The Doctor is able to break the Master's control on Lee, and Lee refuses to open the Eye for the Master. The Master kills him, and then releases his control on Holloway to return her eyes to normal. He forces her to open the Eye and then begins drawing the Doctor's lifeforce. Holloway, under her own control, is able to complete the final circuits to put the TARDIS into a time-holding pattern, preventing Earth's destruction, and then goes to free the Doctor. The Master kills her, but this has given enough time for the Doctor to free himself and attack the Master. The Doctor gains the upper hand and pushes the Master into the Eye. The Eye closes and time reverts a few minutes, undoing Lee and Holloway's deaths.
With no further risk to Earth, the Doctor prepares to leave. Lee returns his possessions, and the Doctor warns him not to be in San Francisco on the next New Year's Eve. The Doctor offers Holloway the opportunity to travel with him, but she politely refuses, and instead kisses him goodbye. The Doctor departs alone in his TARDIS.
=== Continuity ===
==== The Doctor ====
Until 2013's "The Night of the Doctor", the television movie was Paul McGann's sole televised story as the Doctor. It has inspired an ongoing Doctor Who novel line, comic strip, and audio series that featured the Eighth Doctor for years, beyond the TV series' return in 2005. The Eighth Doctor was also featured in a series of BBC7 audio plays since 2007.
The Seventh Doctor is seen wearing a different costume from the one he wore during his 1987–1989 tenure: gone are the question mark pullover and umbrella. The costume does include the original hat, which is actually owned by Sylvester McCoy.
When reluctantly filling out an emergency medical treatment form, Chang Lee (who had only met the semi-conscious Seventh Doctor minutes earlier and did not know his identity) gives the Doctor's name as "John Smith", a recurring alias originally given to the Second Doctor by companion Jamie McCrimmon in The Wheel in Space.
Much of the movie's plot rests on a revelation that the Doctor is half-human, "on [his] mother's side". Following the movie, several Eighth Doctor Adventures novels seek either to explain or elaborate on this premise, often with conflicting results. Alien Bodies suggests that only the Eighth Doctor is half-human, and that his interest in Earth people is "something to do with his retroactive ancestry". Unnatural History and The Gallifrey Chronicles suggest that the Doctor is the child of a Victorian lady called Penelope Gate and a Time Lord named Ulysses. The Taking of Planet 5 takes a different approach, suggesting that the Doctor slowly became half-human through repeated regeneration in close proximity to humans, causing the Doctor to absorb aspects of their DNA. Although the issue has yet to be explicitly revisited on-screen, in "Journey's End" a second version of the Doctor is created through a combination of the Doctor's and his human companion's physiologies; unimpressed with his half-human body, this new Doctor wonders how humans can manage with only one heart. In the 2008 Doctor Who comic book The Forgotten the Doctor states that, upon finding out that the Master had escaped from the box, he used the Chameleon Arch to deceive the Master with the fiction of being half-human.
The Seventh Doctor's two hearts on the radiograph are seen but dismissed as a double-exposure. His newly regenerated third incarnation suffered the mistake in Spearhead From Space.
The Eighth Doctor steals his first wardrobe from a hospital staff locker room, as had the Third Doctor and, later, the Eleventh Doctor.
The Eighth Doctor examines a mask of Richard Nixon. The Third Doctor crossed paths with a Nixon waxwork figure in Spearhead From Space, and Nixon would be a significant supporting character in the Eleventh Doctor stories, "The Impossible Astronaut" & "Day of the Moon".
==== Daleks and the Master ====
Although the Doctor's most famous alien adversaries, the Daleks, are not seen in the film, they are heard condemning the Master to death during the film's opening sequence (sporting their trademark war cry of "EXTERMINATE!").
The Master tried to use the Eye of Harmony to obtain a new set of regenerations before, in The Deadly Assassin. He was also offered a new set of regenerations by the Time Lords in The Five Doctors, but his continued quest for regenerations in later stories like Planet of Fire implies that he never received them. Later, however, he would be granted a new cycle, as confirmed in the 2007 episode "The Sound of Drums".
==== The TARDIS ====
Although the TARDIS interior changed several times throughout the original series, the movie's set was the most dramatic change yet, replacing the sterile white corridors and "roundel"-based design. Several subsequent tie-in novels attempted to explain the change.
This film introduces the idea of including Earth-centric elements on the TARDIS control console, such as an early 20th-Century automobile handbrake, apparently used for a similar purpose. This was used again in the 2005 and 2010 designs of the console.
The Deadly Assassin (1976) established that the Eye of Harmony is held on Gallifrey; its inclusion on the TARDIS in the film conflicts with this.
The film further states that the "Eye" can only be opened with the scan of a human retina, a fact apparently tied to the Doctor's own partially human retinal pattern.
==== References to other stories ====
The book that the Doctor sits down to read at the beginning and the end of the movie is The Time Machine by H. G. Wells. The Doctor shared an adventure with Wells in the Sixth Doctor serial Timelash and would meet him again in the Tenth Doctor comic "The Time Machination". In 1973's Frontier in Space, the Master is seen reading Wells' The War of the Worlds. In the untelevised story Shada, Professor Chronotis can be seen with a copy of The Time Machine, which is later visible throughout the episode.
This is one of six Doctor Who adventures to be set on New Year's Eve 1999 and New Year's Day 2000. The comic strip Plastic Millennium, published in the Doctor Who Magazine Winter 1994 Special; Craig Hinton's Virgin Missing Adventures novel Millennial Rites (October 1995); Justin Richards's Past Doctor Adventures novel Millennium Shock (May 1999), the Short Trips: Seven Deadly Sins story "Suitors, Inc." (2005) and the Fourth Doctor's segment from the comic The Forgotten (2008) all take place on those dates, as do elements of the Torchwood episode "Fragments".
The "time tunnel" effect of the 2005 Doctor Who series onwards is reminiscent of the vortex that the TARDIS travels through in the opening credits and climax of the television movie which in itself is reminiscent of the vortex in the opening and closing sequences of 1974-1980.
=== Cast notes ===
Yee Jee Tso would later return in 2002 to play Major Jal Brant in the Seventh Doctor audio drama Excelis Decays and Doctor Reece Goddard in the Sixth Doctor webcast Real Time.
Daphne Ashbrook would later return in 2004 alongside Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor as Perfection in the audio drama The Next Life.
Tso and Ashbrook returned to Big Finish together playing Captain Ruth Matheson and Warrant Officer Charlie Sato of UNIT in the audio dramas Tales From The Vault and Mastermind, both part of the Companions Chronicles series, in 2011 and 2013.

Review: Doctor Who ran for 26 years, and its last episode was as fresh and imaginative as its first.The show chronicles the adventures of a time-and-space traveling alien who wanders the universe battling evil conquerors, ruthless corporations, and other exploiters of the innocent and oppressed.
After a wait of almost sixteen years and with only just over a week to go before the new series of "Doctor Who" begins, let's hope that some classics are on the way to warrant all the hype and, above all, that the show remains true to its original spirit and is as fun as it always was.
With that in mind, I thought it might be an opportune time to reflect on some of the great stories of the past.From First Doctor William Hartnell's era, my choice of favourite story would have to be "The Dalek Invasion of Earth".
And then there is the sensitive ending marking Carole Ann Ford's departure from the series after playing the Doctor's granddaughter, Susan, for ten stories...So many perfect serials from Second Doctor Patrick Troughton's time on the show!
The reason I like it is because the idea of a parasite feeding off the fear in men's minds is so much more frightening than some lumbering monster!My favourite Tom Baker serial is "Genesis of the Daleks" despite the BBC always falling back on it for repeat seasons!
I think it's hard to even glance at the science fiction television scene without knowing about Doctor Who. There are many people I've come across who are fans and almost all of them have a different answer to the question (the question I always ask when I find this out) "Who's your favourite Doctor?" Everyone has a different opinion and the reason for that is something I'll get into later, either way each has it's own era which I'll get into.
Either way, the plot is simple, an alien takes his granddaughter and 2 schoolteachers inside a telephone box that's bigger on the inside and is convinced to use the ability to travel anywhere in the universe at any time to save lives, the people he travels with changes and every time he dies he gets a new body.The First Doctor is one that I'm sorry to say does not age well.
I discovered the show through arguably one of the best stories of the entire 52 year run and Tom Baker can do effective build-up and also is by far the strangest and most unpredictable incarnation of the character.The Fifth Doctor is where things got a little shaky...
I'm not apt to blame Colin Baker for this, he seriously is trying but the problem is that despite some okay story-lines, those "Okay" ones were the best of them, like the BBC was just making more of the show out of obligation.Finally the seventh...
I could have gone into a lot more detail about things like why Colin Baker is not to blame for his era even going as far to say that he had very little control in anything, asking to dress in all black so The Doctor can blend into the night and instead greeted with...
Doctor Who was always something more than its 1963 b&w kid's show origins suggest, and over the years it evolved into a program that could make some very clever, thought-provoking comments and observations while at the same time delivering a fun and suspenseful adventure.Cliffhangers were what made me a fan from the beginning.
It started going downhill after Peter Davison finished his turn as the Doctor, mainly due to poor stories and weaker scripts, but with the right budget and some seasoned writers, this show could be very great again.Well worth watching for the ideas alone - especially some of those in the Tom Baker era, this has a massive worldwide following and deservedly so..
It probably wasn`t William`s fault but DOCTOR WHO  soon started becoming very silly , the monsters were laughable and Tom Baker seemed to be taking the p***.In 1980 John Nathan Turner took over the producer reins and when Baker left the following year he cast Peter Davison as the Doctor.
The early Davison episodes were certainly an improvement on the latter Baker era , KINDA for example features a guest appearance by Simon Rouse of THE BILL fame and gives the greatest performance in the show`s history , while THE CAVES OF ANDROZANI often wins fan polls as the greatest ever DOCTOR WHO story but the cracks were starting to show as Nathan Turner started introducing more and more old foes and when Colin Baker was ( Mis)cast as the Doctor in 1984 his whole first season featured old enemies and anorakish references to the past.
This led to the BBC putting the show on hold for a yearThe show returned in 1986 worse than ever and now cut to 14 episodes a year, Colin Baker was sacked and replaced by Sylvester McCoy who was an even bigger disaster than Baker and by the time the show was axed in 1989 it only had something like 3 million viewers.
William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, & Peter Davison represent the program for me, an imaginative, intelligent, engaging and fun adventure for the first 21 years....then alas it went off the rails disastrously, becoming a gaudy, unappealing mess with the miscast Colin Baker and poor writing ruining my favorite series.
Of course though a series going this long has it's bad episodes, but by and large the plots and characters were sound.When it was cancelled in the 80s it was far better than the tick the pc box emporers new clothes who of today.Each Dr bought something different to the role.
I would like to talk about all the different actors that played the Doctor but I could literally go on forever so I shall try to be brief.My personal favourite was Tom Baker.
In my opinion he was the definitive Doctor and he enjoyed the best adventures facing the usual array of villains such as the Daleks, Cybermen, Zygons, Robots of Death etc.The real great thing about Doctor Who was how it evolved like a good show should.
Okay I am huge fan of doctor who I love the monsters and the time travels I have been watching new series for a while now so I give the classic series a try I wanted to see the ones from Tom Baker and John Pertwee and Peter Davsen's era so I watch one from Peter's era and I was not let dawn by him so watch Tom's and John's as well The doctors I like from the classic series are the 4th 3rd the 5th 7th the 2nd and the 1st are okay the 6th was my least favorite doctor and as for the monsters their where some monsters from the new series and some I did not know until now so you can I good time watching this series its a bloody good show and full great things my favorite episodes are the ones with the Daleks and the Cyberman The tomb of The Cyberman was outstanding watch and I watch bit more the classic series because I have seen almost all the episodes from season 3 from the new series and to me I think the classic series is good as the new series I give this a 10 out of 10 for outstanding work..
Between THE SUNMAKERS (when K9 became a full-time cast member) through WARRIOR'S GATE, (of those 20 stories) there are only 3 classics: THE PIRATE PLANET, STONES OF BLOOD and STATE OF DECAY.Peter Davison: (1981-1984) Producer John Nathan-Turner (JNT, who died in 2002), did so many right things: A new glossy title sequence, updating the music, more money into the series, killing Adric off, casting Davison, creating Tegan and Nyssa, promoting the show abroad, bringing back the Cybermen, The Master (a wonderful Anthony Ainley!) and other classic monsters.
In spite of dodgy special effects, Doctor Who suspended disbelief so well with its characters and personality that it gave an illusion that we were really watching two (sometimes three) people travelling through time.Having just sat and viewed The Five Doctors (a misleading title, given that one of them only appears in stock footage), I can say that the film reminded me of why this show was still going strong after twenty-seven years.
For a sci-fi fan who hates Star Trek, with it's sledgehammer-subtle moralising and often reasonably good plots destroyed in two minutes with some carefully pronounced technogarbage, especially one who lives in Britain with only four and a half TV channels, it's a struggle for survival out there, with only one hope.We may not have much science fiction, but at least it's the best ever.Doctor Who was - is - British to the core, with dialogue and concepts that for the most part, were so utterly wonderful they had no right to be in a children's programme.
Doctor Who is one of the greatest Sci-fi shows around next to Star Trek and Babylon 5.Doctor Who is a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey who left because of being bored and being stuck in on time.On his travels he's had some companions travel with him on his adventures through time and space,he's also has enemies like the renegade Time Lord the Master,Daleks,Cybermen,and the Sontarans.Time Lords have the ability to regenerate when dying and getting old.The Doctor has done so 8 times.Doctor Who is an awesome show..
This interesting and effective device partly explains the series longevity as it paved the way for the central character to be realised by seven different actors (William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davidson, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy respectively), each bringing their own unique interpretation to the role.Two movies were made in the 60's with the Doctor (Peter Cushing) pitted in both cases against the Daleks (which at the time were at the height of their popularity) and a further 'movie' (actually shown only on TV) arrived in 1999 after the main series had been cancelled with Paul McGann in the central role.
Even the BBC seemed unprepared for the great popularity of the new series which illustrates how under-appreciated the strength of the basic format is.It is to the everlasting shame of the BBC that their archives no longer contain many (mainly black and white) episodes that were purged in the 1970's due to the mistaken opinion at the time that they would never be watched again and had no commercial value.
Doctor Who's brought along with it SO many classic stories comparable to the best episodes of Star Trek, like 'Genesis of the Daleks', 'Inferno', 'Earthshock', 'The Ark in Space', 'The Web of Fear', 'The Caves of Androzani', 'The Talons of Weng Chiang', 'Pyramids of Mars' and MANY more!
One of the most famous science fiction shows ever!I mostly became a fan after the 2005 reboot appeared, I started hiring out old DVDs to see how it all started in 1963 to 1989.The reboot is a lot more fast paced and the world (earth) seems to be coming to end all the time, this Doctor Who series of the last century is slower and less eventful.
"Doctor Who is one of my all time favorite science fiction shows.It is very unique.The Doctor comes from a planet called Gallifrey,his people are advanced in time travel technology.The Gallifreyans are known as the Time Lords.The Time Lords travel in time machines called TARDIS(Time And Relative Dimensions In Space),they are bigger on the inside that they are the outside and have the ability to change their outside appearance where ever they go to blend in.In every TARDIS,their is a device called the Chamelion Circuit,which ables all TARDISES to change their outward appearance,by the Doctor's TARDIS's circuit got jammed,so it remains in the form of a Police Box.The Time Lord have the ability to regenerate when they are dying or get really old,their outward appearance changes,a new look,but can only do it 12 times.The Doctor has regenerated 8 times now.The Doctor has traveled to many planets and times throughout the galaxy and had many companions who has traveled with him.The Doctor has made enemies too,like the Daleks,a race of robotic war machines that have organic parts in them,they are what is left of the Kaled race.The Daleks were created by the mad scientist,Davros.They all come from the planet Skaro.The Cybermen are also an enemy of the Doctor.The Cybermen come from a planet called Mondas,but it was destroyed cause of the Cybermen trying to move it off it's orbit,they ended up taking over the planet Telos from the Cryons,who are the inhabitants of the planet,but reclaimed by the Cryons later.The Sontarans are a race of warriors who have been fighting a war with a race called the Rutans.The Doctor has encountered some Sontarans before.The Sontarans have the ability to clone many warriors.The Doctor has encountered a more powerful being that the Daleks,Cybermen,and the Sontarans put together,that power is Sutekh,a powerful life form from the planet Phaester Osirus.Sutekh believed that there might be a life form more powerful than him,that is why he would destroy all life,wherever he found it.Sutekh destroyed his home world and left a trail of havoc across the galaxy till Horus,and the rest of the Osirians defeated him on Earth in Egypt.The Doctor has met Sutekh and dealt with him.The Doctor's big time arch enemy is a Time Lord called "The Master".A renegade Time Lord who wants to cause destruction in the galaxy.The Doctor has defeated him in every encounter.I really like this TV series so much,I give it 2 thumbs up 10/10.The 8 actors who played the Doctor are William Hartnell,Patrick Troughton,Jon Pertwee,Tom Baker,Peter Davison,Colin Baker,Sylvester McCoy,and Paul McGann,there will be the 9th Doctor,played by Christopher Eccelston in the new Doctor Who series..
Doctor Who is the best science fiction series of all time!
I always used to debate my friends who played a better Dr. Who, they always chose Tom Baker, I was in camp Pertwee though :) It seems like the new post 89 Dr. Who(2005+) is more focused on effects than developing a solid storyline.I used to look forward to after school on Friday nights & Sunday after church when this show came on, good days indeed !
very good series very good writing I like the doctors Tom Baker and Patrick Troughton and William Hartnell acting very good I like the tune.
Priding itself on the ability it has to keep the viewers continuing to watch, with brilliant actors (including William Hartnell, Tom Baker, Paul McGann, Frazer Hines [Emmerdale] and others) in it's cast of Doctors and companions, it is one of the few series that can change it's lead actor who may look nothing like the previous one, give them, a different personality and still have the magic in every episode as before!
What helped in the shows long run was the Daleks even though they did not plan on having any monsters on Doctor Who and giving the main character the ability to change his appearance or regeneration with an appearance, the unique way for changing the actors in the lead role.
Unlike the James Bond movies, the "Best Doctor" went to the fourth actor to play the role by the name of Tom Baker.
My personal favorite of this type was the Peter Davison episode "Black Orchid", set in early twenties England.One of my all time favorite episodes was the Tom Baker story "Nightmare of Eden", where the Doctor and Romana solve a mystery on two space ships.
Another reason why it is brilliant is because of the many monsters that appeared throughout it's 26 year history - unlike American Sci-Fi series where you have humanoid aliens, the Doctor Who production team intentionally created Bug-Eyed Monsters (B.E.M.s) which frightend little kids, and made them want to watch next week's episode.All the actors to play the role of 'The Doctor' brought their own individual humour and characterisation into the series, which I believe to be one of the many factors which ensured the longevity of the series..
The funny thing to me is, the first Doctor I saw was Tom Baker, and I see why people love him so much, but I've lately started to like the early Hartnell and Troughton episodes a lot more.
Pertwee's era also debuted in color, well-remembered for its contemporary Earth-based format and the UNIT family.After 7 years as the Doctor, Tom Baker became an icon, especially in the United States, where syndication and Public TV brought new fans and convention appearances starting in 1979.
I also like that fact the Dr is stranded on earth during his era didn't think it would work but I love it and him for Unit his just awesome and makes for some really good stories.The Tom Baker era of Doctor Who my second favourite era in Classic Who and one of my favourite Doctors.
However there are some great moments in this era and some stories I really like for example I love Survival and Remembrance of the Daleks and I really enjoy Curse of Fenric and Battlefield I also think Time and Rani is very underrated and one of my favourite episodes in this era.
I have watched this since I was about 12 and think it's unique and well made.The story is basically this the doctor is a Time Lord when he dies he regenerates into a new body with a completely different personality, appearance and age etc but he always looks human and is good and honest my favourite doctor is the 3rd one played by the late great Jon Pertwee.
I like the stories and all the doctors and most of the companions I'm a fan and think it's easy to watch and there is something in it for everyone.Worth watching..
Time Lords travel in space and time and regenerate to be over 700+ years old.*Special Stars- Golden Era Doctors are played by: William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davidson, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy.*Theme- Intelligence and human traits will save the universe from harm.*Trivia/location/goofs- British TV series.