Wikia

This article is written from
a real world point of view

The production of the 1996 tele-movie starring Paul McGann was a seven-year struggle involving many players and not a small amount of intrigue between the various and shifting stakeholders in the project.

The beginning Edit

After the show had first aired in the United States, American companies had worked hard to purchase the rights for an American version. In the early '80s, when The Walt Disney Company were on their spending sprees, they attempted to buy the (sole) rights to the show, meaning the entire franchise would belong to Disney, not just an American version of the show.

Steven Spielberg was their only choice to run the office. Spielberg was more than willing to do it, as he felt that Disney was the only American studio who could do such an amazing British show justice. He lost interest when he was told that the show would be released under their Touchstone Television banner; he felt that such an imaginative show needed to be released under their Disney banner.

British expatriate Philip Segal had been working since 1989 to forge a co-production deal between an American company and the BBC to make a new Doctor Who series even before the original programme's twenty-sixth and final season, broadcast that year. At that time, Segal was working with Columbia Pictures, but little had come of his efforts by the time he left for a two-year stint at ABC. Subsequently, Segal went to work for Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment. Shortly thereafter he resumed his efforts to acquire the rights to Doctor Who.

By June 1992, he was joined by Peter Wagg, producer of the eclectic science-fiction series Max Headroom. There were several parties involved in the Doctor Who discussions: Amblin and the BBC, of course, but also Amblin's parent company, Universal Pictures, and the BBC's commercial arm, BBC Enterprises, which would shortly become BBC Worldwide. With each organisation trying to safeguard its own interests, negotiations stretched into 1993, and then 1994.

Despite the many difficulties the complex situation presented, on 13 January 1994, an agreement was reached. Philip Segal was, for all intents and purposes, Doctor Who's newest producer. The race was on to get a series ready to be pitched to the American networks in time for the Fall 1994 season, essentially giving Segal and Wagg less than two months.

One of Segal's first instructions from his superiors at Universal was to use a studio writer for the project, specifically John Leekley. Segal was hesitant, preferring to go outside Universal; former Doctor Who script editor Terrance Dicks was amongst the candidates he considered. However, aware that any fight with Universal would waste precious development time, Segal agreed to bring Leekley aboard.

Inspirations Edit

With designer Richard Lewis, Segal and Leekley prepared an expensive and extensive series bible, The Chronicles Of Doctor Who?, to introduce Doctor Who in general, and the proposed new series in particular. Segal had envisioned this version as largely divorced from the original BBC series -- although the basic concepts of Doctor Who were adhered to, the programme's mythos would be completely rewritten. The bible was written from the perspective of Cardinal Barusa (a misspelling of Borusa, a character who had first appeared in Season Fourteen's The Deadly Assassin).

It introduced the Doctor and the Master, half-brothers and sons of the lost Time Lord explorer Ulysses, Borusa's son. When the evil Master becomes President of the Time Lords upon Borusa's death, the Doctor flees Gallifrey in a rickety old TARDIS to find Ulysses. Borusa's spirit becomes enmeshed in the TARDIS, enabling Borusa to advise his grandson. The Doctor takes the TARDIS to "the Blue Planet" to search for Ulysses, the native world of the Doctor's mother.

The bible detailed the Doctor's encounter with the Daleks—still creations of Davros, but now controlled by the Master. These events, clearly inspired by Season Twelve's Genesis of the Daleks, would have formed the bulk of the pilot episode. Various other possible adventures were detailed, most of them drawing, to a greater or lesser extent, on stories from the original series:

Others excised from the final draft included adventures inspired by

Many familiar Doctor Who monsters were extensively revised.

The Daleks were hideous mutant creatures whose travelling machines appearing not unlike those from the original series, albeit without a "head" region or external appendages -- opened up into a spider-like design.

The Cybermen, now called "Cybs", were marauders whose cybernetic parts were culled from a variety of sources, giving them a patchwork appearance (though they were still vulnerable to gold dust).

The Yeti are gentle descendants of the Neanderthals.

The bible concluded with the conclusion of the Doctor's adventures, in which he located Ulysses and returned to Gallifrey to depose the Master and become President.

The bible was completed around the end of March. Leekley began work on sample storylines, with most work concentrating on the revised version of The Gunfighters, now called Don't Shoot, I'm The Doctor. This was similar to the original Season Three serial only in broad; the Doctor travels to Tombstone suffering from a toothache, but the rest of the story hewed much more closely to the true events of the OK Corral, as opposed to the more fictionalised version offered in the original Doctor Who story.The idea at this point was for the new episodes to be made for one-hour American time slots (meaning about forty-five minutes of actual programming).

Casting the Doctor Edit

Meanwhile, Segal and Wagg began the gruelling process of finding an actor to play the Doctor. To this end, they secured the services of British casting agents John and Ros Hubbard. In January and February, enormous lists of actors, most, but not all of them British) were compiled; amongst the names were

Adam Ant,
Rowan Atkinson,
Chris Barrie,
Sean Bean,
Jeremy Brett,
Jim Broadbent,
Pierce Brosnan,
Simon Callow,
Martin Clunes,
Robbie Coltrane,
Jason Connery,
Billy Connolly,
Michael Crawford,
Russell Crowe,
Tim Curry,
Timothy Dalton,
Alan Davies,
Alexis Denisoff,
Rupert Everett
Trever Eve
Ralph Fiennes,
Matt Frewer,
Hugh Grant,
Jeff Goldblum,
Robert Hardy,
Rutger Hauer,
Anthony Stewart Head,
John Hurt,
Eric Idle,
Chris Isaak,
Derek Jacobi,
Ben Kingsley,
Robert Lindsay,
Rob Lowe,
Kyle MacLachlan,
Malcolm McDowell,
Ian McKellen,
Alfred Molina,
Sam Neill,
Peter O'Toole,
Peter Ustinov,
Michael Palin,
Nathaniel Parker
Jonathan Pryce,
Aidan Quinn,
Julian Sands,
Tony Slattery,
Patrick Stewart (who states in interviews that while he might have been considered for the role, he was never formally approached),
Gary Sinise,
Arnold Vosloo,
Peter Weller
Peter Woodward
Scott Weinger.

Names in bold indicate the actors who were offered the role, but turned down the role. Name in italics indicate the actors who did audition for the role.

Some of these actors were interested in the part, but there was no other actor in the world more interested in playing Doctor Who than Steve Martin, as he was (and as of 2009 still is) a huge fan of Doctor Who.

Around mid-March, an effort was also made to approach Paul McGann , but the actor was unavailable; his brother Mark had in fact auditioned for the role some days earlier, on March 1st. The early favourite was Irish actor Liam Cunningham, but by the start of April, it was discovered that other commitments would prevent him from agreeing to the role.

Casting Borusa Edit

Efforts were also under way to cast the role of Borusa, with several performers on the list of possible Doctors also given consideration here. A "big name" actor was clearly preferred, and some of the names suggested included:

Don Ameche,
Richard Attenborough,
Peter Cushing,
Kirk Douglas,
Albert Finney,
John Gielgud,
Richard Griffiths,
Alec Guinness,
Richard Harris
Anthony Hopkins,
Burt Lancaster
Christopher Lee
Jack Lemmon
Ian McKellen,
Armin Mueller-Stahl
Paul Newman,
Gregory Peck,
Donald Pleasance,
Peter Ustinov,
Max von Sydow,
David Warner

The clear favourite was Peter O'Toole, who by the end of March had provisionally declared his interest in the project.

A third producer joined the Doctor Who team in March, much to the surprise and, at the time, the dismay of Segal. This was Jo Wright, assigned by the BBC to represent their interests. Around the end of March, Doctor Who was offered to the four American networks. NBC and ABC were completely uninterested. CBS president Peter Tortorici tentatively offered Segal a two-hour pilot and six one-hour episodes (presumably to serve as mid-season replacement series), but this was retracted by network head Howard Stringer in mid-May.

Enter Fox Edit

That left Fox, the youngest American network. Led by head of series Robert Greenblatt, Fox was interested in Doctor Who, but was only willing to commit to a two-hour movie with the possibility of a second. It appeared Segal's dreams of producing a new Doctor Who series were fast disappearing. Despite this, he agreed to an offer made by Doctor Who historian Jean-Marc Lofficier and his wife Randy to become unofficial consultants on the project.

The Lofficiers would advise the production team on continuity and act as liaisons with the fan community. On 28th June, Fox indicated they were interested in having the initial movie serve as a "backdoor pilot"; if ratings were good, the property might shift from their Movie of the Week department to the series department.

Script Edit

Meanwhile, Leekley was working on the script for the movie. He submitted his first story proposal on 15th July, drawing heavily on the bible. In the midst of a Dalek attack on Gallifrey, Borusa dies, allowing the Master to become President of the Time Lords. The Doctor flees in his TARDIS, which now incorporates Borusa's spirit. In World War II London, the Doctor meets American WAC Lizzie Travis. Together, the Doctor and Lizzie travel to Ancient Egypt to find Ulysses, only to be attacked by the Cybs.

The Doctor returns to Gallifrey, where a suspiciously friendly Master sends him and Lizzie to Skaro to stop Davros from creating the Daleks. In the process, the Master takes control of the Dalek army and has them destroy Davros. The Doctor escapes and returns Lizzie to Earth, then heads off to continue his search for Ulysses.

A revised 27th July version eliminated the Cybs and added a henchman for the Master, Castellan Kelner (named after the obsequious character in Season Fifteen's The Invasion of Time); "Castellan" subsequently became the character's sole name instead of simply his title. Later, the return to Gallifrey was eliminated by having Borusa direct the TARDIS to Skaro. Leekley next prepared the first draft of his script, delivered on 24th August. This diverged noticeably from the earlier storylines by concluding on a cliffhanger, with Davros and his Daleks confronting the Doctor and Lizzie for the first time. By 8th September, however, the full storyline had been added to the script, and other Skaro scenes as well as much of the Egypt material was trimmed to accommodate it.

Directing Edit

Meanwhile, Wagg was compiling a list of possible directors, including

Michael Apted,
Joe Dante,
Leonard Nimoy,
Alan Parker,
Ridley Scott,
Peter Weir
Robert Zemeckis.

The hoped-for production date of July had long since been abandoned due to the delays caused by CBS; it was now thought filming would begin in November for a possible May 1995 airdate, with work on a series potentially beginning the following July. For the movie, Segal and Wagg envisioned using Vancouver, British Columbia as their base, with some material possibly being shot in Denver or Utah.

Approval Edit

Through mid-September, Leekley's script made the rounds of all the various organisations which had to approve it (Amblin, BBC Television, BBC Enterprises, the Fox network and Universal). Ironically, the death knell was sounded by Segal's own boss, Steven Spielberg. Spielberg was concerned that Leekley's script veered too closely to his own Indiana Jones franchise, and on 26th September asked Segal to start again with a new writer. This meant that principal photography would be delayed until at least February 1995.

The BBC, particularly BBC1 Controller and longtime Doctor Who supporter Alan Yentob and Tony Greenwood of BBC Enterprises were still enthusiastic about Doctor Who Around the start of October, at the instigation of Universal, Segal met with veteran writer/producer Robert DeLaurentis. DeLaurentis agreed to put together a new story proposal, using Leekley's script as a starting point, but wanted to accentuate its "fun" aspects.

On October 7th, DeLaurentis delivered a new draft of the storyline. This time, in the process of meeting Lizzie in World War II London, the Doctor also discovers that his father (no longer named Ulysses) was involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler. They travel forward to the United States in 1994, where the Doctor is reunited with his father. The Master lures the Doctor, his father and Lizzie to Skaro for a final confrontation. There, the Doctor destroys the Master's time-travelling warship, though the Master himself escapes with his Daleks. Other minor alterations included Castellan being renamed Casteloan (though this would subsequently be changed back), and giving Lizzie a bulldog companion named Winston, who stays with the Doctor at the story's conclusion.

DeLaurentis Draft Edit

DeLaurentis next wrote a draft script titled Dr Who? which he submitted on 17th December. Winston was all but eliminated (he does not leave 1944 England in the TARDIS), the Daleks became shape-shifting humanoids and Lizzie Travis was renamed Jane McDonald. Also, for the first time the TARDIS began the adventure with a functioning chameleon circuit which malfunctions in World War II London. The Doctor was also given another companion, Sherman, who is trapped on Skaro at the start of the story and is subsequently discovered to have been killed.

DeLaurentis' next draft, delivered on 3rd February, 1995, was an even more substantial departure from the original Leekley script. The Daleks had become Zenons and Borusa was renamed Pandak (a suggestion of Lofficier's). Sherman was replaced by an alien creature called Gog who accompanies the Doctor throughout the adventure, and Castellan is transformed into a half-Zenon creature by the Master and commits suicide. At this point, Fox intervened and indicated that they were not happy with the direction DeLaurentis was taking the project -- indeed, they suggested reverting to the Leekley draft.

Enter Matthew Jacobs Edit

At the suggestion of Trevor Walton, Fox's vice president in charge of movies, Segal and Wagg met with Matthew Jacobs, who had written for The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. (Jacobs was the son of Anthony Jacobs, who had played Doc Holliday in The Gunfighters, and had been present on the set.) The selection was approved by the other interested parties and Jacobs set to work on 5th May Unlike the DeLaurentis iteration, it was decided to essentially discard all the work done to date, with Jacobs starting afresh on an entirely new script. Only the idea of the Doctor having a human mother would be retained.

By 19th May, Jacobs had composed a storyline; unlike the earlier Leekley and DeLaurentis versions, this continued from the end of the original series, starting by introducing Sylvester McCoy's Seventh Doctor. The Doctor arrives on modern-day Earth in either San Francisco or New Orleans.

However, the dying Master has transmogrified himself into a shape-shifting slick of DNA, and attacks the Doctor, mortally wounding him. The Doctor's body is found by a street kid named Jack. Jack brings the Doctor to the hospital, where he is operated on unsuccessfully by Dr Kelly Grace (an obvious play on the name of actress Grace Kelly). In the morgue, the Doctor regenerates; meanwhile, the Master acquires a temporary human host body. Jack has gained access to the TARDIS using gloves he has pilfered from the Doctor's body. The Master raises Jack's father from the dead and through him uses Jack to take over the TARDIS.

As Halloween approaches, the Master uses the TARDIS to unleash an army of the dead. With Kelly's help, the Doctor returns to the TARDIS and draws himself, the Master, Kelly, Jack and the dead into another dimension. He defeats the Master, returns Jack to Earth and leaves with Kelly.

Various changes were made by the time of the next draft, on June 27th. The date was shifted to the days leading up to New Year's Eve instead of Halloween, and San Francisco was specified as the location. After regenerating, the Doctor sees a vision of his mother. Jack uses the TARDIS key instead of a pair of gloves to enter the time machine. In addition to Jack's father, Kelly is also confronted by someone from her past, and an earlier suggestion made by Jacobs that Jack be killed only to be brought back to life via the power of the TARDIS was included. Kelly also reluctantly remained behind at the end of this version.

Jacobs First Draft Edit

Jacobs now began writing the first draft of his script, which he delivered on 18th July. This screenplay differed from the storyline on several key points. Jack became Chang Lee, and the Master's host body acquired a proper identity in the form of a fireman named Bruce. Kelly Grace was now Grace Wilson, and two cartoonish hospital porters Jacobs had earlier mentioned were given the names Bill and Ted, after the title characters in the time-travel comedies Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989) and Bill And Ted's Bogus Journey (1991), which themselves owed no small debt to Doctor Who. Also introduced at this point was Gareth, here a young librarian.

The idea of the Master's body decaying throughout the story made its first appearance, in this version becoming more reptilian; he was also able to control his form, turning his arms into lassos at one point. The Eye of Harmony was also brought into play at this stage, this being the link to the Master's death dimension (Chang Lee sees his late father, Jimmy Lee, reflected in the Eye, instead of him actually being raised from the dead; later, Grace sees a vision of her grandmother). Chang Lee acquired an uncle, Sam, who is killed by the Master.

This time, when all four end up going through the Eye of Harmony, the Doctor saves Grace and Chang Lee (who is still killed and then resurrected) by embracing his past after conjuring up the ghost of his dead mother. The Master tries to repeat the Doctor's feat, and is destroyed. The Doctor departs alone, leaving Grace and Chang Lee in San Francisco.

Changes Edit

After receiving input from the various associated parties, Jacobs' next major draft was ready by 18th August. In this version, the Master no longer kills Sam Lee but instead reads his mind, learning that it was Sam who killed Jimmy Lee. The Master's plan now is to channel the emotional upswell of New Year's Eve through the Eye of Harmony, reshaping the universe to his design, although the death dimension was still involved. The appearances toward the end of Jimmy, Grace's grandmother and the Doctor's mother were all excised, and the Doctor's half-human retinal print was now important as the focus of the Master's control over the death dimension. The Doctor and the Master now battle around the Eye of Harmony instead of inside it, and at its climax the Master is sucked into the death dimension. Both Grace and Chang Lee are killed this time around, only to be brought back to life by the Eye of Harmony.

All of this underwent major changes in the ensuing month, and the draft that appeared on 18th September featured some notable modifications. The death dimension was now gone, with the focus of the Master's schemes now an "intergalactic roving force field" called the Millennium Star which passes near Earth every thousand years. The Master intends to use the Eye of Harmony to harness the power of the Millennium Star, which will permit him to refashion the universe.

The Master poses as a "false messiah" in order to influence Grace and Chang Lee. The Doctor no longer experiences a vision of his mother shortly after his regeneration; instead, the Master causes this during their confrontation at the Eye of Harmony.

Wagg Leaves Edit

In July Doctor Who had lost a key personnel member when Peter Wagg elected to leave the project to return to his family in London. Wagg offered to keep in touch with Segal and lend a hand albeit remotely whenever he could. It was also around this time that Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier's advisory role ended. The relationship between Segal and the Lofficiers would subsequently sour when much of the production material Segal had given them was transformed into a book, The Nth Doctor, released by Virgin Publishing in 1996.

In September, Segal found yet another producer being added to the project. This time it was Universal who wanted a representative in the production office, in the form of Alex Beaton. Later that month, Segal left Amblin for Lakeshore Television (under the aegis of Paramount Pictures). Spielberg allowed Segal to take Doctor Who with him, and Segal elected to work on the project directly through Beaton and Universal; there was one less cook in the kitchen.

Key Crew Positions Edit

At this stage some of the key crew positions started to be filled, most notably British director Geoffrey Sax, whose work included episodes of Bergerac and Lovejoy. Because the movie would be filmed in British Columbia, Canadian regulations meant that most of the rest of the crew would come from the country. This included production designer Richard Hudolin, who major task was a redesign of the TARDIS console room. Segal wanted to invoke the Jules Verne feel of the wooden version of the set used during Season Fourteen, but on a much grander scale.

Construction on the TARDIS sets began very early on, during September, before the project had even been officially green-lit. Around the start of October, Fox announced Doctor Who would air in mid-May 1996. May was one of three key "sweeps" periods for the American networks (the others falling in November and February), when ratings performance determines advertising rates for the next quarter. Consequently, expectations for Doctor Who would be fairly high.

Script Approval Edit

Meanwhile, both Fox and Universal had approved Jacobs' script, leaving only the BBC. Segal was becoming concerned that further delays on this front would threaten the start of preproduction, and arranged a meeting directly between Jacobs and the BBC, out of which several more changes arose. The story now began with the Doctor transporting the Master's remains back to Gallifrey, only to have the Master escape in his snake form. The TARDIS lands on Earth and is inadvertently killed as a result of Chang Lee's actions (instead of by the Master; this would eventually become a Chinatown gang shoot-out).

Bruce is now an ambulance attendant who sees to the Doctor; Chang Lee allies with the Master out of sheer greed, and Gareth works for a company which makes technologically advanced clocks. From this, Jacobs wrote a new draft script for 14th November. This introduced the idea of the Master being tried and executed by the Daleks (the BBC had always been very keen on including the Daleks in the script in some fashion) and the Doctor needing a beryllium atomic clock from Gareth's workplace (here specified as KAL-TECH, but later changed to ITAR, the Institute for Technological Advancement and Research). The clock's inventor was named Professor Wagg as a tribute to Peter Wagg's involvement in the project.

Budget Edit

Around the same time, Segal was facing new struggles with Universal, who were uncomfortable about their share of the project's budget: Fox was responsible for US$2.5 million, the BBC for US$300,000, and Universal and BBC Worldwide for US$2.2 million. Segal made tentative inquiries with Paramount about that company replacing Universal in the deal, but Paramount was not interested. Segal was on the verge of giving Universal an ultimatum: either commit fully to the project or release Segal and allow him to search for yet another production partner. On 6th November, he posted a message to various online Doctor Who forums suggesting, due to reticence on the part of Universal, the project was now in dire jeopardy.

Segal pleaded with fans to inundate Universal with letters and phone calls, and released Universal President Tom Thayer's phone number. Reportedly, fans proceeded to bring Thayer's office to a standstill, despite the protests of a Universal employee that Segal had misunderstood the situation and the project was proceeding ahead as normal. A couple of days later, Segal asked fans to stop calling, but keep writing. Fortunately, despite all this drama, by 27th November all the parties had signed on.

Major Casting Edit

The next step was to cast the major roles. Sylvester McCoy had already agreed to appear, fulfilling a promise he had made to himself in 1989 to hand off the role of the Doctor to a successor in proper fashion. Jo Wright, in fact, had wanted Fourth Doctor Tom Baker to appear instead, but Segal was adamant that the telefilm continue from where the original series had left off.

Segal also briefly considered the idea of including a role for Sophie Aldred as Ace, the Seventh Doctor's final companion. This, however, was quickly vetoed by the BBC. Segal did decide to give the Seventh Doctor a new wardrobe, having long disliked the umbrella and the question-mark pullover which were hallmarks of the original outfit. Costume designer Jori Woodman composed a new costume which echoed the earlier version but was much more refined; to Segal's delight, McCoy brought with him the hat he had worn throughout his time in Doctor Who.

Casting Grace Edit

By this time, the role of Grace Wilson had also been cast. Candidates considered by Hymson-Ayer included

Kristen Alfonso,
Maria Bello,
Erika Eleniak,
Stacy Haiduk,
Marcia Gay Harden,
Kelly Lynch,
Carrie Ann Moss,
Nia Peeples,
Mia Sara,
Helen Slater,
Ally Walker.

Ultimately, the part went to Daphne Ashbrook,

Casting the Master Edit

Given his concession regarding the Master, Segal initially wanted Christopher Lloyd, a choice which met Fox's approval. However, Universal stalled due to concerns over Lloyd's fee. By the time they gave the deal their approval, Lloyd was no longer available. Hymson-Ayer then drew up a large list of possible Masters, including numerous well-known names.

This included

F Murray Abraham,
Bill Pullman,
Dan Aykroyd,
Richard Dean Anderson,
Armand Assante,
Scott Bakula,
James Belushi,
Tom Berenger,
David Bowie,
Steve Buscemi,
Dana Carvey,
Chevy Chase,
Phil Collins,
Tim Curry,
Timothy Dalton,
Matt Dillon,
Michael Dorn,
Richard Dreyfuss,
Robert Duvall,
Robert Englund,
Jonathan Frakes,
Matt Frewer,
Jeff Goldblum,
Rutger Hauer,
Gregory Hines,
Dennis Hopper,
William Hurt,
Timothy Hutton,
Chris Isaak,
Mick Jagger
Ben Kingsley,
Christopher Lee,
Ray Liotta,
John Lithgow,
Kyle MacLachlan,
John Malkovich,
Malcolm McDowell,
Rick Moranis,
Bill Murray,
Judd Nelson,
Leonard Nimoy,
Oliver Platt,
Jonathan Pryce,
Randy Quaid,
Judge Reinhold,
Tom Selleck,
Martin Sheen,
Kevin Spacey,
Brent Spiner,
Patrick Stewart,
Sting,
Jon Voight,
Tom Waits,
Damon Wayans
Keenan Ivory Wayans,
Peter Weller,
Henry Winkler,
James Woods,
Michael York.

In the end, Eric Roberts was cast and, ironically, earned a larger fee than Christopher Lloyd had been asking. At Roberts' request, his wife Eliza was given the minor role of Bruce's wife, Miranda.

Production Edit

With production just weeks away, Jacobs was working on fashioning his script into a finished form. The BBC was much more receptive to his November draft, but passed it along to an in-house script editor, Craig Dickson, for comment. From this came the decision to eliminate the Millennium Star concept, with the Master's focus now simply to take over the Doctor's body.

Jacobs' newest draft was ready by 29th December, and this was fundamentally the version which was recorded. Other small changes eventually made included changing Grace's surname from Wilson to Holloway; eliminating the Bill And Ted reference (which the BBC felt was out-of-date) by renaming the former Pete; having the Master break Bruce's wife's neck instead of shooting her; and excising a scene where the Master callously kills a hospital patient who resembles the Seventh Doctor. Much of Chang Lee's background had also been lost to timing issues by this stage, with all references to Sam and Jimmy Lee being dropped.

As 1996 dawned, numerous difficulties still remained to be overcome. Geoffrey Sax had originally been promised a luxurious thirty-day shoot, but Beaton subsequently curtailed this to twenty-five days to save money. Then Segal discovered that the BBC did not actually own the rights to the familiar Doctor Who theme music; this rested with Warner/Chappel Music, who wanted to charge a hefty fee for its use. Universal balked at this, but finally Segal convinced the BBC to pick up the cost. The new theme arrangement would be composed by John Sponsier and John Debney. Segal had not realised that McGann had recently cut his hair severely for another production until McGann arrived in Vancouver for a photo shoot on 7th January; this meant that hair stylist Julie McHaffire had to hastily put together a wig.

The TARDIS Edit

Meanwhile, Richard Hudolin had completed work on the enormous TARDIS set, only a small fraction of which would actually be seen in the finished movie. Enormous detail went into the design, everything from busts of Rassilon in the Cloister Room, to a roundel-type design on the main doors to echo the look of the original console room. Every control on the main console actually did something and the rotating panels indicating the current location and era made numerous references to Doctor Who lore:

Locations Edit

Location filming began on 15th January, and was interlaced with the studio work which started on the 31st. Sites around Vancouver were used, including a disused wing of the BC Children's Hospital, the Plaza of Nations and several street exteriors; no filming was actually carried out in San Francisco; for establishing shots, stock footage was employed. The studio itself was located in nearby Burnaby.

The Master's Wardrobe Edit

Some difficulty arose when Roberts found the wardrobe created for him by Woodman, which was largely in keeping with the Master's outfits from the original series, was too restrictive. He was also uncomfortable with the serpentine contact lenses he was supposed to wear and with the prosthetics which would have depicted his body's gradual disintegration over the course of the movie.

The result was that the effect of Bruce's body wearing out was essentially lost and it was decided to instead dress Roberts in dark sunglasses and a leather jacket for most of the film, unfortunately turning the Master into a silhouette of the Terminator from the two Arnold Schwarzenegger motion pictures. Elements of the Master's original costume would still be visible in the Time Lord outfit he wears in the latter stages of the movie.

Story Dilemmas Edit

Several other issues had to be confronted as the shoot went on. Some problems were found with the script such as the question of how the Master has gotten into the TARDIS when he first encounters Chang Lee, which had to be simply ignored. The final battle between the Doctor and the Master had been only briefly sketched and had to be quickly fleshed out for filming.

Sax had hoped to have all the Doctors appear in the Eye of Harmony, but could not get clearance on the images in time. Ultimately, the production went four days over schedule; even then some sequences were greatly simplified to save time, such as Chang Lee's death scene. Filming for Doctor Who was completed on February 21st.

Post-Production Edit

Post-production saw trims to the material, such as the loss of the scene where the Master confronts the security guards who are later found "slimed". The Dalek voices were originally in keeping with the original series, but were changed over concerns they weren't audible enough. A new introductory voiceover by Paul McGann was written on 2nd April to replace earlier dialogue by the Master (voiced by Gordon Tipple) and the Daleks. The BBC expressed concerns the Master's snake form was too comical, but little could be done about it at this stage. Segal lent a rough cut of the movie to Los Angeles-based fan Shaun Lyon, organiser of the Gallifrey One conventions and editor of the Outpost Gallifrey website, to get his opinion. It was Lyon who caught several errors in the movie, most notably a reference to the Doctor having twelve lives. This was amended to the correct number, thirteen.

Credits Edit

Segal also had to deal with various claims for credit from individuals who had worked on earlier stages of the project. Despite the protests of Fox and Universal, Segal won agreement for John and Ros Hubbard to be credited, as they had indeed been the first to bring McGann to his attention. John Leekley's case for a producer's credit was rejected, however, because virtually nothing remained of his work.

Meanwhile, the various cost overruns on recording, casting and even the theme music, all to the tune of roughly US$170,000 was creating animosity between the coproduction partners, souring the relationships before the would-be back-door pilot had even aired

Footnotes Edit

[1].

N

Have a question about how Doctor Who (TV story)/Production relates to the rest of the DWU? See a problem here that's also happening on other pages of the wiki? Join us at our forum to have a good, ol' natter with the rest of our community. But if you want to talk about the editing of just this article, please click here and start talkin'.