30 years ago, Doctor Who put a brief pause on its years of hiatus in style with the release of the TV movie, an attempt to revive the franchise for the then-modern age and American audiences. Although its legacy would endure in more ways off screen than on, the film itself has been a bit left by the wayside… until now.
Today the BBC announced it would celebrate the 30th anniversary of the 1996 film with a brand new Blu-ray and UHD release, remastering it in 4K from scans of its original film negatives and allowing fans to see the film like it’s never been seen before, with a newly reconstructed surround sound soundtrack.
Guest-starring Sylvester McCoy as the seventh Doctor—and introducing Paul McGann as the eighth—the Doctor Who TV movie sees a newly regenerated Doctor race against time to stop the return of one of his oldest foes, the Master, after the renegade Time Lord escaped his seeming death at the hands of the Daleks. It introduced a new companion for the new Doctor, Dr. Grace Holloway (Daphne Ashbrook), a new incarnation of the Master (played to camp perfection by Eric Roberts), and introduced Yee Jee Tso as Chang Lee, an unwitting agent of the Master as he planned revenge on the Doctor by stealing his future regenerations from him.
Although the TV movie failed to spark a new era for the series (it’d have to wait another 9 years for that to happen), it was a shot in the arm for the extended Doctor Who universe, giving the series a new leading hero to follow up with across comics, books, and especially on audio, with Paul McGann’s Doctor essentially becoming the face of Big Finish’s Doctor Who audio dramas for decades. In 2013, to mark Doctor Who‘s 50th anniversary, McGann briefly returned on-screen as the Eighth Doctor for a special mini-episode, “Night of the Doctor”, which remains his last prominent on-screen appearance as the Doctor outside of a few brief photographic cameos.
Doctor Who: The Movie releases on UHD and standard Blu-ray sometime this year, with pre-orders opening up soon.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Source: gizmodo.com
