Radio Times: 1996 TV Movie

Above: Paul McGann, the Eighth Doctor.

Paul McGann played the Doctor in the 1996 made for television movie (TVM), simply tiled "Doctor Who".

Although the TVM was muted as a possible pilot for a new series it was in fact a one-off production. Due to the nature of the co-production deal between the BBC in the UK and Fox TV and Universal TV in the USA, it became mired in uncertainty and the different expectations of the co-production partners after its airing.

Although failing to garner significant ratings in the USA, it was put up against an important episode of Roseanne, the top US comedy at the time, it did gain significant ratings in the UK. The TVM was one of the top rated BBC dramas in the week it aired in the UK, at 9.08 million viewers it was in fact one of the top rated programmes of any description on BBC 1 for that week. This despite it's being aired on a summer Bank-Holiday Monday (UK Public Holiday) when ratings are usually low.

There was continued uncertainty for months after the airing of the TVM but it eventually became clear that it had failed to satisfy its US backers and the project was at an end.

However seven years later, in late 2003, the BBC made the surprise announcement that a new series of Doctor Who ws to be made for 2005 and it would once again be produced as an in-house series (by BBC Wales). It was announced in March 2004 that the new Doctor, the Ninth 'official' Doctor, is to be played by Christopher Eccleston.

For more on the new series see the latest news on our STOP PRESS New Series page.

You will find listings for the Paul McGann TVM on the other page in this section. Use the links above-left to view the rest of this section. If a listing is hyper-linked click on the text to view the relevant Radio Times cuttings.

For newspaper and magazine articles relating to this period of the programme's history please see the Late 1990's Page (part of our Newspapers and Magazines section).