Doctor Who: The Movie

During the Wilderness Years between the Classic Series and the New Series, there were several misguided attempts to reboot or continue the series, and one of these culminated in Doctor Who: The Movie, also known as simply the TV Movie, which introduced the Eighth Doctor played by Paul McGann. It's generally regarded as being a bit naff, though its reputation has improved significantly since its original transmission, and going by what we know from the early drafts it could have been much, much worse.

By far the best thing about this film is the introduction of Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor, as Big Finish would eventually go on to create an entire universe of adventures for the character in their audio dramas. Other than that, basically everything about this film is rubbish, though the fact that Sylvester McCoy appears as the 'Old Doctor' is often undervalued considering this was very nearly a reboot, something which would have killed the franchise dead instead of simply failing to wake it from its dormancy.

Depending on how you look at it, Eric Roberts as the Master is also good. It is clear from watching the film that he had no idea who he was supposed to be playing in this, and his strange depiction of the role is further muddied by the fact that there is a lot of weird 'new lore' introduced in this film (such as the Doctor being half-human, an idea that was subsequently dropped) but he does give an interesting performance, and it does make the film more enjoyable if you don't think about it too much.

Had this movie succeeded in rebooting the show back in 1994, it would have led to a series of remakes of Classic Series stories that reimagined the Cybermen as space pirates called the Cybs, introduced the idea that the Doctor and the Master are brothers searching for their father Ulysses, and embodied the TARDIS with the spirit of Borusa who would guide the Doctor on his adventures. Ultimately, it would have been a terrible idea on all fronts. So as much as we all love Paul McGann, we have to thank our lucky stars that he didn't get a TV series back in the day.