History Recap / DoctorWhoTVMTheTVMovie

* QuoteMine: The line "I finally meet the right guy, and he's from another planet" comes out of absolutely nowhere and is often considered to have been put in the script solely for this purpose.

The one with the perfectly-fitting shoes.

Before the Master's ashes can be returned, though, they turn into a semi-intelligent blob of amorphous goo. This blobby thing escapes from the little casket, wreaks havoc with the TARDIS controls, and, most heinously, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking throws the Doctor's record player out of whack]]! The TARDIS (which has updated its "desktop theme" beautifully at some point after the cheetah planet), the Doctor, and the blob crash-land in UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco, on [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture New Year's Eve 1999]]. Unfortunately, they've landed in the middle of a Chinese gang war. Half a second after the Doctor sets foot outside the TARDIS, he's hit by two stray bullets from the shootout. How the most meticulously calculative incarnation of the Doctor ended up falling victim to such a simple blunder is beyond us given that that Doctor can view the outside environment from within the TARDIS, but hey, maybe he was just in that much of a rush.

Chang Lee takes advantage of the confusion to swipe the Doctor's stuff. Bruce the EMT, for whom this must be sad but routine, ambles off home... completely unaware that the the Master has invaded his EMT outfit and has designs on the rest of him. At night, the Master slithers into Bruce's body and gives him some neat [[MindControlEyes glowy green eyes]] plus the strength to NeckSnap his wife. Because the Master never misses a chance to KickTheDog.

Anyway, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent as the man himself would later state]], [[TheNthDoctor death is Time Lord for man flu]], although thanks to the anesthetic, he came close to clocking out permanently. Thankfully, hours later, the Doctor starts to regenerate in the morgue. His bone structure crackles as it transforms, and energies fling out of his body. His face does a lot of wicked contorting and changes into someone looking like Creator/PaulMcGann. Meet the Eighth Doctor. Right off the bat, Eight is confused and suffering from a bad case of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E1Castrovalva post-regenerative amnesia]]. But his regeneration has boosted his strength. He starts pounding on the cold storage door several times until it falls down with a heavy thump. The Doctor scares [[FatComicRelief Pete the morgue worker]] half to death by appearing right when the guy is watching ''Film/{{Frankenstein|1931}}''. Wandering around the hospital in a daze, the Doctor ends up in the run-down "broken mirrors and creepy dolls" wing where he takes to a moment to [[ChewingTheScenery scream "WHO AM I?!" dramatically]], while wrapped in that white shroud and showing off his half-naked torso. The fact that he LooksLikeJesus is neatly paired with shots of the satanic Master looking very serious.

The Master, meanwhile, has paired up with Lee, and Lee is able to freely wander around the TARDIS (using the Doctor's key) because the TARDIS apparently likes him. Maybe being the only member of that earlier gang war to actually try helping the wounded Doctor endeared her to him. The Master exploits Lee's naivete, claims that the Doctor is a villain trying to steal the Master's lifeforce, and promises him gold in return for helping him, and the two open the onboard Eye of Harmony, thus overloading the TARDIS and wreaking havoc on Earth.

And Grace and Lee both die, but the TARDIS revives them... somehow, and the three return to San Francisco at the stroke of midnight. As a parting gift, the Doctor gives Lee a bag of gold dust and sends him on his merry way. The Doctor asks Grace to come with him, and Grace asks the Doctor to stay with her. They figure that it won't work out either way and just say a sweet goodbye. And with the world saved and the Master safely dead, the Doctor decides to return to relaxing in his TARDIS as it busks around aimlessly in the time vortex, but not before [[HereWeGoAgain having to deal with his faulty record player again]].

However, [=McGann=] did not get flagged down for a role in the 2005 revival, and admits he wouldn't have been up for the task even if he had. Davies's master plan for the new series involved a DarkerAndEdgier characterization of the Doctor, in direct contrast to Eight's romantic, cheery, and warm personality established here. To avoid breaking character or having to explain the abrupt change in his personality, Davies had the Eighth Doctor regenerate off-screen, and started things fresh with the Doctor's Ninth incarnation, who would assume the darker persona Davies wanted. Eight's adventures would be left to the novels, comics and audio dramas, which chronicle his transition into this personality, but the actual cause of his regeneration was for the better part of a decade one of the great unsolved mysteries of ''Doctor Who'' -- that is, until a mini-episode entitled [[Recap/DoctorWho50thPrequelTheNightOfTheDoctor "The Night of the Doctor"]], made during the Eleventh Doctor's tenure and becoming an instant BrokenBase by referencing the Eighth Doctor's ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' adventures and ignoring other people's [[SchrodingersCanon favourite tie-ins]].

*** Chang Lee is given backstory - his parents were industrious, law-abiding shop owners. His brother, Chang Ho, two years his senior, wanted to use the shop as a front for selling crack for the gang. His parents refused and were killed by a rival gang. This left Lee under Ho's protection and he brought Lee into his gang. A rivalry with another gang intensified and Ho was knifed to death.

*** The Master explains to Chang Lee that the bearded man sculpted on the TARDIS busts is Rassilon

* BackForTheDead: Creator/SylvesterMcCoy as the Seventh Doctor, who returns to ''Doctor Who'' just so he can be shot and regenerate, thus linking the movie with the series.
** It's worth noting that Creator/SylvesterMcCoy had always been vocal about his willingness, if asked, to return to the show and provide a true regeneration, after he had previously had to be a FakeShemp to his own predecessor Creator/ColinBaker when Colin had refused to come back and film a hand-over himself [[Recap/DoctorWhoS24E1TimeAndTheRani when Sylvester had taken the role in 1987]]. Colin would've returned if the BBC had given him another full series, which they refused.

* BlobMonster: Having been apparently vaporised by the Daleks, the Master's remains are stored in a Sonic Screwdriver-locked chest. It cracks open, and emits a mass of transparent, shape-shifting goo, which hijacks the TARDIS, and dives down Bruce's thoat...

** Secondly, the Eighth Doctor tries to persuade Grace that he's both an alien, and that the world is going to be destroyed at midnight if she doesn't help him. She tries to get him committed, and it takes getting acidic vomit being spat on her arm by a dead paramedic with unnaturally green eyes possessed by an evil Time Lord to convince her that maybe there's some validity to his story. To be fair to Grace, though, [[YouHaveToBelieveMe he's not exactly presenting his case as effectively as he could this time]].

** Also, Chang being sort of a doofus in forgetting that the vehicle he and the Master are in is an ambulance, during ''a chase scene''. Which the Master lampshades hammily.

* TheComicallySerious: Chang Lee is an absolute expert at the deadpan double-take. Once the Master starts drezzzzing for the occasion and randomly kissing his forehead, Chang's only response the most perfectly stoic "oh god why am I here" expression.

** The Master's deformed eyes resemble the cheetah eyes he acquired in the Doctor's previous TV adventure, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E4Survival "Survival"]].

* ContinuityReboot: Was considered to become a form of this during pre-production. John Leekley had plans in progress for remaking the First Doctor's tenure, alongside renaming old foes like Cybermen into "Cybz". Leekley's scripts were not well received by any of the production companies, so he was removed from the project in September 1994.

-->'''Doctor:''' See, I told you it ''[a gadget]'' was small.\\

'''Doctor:''' Yeah, they say that on my planet too.

* EasilyForgiven: The Doctor figures that Chang's suffered enough punishment being kicked around by the Master, so he lets him off easy.

'''The Master:''' Life is ''wasted'' on the living.

* LovecraftianSuperpower: Aside from the GrandTheftMe, the Master's condition also gives acidic saliva. And that's just the start of what it can do...

** Inverted with the Master (obviously). He turns into a snake, he lies, he tempts Chang Lee with power... It's even lampshaded by Grace, who asks if the Master is the devil.

** The Doctor keeps bags of gold dust in one of the TARDIS's cupboards. Gold dust is the primary weakness of the Doctor's enemies, the Cybermen, so it would make sense for the Doctor to keep some with him during his travels.

* OnlyOneName: Bruce's last name is never revealed.

However, [=McGann=] did not get flagged down for a role in the 2005 revival, and admits he wouldn't have been up for the task even if he had. Davies's master plan for the new series involved a DarkerAndEdgier characterization of the Doctor, in direct contrast to Eight's romantic, cheery, and warm personality established here. To avoid breaking character or having to explain the abrupt change in his personality, Davies had the Eighth Doctor regenerate off-screen, and started things fresh with the Doctor's Ninth incarnation, who would assume the darker persona Davies wanted. Eight's adventures would be left to the novels, comics and audio dramas, which chronicle his transition into this personality, but the actual cause of his regeneration was for the better part of a decade one of the great unsolved mysteries of ''Doctor Who'' -- that is, until a mini-episode entitled [[Recap/DoctorWho50thPrequelTheNightOfTheDoctor "The Night of the Doctor"]], made during the Eleventh Doctor's tenure and officially declaring the Eighth Doctor's ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' adventures canon.

*** The final cut of the movie never quite explains how Chang Lee knows the ambulance driver's name is Bruce, nor why he would have been allowed to travel in the ambulance with the Doctor. The novel features a scene in which the police who arrive at the scene of the shooting interrogate Lee and determine that he might be of help to the paramedics. A policeman introduces Lee to the paramedic, who introduces himself as "Bruce Gerhardt". Bruce's last name is never revealed on screen.

* BriefAccentImitation: The Master makes fun of the Doctor's English accent. It makes no sense when you consider that the Master himself, as with all other Time Lords, has an English accent in every other one of his incarnations.

** Inverted with the Master (obviously). He turns into a snake, he lies, he tempts Chang Lee with power... It's even lampshaded by Grace, who asks if the Master is a devil.

From this point, the show launches into the revival series, jumping ahead to a whole new Doctor. If you are wondering how the Eighth Doctor's life panned out, the journey continues [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho016StormWarning HERE]]. And [[Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures HERE]].

* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: Let's see...
** There's Grace attending an opera even while she's on call. (Though since she's an opera fanatic, it's possible this was her only opportunity to see this particular show and she decided to risk it, with the novelization confirming that her boyfriend also egged her into going despite her being call)

-->'''The Master:''' Wha-what are we waiting for?\\

-->'''Grace:''' I suppose you knew Madam Curie too.\\

-->'''The Doctor:''' You want dominion over the living, yet all you do is ''kill''!\\

* HeroesWantRedheads: As traveling companions, anyway.

-->'''The Doctor''': "You want dominion over the living, but all you do is kill!"
-->'''The Master''': "Life is wasted on the living".

-->'''The Master:''' The Doctor is half-human.

-->'''The Doctor:''' I'm half-human. On my mother's side. [[note]]In context, this can be explained away as him distracting Wagg to steal his keycard.[[/note]]

-->'''The Doctor:''' I'm half-human. On my mother's side. [[note]]In context, this can be explained away as sarcasm.[[/note]]

* NiceShoes: "THESE SHOES!"

** There's Grace attending an opera even while she's on call. (Though since she's an opera fanatic it's possible this was her only opportunity to see this particular show and she decided to risk it.)

* CluckingFunny: Amongst the vehicles in the traffic jam is a truck full of chickens.

* QuintessentialBritishGentleman: Okay, so the Doctor's always been a bit of an anglophile, but the movie and the Eighth Doctor really takes it UpToEleven. Dresses like a Victorian poet, oft-stated fondness for tea, highly eccentric -- it's a wonder they didn't have him save the day with a crumpet, a bowler hat and a copy of ''[[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers The Times]]'', really.

As we open, the Master has apparently escaped the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E4Survival cheetah planet]], only to be EX-TER-MIN-AT-ED by the Daleks ([[SpecialEffectsFailure who now sound like cyborg chipmunks]]) for no stated reason. (Then again, it's [[OmnicidalManiac the Daleks]]. Did they really ''need'' a reason?). The Seventh Doctor, a lot more wiser, and more weary since we last saw him on screen, is charged with bringing his ashes back (yes, ashes; maybe the Daleks decided he wasn't worth the usual level of agony they use with their guns) from Skaro. This is [[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E1RemembranceOfTheDaleks in spite of the planet being reduced to ashes previously]] (the planet is [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E1AsylumOfTheDaleks still not-destroyed]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E1TheMagiciansApprentice to this day]]; again though, do we ''need'' a reason [[JokerImmunity when Daleks are involved]]?). He's supposed to take them to Gallifrey for, well, maybe a really dignified and tasteful ashes-scattering ceremony over the seas of Rassilon or something. The Doctor has also not only shed his question mark pullover but Ace as well, though that’s a story for another time.

* {{Corpsing}} / TheLivingDead: Creator/DaphneAshbrook had a hell of a time keeping a straight face in the scenes where Grace is supposed to be dead. Although you won't catch her giggling in the final cut, she gave her autobiography the slightly spooky title of ''Dead Woman Laughing'' because of it.

* ShoutOut: The Master's line, "Life is wasted on the living" is a quote from ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', which was written by former ''Doctor Who'' writer and script editor Creator/DouglasAdams.

* ArbitraryScepticism: Grace comes off a bit like this; one minute, she's floating the possibility that the man with two hearts and blood that is "not blood" is some kind of (presumably hyper-advanced) "weird genetics experiment". The next minute, when he's claiming to be an alien, she's screaming that he's a lunatic and running away from him in terror. Oh really, Grace? Granted, the Doctor's [[YouHaveToBelieveMe not exactly presenting his case as well as he can at that point]] but it's not like her explanation is any more plausible.

* ArbitrarySkepticism: Grace comes off a bit like this; one minute, she's floating the possibility that the man with two hearts and blood that is "not blood" is some kind of (presumably hyper-advanced) "weird genetics experiment". The next minute, when he's claiming to be an alien, she's screaming that he's a lunatic and running away from him in terror. Oh really, Grace? Granted, the Doctor's [[YouHaveToBelieveMe not exactly presenting his case as well as he can at that point]] but it's not like her explanation is any more plausible.

One of the gang members, Chang Lee, is nice enough to call an ambulance. The ambulance arrives, with EMT Bruce. Bruce, Chang Lee, and "John Smith" are whisked away to the hospital, where the Doctor's physiology is sufficiently different from the human norm to cause a few raised eyebrows. Trauma surgeon Dr. Grace Holloway is called in (from a performance of ''Theatre/MadameButterfly'', where she was [[TenderTears weeping tenderly]], while on call) to check out why the man seems to have a double-speed heart beat. And to see why every scan keeps showing two hearts. As such, cue the {{Irony}}: the Seventh Doctor, the master manipulator, is now failing at the task of manipulating the continuance of his own life. He grows panicky, desperate to warn these surgeons '''not''' to operate on him; they are now assuming he is a human, having never seen an alien at all, and since he looks human, the difference doesn't register. He fights the anesthetic ''[[MadeOfIron two times]]'' to beg them not to take a peek inside him, but his pleas are written off as sedative-induced irrationality. He's put under each time. Even though the bullet wound is OnlyAFleshWound and pretty much harmless, Grace inadvertently does more harm than good when she starts poking inside the Doctor's arteries. The surgery takes a turn for the worse when Grace gets a probe stuck in the Doctor's unfamiliar physiology and it [[BodyHorror snaps off]] inside his body. Seven wakes up from the shock a third and final time. But he's not got any words left in him. Just a huge ''scream''. The painful last gasp of the seventh incarnation of our Time Lord protagonist drowns out the sound of the music [[NiceJobBreakingItHero and the Doctor flatlines]] on the operating table. From exploratory surgery. Congratulations, Grace! You're the first (and surprisingly [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E8LetsKillHitler not the last) companion to successfully ''kill the Doctor''! The Daleks could take lessons from this woman!

One of the gang members, Chang Lee, is nice enough to call an ambulance. The ambulance arrives, with EMT Bruce. Bruce, Chang Lee, and "John Smith" are whisked away to the hospital, where the Doctor's physiology is sufficiently different from the human norm to cause a few raised eyebrows. Trauma surgeon Dr. Grace Holloway is called in (from a performance of ''Theatre/MadameButterfly'', where she was [[TenderTears weeping tenderly]], while on call) to check out why the man seems to have a double-speed heart beat. And to see why every scan keeps showing two hearts. As such, cue the {{Irony}}: the Seventh Doctor, the master manipulator, is now failing at the task of manipulating the continuance of his own life. He grows panicky, desperate to warn these surgeons '''not''' to operate on him; they are now assuming he is a human, having never seen an alien at all, and since he looks human, the difference doesn't register. He fights the anesthetic ''[[MadeOfIron two times]]'' to beg them not to take a peek inside him, but his pleas are written off as sedative-induced irrationality. He's put under each time. Even though the bullet wound is OnlyAFleshWound and pretty much harmless, Grace inadvertently does more harm than good when she starts poking inside the Doctor's arteries. The surgery takes a turn for the worse when Grace gets a probe stuck in the Doctor's unfamiliar physiology and it [[BodyHorror snaps off]] inside his body. Seven wakes up from the shock a third and final time. But he's not got any words left in him. Just a huge ''scream''. The painful last gasp of the seventh incarnation of our Time Lord protagonist drowns out the sound of the music [[NiceJobBreakingItHero and the Doctor flatlines]] on the operating table. From exploratory surgery. Congratulations, Grace! You're the first companion to successfully ''kill the Doctor''! The Daleks could take lessons from this woman!

As we open, the Master has apparently escaped the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E4Survival cheetah planet]], only to be EX-TER-MIN-AT-ED by the Daleks ([[SpecialEffectsFailure who now sound like cyborg chipmunks]]) for no stated reason. (Then again, it's [[OmnicidalManiac the Daleks]]. Did they really ''need'' a reason?). The Seventh Doctor, a lot more wiser, and more weary since we last saw him on screen, and having not only shed his question mark pullover but Ace as well, is charged with bringing his ashes back (yes, ashes; maybe the Daleks decided he wasn't worth the usual level of agony they use with their guns) from Skaro, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E1RemembranceOfTheDaleks in spite of the planet being reduced to ashes previously]] (the planet is [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E1AsylumOfTheDaleks still not-destroyed]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E1TheMagiciansApprentice to this day]]; again though, do we ''need'' a reason [[JokerImmunity when Daleks are involved]]?). He's supposed to take them to Gallifrey for, well, maybe a really dignified and tasteful ashes-scattering ceremony over the seas of Rassilon or something.

* FakeShemp: The Master (played by Gordon Tipple) was briefly seen on Skaro prior to his execution. The cage obscured most of his face. Originally, Tipple's Master provided the opening voiceover narration but his lines were replaced by Creator/PaulMcGann's Doctor in the final cut. As a result, WordOfGod appears to have no problem with fan assumptions that this incarnation is actually intended to or may as well be the Anthony Ainley incarnation of the Master.

* OutOfContinues: The Master's whole motivation, not spoilered because it's made clear from the beginning: Having run out of regenerations, the Master wants to steal the Doctor's. (Or, as he put it, "[[HamAndCheese I NEED]] [[HoYay THE DOCTOR'S BODY]]"!) I'll get me coat...

* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: The Master [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment turns into a snake]]. [[EvilOverlordList It doesn't help.]] Oh, and it's not just a snake, but a snake made of goo. At least it was fairly well-rendered CGI goo, by the standards of 1996.

* SpotOfTea: In the opening scene, the Doctor is stating his OpeningNarration while enjoying some tea from a fine china cup.

* YouMakeMeSic: The Master wants to make sure Grace knows that "good" can't be used as an adverb.

* ShoutOut: The Master's line, "Life is wasted on the living" is a quote from ''Radio/TheHitchHikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', which was written by former ''Doctor Who'' writer and script editor Creator/DouglasAdams.