Doctor Strange, or simply Dr. Strange, is a 1978 American superhero Made-for-TV Movie based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Philip DeGuere directed the film and wrote it specifically for television, in addition to co-producing it. Stan Lee (who co-created the character with Steve Ditko) served as a consultant on the film. It stars Peter Hooten in the title role, along with Jessica Walter, Eddie Benton, Clyde Kusatsu, and John Mills.
An evil entity tells Morgan le Fay that she has has three days to either defeat or kill a great wizard and win over his successor to her master's side. Le Fay possesses a young woman named Clea Lake and uses her as a weapon in an unsuccessful attempt against the life of Thomas Lindmer, the "Sorcerer Supreme". Suffering from psychic aftereffects of the possession and haunting dreams of le Fay, Lake is under the care of psychiatrist Dr. Stephen Strange, who turns out to have the potential to be the successor to Lindmer as Sorcerer Supreme.
The film was created as a Pilot Movie for a proposed television series. It aired on September 6, 1978, in a two-hour block from 8pm to 10pm on CBS, the same network that at that time aired The Incredible Hulk (1977) and The Amazing Spider-Man (1978); however, CBS did not pick it up as a series.
The film was released twice on VHS in the United States, in 1987 and 1995, and also had multiple foreign releases. Doctor Strange was released on DVD for the first time in the United States and Canada on November 1, 2016 (to coincide with Doctor Strange) and on Blu-ray on April 26, 2022 (to coincide with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness) by Shout! Factory.
See also Doctor Mordrid, a 1992 film that initially optioned to adapt the Doctor Strange comic into film, but when the licensing expired mid-production, made the main character a Captain Ersatz of Strange.
This film features examples of:
- Acid-Trip Dimension: As Lindmer demonstrates to Strange, alternate dimensions would not look out of place in an LSD trip. One of them even can be best described as looking like the '70s intro
of Doctor Who. - Adaptational Job Change: Stephen Strange is a psychiatrist here, as opposed to a surgeon as in the comics.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Strange himself is this. In the source material as well as all other adaptations, Stephen starts out as a complete Jerkass who is openly disrespectful to everyone and cares very little for patients unless they can benefit him - either in money or glory. It takes a crippling accident & some humble teachings from The Ancient One before he grows into a compassionate soul. Here, he is introduced making a few sarcastic comments, but they are mostly light-hearted jests. Overall he is depicted as empathetic from the beginning - with Lindmer even makingnote of his compassionate soul & empathy for others.
- Adaptational Wimp: In the comics, Clea belongs to a race that lives in the Dark Dimension, who eventually becomes a disciple of Doctor Strange in the mystic arts (and also his lover). Here, she is a normal human (named Clea Lake) who has no apparent powers.
- Decomposite Character: Thomas Lindmer basically takes the role of the Ancient One from the comics in the sense of being an ancient wizard who was Strange's predecessor as Sorcerer Supreme, to the point one might assume that he is the Ancient One... except that the Ancient One makes a voice-only cameo at the end of the film.
- Demonic Possession: The plot gets kickstarted when Morgan le Fay temporarily possesses Clea to push Lindmer off a bridge to kill him.
- Greater-Scope Villain: While Morgan le Fay is the Big Bad of the film, she is ultimately following the orders of an unnamed evil entity.
- Hot Witch: Morgan le Fay is a very attractive wizard, especially when she's in her sorceress outfit, which offers a lot of cleavage (if not the Navel-Deep Neckline levels of the comics) and has a slit on her skirt allowing to show off one of her legs. She almost succeeds in seducing Strange if not for Strange having enough clarity of mind to not give her his ring.
- Porn Stache: This Strange sports a glorious one that gives him an uncanny resemblance to actual porn star John Holmes.
- Rapid Aging: As punishment for failing to win over the new Sorcerer Supreme to their side, the evil entity le Lay works for turns her into an old hag on the spot. For some reason however, she's shown shortly afterwards on Earth, young again and no worse for wear.
- Related Differently in the Adaptation: Not a relative, but in the comics, Wong was Strange's valet. Here, however, Wong is the valet of Lindmer's, Strange's predecessor as Sorcerer Supreme.
- Sequel Hook: The film clearly ends in one, with Strange having assumed his powers as Sorcerer Supreme but being warned by Wong that he still has to learn a lot to use them correctly, Strange agreeing to see Clea again, and Le Fay managing to appear on Earth again, now posing as a self-help guru, not to mention that the unnamed evil entity she worked for is still out there somewhere. This is due to this film being a Pilot Movie for a TV series that ultimately wasn't picked.
- Unexplained Recovery: At the end of the film Le Fay, stuck in the demon realm, is punished by the evil entity she works for by being turned into an old hag — and yet, a couple of scenes later, she is shown to not only have escaped into the Earth realm, but a young woman again.
- Villainesses Want Heroes: Le Fay admits to passing over an opportunity to kill Strange because she's attracted to him.
- Villainous Widow's Peak: Morgan le Fay, the film's main villain, is given a relatively subtle widow's peak◊.
