View source for Dr Who, but not as we know him

{{article
| publication = London Evening Standard
| file = 1996-05-21 Evening Standard.jpg
| px = 650
| height = 
| width = 
| date = 1996-05-21
| author = Toby Young
| pages = 11
| language = English 
| type = 
| description = 
| categories = TV movie
| moreTitles = 
| morePublications = 
| moreDates = 
| text = 
Hollywood has almost run out of old American TV shows to make into films and is turning its attention to British ones. The Saint is being filmed, with Val Kilmer as Simon Templar, and last week the Tuesday Night Movie was Dr Who. Can the movie version of Thunderbirds be far behind?

Dr Who has been playing on American televisions since 1974 and there are more than 100 fan clubs throughout the country. The TV movie, a joint production by Universal Studios and the BBC, preserved the low-tech feel of the special effects, even introducing lighted candles into the Tardis. However, it played fast and loose with the characters, reviving the Master, whom any fan of the series knows is long dead.

The Doctor was played by British actor Paul McGann, who looked suitably foppish in a brocade waistcoat, silk cravat and wing collar. But this being America, he wasn't the eccentric science master type we're used to. This was a Doctor Who with hormones. At the end of the film he has a long, passionate kiss with Daphne Ashbrook, the actress playing his assistant.

As someone who has been watching Doctor Who since the age of six, and who has always regarded him as an idealised father figure, this was deeply shocking. If Thunderbirds is made into a movie, we can only hope that Sharon Stone isn't cast as Lady Penelope.

}}