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Back in the distant past of 1996, before beloved sci-fi staple Doctor Who was resurrected by Russell T. Davies, the BBC attempted a soft reboot of the series in the form of a made-for-television movie. The movie brought back Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy and gave his incarnation an ending by having him regenerate into Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor.

The film also saw the return of The Master, who The Doctor believed dead but is now on a mission to take over The Doctor’s body to gain more lives. Considering the events of "The Power of The Doctor" and the similarities in the motivation of Sacha Dhawan’s Master, it’s time to take a look back on this often-forgotten installment in the show’s history.

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In 1996, Doctor Who had been off the air since 1989, with the final episode ending with The Seventh Doctor and Ace walking off into the distance presumably on to more adventures. With that, the series seemed over for good, and production offices shuttered their doors in 1990 with no new adventures. Until the BBC decided that it was time for the hugely popular show to make a return in the form of a television movie.

The hopes were that the made-for-TV special would serve as a backdoor pilot for a new version of the show; however, it wasn’t the right time for a relaunch. The movie is also, frankly, bizarre. That’s not to say it is terrible, but it certainly has a very different tone and feel from the original series.

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The plot of the movie sees The Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) taking The Master’s remains back to Gallifrey after he has been exterminated by Daleks on the planet Skaro. Distrustful of The Master even in death, The Doctor locks his ashes in a box on the TARDIS and begins the journey. Unfortunately, The Doctor was right to distrust The Master. A strange goo breaks free from the box and slithers into the command console, causing it to malfunction. This leads to a crash landing on Earth in 1999, where The Doctor is promptly shot in a gang war. One of the gang members, Chang Lee, stays with him and pretends to know him when the ambulance arrives. He even travels to the hospital with him and waits as The Doctor goes into surgery. Leading cardiologist Grace is called in when his heart rate won't regulate. The Doctor pleads with them, trying to explain he isn't human — but they proceed anyway, leading to the death of The Seventh Doctor.

Among all this, the goo formerly known as The Master has stowed away on the ambulance that transported The Doctor and has followed the paramedic home. The paramedic, Bruce (Eric Roberts) is asleep when the goo becomes a cobra and slithers down his throat, meaning that The Master once again has a body. (It also means that Eric Roberts has canonically played The Master.)

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Several hours later, after the anesthesia has worn off, the corpse of The Seventh Doctor begins to contort in a regeneration that veers into body horror before settling on the face of The Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann). Once The Eighth Doctor is in the running, it becomes a game of cat and mouse between him and The Master. While Eight wrestles with his identity, The Master has convinced Chang Lee that The Doctor has stolen his body and that the TARDIS is his. The Master has always been known to exhibit mind control powers, and uses them to his advantage once again in this film by forcing Chang Lee to give him The Doctor’s belongings he took from the hospital. In the most recent run of episodes with Jodie Whittaker as The Thirteenth Doctor, Sacha Dhawan as The Master made great use of these mind control abilities, including transplanting himself into Serbia in 1916 under the guise of The Mad Monk Rasputin.

In the television movie, The Master exhibits some interesting abilities after possessing Bruce. He has snake-like green eyes hidden under sunglasses, the ability to spit some kind of venom and immobilizer like a snake, and also able to possess other people that have come into contact with his venom. This happens to Grace at a pivotal moment in the third act. The Master’s possession of Bruce can’t last, however, as his presence is causing Bruce’s body to degrade. However, this isn’t addressed much apart from him pulling a fingernail off of his hand and announcing it upon his possession of the body.

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This only motivates him to get to The Doctor and take over his body and his remaining lives. The Doctor and The Master have a long history rooted in conflict and ultimately jealousy on The Master’s part. He has always envied The Doctor and his adventures, and after he looked into the time vortex as all young Time Lords must do, his mind fractured, and he became singularly fixated on The Doctor.

To enact his plan this time, The Master has to open the Eye of Harmony within the TARDIS and force The Doctor to look into it simultaneously to switch life forces with him. The side effect of this is that the energy from the Eye is collapsing the Earth, barely of consequence to The Master. The plan is foiled by a trademark complicated plan that The Doctor and Grace have implemented ahead of time, involving alarm clocks and rewiring. Before the Eye of Harmony closes, The Doctor and The Master scuffle, leading to The Master falling into the Eye, presumably gone forever. Although the film ends with Eight returning to his TARDIS after saying goodbye to Grace and Chang Lee, presumably for further time-bending exploits, none were forthcoming until the series returned in 2005 with The Ninth Doctor already in control of the TARDIS.

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"The Power of The Doctor" seems to draw quite heavily from aspects of the television movie as well as from the history of the show. The singular focus of the episode is that The Master has exhausted his regenerations and his body is dying, meaning he needs to take possession of The Doctor's body to survive. This is the exact premise of the 1996 movie, except in "The Power of The Doctor" he achieves his goal, albeit briefly.

While the movie may be distinctly different in tone and feel from the original series, clearly trying to emulate sci-fi shows of the time and the location in which it occurs, it does offer some fun character moments. It also offers a glimpse at what could have been one of the best incarnations of The Doctor in Paul McGann.

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