The story has to introduce new players to old fans while bringing continuation to the original series; old concepts to new viewers without relying too heavily on knowledge of the original series; and the main plot in 90 minutes. It's a daunting task and not complete successfully. If fans will be happy to catch the references but disappointed with the tinkering with facts; new viewers will be confused since the film has to carry 33 years of history on its shoulders. It also doesn't utilize the time and space travelling aspect at all.
The script makes Doctor Who a science fiction action movie. that's fine per se, but when it then adds unnecessary tweak into established facts while failing to satisfyingly explain the series for new fans, it becomes too big of a focus.

Paul McCann is a fine actor, but this film doesn't give him much to work with. He just in his heart and energy, but his Doctor remains very shallow. He carries his fine performance over to the audios though.
Daphne Ashbrook is fine as Grace, a character who would have been interesting to see developed further. She is very recognizably American though, and there is little in her performance that stands out particularly.
Yee Jee Tso is the second companion but mostly acts as comic relief.
Eric Roberts has clearly no idea who the Master is since he plays him like some kind of a Marvel supervillain.

The story doesn't allow the Eighth Doctor to develop at all apart from some bollocks and by now retconned ideas about his past. He feels pretty humane though, like some kind of mix of the Fifth and Tenth Doctors.

Grace is a simple companion character, combining typical traits from earlier characters, such as asking the right questions and helping the Doctor in various ways. Chang Lee is kind of forgotten and he doesn't do very much at all.

The Master is terrible. Like a pantomime villain, and nothing like the character in other incarnations. He also has some weird, out of character powers and talks with a stupid voice. His established past seems totally forgotten and he's far from the complex character he is usually depicted as.

Technically equal to a classic series four-parter, this story takes the majority of its runtime to introduce the players and the new Doctor before truly getting into the heart of things.

The production values are huge and the film looks good, like a proper movie. The sets are majestic and the visual effects still look fairly good today. I also like how the film kept familiar sounds and designs from the classic series. The music is pretty generic, though.

The cinematic atmosphere of this film makes it feels serious in a way the original TV series rarely did. It's adventurous and exciting, but also camp and awkward. Doctor Who wouldn't feel this epic and fast-paced again until the revived series git the TV screens.

Intended as a pilot for a new British-American TV series revival, the TV movie failed to impress audiences in the US and therefore remained McGann's only onscreen appearance as the Doctor until the 2013 minisode The Night of the Doctor. He went on to have a fruitful career in Big Finish audio dramas, though.

While not the most original or compelling in terms of story, this is easygoing action that I can imagine watching more times in the future.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:

This version of the theme tune is my favourite together with the one used during the RTD era.

The Doctor kisses his companion screen for the very first time. Now that kiss feels forced just to please American audiences.

Luckily, Big Finish retconned the nonsensical idea of the Doctor being half-human.

The TARDIS control room is awesome and very beautiful. You can see how it inspired the modern era console room quite a lot.

Score: 73/120

'Now would you stand aside before I shoot myself?'

Whilst visually fun (surprisingly, the special effects still manage to kinda hold up) and exciting with a story that almost makes absolute sense, the Doctor Who movie does have some problems when it comes to pace and referencing past events (some things that occur may anger and frustrate members of the fanbase).

Eric Roberts hams it up as if he's Porky Pig as The Master whilst Paul McGann makes for a fun Doctor, but he ultimately does not reach the heights of his predecessor, the lovely Sylvester McCoy, of whom is in the beginning of the film, but unfortunately and inevitably leaves us for the sake of the film.

Jelly baby?

6.5/10
So this is where Chinballs nicked his story from
"The Power of
The Doctor"

Hm Interesting,
anyway I'm not here to talk about that nut-sack.

The Doctor Who
Movie isn't perfect by a long stretch but it's a Hella lot of fun and the 7yrs fight it took to get it back on our screens this single movie and the people involved in that 7yrs fight deserve a lot of love and all our respect. Yes it was meant to kick off a 13 episode tv show of the Doctor and his grand father off on an adventure on Gallifrey to find the Doctors missing father Ulysses. But with it not being received well at the time in America this idea for the reboot of the series was quickly dropped.
Paul (8th Doc) brought plenty of love and energy to the role and I am so glad after all said and done he's been blended smoothly and Canonically into the very very successful
New Who Series
2005-2024...continuing.

Now with season 14
With Doctor 14
Retuning in 2024
On Disney+
With that kind of budget we are about to see
"D-Who" like never before,
Bigger than ever before.

So let's all enjoy
The 60th 3 part special on November 2023
and then once again this centennial+ running show will Regenerate into something completely new but somehow familiar ready for all of us in
"2024".