Doctor Who 1996

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