Sources: When Steven Spielberg Didn’t Direct Doctor Who, and the 1996 TV Movie

/ Zach

An article from December 1993 when Steven Spielberg was still potentially looking to get involved in a Dr. Who production. This is where the animation of a spider Dalek comes from, because they did get into early production before the whole project fell through. https://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Spielberg_resurrects_%27Dr._Who%27, https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Spider_Dalek_(TV_story)

In 1994, a female Doctor was a possibility being considered. As we know, this did not pan out, but it would have been interesting to see what they did. https://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Dr_Who%27s_sex_change#tab=Citations
What was Steven Spielberg thinking about doing for Doctor Who? Well, it seems he was intending to stick to classic storylines, though we do not know exactly what that means or what it would have looked like. https://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Dr_Who_gets_Spielberg_call_to_Hollywood
And of course here we see how long the idea of a female-led Dr. Who movie in the 1990s lasted. Which is unsurprising and this iteration of a Doctor Who movie never got made anyway. https://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Python_Eric_is_Dr_Who
And here we see the end of Steven Spielberg’s version of Doctor Who, which as previously stated would have starred Eric Idle and also Pamela Anderson. Though it does come with an introduction to the idea of a cheaper TV movie… https://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Dr_Who_travels_back_to_his_TV_future
An announcement of the budget and some of the actors who were being considered for the role of the Doctor for the TV movie that did end up getting made… with Paul McGann in the starring role. https://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Gay_actor_set_to_play_Doctor_Who, https://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Doctor_Who_returns_with_a_hi-tech_Tardis
Fans lost it over a kiss, I can’t imagine their reaction if this had happened! As we know there were still multiple kisses, and a lot of subtext with Eric Roberts’ Master.

We still have never had even an implied sex scene to my knowledge on screen with any Doctor.

And here’s a quote from The Mirror’s interview with Jon Pertwee (who played the Third Doctor) a couple months before the TV movie came out, on the Doctor having sex: “It goes against the spirit of the original series but it was obvious when they cast a handsome young man they would involve him in romance. I don’t know what kids will make of it. It’s a sign of the times I guess,” sighs 76 -year-old Jon Pertwee. .https://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Look_Who_Gets_A_Bonk! https://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/My_Dr_Who_Had_No_Time_For_Sex#tab=Text
An article about Paul McGann that was published 3 months before the movie aired. Tt again hints at a romantic relationship, and has Mcgann drop the half-human line well before the movie came out. McGann also mentions how he was initially reluctant to take the role. https://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/So_Who%27s_a_pretty_boy_then,_Doctor%3F
One more pre-release article. This one covers a lot of the same ground but does specifically discuss how fans might react to the slick look and better sets. In the future, we’ll post some reviews and articles about the fan response to the 1996 Doctor Who TV movie. https://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/A_blast_from_the_past_and_the_future_-_it%27s_Doctor_Who

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