Doctor Who: The Curse of Fatal Death (1999)

Wow! Such a good movie.

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

In the 1990s there were only three pieces of new Doctor Who, two of them were parodies.The Curse of Fatal Death written by (future show-runner) Steven Moffat is almost played straight but at that time Moffat was known more for his comedies and elements of comedy seep through.Rowan Atkinson plays the Ninth Doctor with Julia Sawalha playing Emma his companion and fiancée. Jonathan Pryce plays the Master with a side of ham and a piece of costume from his appearance in the Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies.The Master plans to eliminate his own foe, the Doctor has news to tell the Master and asks to meet him at a castle on the flatulent planet Tersurus. Both time lords have used timey-wimey to set up traps for one or another.The Doctor plans to retire from a life of saving planets in order to marry Emma however he is injured by the Daleks and swiftly goes through his regenerations. He changes to Richard E Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant and Joanna Lumley where the Master takes a shine to her.The production here presumably done on a low budget and shot quickly is actually very good. Sets reused, some early CGI and an early look of some Moffat sci-fi tropes. However we get a tribute to what is now regarded as classic Doctor Who with music used from past Doctor Who.Looking back at it, I can only admire the refreshing take by Russell T Davies in reinvigorating Doctor Who and allowing Moffat room to develop his own brand of storytelling.

One-off spoof starring a new Ninth Doctor (Rowan Atkinson) and his companion Emma (Julia Sawahla) with whom he is having a romantic relationship. It sees the duo go head-to-head with the Master (Jonathan Pryce) in a battle of time paradoxes eventually leading up to a confrontation with the Daleks. Things soon go wrong and the Doctor is forced to regenerate into Richard E Grant, then Jim Broadbent, then Hugh Grant before getting killed once more irreversibly. Or not, behold the Thirteenth Doctor: Joanna Lumley! Since the Doctor and Emma had planned to wed but Emma doesn't swing that way things seem to be over for the romantic side of their relationship and they decide to go on as just friends, but then the Doctor takes a liking to the Master instead.So there you have the entire plot and in an alternate universe where the series wasn't revived this would have been the end of the show and would probably be the last ever episode, as is this is a brief exploration of an alternate timeline were the 8th Doctor didn't turn into the War Doctor but instead became a Blackadder lookalike. And it is canon: read The Gallifrey Chronicles and see for yourself.Each of the five Doctors has got a clearly defined character and all of the actors are clearly having tremendous fun with it. Steven Moffat's script is well paced managing to fit so much great stuff into just under twenty minutes yet never once feeling rushed. He pays a loving tribute to the show he'd be running 11 years later poking fun at its plot holes (I'll explain later) and budget issues (These corridors all look the same) as well as letting Pryce's Master have some deliciously camp lines to deliver (They're not breasts, they're Dalek Bumps, they're also extremely firm). Doctor Who has never been funnier.10/10

Okay, I am not one of those people that can't take a joke when something I enjoy is parodied. No, what I don't like is when people do it wrong and while this does help a cause (which won't get in the way of my opinion of this despite me tipping my hat to them for doing that) the simple problem is this is not funny.Okay so The Master (Jonothan Pryce... who I'll be fair does a decent job) is hunting down the Doctor (Rowan Atkinson) and the TARDIS's go onto a planet where the species communicates by flatulence... If you can get past that they have the Time Travel banter taken directly from Bill & Ted of "I went back and did this" "I also did this which is why what you're doing doesn't work" and The Master gets trapped in a Sewer for 600 years. Then The Daleks are on this planet and The Master is revived back to his younger self thanks to The Daleks making him tits (no, that's literally the explanation) but we learn that for The Master, it's a trap so The Doctor communicates to him by the alien's farting language. Then The Daleks say they want to leave the planet and The Doctor agrees... for some reason and while this is going on he proposes to his companion. But don't worry, now they'll attack the regenerations. After the first regeneration The Doctor becomes someone the companion fancies even more, then he regenerates into Jim Broadbent playing The Doctor that's "scared of girls", then Hugh Grant, then Joanna Lumley, the marriage is called off and The Master and The Doctor now have a crush on one another, the end.This has to be one of the laziest written parodies I have ever seen. I mean a Doctor Who parody could have worked. Maybe have The Doctor's strange wardrobe choices be laugh out loud hilarious or if they use the common trope of getting an overacting bad guy then how about they go so over-the-top you can't help but laugh. It's better then giving the Master tits (which I think the writer has a fascination with being as that he's done this twice!) but even if you take away the bad writing you would think that I might have gotten some kind of laugh with it but there was nothing, but parody - so I thought, was using elements of the show and turning it into a joke, enough so that people would have a laugh with it, whether they've seen the show or not. Well I've seen both shows and this parody failed to even get one laugh with me.

Following the original series, which ran from 1963 to 1989, and Fox's unsuccessful attempt to Americanize Doctor Who in 1996, the closest we got to a revival of Britain's most celebrated TV show was this affectionate Comic Relief spoof from 1999, which pays homage to and lampoons the Time Lord's adventure.Structured like a regular story from the classic show (i.e. divided in multiple parts), The Curse of Fatal Death stars Rowan Atkinson, once a candidate to play the role in the official series, as a mock-up version of the Ninth Doctor, who's traveling through time and space with a new female partner when he runs into the latest incarnation of the Master (Jonathan Pryce) and the Daleks.At this point, any sign of actual plot evaporates, as Steven Moffat, who later went to write the new Doctor Who series, is more interested in making fun of two of the show's trademarks: time paradoxes and regeneration. The first aspect is handled through a classy battle of wits between Master and Doctor, based on an elementary pattern: the Master traveled back in time to set up a deadly trap, the Doctor anticipated the move and traveled further back in time to stop him, and so on. The second aspect, the fact that Time Lords can have thirteen different incarnations, constitutes the bulk of the episode's second half, as the Ninth Doctor is wounded and keeps regenerating, effectively using up all his lives. Then again, why complain when you transform into Richard E. Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant and, um, Joanna Lumley?It's all a bunch of nonsense, but delivered with that typical Britishness which makes it a must-see. The dialogue, no matter how stupid, manages to come off as extremely witty, and the actors are a joy to behold, especially Atkinson, the two Grants and Pryce, as they infuse their performances with the correct mix of seriousness and self-parody. And let's not forget the terrific idea of having everyone, including the Daleks, address possible continuity problems or plot holes with the deadpan "We'll explain later!".Bottom line: fan of Doctor Who? You'll love this humorous take on the legend. To quote the "real" Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston): "Fantastic!".