TV on DVD Round-Up - The Lost Doctor

"Doctor Who: The Movie – Special Edition" (BBC)

The original BBC "Doctor Who" series ended in 1989 after 26 seasons, with Sylvester McCoy as its final Doctor. The 21st Century BBC revision began in 2005 with Christopher Eccleston as The Doctor and is still going strong with Matt Smith as its third incarnation of the last of the Time Lords. But there was one Doctor in the sixteen-year hiatus between the shows: Paul McGann, reborn from the death of McCoy's incarnation when he lands in San Francisco on New Year's Eve 1999.

Yes, this 1996 TV-movie, a BBC co-production with American partners, dropped The Doctor in modern America with an American TV noir visual style, in the hopes of launching a new stateside incarnation of the series on the Fox network. What was supposed to be the pilot of a 12-episode order ended up a one-off that, in retrospect, plays like the missing link between the original run and the 21st Century BBC revision, or maybe an evolutionary offshoot that never thrived. It has sophisticated special effects (for its era) and urban attitude, but at the expense of whimsy and invention, yet it still feels more like a British production with an American guest cast than an American network show.

McGann (who was cast on the strength of his wicked performance in "Withnail and I") makes a fine doctor, both dignified and playful with a touch of tragedy (as the newborn/reborn Doctor arrives with no idea of his identity or his legacy) and as fashionably idiosyncratic as his predecessors, and he thoroughly earns the title of The Eighth Doctor with this single appearance. Eric Roberts is the bad guy here, an EMT possessed by The Doctor's arch-nemesis The Master, and Daphne Ashbrook (the sister of "Twin Peaks" actor Dana Ashbrook) is the heart surgeon who appears to sign on as his new Companion. And the most distinctive contribution to the Whoniverse: a TARDIS of unimaginable depth.

The 86-minute movie arrives in a two-disc set with hours of supplements both archival and new, highlighted by two commentary tracks (one by director Geoffrey Sax, the other by Doctors Paul McGann and Sylvester McCoy), the 54-minute documentary "The Seven Year Hitch," on the long, complicated history of this new incarnation of the series and the 23-minute "The Wilderness Years," which chronicles the way the stories and comics in the "Doctor Who" magazine and original video productions kept the characters alive while the show was off the air. Also includes archival interviews and behind-the-scenes segments, production materials and other featurettes.

"The Guardian: The Final Season" (Paramount) stars Simon Baker as the superstar corporate attorney in a Pittsburgh law firm who redeems his arrogant ways and rediscovers his social conscience doing community service social work as a child advocacy lawyer. The third and final season of 22 episodes on six discs in a standard case with hinged trays.

"Beauty and the Briefcase" (Image) is an ABC Family Channel original movie starring Hilary Duff as a fashion journalist working on a story about finding love in the workplace. It's a romantic comedy so, of course, she's conflicted between love and career and any number of prospective beaus (including Chris Carmack and Matt Dallas). Jennifer Coolidge and Jaime Pressly co-star.

Also new on the TV-movie front, the 1998 "Only Love," from the Erich Segal novel and featuring Marisa Tomei and Rob Morrow playing out yet a variation of "Love Story," and a pair of Lifetime original movies: "How I Married My High School Crush" (New Video) with Katee Sackhoff (the "I" of the title) and Sage Brocklebank (that would be the "High School Crush") and "I Do (but I Don't" (New Video) with Denise Richards and Dean Cain.

For more TV on DVD, see the weekly DVD listings in MSN.