Doctor Who (American film series)

Doctor Who is a British-American film series of three science fiction adventure films directed by Steven Spielberg, adapted from the British television show of the same name. The films are subtitled Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks (2001), Doctor Who and the Scratchman (2003), and Doctor Who and the Trial of a Time Lord (2004). Produced by Amblin Entertainment and BBC Films and seeing distribution through Paramount Pictures, the films were a venture between Steven Spielberg and the BBC.

The films exist from a separate canon of the television show, and focus on the Doctor encountering several iconic villains and battling them alongside multiple companions he meets throughout the trilogy. Eventually his heroism sparks the interest of both fearsome foes and his home planet, leading to more high-stakes adventures.

The first film was shot between 18 August 2000 until 4 January 2001, with the last two being made back-to-back between 7 July 2002 until 29 January 2003. Overall, the films had a combined budget of $286 million and was a major box office success, earning back a total $897 million return.

Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks
During the Cold War, a Soviet submarine defrosts an Ice Warrior, believing it to be a frozen mammoth. However, before the Ice Warrior could kill a slumbering crewman, the Doctor appears and quickly dispatches of the monster before lugging the unconscious Ice Warrior back onto his TARDIS and leaving.

On his TARDIS, the Doctor freezes it in his rogues gallery of incapacitated foes frozen in cells, before encountering a temporal disturbance sending the TARDIS to Christmas Eve 1999 in Boston, Massachusetts. Meanwhile, 34 year old Bostonian bank clerk, Sarah Foreman, is living with her sister's family until she can find a place to live. Unfortunately, she has been informed she'll be getting laid off from her job of 6 years but is invited to pick-up her paycheck.

She arrives to the bank and collects her pay from her arrogant and uncaring boss and leaves. While walking toward the station back home, she is stalked and promptly pursued by an unseen creature. She hides in some bushes at a park from the beast, however, she is saved when the Doctor arrives and stops what turns out to be a werewolf. After injecting the werewolf with an antidote, Sarah tries to get a closer look but accidentally snaps a twig alerting the Doctor, though she runs away before he could spot her. The Doctor proceeds back to the TARDIS, but Sarah follows close behind and sneaks inside as he is preparing to leave. Shocked by the interior of the relatively small police box, she trips over components and is knocked unconscious as the TARDIS leaves.

As the TARDIS is departing, the Doctor receives an alert and opens a message from Gallifrey, his home planet. On the monitor, Lord High President of the Time Lords, Rassilon, contacts the Doctor and derides him for the treason of fleeing his people and stealing the TARDIS. He, however, promises to lessen his punishment if he interferes with the creation of the Daleks, averting a future where they rule over the universe and spread misery in their wake, on the planet Skaro. To aide in his mission, he is gifted a Time Ring which will be able to transport him back to the TARDIS whenever necessary.

Sarah reawakens and bumps into the Doctor, shocking him and attempting to threaten using his sonic screwdriver. She sees past it quickly and demands he return her home, however, the Doctor is unable to due to his limited knowledge of piloting the TARDIS having only recently acquired it after leaving Gallifrey, only being able to travel to where he has the proper coordinates. Reluctantly, Sarah relents and apologizes for intruding, browsing the interior of the TARDIS and the vast library inside it. The Doctor pilots the TARDIS toward Skaro, although a curious Sarah wishes to tag along, she is rejected by the Doctor who ventures out alone.

On Skaro, a generations-long war between the Thals and the Kaleds has left the planet inhospitable, and the two sides have congregated in their own domes for protection and continue the war. As the Doctor wanders, he takes shelter as a surprise chemical weapon attack occurs. Afterward, the Doctor is captured by Kaled forces surveying the aftermath for survivors. The Kaleds confiscate the Time Ring and bring the Doctor to their bunker, where the Doctor meets their scientific and military elite including head scientist, Davros.

Back on the TARDIS, the Thals invade and break-in, kidnapping Sarah and transporting her to their prison camp where they force the Mutos, mutated exiles of both sides, to build supplies for them. At the Kaled bunker, Davros demonstrates to the Doctor his latest creation, a transportation machine he coins a "Dalek", which the Doctor recognizes as the future threat to the universe. Ronson, one of Davros' scientists, secretly tells the Doctor that he knows Davros' experiments are unethical, and the Doctor is able to convince the Kaled leadership in the Kaled dome to put a halt to Davros' experiments. Davros learns of Ronson's actions, and covertly provides the Thal leaders a chemical formula that can weaken the Kaled dome and make it vulnerable to their missile attack, while preparing twenty more Daleks.

The Doctor makes his way to the Thal prison camp and rescues Sarah and the Mutos, but are captured by the Thals, and can only watch helplessly as they launch the missile. Due to Davros' message, the missile devastates the Kaled dome, wiping out all but those in the bunker. In the Kaled bunker, Davros accuses Ronson of giving the Thals the chemical formula and then kills him, and convinces the remaining leaders to let him have his Daleks attack the Thal dome. The Dalek attack kills many of the Thals, and the Doctor, his companions, and the surviving Thals and Mutos make their way to the Kaled bunker. The Doctor instructs the Thals and Mutos to find a way to destroy the bunker while he and Sarah go inside to recover the Time Ring. While there, the Doctor is captured by Davros, who recognizes the Doctor knows of the future of the Daleks, and forces the Doctor to record all he knows, so that Davros can program the Daleks to avoid failure in the future.

Other scientists working for Davros, now aware of his plans, free the Doctor and give him enough time to rig the Dalek incubation room with explosives which would end the threat of the Daleks. As he is about to touch the two exposed wire ends to set them off, he hesitates, questioning whether he has the right to make that decision. He is relieved to learn that Davros has agreed to stop and allow the Kaled leaders to vote on the continuation of the project. As the leaders gather for this vote, the Doctor is able to recover the Time Ring and destroy the recordings he made, while learning that the Thals and Mutos have prepared the means to destroy the bunker. As the vote is called, Davros reveals this was all a decoy, giving the Daleks he sent to destroy the Thals time to return to the bunker and exterminate the remaining Kaleds. Sarah escapes the chaos, while the Doctor returns to set off the incubator room's explosives, but a Dalek inadvertently completes the circuit and sets it off itself. The Doctor escapes before the Thal and Mutos' bomb caves in the bunker, trapping Davros and the Daleks. Inside, Davros realises the Daleks have gained a will of their own when they refuse to take orders from a non-Dalek. He attempts to stop the production line but is seemingly exterminated by his own creations.

Suspecting he has significantly set back Dalek evolution by centuries, he considers the mission complete, he and Sarah bid farewell to the Thals and Mutos before departing back to the TARDIS using the Time Ring and heading off. Although unable to exactly return home, Sarah accepts this and agrees to joining the Doctor in his future travels.