Fan Casting American Doctor Who - The Eighth Doctor [Doctor Who: The Movie] (1996)

Despite a change in actor, and the last few years of Lithgow's run being quite good, the abysmal ratings convinced ABC to finally cancel the series. During the next few years, there were rumors going on that there was going to be a reboot of the series with a different premise or a feature film to garner attention back to the series. Following the Walt Disney Company's acquisition of ABC and their assets, they ultimately decided to fast track a film which had a rough storyline with an unknown writer. They hired Sam Raimi to direct and write the film, as he was a huge fan of the series as a child. Disney and Sam Raimi planned a trilogy of films with each film featuring a famous Doctor Who villain (the first would be The Master, the second would be the Cybermen and the third would be the Daleks) and then a continuation of the series with the new Doctor. There were many candidates for the role (with Raimi's first choice being Bill Paxton) but they ultimately decided on Kevin Bacon. And now, Kevin Bacon's (very short) reign as The Doctor begins!