Always felt it was a crap ending for the 7th being shot by a punk with a gun then falling victim to medical mal-practice and it's cover up.
Gotta wonder what the writer and producer discussed in a meeting to get the reason for the regeneration explained, as it wasn't anything like this:
Producer: "I know what Americans like, so let's go all big and epic and loaded with cliches and nonsensical shtick! We'll have plenty of highway chase spectacle, that's a crowd-pleaser that nobody else has ever done, before or since! Also use fourth wall-breaking meta as well, get the villain to mock the British accents too! Best of all, throw in some kissing, we need to show anything for the audience! Also, has Buffy become a hit tv show yet? Oh, we can't wait another year? Oh well. We still have this awesome thing with 'The Cybs' too!"
Writer: "I'm British so this checklist of goodies will feel authentic!"
Okey dokey then. Especially as his new and body, after the dumb Frankenstein parallel scene that's so overdone, he saunters into the ship, hits a button, and the entire ceiling turns into 90% of the budget with that lush, sumptuous display of the sort that would have kept him from being turned into a deluxe hotel for mice in the first place -- had he bothered to use the thing before exiting the ship to begin with! UGH!! Or maybe the audience tuned in late, it's all good, it did air opposite a highly-promoted episode of "Roseanne" that was featuring only the possible death of a long-time and beloved character and all. Assuming the TVM started at the same time (8pm/7pm central), of course... As usual, McCoy gets placed opposite against huge competition!
Of all the continuity baggage to throw out the window for this attempted reboot, they chose the wrong items to remove and kept some of the dumber ones. Indeed, 7's TVM ending would otherwise be okay if it
weren't for all that setup over all the years that amounts to "He is Time's Champion, chess player, Dalek killer oncoming storm, Ka Faraq Gatri, the Destroyer*, and consummate penny flinger too!" In other words, Seven wouldn't just wander out inanely to get turned into swiss cheese, and he's not playing 8473-dimensional chess.
* no relation to the big blue one in "Battlefield"
Small continuity issues are often easy to not be bothered with. But the story screws up so badly with the scanner issue, on top of having Seven being very un-Seven in persona... (not to mention how any tardis has an eye of harmony now, strapping up the Doctor to an optometrist rig under some goofy gambit to steal all his remaining lives - moohahaha and how many does he have, et cetera... )
The thing about the planet being turned inside out because of the TARDIS wasn't bad. Quite good...
Plus some dialogue as lines like
"DOCTOR: I love humans. Always seeing patterns in things that aren't there."
help counter some of the less-effective stuff. The Doctor himself is one of the big plusses in this; well-written and well-acted.
The Master, up to his old ploy of getting the locals to think the Doctor is the baddie, is well done as well - even if it's all about the goofy bodyswap issue, which reminds me of what the TVM reminded me of: The "Red Dwarf USA" pilot attempt. Not more than the sum of its parts, but had some moments along with a not-entirely-effective translation/Americanization.
I wouldn't call it malpractice as he's not a human - it's a very gray-area issue at best under this unique set of circumstances and it was suitably creepy. But the movie wanted to make it all "accessible" or whatever despite the expositiondump and building on the same sorts of established lore that got JNT receiving flak from fans**, and it saves time on the script having to do worldbuilding for another culture and hoping the audience will suspend disbelief and jump in - just have everyone use our contemporary one, it's easier than my ex! Quicker too!
** and his worst episode in that regard still doesn't come close to the TVM's grand use of it all
true