Series 6 (Series 2/Season 32/Series Otter) news

[newbaggy]

Steven Moffat's Q & A session at the Edinburgh Television Festival has revealed one of the most dramatic changes to the series' format since its return in 2005. Series 6 will be split into two separate runs: the first seven episodes airing in Spring 2010, with the remaining six shown in Autumn (Fall) 2010. This is to allow the first ever mid-season cliffhanger - described by Moffat as "gamechanging" - as part of what the BBC press office are calling one of the most exciting plot twists ever.

Also, the "twelve regenerations" limit is dead. Moffat claims that it may be contradicted "sometime soon", adding "If the day came that we had to have a 14th Doctor, we'd invoke the emergency protocol. We'd make something up."

[quinny06]

You beat me to it newbaggy, .

Anyway, I'm really not a fan of this decision. It really annoys me when US shows go off air for months at a time, and I was always thankful that Doctor Who wasn't silly like that.

I'm wondering if this is how series will run now, or if it's just for next year? I hope it's the latter. I know us die-hards never will, but with an Easter series, and then an Autumn series, and then a Christmas special, and then that all over again, will casual viewers start to get a bit fed up?

Despite how painful it was to go a whole year with only 4 new episodes, I was always in favour of RTD's gap year in 2009, because it left people dying to see Doctor Who again in 2010. I think the key to the series not getting cancelled again is to leave people wanting more. 13 episodes a year, plus a Christmas special, and every 4 years the show takes a break. Good way to keep things fresh if you ask me.

Of course, the Moff obviously has a plan here, and I know better than to doubt him, so we'll see.

----- Added 8 Minutes later -----

Here's more info about the split, and a video of the Moff making the announcement:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010...r-series-split

Also, was that confirmation of Rory being full-time in 2011? Hope so!

[newbaggy]

You beat me to it newbaggy, .

Anyway, I'm really not a fan of this decision. It really annoys me when US shows go off air for months at a time, and I was always thankful that Doctor Who wasn't silly like that.

I'm wondering if this is how series will run now, or if it's just for next year? I hope it's the latter. I know us die-hards never will, but with an Easter series, and then an Autumn series, and then a Christmas special, and then that all over again, will casual viewers start to get a bit fed up?

Despite how painful it was to go a whole year with only 4 new episodes, I was always in favour of RTD's gap year in 2009, because it left people dying to see Doctor Who again in 2010. I think the key to the series not getting cancelled again is to leave people wanting more. 13 episodes a year, plus a Christmas special, and every 4 years the show takes a break. Good way to keep things fresh if you ask me.

There is actually a ratings logic to the Spring\Autumn split. Many people have commented in the past that the series would be a better fit as an "Autumn" series because of the colder, darker evenings. Currently, the series risks losing "live" viewers as its run progresses as the lighter evenings and increasing chance of warm, sunny days mean that people are more likely to stay outside and catch-up later using PVRs or iPlayer, so shifting the second half of the season to autumn may improve the "headline" ratings. Also, there can be a mid-season drop-off in ratings, partially due to the fact that we get thirteen episodes in a row (more than most British series have), as casual viewers may be more likely to tune in for episodes at the beginning and (sometimes) the end of the season. Just as reverting to "specials" once a year can help to keep things fresh, not giving viewers 13 episodes in one go could help to do the same. After all, seven episodes ending on a cliffhanger is going to feel far too short - and the 3-4 month gap until the second-half of the season may feel far too long.

If you add in the fact that this move can help to avoid scheduling clashes with early summer sports events (e.g. Wimbledon), and it looks quite sensible. Also, although you refer to the fact that Americans get annoying breaks within seasons, at least their inter season breaks are usually only in the region of four months. Doctor Who viewers have to go nine months between full seasons (even if we now get Christmas specials to ease the pain). As pointed out in the press release, the split series will mean that we get new episodes every 3-4 months from Christmas onwards, rather than having gone two months "Wholess" (barring repeats) already this year, with another four to go.

[quinny06]

^ All very true, and now I can sort of see why they're doing it.

However, it'll be interesting to see which months the BBC define as "Autumn". Next year's X Factor will be starting later than previous years, in November. Surely the BBC wouldn't put us up against the X Factor?

[newbaggy]

^ All very true, and now I can sort of see why they're doing it.

However, it'll be interesting to see which months the BBC define as "Autumn". Next year's X Factor will be starting later than previous years, in November. Surely the BBC wouldn't put us up against the X Factor?

They will run "Series 7" (intriguingly, the Grand Moff is talking in terms of "two shorter series per year" rather than splitting one long one in half) in September/October 2010. Moffat's comments about only his planned cliffhanger requiring time for the audience to recover, but that the usual gap between the end of a season and Christmas would be too long, combined with "For the kids it will never be more than a few months to the next Doctor Who! Easter, Autumn, Christmas!!” suggests that it will be early rather than late Autumn. Besides, BBC management is well aware that "X Factor" and "Britain's Got Talent" murder the ratings of anything put up against them - even Doctor Who. The switch to two short series could allow Doctor Who to avoid Simon Cowell's monsters without resorting to ridiculously early timeslots. Hopefully, we can move the series closer to its original 7pm slot (and keep the time constant) rather than have it shown at varying times between 6 and 6:30 pm.

[newbaggy]

Something else worth remembering - Saturday 23rd November 2013, Doctor Who's 50th anniversary. Establishing a regular autumn run for the series now may be a clever piece of forward planning.

[quinny06]

Gallifrey News Base reports some casting news for episode 4 of the next series, along with some other details about the episode which I've chosen not to read:

http://gallifreynewsbase.blogspot.co...ting-news.html

Yay for Daniel Mays being in Who! Loved him in Ashes to Ashes.

[MsNoelle]

Something else worth remembering - Saturday 23rd November 2013, Doctor Who's 50th anniversary. Establishing a regular autumn run for the series now may be a clever piece of forward planning.

I am so excited about this date! I am, definitely, going to be around to see it on that date! I remember David Tennant said something about that( at the ComicCon a few years back) to alert us fans. Yaa-aay!

[quinny06]

Here's some details about the episodes that will be shot in the USA:

http://www.bbcamerica.com/content/23...jsp?bc_id=1899

Great to see River back, and actually really funny because just this morning I read an interview with Alex Kingston in the Brilliant Book of Doctor Who where she pleaded with the Moff to give her an episode set somewhere abroad. Ask and you shall recieve!

[newbaggy]

Thus confirming the rumour that started after producer David Mason added (and swiftly removed a reference to "Doctor Who USA Location Shoot" from his online resume:

http://gallifreynewsbase.blogspot.com/2010/10/filming-to-go-stateside.html

The late-Sixties setting and reference to the Oval Office suggest to me that this could be the "Apollo Ten-and-a-half" story referred to in Steven Moffat's Production Notes in the current Doctor Who Magazine.

Interesting that Doctor Who finally gets to film in Utah. The original version of what became (with a completely different script) the Paul McGann TV movie featured several scenes set on Gallifrey, for which various locations in Utah were scouted before that script was abandoned.

A final note. If you read the David Mason resume entry in the Gallifreynewsbase story, you will see that it refers to "Doctor Who X1.2". The official BBC production code for all 13 episodes for 2011 is "11.2" (11th Doctor, 2nd series), with Series 5/Season 31/Series 1 having been "11.1". Goodness knows what they will call the series on the DVD boxsets!

[quinny06]

The late-Sixties setting and reference to the Oval Office suggest to me that this could be the "Apollo Ten-and-a-half" story referred to in Steven Moffat's Production Notes in the current Doctor Who Magazine.

Thing is, though, they just did a story about the Apollo missions in Apollo 23, which was one of the first 11th Doctor books to be released earlier this year. I know that books, like all the spin-off media, are not officially canon, but surely the Moff would have known he was planning a story like this before he approved Apollo 23?

I mean, it'll probably be a completely different story, but its just so soon after the book was released.

Btw, don't in anyway take this as a reason to go out and buy Apollo 23. It wasn't very good. The Forgotten Army has been the best 11th Doctor book so far.

[i_need_a_new_username]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Why Stevey? Why?

[quinny06]

A 15 second trailer has been released for Series 6, as well as a sneak preview at the "Prequel". Both can be found at the official Who website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/ne...etin_110322_01

Also, word is we'll be getting a full, longer trailer next saturday. But that's unconfirmed.

[quinny06]

The prequel is here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/videos/p00fxf06

Very creepy. Bit worried that the American accents in this two parter will be about as good as they were in Daleks in Manhattan. It didn't bother me in that episode, because it was a campy episode alround (and one I enjoy). But if these two episodes are supposed to be scary and serious, someone doing a crap US accent will be off-putting.

[newbaggy]

The prequel is here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/videos/p00fxf06

Very creepy. Bit worried that the American accents in this two parter will be about as good as they were in Daleks in Manhattan. It didn't bother me in that episode, because it was a campy episode alround (and one I enjoy). But if these two episodes are supposed to be scary and serious, someone doing a crap US accent will be off-putting.

Ironically, one of those "crap US accents" was provided by Andrew Garfield, much-acclaimed for his role in [i]The Social Network[i] and the new movie Peter Parker/Spiderman.

The actor that you see in the clip is Stuart Milligan, born and bred in the US (so his accent should be OK), but based in England for the last couple of decades. He does have previous Doctor Who "form", having played Colonel Stark in the CGI animation Dreamland, although he is best known to British viewers as American stage magician Adam Klaus in the BBC detective series Jonathan Creek (replacing Anthony Head from the second season onwards). Given that this is a a Smallville site, some of you may be interested to know that he played Superman/Clark Kent in a couple of BBC Radio serials (The Adventures of Superman and Superman: Doomsday and Beyond) in the early 1990s

An interesting point is that Milligan is clearly portraying President Nixon (complete with prosthetic nose). Previous celebrity historicals have generally involved "goodies": Charles Dickens, Queen Victoria, Madame de Pompadour, Shakespeare, Agatha Christie, Winston Churchill - they might have their critics, they might have done things that they could hardly be proud of, but their stories are generally positive. When Doctor Who "printed the legend" in its portrayals of them, they could be shown as fit to be temporary companions of the Doctor. Nixon - the President behind Watergate, America's final years in Vietnam, who only avoided impeachment by resigning - is hardly someone most people would view as favourably. Even though this is presumably the first year of Nixon's presidency, i.e. 1969, and people (possibly including Nixon himself) didn't know what was to come, The Doctor, Amy, Rory, River and the audience all know where it ends five years later. It will be fascinating to see how this version of Nixon will be portrayed.