I have to be very honest here: I do feel that the apparent lack of any Doctors or companions from before the 2005 revival is selling the fiftieth anniversary short, and not living up to its full potential. Paul McGann has done yet another interview where he firmly states that he's not in the special, and by this point, I'm starting to find all these claims that he's lying a bit hard to swallow. I know his voice could briefly (and faintly) be heard in the recent trailer, but......that's not really good enough, he deserves proper recognition. I'm aware that Moffat has said there are still some surprises in store, but if said surprises turn out to be River Song and/or the Paternoster Gang, I give up. That simply isn't how you honor half a century.
At the rate of about 1 thread every 2 weeks, I figure there's time for about 3 more before the Anniversary Special airs
As I said elsewhere - there may not be appearances, but I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't a flashback to McGann regenerating into Hurt, and another of Hurt to Eccleston, using doubles and existing footage. I think that's the best we can hope for.
It's always a good idea to get most of one's objections in well ahead of airing so that one can revisit them after the crime, time dated, to demonstrate one's absolute rightness.
Also I would like to add the at almost one month out we still dont have a real trailer (beyond the all cgi teaser). Not just the the special but still no trailer for 'Adventures in Time and Space'. The BBC also basically lied to us in June when it said it had no recovered episodes when clearly it did. What is wrong with the BBC? don't they believe in hyping things up to build a bigger audience? Maybe its a British thing.. who knows.
I'm a bit concerned with the lack of a trailer or any wider promotion for the Gatiss film. Unless you were already a Doctor Who fan and knew that it was coming, you wouldn't know that it existed. It's a project that really should have been a part of the winter BBC drama trailer, and because it's not concerns me as it gives the impression that the BBC is trying to quietly bury the project. If it turns out that the lack of promotion for the Gatiss docudrama is coming out Cardiff, then they're making a mistake; this isn't a project where "If you build it, they will come." It was probably never going to be a huge success, granted, but the marketing of it, or rather the lack thereof, really smacks of malpractice.
^ We're still more than a month out. Fans know it'll be on. More casual fans will need to be informed, but not too early. Casual fans won't be making plans around it this far out. Non-fans probably won't bother to watch for the most part. Mr Awe
I saw the leaded SDCC trailer, and I think that it really needs to be marketed to the audience that watched The Hour. That's basically what it is. The Hour: Doctor Who. The one outlet that has their hands tied, unfortunately, is BBC America. They financed the thing, and they would like a return on their investment.
While I'm reserving judgement on the quality of both the 50th anniversary episode as well as the Gatiss film, I have to agree that the lack of real promotion outside of the usual channels is somewhat perplexing.. When Smith hit his stride, Dr. Who was all over the place... Entertainment Weekly had a BIG spread as well as the cover... Merch flew off the shelves and it seemed like the show couldn't get any bigger... They're running out of time, if they have something like that in the works again...
Honestly, the BBC seem like they're underestimating the impact and significance of both the 50th anniversary special and the docudrama. Its bizarre, but its almost like they don't give a damn.
The "We" pretty much. The "Not-We" might think, "Oh yea, I gotta watch for that when it comes on", but, they're not going make a career out of watching for it and most are unlikely to bother marking their calendar, so, the more promotion up close to the premiere date is the most valuable.
The scheduling of Doctor Who these past few years has been pretty bad and I think it's a shame there's not any Doctor Who this autumn. Moffat's breaks have really halted the momentum of the show a bit, I think. As for the anniversary, I'm happy with everything I'm hearing. We don't need the old Doctors in it as, outside of McGann, they'll look a lot older. While I don't mind that in theory, after watching the trailer and seeing the snippets of them in their glory, I think it might be crass to march them all out again.
Well I wouldn't really want Tom Baker done unless he wore one of his earlier outfits (the JNT outfit really doesn't work for him when he got older, as we saw in Dimensions in Time), but overall I think he'd be too old, there'd need to be a big explanation and better yet, weight loss. Davison, just too old I suppose. Colin Baker, too big, looks unrecognisable. When my mother saw an interview wit Colin Baker as he is now, she exclaimed "IS THAT COLIN BAKER?". McCoy could work, especially if done up like he was in the 96 film. McGann, I am desperate to return.