Officially no series 8 in 2013

[Peacemaker]

Hmmm, in the US our version of Doctor Who Revisited is a monthly run of a single classic Who story that represents each Doctor. January is William Hartnell, and the story is The Aztecs. It airs from 9pm to 11pm Eastern Time this coming Sunday. Maybe (hopefully) the UK Toy Fair information has garbled what this is for you all in the Motherland is.

[Allyn Gibson]

Konata Izumi wrote:

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It doesn't include a Christmas episode so most probably it's not a 100% perfect list.

The 2013 Christmas Special (and series 8, for that matter) either hasn't been commissioned yet or has been commissioned and not announced yet, so BBC Worldwide (even if they know it's coming) can't jump the gun and mention it in their marketing materials for merchandising shows. That said, I'm not optimistic that there will be anything more than what that marketing material shows for 2013.

The disappointing news, of course, is that the anniversary special is only planned for 60 minutes. This may make a televised multi-Doctor story for the 50th less likely; an hour isn't a lot of room to fit twenty-odd actors all competing for attention and lines.

[bigdaddy]

How is a toy fair stand official?

[Allyn Gibson]

bigdaddy wrote:

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How is a toy fair stand official?

It's official in the sense that these are marketing materials that someone within the BBC (probably Worldwide) would have signed off on as being accurate and properly representative of their plans. The question, of course, is whether or not someone in Cardiff has seen these materials and knows what they represent.

[Konata Izumi]

The Wormhole wrote:

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Reviewing the episode lengths, the only ones to have gone over 45 minutes:
The Christmas Invasion (60)
The Runaway Bride (60)
Last of the Time Lords (52)
Voyage of the Damned (72)
Partners in Crime (50)
Fires of Pompeii (50)
Turn Left (50)
Journey's End (65)
The Next Doctor (60)
Planet of the Dead (60)
The Waters of Mars (60)
The End of Time Part 1 (60)
The End of Time Part 2 (75)
The Eleventh Hour (65)
The Vampires of Venice (50)
The Pandorica Opens (50)
The Big Bang (55)
A Christmas Carol (60)
A Good Man Goes to War (50)
Let's Kill Hitler (50)
The God Complex (50)
The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe (60)
Asylum of the Daleks (50)
The Snowmen (60)

Only?

[diankra]

The Toy Fair material is official in that it's advertising from an official BBC licensee, issued with BBC Worldwide's approval, designed to encourage toy shops to stock Doctor Who toys by telling them how much on-screen promotion (in the form of episodes) the BBC will be giving Doctor Who.
It's ironic that this has come out just as the new Argos catalogue has been released, giving a very practical demonstration of how the retailers currently view Doctor Who's sales prospects.
18 months ago the Argos Doctor Who range took up a page and a half.
In the new catalogue it consists of... nothing.
Nothing at all. Zip, zero, sweet FA. Not one single piece of Doctor Who merchandise in the entire place (and it's as bad in Tesco's toy section).
Hope those brand managers are getting a good salary, 'cos they might be lucky to get a bonus this year...

[Samurai8472]

^There's still the scaled down action figure line for the new series but i'm thinking it would give out too many spoilers to reveal it now.

[Mr Awe]

The Wormhole wrote:

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Meh, this seems to fit with my expectations. I'm assuming "An Adventure in Time and Space" is that thing Mark Gatiss is writing about the early days, but what's this "Doctor Who Revisited"? Since it's eleven 25 minute episodes, I'm guessing it's a new retrospective on each Doctor.

What were you expecting?

90 minutes.

Mr Awe

[Mr Awe]

The Wormhole wrote:

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Reviewing the episode lengths, the only ones to have gone over 45 minutes:
sniped

That's all nice, but this the 50th Anniversary, which comes around only once! Also, if they are having more Doctors, wouldn't it be nice if their screen time wasn't quite so rushed? Some of the more elder actors may not be around for many more anniversaries.

I thought the 90 minutes for The Five Doctors was perfect. Why not just do that length?

Mr Awe

[StCoop]

Even though the writing was on the wall from the time that BBC1 Controller Danny Cohen revelaed that we'd only be getting half a series in 2012 because Moffat couldn't manage to run two series in a timely fashion, I'm still amazed that the Anniversary Special will only be 60 minutes. Which means, assuming they do a Christmas Special, they'll have produced two whole episodes of Doctor Who in its 50th Anniversary year.

I wasn't expecting a multi-Doctor story (maybe Tennant and and Eccles) before today, there's absolutely no chance of one now. In fact I'd amazed if it wasn't just Fields Of Trenzalor, The Question and Matt Smith's Regeneration.

And if it is... don't expect Series 8 until Autumn 2014.

[JoeZhang]

The Wormhole wrote:

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Good point about Christmas. It seems unlikely they wouldn't do one, those are always big events for BBC.

Maybe this uses the money that would normally be allocated for the Christmas special?

[StCoop]

JoeZhang wrote:

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Maybe this uses the money that would normally be allocated for the Christmas special?

Or they don't want to introduce a new Doctor at Xmas and then leave eight months before their next episode.

[Samurai8472]

StCoop wrote:

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I wasn't expecting a multi-Doctor story (maybe Tennant and and Eccles) before today, there's absolutely no chance of one now.

With 60 minutes allotted that's probably enough time for just Tennant and Smith.

That would be a shame though.

They need to get Tom Baker before he kicks the bucket.

[ToddCam]

Why is the BBC so strapped for cash? Isn't Who a big moneymaker?

[StCoop]

ToddCam wrote:

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Why is the BBC so strapped for cash? Isn't Who a big moneymaker?

Their Charter doesn't allow them to reinvest the money they make from it into the Show.