Officially no series 8 in 2013

[davejames]

Yeah I do think Moffat would probably be better off simply being the head writer for these shows, instead of also being the producer/showrunner.

Making DW alone is probably a massive enough challenge every year; I can't imagine also having to produce three 90-minute, feature-quality Sherlock episodes.

[Allyn Gibson]

JoeZhang wrote:

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What family connections do you mean?

Moffat's mother-in-law Beryl Vertue. She's a power player in the British television scene.

[DWF]

davejames wrote:

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Yeah I do think Moffat would probably be better off simply being the head writer for these shows, instead of also being the producer/showrunner.

Making DW alone is probably a massive enough challenge every year; I can't imagine also having to produce three 90-minute, feature-quality Sherlock episodes.

And yet RTD was able to produce three series at the same time.

[DalekJim]

DWF wrote:

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And yet RTD was able to produce three series at the same time.

RTD had minimal input on Torchwood throughout it's first 2 series.

[DWF]

DalekJim wrote:

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RTD had minimal input on Torchwood throughout it's first 2 series.

He still did more writing on Torchwood and Dr. Who than Moffat has to do on Dr. Who and Sherlock.

[MickJo1701]

The BBC commission the number of episodes and decide when they are broadcast, hell Moffat has even been critical of the time the BBC has aired Doctor Who in the past. I don't buy that this is him being unable to produce a 13 episode series and an Xmas special every year.

[DalekJim]

DWF wrote:

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He still did more writing on Torchwood and Dr. Who than Moffat has to do on Dr. Who and Sherlock.

RTD wrote a mere one episode of Torchwood for it's entire first 2 years? And only co-wrote one SJA episode in it's first 3 years?

[DWF]

DalekJim wrote:

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RTD wrote a mere one episode of Torchwood for it's entire first 2 years? And only co-wrote one SJA episode in it's first 3 years?

And Moffat's written two eps. of Sherlock. Sherlock has also been around since 2010 and we've only had two seasons of three eps. each.

[Alidar Jarok]

Venardhi wrote:

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This makes no fucking sense whatsoever to me.

Spoiled? What kind of bullshit is that? People like the show, they watch the show, they want more of the show. Television is produced to be consumed as entertainment, that is its only purpose. It doesn't become less special just because there is more of it. It doesn't become less special if it is produced and broadcast with some regularity. If you don't want to watch it then don't.

I meant spoiled in the sense that they start to feel entitled to more of it when there might be practical reasons not to have more of it at the moment. There are shows where a series is about six episodes long. We're still averaging more than six episodes a year with Doctor Who.

[diankra]

Allyn Gibson wrote:

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Moffat's mother-in-law Beryl Vertue. She's a power player in the British television scene.

But not in any sense that's really relevant to this: she's a very successful producer who's worked her way up from starting as an agent's secretary (back in the days when a woman was supposed to start as a secretary and stay as a secretary), but she's never had a management position at any TV station, and at 80-ish she's leaving it a bit late to get one. Her only influence is the respect of younger people in TV, and the fact that she's an owner of the company that makes Sherlock.

[captain crow]

Samurai8472 wrote:

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HA! Can't argue with that.

I could understand why the BBC cut confidential(Karen visits a planetarium? Arthur swims with the sharks) but the behind the scenes stuff was intriguing

The one with Arthur and the sharks was great material for captioning and photoshopping thanks to him looking like a sex offender in it.

[The Wormhole]

Mr Awe wrote:

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Seems to me that the BBC needs to hire some help for Moffat. Not a huge increase in the budget, but some people to help keep the production organized and on-track even when Moffat is distracted by, say, Sherlock.

But isn't that basically Caroline Skinner's job?

[Mr Awe]

^^ I have no idea who does what. But, whatever the current arrangement is, it's not working!

[Starkers]

DWF wrote:

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He still did more writing on Torchwood and Dr. Who than Moffat has to do on Dr. Who and Sherlock.

I was going to quibble this until I realised you were actually right, of course Moffat only writes one episode of Sherlock per series (although you don't know how much work he's doing on Gattiis and the other fellow's scripts.)

Of course the best episodes of Torchwood RTD wrote came at a time when Who was "taking a semi-break" and coincided with a couple of quite poor specials (which were anything but).

At some point I think creators need to be tied into a contract to spend at least a vast proportion of their time working only on Who. From what I can ascertain about Moffat if the BBC put their foot down I'm not certain he'd take his bat and ball and walk away, he got burned by his experience with US tv, and whilst he was obviously feted by Spielberg I still suspect he likes the level of freedom the BBC affords him.

But again, I think it needs stressing, comparing Who now with Who of even a few years ago needs to take into account the radical change in finances the BBC as a whole are dealing with.

[The Wormhole]

Mr Awe wrote:

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^^ I have no idea who does what. But, whatever the current arrangement is, it's not working!

Always two there are, a showrunner and an executive producer.

RTD had Julie Gardner as his executive producer during his entire run, Moffat had Beth Willis for his first two years or and now has Caroline Skinner as his Executive Producer.