Officially no series 8 in 2013

[DalekJim]

Power of Three is really good until the ludicrous deus ex machina ending.

[Konata Izumi]

I don't really see how it's any more ludicrous than anything else in Who to reverse the heart attack program.

Ah there's the finding the entrance randomly too. I guess there's something surreal about it so I don't mind.

No recollection of how they got rid of the aliens though.

[The Wormhole]

Lance wrote:

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I understand the reasons why they feel the need to mix things up a bit. To try and keep things feeling fresh. But to be honest, if your priority is to save money because the BBC can't give you as much as they used to, then the last thing you should be doing is green-lighting new Cyberman costumes or new TARDIS sets. It's an incompetent management of resources that could be better used elsewhere, IMO.

The TARDIS set had to be rebuilt anyway, so why not do a new design? And the Cybus Industries Cybermen look are the longest running for the Cybermen period. In classic Who they had a new look nearly every story. There's nothing wrong with a new look seven years after the previous one was introduced.

Besides, Moffat already failed in two previous attempts to redesign the Cybermen. There was no money to do it in The Pandorica Opens and only enough money to remove the Cybus logo in A Good Man Goes to War.

[Starkers]

Kelthaz wrote:

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No, that's not embracing money saving. Moving your production to another country is the complete opposite of money saving. Embracing money saving would have been NOT going to Spain/Croatia to film some episodes.

Moffat needs to realize that Doctor Who doesn't have the budget of Game of Thrones. He needs to run the show like the low budget series it is. Babylon 5, the Stargates, and Farscape managed to do epic well with extremely limited budgets. Doctor Who can do it to.

Well they could just go back to filming every episode in a quarry...

[Samurai8472]

How is Moffat going to Spain different from RTD having one episode in Italy and another in Dubai? Moffat might have gone to too many places(Utah,New York, Spain)

Were RTD's trips like a family holiday?

"Ok, we've saved enough cash this year to go abroad"

Compared to Moffat

"Spend it while you have it! Deal with the consequences later!"

[Sindatur]

Samurai8472 wrote:

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How is Moffat going to Spain different from RTD having one episode in Italy and another in Dubai? Moffat might have gone to too many places(Utah,New York, Spain)

Were RTD's trips like a family holiday?

"Ok, we've saved enough cash this year to go abroad"

Compared to Moffat

"Spend it while you have it! Deal with the consequences later!"

Utah and New York were co-paid by BBCA. If they hadn't gone, they wouldn't have had the extra money from going

[DalekJim]

Samurai8472 wrote:

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How is Moffat going to Spain different from RTD having one episode in Italy and another in Dubai?

Because Spain is alright and Dubai is a human rights hell-hole that RTD should be held morally accountable for supporting?

Let's just say that it's a good job they didn't film any Captain Jack scenes over there...

[Kelthaz]

Starkers wrote:

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Well they could just go back to filming every episode in a quarry...

Woah, let's not go crazy here. There's being responsible with your money and then there's just being a Scrooge.

[DWF]

Starkers wrote:

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Well they could just go back to filming every episode in a quarry...

I could live with that actually.

[Alidar Jarok]

Allyn Gibson wrote:

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Sure there is. That's calling being insubordinate and burning one's bosses.

I guess it depends on who "they" are in this context. I was thinking BBC as a whole.

[Konata Izumi]

Konata Izumi wrote:

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[The Power of Three] feels like the Doctor's come to a visit even though he doesn't really do that much anymore.

So it's perfectly on-topic to post this The Power of Three reading:

The optimism's less random and more justified than I first gathered. The Doctor seems to think of himself as one of the 'creatures of hope'. So in the allegory he'd be one of the scientist guys who fix the internet when bad guys take it down. Or put a fatal virus. A bit scarier that one. Before I just thought they're randomly saying it's cool at the end like disregard all danger.

I guess even the chance discovery of the portal is kind of sensible too as The Doctor's not the only kind scientist in the world, so someone's bound to find one of them. It's an optimistic take on the immense connectivity and possibility within internet with a bit of sensible paranoia too.

Great how Brian's basically a mostly harmless and quite helpful version of the Shakri mindset. The kid's a troll hacker. No idea what she was in the plot. The Doctor could explode the ship because it was shit.

[Lonemagpie]

TBH I think we'll see 8-part seasons in future for a simple reason - it seems to be the BBC's current paradigm for their top dramas.

Death In Paradise, Call The Midwife, Ripper Street, etc... all eight-episode runs.

[Starkers]

Good point. I guess as well that BBC series length has always varied somewhat, in fact aside from Who Torchwood and Merlin (and I guess Robin Hood may have been the same but I never watched it) it’s hard to think of another show I remember having a 13 episode stint since Blakes 7 (though I’m sure there must have been plenty) and it may just be that we need to get used to a truncated series length, I mean there’s nothing that even says a BBC drama always needs to have a set number of episodes per season, Spooks, as I recall, varied greatly from as low as 6 to a high of about ten episodes, and even though the examples you’ve given all have 8 ep runs, Silent Witness still gets 10. Plus of course Torchwood varied greatly too (13,13,5,10)

I suppose the only thing to point out is that Call the Midwife et al tend to be 60 rather than 45 minute shows, so 8 episodes of Who means less screen time than 8 episodes of Call the Midwife say.

I could live with 8 episodes a year plus the Christmas special, you’d have to hope that might filter out the crappier episodes but it might sound the final death knell for 2 parters (we might still get one). Part of me thinks the BBC should at least come clean about this, but I’m not sure they do likewise with other shows so it might not even occur to the higer ups that this is any kind of issue?

[StCoop]

After the news that they're co-producing AAIT&S, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Series 8 is announced as a full-on BBC/BBC America co-production (rather than them chucking some money in every now and then as they do currently). That looks like being the only way of keeping up full-length (as we currently understand the term) series.

[Mr Awe]

Starkers wrote:

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I could live with 8 episodes a year plus the Christmas special, you’d have to hope that might filter out the crappier episodes but it might sound the final death knell for 2 parters (we might still get one). Part of me thinks the BBC should at least come clean about this, but I’m not sure they do likewise with other shows so it might not even occur to the higer ups that this is any kind of issue?

That might work fine for the UK, but it could stunt the momentum it has going here in the States. Not saying that should influence the BBC's decision, just pointing it out. People here are already complaining about the lack of episodes.

The BBC should be transparent about their plans, whatever they are. The confusion between what is said versus what is done is angering fans and even damaging the brand in terms of marketing, merchandising, and broadcasting. It's hard to plan all of those things when the broadcast schedule is erratic!

Mr Awe