OK, so stay with me on this one. Someone who works on the annual Blackpool Illuminations has been showing off photos on GB of Doctor Who related bits and pieces that they're going to be using this year, being the 50th Anniversary they'll be doing more than usual. Among the things they revealed is that fact that a bunch of Police Boxes are under construction which will have representations of the Doctor inside them. (Waxworks maybe, it is Blackpool after all.) Now the reallllly interesting bit was the news that they are making twelve boxes in all, eleven of which will be put up when the Illuminations start at the end of August, with the twelfth not going up until two months later. And since each box contains a Doctor...
I'm not British, but I've been to Blackpool several times and I know the Illuminations is quite an attraction every year. BUT is it really that such a huge attraction that someone will divulge to them what is essentially top secret insider DW knowledge?
Strictly speaking all that's happened is that one company has been asked to make twelve Police Boxes. The person who posted the information and photos also happens to know that another company has been asked to make what's going inside of them. So the actual contents of box 12 (it could be K9 or Peter Cushing for all we know) will be under wraps until October.
^Yeah a spare would make sense, or maybe it's going to have Cushing in it? Or it could be a Dalek. It's all a bit vague at the moment, and I'd be surprised if this was how the announcement that Smith's leaving leaks out.
Hmm, I note the illuminations run till the 3rd November, so if they really aren't going to put the 12th case up until 2 months after the illuminations start, that means they're going to the trouble and expense of making a 12th box (and one assumes a figure of a 12th Doctor) so it can be hoisted up for just a few days before it has to come down again.
Or maybe it's an extra one for the lobby for people to take pictures next to. Or something like this which they setup outside (can't remember) a BFI screening or a premiere someplace.
In my opinion the Illuminations are a shadow of what they once were. Couple that with the fact that Blackpool is just a hole in general (I went to walk round the sea front a couple of years ago in the evening to see the Illuminations and all I saw was drunk teenagers and sea front shops selling vibrators next to the sticks of rock), and if any one high up thinks its a good place to announce anything Who related, they are out of touch of reality I'd say.
I thought about Cushing as well. But we have seen two other iterations of the Doctor, the watcher, and the Valeyard.
But why would an extra, or one for kids to stand in, or one for Peter Cushing/the Watcher/the Valeyard/a Dalek/the Borad, be scheduled to go up two months after the event opens? That's the really interesting part of this report. It might contain something spoilery other than a representation of the twelfth Doctor, but if it's not a spoiler, why go to the trouble of putting it up halfway through the event? Maybe it's something more elaborate designed to draw crowds after the novelty of the original presentations wears off...
Well. Let's do the math, shall we? The first 11 go up at the END of August, yes? Then two months later... the end of October, the other one goes up. What's after October? November. The 50th anniversary. "Hey kids (and geeks alike), just in time for the anniversary get your picture taken in a TARDIS!" I don't think there's much of a conspiracy here.
These displays are not on ground level (I assume, from past precedent. Might be wrong), and not accessible without a cherry-picker, so doesn't quite work. Plus, if that was what it was for, they'd want it there all summer to catch the tourist trade. Not that I'm endorsing any conspiracy theories. It's just a final display item to get a bit more publicity just before the special.
Not at ground level! Then how can I get my picture taken IN the TARDIS!!?! Yeah, I doubt the 12th Doctor is coming soon...