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2 million fewer viewers

The earliest they can begin filming is June. This is confirmed fact. Therefore, they can't do a full season for next year. Simple logic.

Is that confirmed? If so, where? I heard a potential for that but nothing beyond rumors. You may well be correct, if that's true. I just hadn't heard it officially.

I suspect that The Wormhole is referring to the Sherlock filming, which will be April to June, and the fact that the scripts for Sherlock haven't been written yet nor preproduction work done. I might not say that it's a "confirmed fact" that Doctor Who won't film until summer 2016 at the earliest, just very, very unlikely.
That's if Moffat is even working on DW next year.

And I say that using "if" since everything here is speculation.
 
Updated with Episode 6:

The Magician's Apprentice 6.54m 8th
The Witch's Familiar 5.71m 17th
Under The Lake 5.63m 17th
Before The Flood 6.05m 14th
The Girl Who Died 6.56m 13th
The Woman Who Lived 6.11m 15th

The Maisie Bump didn't last long.
 
^ :lol:

Whilst those numbers are poor, comparative to what the show was achieving not so long ago, I think the question needs to be, are they poor in comparison to any other BBC drama that's been on the air for 10 years? I still believe there'd have been a drop off, irrespective of who was the show runner and who was the Doctor (sorry).
 
The earliest they can begin filming is June. This is confirmed fact. Therefore, they can't do a full season for next year. Simple logic.

Is that confirmed? If so, where? I heard a potential for that but nothing beyond rumors. You may well be correct, if that's true. I just hadn't heard it officially.

Mr Awe

As mentioned above, I'm extrapolating based on Sherlock's filming dates, and that Moffat has made it clear Sherlock and Doctor Who won't be filming simultaneously. Therefore, Doctor Who can't film prior to June. And that's assuming there aren't delays with Sherlock (which shouldn't surprise us if there are).

Yes but has the BBC itself said they can't film the two shows simulataneously? The BBC could over rule him. But if they didn't start filming until June, we might end up with a split season with the first half in Autumn 2016 and the second half spring 2017. If it's speicals a June start date could mean one have one ready for the Summer Bank Holiday with one for Xmas and New Year's Day
 
Yes but has the BBC itself said they can't film the two shows simultaneously? The BBC could over rule him.

If they were starting in January (which they would need to, to get a full series next year) they'd be in active pre-production by now but given that Moffat said last week that he's only just starting to think about plans for the next series I'm not holding my breath.
 
Whilst those numbers are poor, comparative to what the show was achieving not so long ago, I think the question needs to be, are they poor in comparison to any other BBC drama that's been on the air for 10 years?

They're not (with one of two exceptions).

There's a middle-ground between "Oh my God, it's going to be cancelled!" and "Everything's perfect, nothing to worry about." and that's where it is at the moment.

Something changed last year that made (some) people not want to come back this year and unfair as it may be, there was only one big change...
 
I'm still watching it, but I just don't like what's Moffat is doing to Capaldi. I've never been a big fan of Moffat's direction with the show and I just can't pin down this Doctor's character. He's manic.

And the sooner Clara is gone, the better. Their dynamic has always been horrible.
 
I'm still watching it, but I just don't like what's Moffat is doing to Capaldi. I've never been a big fan of Moffat's direction with the show and I just can't pin down this Doctor's character. He's manic.

I can't decide if the "manic Doctor" this year is Moffat's idea or Capaldi's idea. I lean toward it being mainly Capaldi's idea; I think the darker, more morose Doctor last year was Moffat's idea of what an older Doctor should be, while this year Capaldi may be asserting himself and defining how he wants to play the character.

And the sooner Clara is gone, the better. Their dynamic has always been horrible.

I don't think it's "horrible," just different. Edgier in a way. She's more independent than a Doctor Who companion usually is.
 
I'm still watching it, but I just don't like what's Moffat is doing to Capaldi. I've never been a big fan of Moffat's direction with the show and I just can't pin down this Doctor's character. He's manic.

And the sooner Clara is gone, the better. Their dynamic has always been horrible.

This is how I feel, though I didn't really start to dislike Clara until the end of last season. I think Matt Smith had amazing chemistry with everyone, and that made me like Clara (especially having rewatched his season with her a couple times).

But the combo of her and Capaldi just works less and less as the show goes on. And frankly, Capaldi's weird electric guitar and sunglasses thing really isn't doing anything for it. It's like they're trying way too hard to give him is own thing, like Smith's fez and bow tie, but it just comes across as stupid.

I mean, he was playing "Amazing Grace" at the beginning of the episode! Why?
 
I think the character direction of the Twelfth Doctor this series feels like a natural step forward.

In the previous series his character arc was that of having an identity crisis - he kept asking himself is he a good or bad person. For the entire series he was trying to figure himself out, keeping himself emotionally restrained and prone to navel gazing.

Now, he's a lot more comfortable with himself. He puts more effort into trying to be nice (like with the flash cards in Under the Lake) and his attire reflects this attitude. The cropped hair and tightly buttoned shirt reflected his insecurity and closed off nature. Now his longer curls and replacement of the formal, overstarched shirts with the baggy t-shirts and hoodies, reflects a more chilled out and happier Doctor.

My take on the current Doctor is that he's the complete opposite of his predecessor. The Eleventh Doctor was an old man in a young man's body. The Twelfth Doctor is a young man in an old man's body.
 
I'm still watching it, but I just don't like what's Moffat is doing to Capaldi. I've never been a big fan of Moffat's direction with the show and I just can't pin down this Doctor's character. He's manic.

And the sooner Clara is gone, the better. Their dynamic has always been horrible.

This is how I feel, though I didn't really start to dislike Clara until the end of last season. I think Matt Smith had amazing chemistry with everyone, and that made me like Clara (especially having rewatched his season with her a couple times).

But the combo of her and Capaldi just works less and less as the show goes on. And frankly, Capaldi's weird electric guitar and sunglasses thing really isn't doing anything for it. It's like they're trying way too hard to give him is own thing, like Smith's fez and bow tie, but it just comes across as stupid.

I mean, he was playing "Amazing Grace" at the beginning of the episode! Why?

Well, someone at TV Tropes pointed out that the song deals with forgiveness and reconciliation, which is what the Doctor hopes will save the peace treaty. Of course, he's playing it before he knows anything has gone wrong, but that could be his weird Time Lord precognition at work...

Still haven't seen any comparison of iPlayer views this series to last... Have any figures been put out?
 
Whilst those numbers are poor, comparative to what the show was achieving not so long ago, I think the question needs to be, are they poor in comparison to any other BBC drama that's been on the air for 10 years?
That's one of two questions that I think need to be asked. The other one is, how much does it cost compared to the better-rated shows?

If the ratings are dropping, and costs increasing (due to inflation if nothing else - isn't the license fee fixed for a while so the BBC is essentially getting a budget cut each year?), then it seems to me like the BBC is allocating its budget poorly. But if the budget is dropping in parallel to the lower ratings, then it makes sense.

Unless Worldwide can make up the shortfall, that is. Has anybody been collating the US numbers versus earlier series?
 
Just for reference, I went back through the Doctor Who News pages looking at the Australian ratings. The following numbers are for the five mainland state capitals (iView and regional aren't included). The first number is the final, consolidated count including time-shifting. The second number is the overnight number.

The Magician's Apprentice 847,000 (653,000)
The Witch's Familiar 734,000 (541,000)
Under the Lake 612,000 (428,000)
Before the Flood 660,000 (511,000)
The Girl Who Died 644,000 (601,000)
The Woman Who Lived tba (493,000)
The Zygon Invasion tba (430,000)
 
Still haven't seen any comparison of iPlayer views this series to last... Have any figures been put out?

People using it through their TV is already included; people watching on other devices is unchanged at about 300k but obviously there's no way of telling how many of them watch the whole episode or are watching for the first time.
 
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