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Chibnall's First Series Won't Air Until Autumn 2018

The only surprising thing about this is the search for the new Doctor will supposedly not end until this autumn. I expected to hear an announcement when series 10 ended in the early summer.

The gap between series is no different than between series 6 and 7.
 
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You mean to say interminably long, frought with rumour, disappointment, and despair? :)

We're all hopelessly spoiled by American TV with its predictable premiere dates, episode counts, and average quality level. :) Hello British TV! We wait forever, never know exactly when it'll be airing until even the week of broadcast, and we all salivate for every scrap of information about the show regardless!

Mark
 
Well that sucks, but at this point I'm just happy they're not skipping 2018 entirely. At this rate, we'll start getting new Who series at the same rate we get Sherlock seasons.
 
Mark_Nguyen said:
You mean to say interminably long, frought with rumour, disappointment, and despair? :)

We're all hopelessly spoiled by American TV with its predictable premiere dates, episode counts, and average quality level. :) Hello British TV! We wait forever, never know exactly when it'll be airing until even the week of broadcast, and we all salivate for every scrap of information about the show regardless!

Mark
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I don't know how Sherlock fans coup. Three episodes for three weeks every two years.
 
Now I understand why Tom Spilsbury posted on Twitter that he'd like to the reveal of the thirteenth Doctor happen with the regeneration in the Christmas episode. It's possible -- they don't have to start filming until January 2018 if they want an autumn series -- but Spilsbury also thought it was unlikely the BBC could pull of something like that.
 
Retracting my previous statement - we're not just spoiled for American TV, we're spoiled for the first six seasons of the returned show. Remember when we could expect 13 episodes in the spring, five or six months off, a Christmas thingy, and then only a couple short months until the next season?

If nothing else, I'm hoping Chibnall can bring that sort of consistency back to the show. In scheduling and writing, really. None of this "event" programming that DW fell into under Moffatt, and . IMO, this is a more reliable way of building a new audience, and hopefully stabilizing the fandom we still have.

Mark
 
I got to admit, this one's a head scratcher to me. Isn't one of the reasons season 10 returned to the spring for broadcast the fact that seasons 8 and 9 just weren't doing great ratings in the fall? Won't the ratings still suck fall 2018? Hell, they'll be in the same situation season 8 was in back in fall 2014: eight or nine months after the Christmas special, a year and change after the previous season ended and introducing a new Doctor. It didn't help the ratings in 2014, I don't think the additions of a new showrunner and probably a new companion is going to make a difference in 2018.
Mark_Nguyen said:
Retracting my previous statement - we're not just spoiled for American TV, we're spoiled for the first six seasons of the returned show. Remember when we could expect 13 episodes in the spring, five or six months off, a Christmas thingy, and then only a couple short months until the next season?

If nothing else, I'm hoping Chibnall can bring that sort of consistency back to the show. In scheduling and writing, really. None of this "event" programming that DW fell into under Moffatt, and . IMO, this is a more reliable way of building a new audience, and hopefully stabilizing the fandom we still have.

Mark
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The worst part about the way the scheduling has been the past few years is that back in 2010 when they first announced season 6 would be a split season, the given intent was to decrease the waiting time between new episodes by doing six or seven episodes in the spring, the rest in the fall, and Christmas, and repeat again. Instead, we've had the gaps increased as each year went by to the point that we've gone a full year without Doctor Who.

The past six years feel like the consequences of someone trying to fix something that wasn't broke.
 
Can't blame Moffat this time...

I wonder what the BBC would have done if Moffat had told them to stuff it a year or two ago? Would they have canned the show or would we have had a several year hiatus before a new actor dressed as 12 wearing a ridiculously bouffant wig would have had to trip over in the Tardis?
 
I hope Capaldi refuses to do the regeneration scene and the next actor does it in a very bad wig, might as well, it is like a re-run of CB tenure at this point. lol
 
The Wormhole said:
The worst part about the way the scheduling has been the past few years is that back in 2010 when they first announced season 6 would be a split season, the given intent was to decrease the waiting time between new episodes by doing six or seven episodes in the spring, the rest in the fall, and Christmas, and repeat again. Instead, we've had the gaps increased as each year went by to the point that we've gone a full year without Doctor Who.

The past six years feel like the consequences of someone trying to fix something that wasn't broke.
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The counter-narrative to that -- 2014 was the consequence of working around Matt Smith's decision to leave in early 2013 yet retain Smith as the Doctor at the anniversary, and 2016 was the consequence of Steven Moffat's decision in 2015 to leave yet the BBC couldn't line up their choice to replace him until a 2017 start.

I'm not saying that you can't blame BBC mismanagement for the production gaps in Moffat's tenure, because you absolutely can -- there are other ways of dealing with personnel decisions that don't adversely affect the production calendar than resting the series. For a long time I've felt that Smith's "two Doctors" idea for series 8 (Smith splits the season with David Tennant, with the two teaming up on occasion) was Smith's counter-pitch to whatever Moffat pitched him on for that series because Smith didn't like it, and Moffat didn't think he'd go.

Starkers said:
I wonder what the BBC would have done if Moffat had told them to stuff it a year or two ago? Would they have canned the show or would we have had a several year hiatus before a new actor dressed as 12 wearing a ridiculously bouffant wig would have had to trip over in the Tardis?
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There were some credible rumors (imho) in 2014 that ran the other way -- that some in the BBC considered canning the show for a few years to get Moffat out.

StCoop said:
No, it's Olivia Colman's fault for getting knocked up and pushing back the shooting of Series 3 of Broadchurch by a year.
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It really seems that Chibnall has been "their guy" for a long time, that the BBC has had their heart set on him for as soon as he's available. There's the old saying, "You get what you pay for," but that means more than just money. There are opportunity costs there, too. There have been rumors there for a while that the BBC wanted Toby Whithouse to produce a single series of Doctor Who, to give Moffat a rest, but limiting the job that way -- one year and done -- isn't always appealing. Maybe Whithouse wanted to do more than a single series. Maybe the money wasn't there. Maybe a bit of both. The point is, having a limited pool of people to go to and being locked into old decisions means that, sometimes, when things fall through you've wasted a lot of time and effort for a whole lot of nothing. And that's what the BBC ended up with here -- nothing -- because they weren't able to adapt to changing circumstances.
 
To be honest telling someone you think they’re good enough to produce a flagship show, but only for a year while they wait for the guy they really want isn’t a great sales pitch.

And what if Whithouse’s season had been bloody brilliant?
 
StCoop said:
No, it's Olivia Colman's fault for getting knocked up and pushing back the shooting of Series 3 of Broadchurch by a year.
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Yeah but she filmed The Night Manager whilst heavily pregnant, I suppose it might have been a bit too Fargo to have her pregnant in Broardchurch.
 
I'd love to see a short season of specials followed by the christmas regeneration; alternatively have a couple of episodes with all three or perhaps a substitute actor for John Hurts War Doctor.
 
Starkers said:
Can't blame Moffat this time...
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I'm an irate fan. I can blame Moffat whenever I want. He and Brannon Braga have a lot to answer for ever since Donald Trump won the election.

Yeah, I made this political.
Haggis and tatties said:
I hope Capaldi refuses to do the regeneration scene and the next actor does it in a very bad wig, might as well, it is like a re-run of CB tenure at this point. lol
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Nah, what flew in 1987 won't fly in 2017. Therefore, if Capaldi refuses the regeneration scene, they'll just use a CG Capaldi duplicate, like they did with Peter Cushing in Rogue One.
 
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And now word is coming out that Moffat/Capaldi's last episode will also be the last episode made in Cardiff with production moving to Manchester for the next series. So that's another reason why they couldn't go straight into the next series, regardless of Chibnall's availability.
 
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