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Another Tennant audio story to be released

2

23skidoo

Admiral
Admiral
At this rate I'm gonna get accused of spamming the boards, but it's just one of those days where a lot of announcements seem to be coming off the various sites within a few hours of each other (and I'm procrastinating a lot today rather than working).

Although The Last Voyage from BBC Audio, released in the UK earlier this month, was cited as being the final exclusive-to-audio Tenth Doctor story, it turns out there's actually one more, Dead Air, which is scheduled to be released on March 7.

http://tennantnews.blogspot.com/2010/01/david-reads-dead-air.html

Incidentally, with this (and a Quick Reads novella) coming out in the first week of March, and the first Eleventh Doctor audio story scheduled for release on April 8, I think that gives us a very possible window for when Season 5 will start airing in the UK.

But in the meantime, with this release, plus the Dreamland DVD also announced today (for Region 1), Tennant fans should have a few things to ease the withdrawal pains.

Alex
 
Cor, the tenth Doctor just keeps going, doesn't he? He's already the most prolific Doctor by a long long way.

Incidentally, the Quick Reads book is already out.
 
I really hope Tennant does some Torchwood style Doctor Who radio episodes, would a few episodes on Radio 4 really effected how the public views Matt Smith as the Doctor?
 
Andrew_Kearley said:
Incidentally, the Quick Reads book is already out.
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It shouldn't be. Code of the Krillitanes isn't available until March. I just checked.

wamdue said:
I really hope Tennant does some Torchwood style Doctor Who radio episodes, would a few episodes on Radio 4 really effected how the public views Matt Smith as the Doctor?
Click to expand...

Tennant's done with Doctor Who for now. He's concentrating on trying to get movie work and get Rex off the ground. All this stuff like Dead Air is literally leftovers. Matt Smith doesn't need competition from Tennant. After March that should be all she wrote for the Tenth Doctor for the time being, as it should be. (That's not 100% true as IDW Comics plans to keep running Tenth Doctor stories till the end of the year because they need time to assimilate the new Doctor.) All support should be thrown behind Matt Smith otherwise, frankly, we'll end up with a Brit version of what just happened with Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien. Yeah, laugh, but I'm not too far off the mark.

And anyway, Paul McGann has been doing Eighth Doctor radio plays for BBC7 for the last 3 years. He should remain the radio Doctor for now. And I don't know if you've heard any of these audio stories, but frankly they're just as good as any radio play.

Alex
 
wamdue said:
23skidoo said:
And anyway, Paul McGann has been doing Eighth Doctor radio plays for BBC7 for the last 3 years.
Click to expand...
so why isnt that like Leno & Conan?
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Because by no stretch of the imagination is Paul McGann the equivalent in the British consciousness of Jay Leno. No disrespect meant to McGann, but ask a person on the street in Manchester or Birmingham who the Doctor is, and Paul McGann isn't the name that will trip off the lips. Ask a person in Wichita who a late night talk show host is, and they may very well say Jay Leno. One man's an institution. One man's not. The McGann audios are enjoyable, but they don't compete with the television series by any means, and they don't make inroads into the mainstream consciousness at all.
 
so why is it ok for McGann to have audio story's on Radio 7 at the same time as Tennant, but not for Tennant to have the same, at the same time as Smith?
 
wamdue said:
so why is it ok for McGann to have audio story's on Radio 7 at the same time as Tennant, but not for Tennant to have the same, at the same time as Smith?
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Dude, if you can't the difference in public perception between McGann and Tennant, I can't fucking help you...

*sigh*

Okay.

Tennant, in the above analogy, is Jay Leno. He gave up his show. He moved on.

Smith is Coco. He's waiting in the wings. He's trying to establish himself.

But! Look at what happened with Leno. He didn't want to leave. And he was given a way to continue his career without upsetting Coco's plans. But when push came to shove, NBC shoved Coco out the door and put Leno back in.

In this case...

Let Smith have the time to establish himself. I'm sure he'll do fine. But don't let Tennant stay in the sunlight too long, because there's a chance he'll overshine Smith.

Tennant, however, is a pretty smart guy. Do I think, when the end came, that he wanted to leave? No. He was seriously tempted to stay for another year when he talked to Moffat. But. He also realizes that the world needs one Doctor at a time. A radio series starring a Doctor that, frankly, no one knows, is one thing. A radio series starring a Doctor that is perhaps the most popular actor to ever essay the role? That's something else entirely.
 
Allyn's comments are dead on the money. And it's true that Tennant was seriously tempted to stay on, but he decided to stay with his original plan, especially after Matt Smith was announced. Up until Smith was signed, I'm sure Moffat would have been quite happy for Tennant to have changed his mind.

But Tennant is not going around trying to hold onto the Doctor at all costs. In some respects the timing of these audios and the novella is unfortunate because it does make it seem like he's hanging on. But of course all this stuff is remnants from last year and BBC Audio/BBC Books have their hands tied because they can't release Eleventh Doctor material until the new season starts. Otherwise they would have had the first Matt Smith stuff out already.

Regarding McGann, something that has to be remembered is that this is the 21st century and radio is a very tiny niche market. And in some respects the BBC7 (not even BBC1 or BBC4 or whatever) series is just a spinoff of the Big Finish audios which continue to produce brand-new stories featuring the first 8 Doctors. And none of it takes away from whoever is currently on TV because only a very small number of people listen to this stuff, compared to TV. There is no way we can compare McGann and Tennant to Leno and O'Brien in this circumstance. There may well be people who are latching onto, say, the latest Second Doctor-based Companion Chronicles audio drama with Frazer Hines reprising Jamie, or even BBC Audio's epic Hornets Nest that saw the return of Tom Baker to the part, in lieu of the current TV version. But I doubt the number of viewers BBC One is losing would fill a school bus.

Even if the BBC commissioned a new McGann story for TV, McGann was the Doctor on television only once, 14 years ago. I submit they could do a McGann miniseries and it would have no impact on Matt Smith at all. And would probably be bloody cool.

But Tennant is so extremely popular as the Doctor - far more popular than Tom Baker and I'm considering 35 years of history for him - that frankly if he appears on any telly in the UK this spring it would harm Smith's attempt to win over the audience. Which is one reason why I'm happy Rex is Not Your Lawyer won't start until at least the fall. For Tennant to put out new material as the Doctor (not leftovers) over top of Smith - whether for TV or radio - would be grossly unfair to Smith and Moffat and, frankly, a stupid move by the BBC.

And besides - TV and movies = $$$$$$; radio = $. Why the hell would Tennant want to go for the $ when he can have the $$$$$$? Odds are pretty good that his paycheque for the Rex pilot alone probably equalled what he got for an entire season of Doctor Who.

Alex
 
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