Gaiman Confirmed for Season Two/Six/Fnarg-Squared
- Thread starter Allyn Gibson
- Start date
Fuck, yeah! I cannot wait. 
Maybe Stephen Fry will also find the time to write an episode. I read an interview a few weeks ago where he lamented how the first attempt fell through and reexpressed interest in a writing an episode for the show.
Maybe Stephen Fry will also find the time to write an episode. I read an interview a few weeks ago where he lamented how the first attempt fell through and reexpressed interest in a writing an episode for the show.
SWEET!
I love Gaiman and I love Dr. Who.
I'm happy.
I love Gaiman and I love Dr. Who.
I'm happy.
Excellent news on several fronts:
1. Gaiman is a big name. I know the last time this was mentioned as a rumor a few people went "Who?" Trust me, this guy is almost on par with Alan Moore (Sandman, Death The High Cost of Living, Coraline). It could be argued that he is the biggest name to ever write a script for this show (bearing in mind Douglas Adams hadn't done Hitchhiker's Guide yet when he wrote his scripts for DW, and a case could be made that Gaiman is the bigger name regardless but I won't go there).
2. Between Michael Moorcock being announced as writing a novel later this year and now Gaiman, this is giving the show incredible additional cachet in the fantasy/SF literature world.
3. Reading between the lines this means that the show appears almost guaranteed to be back for a Series 6 (or whatever number they choose to use) in 2011 as guys like Gaiman don't come cheap and they wouldn't commit to hiring him if there wasn't a good chance of the show being renewed. I know it's almost a no-brainer, but I've been reading reports on the BBC's money issues, and Writers Tale The Final Chapter shows how close we came to having only 2 specials and no Sarah Jane last year. And by now you'd think we'd have heard of a Christmas special in the offing, so it's not a 100% guarantee. But this announcement ups the ante.
Alex
1. Gaiman is a big name. I know the last time this was mentioned as a rumor a few people went "Who?" Trust me, this guy is almost on par with Alan Moore (Sandman, Death The High Cost of Living, Coraline). It could be argued that he is the biggest name to ever write a script for this show (bearing in mind Douglas Adams hadn't done Hitchhiker's Guide yet when he wrote his scripts for DW, and a case could be made that Gaiman is the bigger name regardless but I won't go there).
2. Between Michael Moorcock being announced as writing a novel later this year and now Gaiman, this is giving the show incredible additional cachet in the fantasy/SF literature world.
3. Reading between the lines this means that the show appears almost guaranteed to be back for a Series 6 (or whatever number they choose to use) in 2011 as guys like Gaiman don't come cheap and they wouldn't commit to hiring him if there wasn't a good chance of the show being renewed. I know it's almost a no-brainer, but I've been reading reports on the BBC's money issues, and Writers Tale The Final Chapter shows how close we came to having only 2 specials and no Sarah Jane last year. And by now you'd think we'd have heard of a Christmas special in the offing, so it's not a 100% guarantee. But this announcement ups the ante.
Alex
Why does it say season two in the subject line? It's season six. Where did season two come from?
because the next season is being branded as season 1 or 11.1. or is it season 31? hence also 'fnarg'...
Nah, it's Fred 2.
Almost on par with Alan Moore? Dude, I'd argue that Gaiman is bigger. Gaiman, unlike Moore, has gotten out of comics, and he's known outside of comics. Moore's not there.
I was just wracking my brain. I do think that Stephen Fry writing a script, however, would definitely be bigger, and arguably P.J. Hammond (on Torchwood) and Richard Curtis are bigger names.
Doctor Who is definitely not a franchise in decline.
The prevailing rumor is that Moffat over-commissioned scripts for the upcoming season. This isn't unusual; the JNT-era always had a couple of extra stories floating around. But it is unusual for the Davies-era, where Davies was chronically short of scripts at times. Gaiman's script, reading his statement to SFX, appears to be one of those over-commissioned scripts, hence his reference to what the title was and the certaintude that we'll see it fourteen months hence. (The dating is peculiar, by the way. Could it be the season opener? Or the one after that?)
I would be okay, honestly, if there wasn't a Christmas special.
The Writer's Tale (Mark I) has Davies admit to Cook that budgeting the specials is super-difficult, because they're hard to sell. Not to the BBC, but to overseas markets. It becomes difficult to recoup the investment.
Yes, one-offs are nice, but they're also not necessary.
I've begun to wonder if, perhaps, the issue with Fry's script wasn't time but Davies? Sometimes, writers just don't click.
The new season, with Smith and Gillan, is being called internally to the BBC, "series one." The one that follows would then be "two."
I'm suddenly curious what the BBC would have called the season if Tennant had changed his mind and stayed for another year. It's an impossible question to answer...
Unless they're The End of Time...Yes, one-offs are nice, but they're also not necessary.
I just heard this news on Gaiman's blog, where he announces it without much fanfare because he says he's sleepy. As The Ninth Doctor would say: Fantastic! As The Tenth Doctor would say: Brilliant! And as The Eleventh Doctor looks like he'd say: Geronimo!
Great news but I just wish it was for the forthcoming season, so we won't have to wait so damn long for it!
Too true. I'm going to go into withdrawal.
But on the flip side, we already have something to look forward to beyond Fred 1!
That is unbelievably retarded. Are they gonna restart the series everytime we get a regeneration? Are they doing it for costs?
It's not because it was a regeneration, it's because every single member of the cast and the entire production team are completely different people. It's basically a totally new production.
Moffatt has said that his position is that to any reasonable fan, it's Series 31. It's all one show, and this is simply the latest iteration. From a production standpoint, it's Series 1-- and from a sales standpoint, it's Series 1, as that sounds a lot better to a buyer. There's no context (according to him) where Series 5 is a reasonable usage.
Ummmm. I'm fairly certain that the guy who created Queer As Folk (a huge hit that spawned an incredibly successful American remake) and the guy who created Coupling are at least as big, if not bigger, names than Gaiman's. Which is not to say that Gaiman's name isn't big -- but his is a name more famous amongst genre fans than with the general public, whereas Davies and Moffat both had big successes with general public before Who.
And I definitely think that the writer of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, and Love Actually -- all huge international hit films -- is a much bigger name than anyone else's.
Gaiman writing for Who? But I thought RTD left...
From a production standpoint it's Series 5. Seriously, it's the fifth season since the show was renewed in 2005. It still has the same title does it not? Or do we now call the show Doctor Where?
And the BBC keep calling it Series 5, as recently as when reporting the Stonehenge shooting last week.
In the end, who cares what BBC calls it? Each of us can call it whatever we want, whether it's Season 31, Season 5, or Fred.
