Series 6 kept back to Autumn 2011?

[28VulcansLater]

Problem is in Autumn it'll almost certainly run up against X-Factor.

Shouldn't be too much of a problem. Doctor Who usually starts 6-6:30, X-Factor starts around 7:30.

I'm firmly in the creative-decision-my-arse camp. I think it's a move to counter the fact that the later half of this series had a bit of a ratings decline.

I would prefer a full 13 week run, but it might be quite good to have it spread across the year.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

There's another possible reason.

I blogged about it here, but in short -- splitting the season into two and calling it two different series as Moffat does in an interview with the Guardian could speed Matt Smith through his contract, enabling him to leave at the end of 2011. Smith is under contract for three seasons, with an option for two more. Unless the contract specifies that a season is all the episodes in a given year, this could be some creative accounting to let Smith leave the series by not picking up the option for his fourth season in 2012.

 

[Fenric]

well it will be nice to have doctor who twice a year even if its less episodes

I bet this is a move to have the full series to take place in the Autumn though,

it does seem to be the fashion for the bbc to do this splitting thing with there best shows with top gear being split into two mini series instead of the regular long run of 13.

it's like the crap ITV kept pulling with Heartbeat, The Royal and a couple of other shows my mum likes. show it for 3 weeks, yank it for something else and then show it for four weeks before repeating.

thats assuming its a program ITV remotely likes for some shows like Friday night lights season 2 which they have had the rights to show for like 3 years have only just shown it and moved the time slot around so many time im thankful I have sky+ to save me,

Also I kind of hope doctor who goes up against x-factor just to give me something to watch as im fed up of saturday nights the options being Xfactor against some awful show like casualty

 

[Timby]

Unless the contract specifies that a season is all the episodes in a given year, this could be some creative accounting to let Smith leave the series by not picking up the option for his fourth season in 2012.

YOU SHALL SPEAK NO MORE OF THIS HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE THOUGHT.

 

[Jax]

If I was the BBC I would get Matt Smith and nail him to his contract because end of the day hes going nowhere until the 3rd season has wrapped up whatever he may wants. I do wonder if BBC will basically look at both halves and use the ratings to decide which half of the year they will move to full time in the future because I don't see this new format in 2011 being around for long.

 

[captcalhoun]

Unless the contract specifies that a season is all the episodes in a given year, this could be some creative accounting to let Smith leave the series by not picking up the option for his fourth season in 2012.

YOU SHALL SPEAK NO MORE OF THIS HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE THOUGHT.

don't worry, it's more of Allyn's random ass weirdness that never makes sense and never comes true.

 

[diankra]

Another possibility is that, by splitting the Who season, that reduces Steven Moffat's workload - he still has to run the scriptiing and shooting of the season, but the post-production and final sign-off of the later episodes can be delayed for several months.
What does he do with the resulting spare time? Make a second series of Sherlock, which has just been confirmed for another 3x90m epiosdes for autumn 2011...

 

[Rowan Sjet]

Unless the contract specifies that a season is all the episodes in a given year, this could be some creative accounting to let Smith leave the series by not picking up the option for his fourth season in 2012.

YOU SHALL SPEAK NO MORE OF THIS HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE THOUGHT.

Yeah!

 

[Bones2]

Would it all be called series 6?

Personally, I like the idea of not being more than a couple of months away from more Doctor Who. It'd be more like the old days when the BBC weren't all lazy selfish loafers and put the effort into making a decent amount of television. Of course, it probably won't mean more DW. That won't happen until they do the sensible thing and make all stories two-parters.

 

[Samurai8472]

It's being split, half at Easter, half in the Autumn

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2010/08_august/29/doctor.shtml

Cool?

That's waiting from "Planet of the Dead" to "Water of Mars"


The way I see it:

"Silence will Fall" arc Episode 1 to 7 or 6

"River Song" Episode 8 to 13

At least that's how I would do it.

 

[Pseudo]

Problem is in Autumn it'll almost certainly run up against X-Factor.

Due to Cowell's involvement in the US version of The X-Factor the UK version won't begin until November 2011. This means that as long as the second half of the Series begins on 24th September or earlier it almost certainly won't be on the same day as The X-Factor.

Having said that The X-Factor isn't necessarily a big deal for Doctor Who. Given the generally miserable weather and earlier sunsets at that time of year the BBC could show Doctor Who at 6.15pm as a lead in to Strictly Come Dancing.

 

[Timby]

Here's something I don't understand, and maybe someone can enlighten me: In the article from The Guardian about the split season, it says that they film for "eleven days a fortnight," and they do so for nine months out of the year. How on Earth does that work?

In the U.S., hour-long dramas generally shoot an episode per week, and they're shooting about 42 minutes per episode. Those hour-long dramas run for 22 - 26 episodes per season.

How the hell does it take nine months to shoot thirteen 45-minute episodes?

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Here's something I don't understand, and maybe someone can enlighten me: In the article from The Guardian about the split season, it says that they film for "eleven days a fortnight," and they do so for nine months out of the year. How on Earth does that work?

In the U.S., hour-long dramas generally shoot an episode per week, and they're shooting about 42 minutes per episode. Those hour-long dramas run for 22 - 26 episodes per season.

How the hell does it take nine months to shoot thirteen 45-minute episodes?

No (or very little) overtime.

US dramas usually film from before the sun rises until late in the day. British dramas are filmed on a more leisurely schedule. It's partly the lower budgets that UK dramas have, but it's also partly the British unions which are sticklers for short workdays. Patrick Stewart may have had sixteen hour days on set for Star Trek: The Next Generation. Matt Smith doesn't have anything like that to look forward to.

Yes, to an American way of thinking British television is woefully inefficient. Yet, to the British way of thinking, American television is stupidly insane.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

^Hugh Laurie said on House if they're behind they just throw money at it and extend the filming hours. They can't afford to do that here. And recently we've had politicians and people in the business saying we need to cut budgets on shows... so imagine how that'll go over.

 

[Timby]

Thanks for the information, guys.

Now I have to figure out how Doctor Who's filming schedule can be considered "grueling" (I believe Tennant referred to it as such, once) in the face of the insanity that is American television production.

don't worry, it's more of Allyn's random ass weirdness that never makes sense and never comes true.

This isn't cool. You're more than welcome to disagree with someone's ideas, but drive-by snipes like this aren't welcome around here. Groovy? Groovy.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

^I'm not sure Allyn has it right about the hours they work. I remember them saying 16 hour days, all night shoots etc. So the no overtime thing probably isn't true. The other thing is they shoot far more on location than most shows in the US and only a small amount of standing sets, and have only a few stars no ensemble like most US shows. I heard a quote saying that British Actors are getting a rep as the Mexican workers of Hollywood, they'll work harder and cheaper than US equivalents, so it can't really be that British schedules are easier.

 

[Timby]

As an aside to the earlier comment about budgets being cut on shows; haven't the Tories basically said that the BBC budget is getting cut in each of the next three years?

 

[Allyn Gibson]

^I'm not sure Allyn has it right about the hours they work. I remember them saying 16 hour days, all night shoots etc. So the no overtime thing probably isn't true.

I admit, Bob, I'm going by hearsay. I've seen it stated a number of times on Outpost Gallifrey/Doctor Who Forum/Gallifrey Base.

In the Guardian article on the split season, there's this comment:

@BurningChrome: "Also, 11 days to shoot a 42 minute episode works out at just less than 4 minutes broadcast for each shooting day, that's very low for television."

Yeah, it's very low for television. Russell T. Davies joked that on the first series, they planned the shooting schedule according to normal TV schedules, and found that the real rate was so low, they were losing two days for each day they shot!

He said it was the first programme he'd ever worked on where they'd been two weeks behind schedule at the end of the first week. :-)

British TV has a union deal which starts paying overtime after eight hours of shooting (not including breaks). Note that the production can go on for longer, and the lead actors can agree to work longer as standard. However, UK production companies must provide sufficient time off-set that their actors and crew can do things like, y'know, sleep.

American productions have no such rules. Actors and crew often tell stories of 90 hour weeks and 17 hour days. Or the producer sleeping on the couch in the production office because there's no *time* to go home. Or...

So, broadly, that's the difference. They have a killer schedule to produce those 22 42 minute episodes - and they also get paid a heck of a lot for that killer schedule. Brits seem to prefer a lower rate of pay but a working schedule that allows a life outside the job.

Which goes along with what I'd gleaned over the years. But again, it's still hearsay.

I'd also look at this article on Paul Cornell's movement for a US-style "writer's room" in UK television productions, particularly this quote: "We have less money to spend, and actors and technicians unions have negotiated better overtime deals in the UK." Which confirms, in a way, the overtime issue with British television production.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

As an aside to the earlier comment about budgets being cut on shows; haven't the Tories basically said that the BBC budget is getting cut in each of the next three years?

They can't cut the BBC's licence fee for the next 3 years, the licence fee settlement was made in 2007 and lasts for 6 years. The most they can do is not give them an increase in the final year and below inflation increased for the next 2. But discussions on the next settlement start next year, and they're making noises saying more or less everyone else is having to make cuts, so should the BBC... fucking idiots.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

^I'm not sure Allyn has it right about the hours they work. I remember them saying 16 hour days, all night shoots etc. So the no overtime thing probably isn't true.

I admit, Bob, I'm going by hearsay. I've seen it stated a number of times on Outpost Gallifrey/Doctor Who Forum/Gallifrey Base.

In the Guardian article on the split season, there's this comment:

@BurningChrome: "Also, 11 days to shoot a 42 minute episode works out at just less than 4 minutes broadcast for each shooting day, that's very low for television."

Yeah, it's very low for television. Russell T. Davies joked that on the first series, they planned the shooting schedule according to normal TV schedules, and found that the real rate was so low, they were losing two days for each day they shot!

He said it was the first programme he'd ever worked on where they'd been two weeks behind schedule at the end of the first week. :-)

British TV has a union deal which starts paying overtime after eight hours of shooting (not including breaks). Note that the production can go on for longer, and the lead actors can agree to work longer as standard. However, UK production companies must provide sufficient time off-set that their actors and crew can do things like, y'know, sleep.

American productions have no such rules. Actors and crew often tell stories of 90 hour weeks and 17 hour days. Or the producer sleeping on the couch in the production office because there's no *time* to go home. Or...

So, broadly, that's the difference. They have a killer schedule to produce those 22 42 minute episodes - and they also get paid a heck of a lot for that killer schedule. Brits seem to prefer a lower rate of pay but a working schedule that allows a life outside the job.

Which goes along with what I'd gleaned over the years. But again, it's still hearsay.

I'd also look at this article on Paul Cornell's movement for a US-style "writer's room" in UK television productions, particularly this quote: "We have less money to spend, and actors and technicians unions have negotiated better overtime deals in the UK." Which confirms, in a way, the overtime issue with British television production.

That basically says it comes down to budget. If they had bigger budgets they could pay out for the overtime, but they don't so they can't.