Officially no series 8 in 2013

[Brendan Moody]

Always two there are

Except when there are three. Series one had two credited executive producers (Gardner and Mal Young), as did series five and six (Willis and Piers Wenger). Phil Collinson was also credited as an executive producer on the seven 2007/2008 episodes for which he didn't receive producer credit, a reflection of the overlap in his actual role.

 

[The Wormhole]

I know, I remembered that after I wrote the post (but before clicking "Submit Reply" button) but decided to keep it thta way. Turn down opportunity to impersonate Yoda, I will not.

 

[Mr Awe]

^^ I have no idea who does what. But, whatever the current arrangement is, it's not working!

Always two there are, a showrunner and an executive producer.

RTD had Julie Gardner as his executive producer during his entire run, Moffat had Beth Willis for his first two years or and now has Caroline Skinner as his Executive Producer.

Not true as pointed out. But, again, the current arrangement isn't working. I think he needs more help. Not everyone is equally suited for managing productions (or any large scale projects for that matter). It doesn't reflect badly on him, his skills are more for storytelling.

Mr Awe

 

[diankra]

In any case, I think some posts are missing a point about the executive producer role: it isn't really a job, it's a position in the power structure.

For Steve Moffat, it means that there's nobody on the actual production team who can overrule him on creative or editorial matters apart from the other executive producers (all anyone else can do, ultimately, is mutter 'Do you think that's wise, sir?' or 'Well you can take my name off the bloody script then!!!'), and they are there as representatives of the BBC Wales hierarchy or to handle the mechanics of production.
If Steve's workload does play any role in the decisions over production schedules , then it's his workload as a writer, and in exercising his right to check the results and make changes if he's not happy with it, rather than just saying 'There's the script, look forward to seeing it, hope it comes out well, I'm back to my typewriter'. How does anybody else take that over (apart, obviously, from him writing fewer episodes... as RTD did from season 2. Hmm, SM has done 6+Xmas, 5+Xmas, and 4+Xmas, IIRC).
Decisions on the production schedule, number of episodes, etc, are made at least one step further up in the hierarchy... if Steve's exec producer trump card is a king, the people there have got aces. In that sense, one problem might be the job roles of the other exec producers: Julie Gardner was head of drama at BBC Wales, Mal Young was head of drama overall, whereas I don't think their replacements are as senior (the involvement of someone senior is both reassuring and worrying - it can mean that a project is important, or that it's seen as risky and in need of close supervision). Who no longer has anyone with an ace actively working on it - which could mean that it's no longer important, or just that they think it can be left to take care of itself.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Not true as pointed out. But, again, the current arrangement isn't working. I think he needs more help. Not everyone is equally suited for managing productions (or any large scale projects for that matter). It doesn't reflect badly on him, his skills are more for storytelling.

It seems to me -- and I freely admit that I could be reading the set-up entirely wrong -- that Moffat, like RTD before him, is filling a role that used to be filled by two people. Moffat is like Hinchcliffe and Holmes rolled into one, JNT and Saward rolled into one. Heck, even like Berman and Piller (or Braga) rolled into one. Moffat isn't just the guy running the writer's room (though Who doesn't have a writer's room, he's herding the freelancer cats as though there were a writer's room), he's also the guy who oversees the production as a whole. Caroline Skinner, like Beth Willis and Phil Collinson before her, seems like the person who figures out how to make it work and makes the trains run on time down on the shooting floor; in other words, she's the Bob Justman or Peter Lauritson of Doctor Who rather than the Rick Berman of Doctor Who.

The problem with saying that "Moffat needs help" is that Moffat really seems to enjoy being both Rick Berman and Michael Piller at the same time. He likes being the "name;" splitting apart his duties, even if it's to bring in an Ira Steven Behr-type to herd the freelancers like cats, takes off some of his luster.

 

[Brendan Moody]

Piers Wenger was also Head of Drama for BBC Wales while serving as an executive producer for series five and six. But the current Head of Drama is Faith Penhale, who has no direct role in Doctor Who.

The general vibe seems to be that Moffat was already more hands-off about other writers' scripts than RTD, if not about overseeing production in general, so I don't think bringing someone else in on that side would help so much. Not having to run two hit BBC dramas at once would probably help, but it seems the BBC would rather have him making both than backing away from either, which isn't surprising.

 

[diankra]

Moffat is like Hinchcliffe and Holmes rolled into one, JNT and Saward rolled into one. [SNIP] Caroline Skinner, like Beth Willis and Phil Collinson before her, seems like the person who figures out how to make it work and makes the trains run on time down on the shooting floor.

Not sure that's really accurate: yes, Moffat is doing parts of both the old Holmes/Hinchcliffe script editor/producer roles, but... he has script editors who do parts of Holmes's role, and Hinchcliffe's role included a lot of actual production work that is now done by the producer or other exec producer (ie, Marcus Wilson and Caro Skinner).
In effect, Moffat's role is to do the more creative bit of Holmes's role, and the more creative bit of Hinchcliffe's role, but with the authority of Hinchcliffe, whereas Holmes was officially the junior partner (in practice, in the successful teams, they were partners and effective equals. When that wasn't the case, you got the dysfunctional relationship of JNT and Saward).

 

[Samurai8472]

So news has come out that Jenna Louise Coleman has signed up for "Strictly Come Dancing"

That usually airs in the fall. By this time Series 7 will be finished airing. There's not lot of wiggle room for Series 8 filming before December


Get the pitchforks ready for an "Autumn 2014 Series 8" airing date

>_>

 

[Brendan Moody]

I doubt Jenna-Louise Coleman is going to be in the series past the anniversary special anyway-- as StCoop pointed out a while back, Clara's birthday is 11/23, which suggests her whole plotline is part of the anniversary build-up. They could be planning to keep her on after the mystery of her character is solved, of course. But even given all the gaps and schedule changes of the Moffat era, I'd be amazed if they were going to put of the start of post-anniversary filming that long.

 

[Lonemagpie]

So news has come out that Jenna Louise Coleman has signed up for "Strictly Come Dancing"
>_>

Um, no, popbitch thinks she's on their wishlist, that's it - the celeb dancers aren't hired until around June, so neither she nor anyone else has "signed up" for this year.

So, no, total bollocks, for now anyway.
(And in any case, the celebs do still manage to shoot their regular shows during Strictly, as Colin Salmon confirmed on screen last season, talking about flying in for the weekend from wherever he was filming Arrow during weekdays)

 

[Brendan Moody]

There's a big difference between being a recurring cast member on an American show with a large cast and being one of the two regulars on Doctor Who. But if this is just Popbitch spouting stuff, then it's more than likely moot anyway.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I doubt Jenna-Louise Coleman is going to be in the series past the anniversary special anyway-- as StCoop pointed out a while back, Clara's birthday is 11/23, which suggests her whole plotline is part of the anniversary build-up. They could be planning to keep her on after the mystery of her character is solved, of course. But even given all the gaps and schedule changes of the Moffat era, I'd be amazed if they were going to put of the start of post-anniversary filming that long.

If I had to guess, I'd say that filming on series 8 will begin in late June or early July, once filming on Sherlock is done (and it's well into post) and roughly at the same time that season 7 finally finishes airing.

However, I freely admit that filming could begin much sooner than that. Heck, it could begin next month with the anniversary special filming coming where the third block would be.

 

[Starkers]

So news has come out that Jenna Louise Coleman has signed up for "Strictly Come Dancing"
>_>

Um, no, popbitch thinks she's on their wishlist, that's it - the celeb dancers aren't hired until around June, so neither she nor anyone else has "signed up" for this year.

So, no, total bollocks, for now anyway.
(And in any case, the celebs do still manage to shoot their regular shows during Strictly, as Colin Salmon confirmed on screen last season, talking about flying in for the weekend from wherever he was filming Arrow during weekdays)

Yeah the Strictly celebs don't get picked for a while yet, but it wouldn't surprise me that she was on their wish list, I posited a while back that given the 50th it wouldn't surprise me if there was a Who connection on Strictly (in fact I half suspected they might go after Davison if I'm honest).

And yeah plenty of celebs are filming/working while the show is on.

Hmm, I wonder if its possible to Salsa to the Doctor Who theme?

 

[Lonemagpie]

So news has come out that Jenna Louise Coleman has signed up for "Strictly Come Dancing"
>_>

Um, no, popbitch thinks she's on their wishlist, that's it - the celeb dancers aren't hired until around June, so neither she nor anyone else has "signed up" for this year.

So, no, total bollocks, for now anyway.
(And in any case, the celebs do still manage to shoot their regular shows during Strictly, as Colin Salmon confirmed on screen last season, talking about flying in for the weekend from wherever he was filming Arrow during weekdays)

Yeah the Strictly celebs don't get picked for a while yet, but it wouldn't surprise me that she was on their wish list, I posited a while back that given the 50th it wouldn't surprise me if there was a Who connection on Strictly (in fact I half suspected they might go after Davison if I'm honest).

And yeah plenty of celebs are filming/working while the show is on.

Hmm, I wonder if its possible to Salsa to the Doctor Who theme?

Davison's probably a likely choice, looking at the sort of celeb mix they get...

 

[Starkers]

Yeah he's quite well know (probably up there with Tom in terms of classic Doctors) and they usually have a celeb or two in their sixties (sometimes they don't last too long, sometimes they do) Plus there's the added bonus of his son in law in the audience on occasion

I'm still surprised ITV got Colin Baker last year for I'm a celeb?

 

[Snick27]

I have so many friends that like (some love) this show, but gave up watching it since its never on anymore.

They get busy watching other stuff or just gave up trying to figure out when its on. And even if its found to be on, they forgot what that season arc is or what the last episode they watched was about.


This show is making inroad in America so what do they do, split this season in half and show the last few starting in March and then no more till what Nov for 1 60 min episode and then wait till fall of 2014 to show maybe 5 episodes again.

Talk about killing your buzz and get forgotten.

Regarding the 50th.

Something like this you dont screw up. You have Baker, Davidson, Other Baker, McCoy, McGann nearing the end of their lives, and to piss this away for any reason just defeats the whole point of celibrating the 50th.

To just throw out a single 60 min episode and call that your 50th Anniversary is a slap in the face and showing no respect to this show.

Shows Big Finish cares more about this show than BBC does.

 

[MNM]

Something like this you dont screw up. You have Baker, Davidson, Other Baker, McCoy, McGann nearing the end of their lives, and to piss this away for any reason just defeats the whole point of celibrating the 50th.

While I agree with quite a lot of what you have said, I dont think Paul McGann is "nearing the end of his life" be being only a couple of years past 50!

 

[Starkers]

It was James Bond's 50th last year. We got a film...

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Well, what else could you do with James Bond? Besides, we got a longer than usual film, fwiw.

 

[Venardhi]

For a film franchise, that would be expected. It is a whole other animal.