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season 8 "probably" 12 episodes

I would imagine the series would end in time for the BBC to release the boxset for Christmas, so end-August/early-September as suggested would meet that criteria.

Right. 12 eps from 30th August lets Worldwide release the box set in late November, perfect timing for the Christmas market. And BBC1 can run a 4/6 week serial/try out after that if they want.
 
No.

In the "Time of the Doctor" The doctor says

"Remember. I didn't always call myself the doctor"

There have been 11 doctors Plus One WAR doctor

12 regenerations


Capaldi is number 1 in a new set.

Eleventh doctor- We're breaking some serious science here! regeneration number 13!

FIRST CYCLE
0. Hartnell (1st incarnation, 1st "Doctor")
Regeneration #1: Troughton (2nd incarnation, 2nd "Doctor")
Reg #2: Pertwee (3rd incarnation, 3rd "Doctor")
Reg #3: T. Baker (4th incarnation, 4th "Doctor")
Reg #4: Davison (5th incarnation, 5th "Doctor")
Reg #5: C. Baker (6th incarnation, 6th "Doctor")
Reg #6: McCoy (7th incarnation, 7th "Doctor")
Reg #7: McGann (8th incarnation, 8th "Doctor")
Reg #8: Hurt (9th incarnation, "Warrior")
Reg #9: Eccleston (10th incarnation, 9th "Doctor")
Reg #10/#11: Tennant (11th and 12th incarnations, 10th "Doctor" - used up regeneration energy but kept the same face)
Reg #12: Smith (13th incarnation, 11th "Doctor")

SECOND CYCLE
Reg #13/#1: Capaldi (14th incarnation, 12th "Doctor")
 
my personal view is capaldi is the new batch of 12 and the 13th Doctor, metacrisis doesn't count cause he's human, and to me Capaldi is akin to the Hartnell in age sorta, and will be getting younger as the doctor regenerates to 24. I also remember that the Valeyard is supposed to manifest during Capaldi's time, and can't wait to see that play out!
 
my personal view is capaldi is the new batch of 12 and the 13th Doctor, metacrisis doesn't count cause he's human, and to me Capaldi is akin to the Hartnell in age sorta, and will be getting younger as the doctor regenerates to 24. I also remember that the Valeyard is supposed to manifest during Capaldi's time, and can't wait to see that play out!

What I posted above is not my, or anyone else's, personal view, but what was explicitly established in The Time of the Doctor. The metacrisis double himself doesn't count, no, but the amount of regeneration energy used to create him does.

When Clara points out that he's number eleven, the "Eleventh" Doctor replies; "Are we forgetting Captain Grumpy? Hah? I didn't call myself the Doctor during the Time War, but it was still a regeneration."

Clara: "Okay, so you're number twelve."

The Doctor: "Well, number ten once regenerated and kept the same face. I had vanity issues at the time. Twelve regenerations, Clara. I can't ever do it again. This is where I end up. This face, this version of me."

The Valeyard may or may not manifest during Capaldi's time, depending on whether the production team decide to go there. They paid lip service to him in The Name of the Doctor, but he's not necessarily a fixed point in time. He was supposedly an "amalgamation of the darker sides of [the Doctor's] nature, somewhere between [his] 12th and final incarnations." That would suggest that this has already been averted, as we're now on a whole new regeneration cycle - he would have manifested between Tennant and Smith (the twelfth and final incarnations of the Doctor's original cycle), similar to the Watcher or Cho Je. Don't be disappointed if we never see or hear of the Valeyard again; I think that ship has probably sailed.
 
So what is happening with Doctor Who? This show has been off more than it's been on that it's so far off my radar right now that it's becoming an irrelavent show. I still like Doctor Who, (And today I watched the ending scene of The Empty Child where the Doctor joyfully screams, "Everybody Lives") but other than Capaldi, there really has been nothing of note. Also, Amazon keeps sending me emails about the Season 8 blu ray release, which is cute in an annoying kind of way.

Now I read this thread, and there is this trivial question of 12 episodes or 13 episodes, and honestly, does it matter? Is one episode that big of a deal? It's kind of like what Brannon Braga termed the "Continuity Pornographers" during Enterprise's run worrying about shit like that.

It's almost June. When does the new season start?
 
So what is happening with Doctor Who? This show has been off more than it's been on that it's so far off my radar right now that it's becoming an irrelavent show. I still like Doctor Who, (And today I watched the ending scene of The Empty Child where the Doctor joyfully screams, "Everybody Lives") but other than Capaldi, there really has been nothing of note. Also, Amazon keeps sending me emails about the Season 8 blu ray release, which is cute in an annoying kind of way.

Now I read this thread, and there is this trivial question of 12 episodes or 13 episodes, and honestly, does it matter? Is one episode that big of a deal? It's kind of like what Brannon Braga termed the "Continuity Pornographers" during Enterprise's run worrying about shit like that.

It's almost June. When does the new season start?

End of August/early September is looking most likely I think.
 
So what is happening with Doctor Who? This show has been off more than it's been on that it's so far off my radar right now that it's becoming an irrelavent show. I still like Doctor Who, (And today I watched the ending scene of The Empty Child where the Doctor joyfully screams, "Everybody Lives") but other than Capaldi, there really has been nothing of note. Also, Amazon keeps sending me emails about the Season 8 blu ray release, which is cute in an annoying kind of way.

Now I read this thread, and there is this trivial question of 12 episodes or 13 episodes, and honestly, does it matter? Is one episode that big of a deal? It's kind of like what Brannon Braga termed the "Continuity Pornographers" during Enterprise's run worrying about shit like that.

It's almost June. When does the new season start?

End of August/early September is looking most likely I think.

That's good to know. I would love it if a season went right into the Christmas special, so you would have the season, and then in less than a month, there would be the Christmas episode. It would be nice if we got something from the Doctor Who universe for a lot longer than 2 or 3 months. That's where spinoffs come in, or they could have a combination of made for TV movies and the episodes. I actually would like another movie in the same vain of Adventure in Space and Time. That was probably my favorite of the Doctor Who celebrations last year.
 
The Valeyard may or may not manifest during Capaldi's time, depending on whether the production team decide to go there. They paid lip service to him in The Name of the Doctor, but he's not necessarily a fixed point in time. He was supposedly an "amalgamation of the darker sides of [the Doctor's] nature, somewhere between [his] 12th and final incarnations." That would suggest that this has already been averted, as we're now on a whole new regeneration cycle - he would have manifested between Tennant and Smith (the twelfth and final incarnations of the Doctor's original cycle), similar to the Watcher or Cho Je. Don't be disappointed if we never see or hear of the Valeyard again; I think that ship has probably sailed.

Personally, I think it's a bit of a missed opportunity they never tried to tie the Dream Lord in with the Valeyard.
 
I am surprised that the BBC would dare cut away an episode from the standard 13-episode run, though.

13 is only "standard" because that's what they've done in the past. (And I think Series 7 was supposed to be 12 -- 4 in "Series Pond," 8 in "Series Clara" -- until another episode was added.) It's not a magical number.

From a production standpoint, it's probably easier to manage 6 production blocks instead of 7. From an audience standpoint, there's no meaningful difference between a run of 12 weeks or a run of 13.

I agree with something Lonemagpie said earlier; I wouldn't be at all surprised if the episode count in the future ratcheted down to 9 or 10 per year.

The 13th episode included a Doctor Lite episode most of the time anyway, once they went to 14 a year including Christmas.

I imagine those most concerned* do imagine just that once we accept a series being 12 rather than 13, a few years later it will be 10, then 8, then 6.

* and of course they were around for the hiatus, where after years of 25mins x26 it had a year of 45x13 (the same) then it got an extra 14th episode, but a series 25 minutes long again.
 
From a production standpoint, it's probably easier to manage 6 production blocks instead of 7. From an audience standpoint, there's no meaningful difference between a run of 12 weeks or a run of 13.
Of course, that assumes that you keep all production blocks the same size, instead of making one of them larger. :) Weren't all four Cybermen episodes in Series 2 shot as part of the same production block?

I agree with something Lonemagpie said earlier; I wouldn't be at all surprised if the episode count in the future ratcheted down to 9 or 10 per year.
Neither would I. The driving force behind that seemed to be an intent to sell it to a mainstream US broadcaster; now that they've given up on that, as well as producing the show on a regular schedule, there's no reason not to ratchet back. With just the one standing set, there's a dearth of production expenses that can be amortized across multiple episodes.
 
From a production standpoint, it's probably easier to manage 6 production blocks instead of 7. From an audience standpoint, there's no meaningful difference between a run of 12 weeks or a run of 13.
Of course, that assumes that you keep all production blocks the same size, instead of making one of them larger. :) Weren't all four Cybermen episodes in Series 2 shot as part of the same production block?
They were. There were also three three-episode production blocks in the first two series. But Russell T Davies has mentioned (in his excellent interview on Toby Hadoke's Who's Round podcast) that blocks of more than two episodes are a logistical nightmare, which is presumably why there haven't been any since series two.

I'm not sure, though, that the number of production blocks is much of an issue logistics and budget-wise. I suspect the issue is that however you break them down, 14 episodes per year are a lot to deliver given British TV production norms and the scale of Doctor Who. The Davies era only barely managed-- post-production on "Journey's End" was finished just three or four days before broadcast-- and the Moffat era has never actually attempted it: they only had to do 13 episodes in series five, and the split season approach allowed extra time for series six and seven.
 
I imagine those most concerned* do imagine just that once we accept a series being 12 rather than 13, a few years later it will be 10, then 8, then 6.

I'm just greedy, one more story is one more adventure. The only reason I'd see to want less as a viewer is if you believe less output = higher quality which I'm not so confident about with Who.
 
Regarding number of episodes, I'd far prefer quality over quantity. If we got ten stellar episodes I'd far prefer that to 13 mediocre ones, though having said that any problems with Doctor Who have always been to do with the writing and the plot rather than any production issue, well at least for me.

I'm not sure one episode difference really helps much though.
 
The 13th episode included a Doctor Lite episode most of the time anyway, once they went to 14 a year including Christmas.

Don't be surprised if we don't lose the Doctor Lite episodes. Even the seasons that didn't need it still did something close. In season 1 we had The Long Game, which brought Adam along for another episode specifically so he could go of and have his own subplot and allow Eccleston and Piper a bit of a break. Season 5 didn't have a Doctor Lite episode, though The Lodger is a Companion Lite one given that Amy has very little involvement in the episode.
 
I'm torn by the episode count. On one hand I would prefer to keep it at the status quo (13+xmas) but 10 episode seasons are fast becoming the norm and I could handle that if it changed.

I still think the BBC should drift into spin off territory again. It never hurts the parent show and always gives an extension of the universe we all love.


Whilst it might not harm the paren show, I'd rather see no spin-off than a poorly executed one. But even a reasoable spin-off can go south i.e. TW: MD but I think that was more down to too much padding to get it out ten episodes it would have worked better at 5 episodes.
 
I think even a 5 episode Miracle Day would have fared poorly compared to Children Of Earth, the later also had the advantage of being screened over 5 nights, it was (minor) event Television.
 
I think even a 5 episode Miracle Day would have fared poorly compared to Children Of Earth, the later also had the advantage of being screened over 5 nights, it was (minor) event Television.

I don't know about fared POORLY.
If the idea had been executed well--like really well and not the dreck that we got--I don't know if once a week would've hurt it.

Like Children of Earth used five consecutive nights to their advantage, maybe they could've used once a week to their advantage... more time has passed than normal in TV shows on a week to week, and we could really see how over population would tear down society--which was a real weakness in what we got. Things didn't seem so bad.

It's not something we would ever know, really.

And to add: what a fucking shitty show Miracle Day was. Awful awful awful. If I could unwatch it, I would.
 
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