The last week or so has seen something of a panic spread through some Doctor Who fans all sparked by a fairly
damning article in Private Eye claiming that all was not hunky-dory in the production team, mentioning that problems included “…re-ordering episodes and finding creative reasons for spectacular monsters and CGI creations to be given as little screen-time as possible to save cash…”. All of which will sound eerily familiar to anyone who’s read
The Writer’s Taleor for that matter knows anything about the production of the series since 1963.
The aspect of the article that war responsible for the loudest wailing and the most gnashing of teeth was the claim that BBC wales had proposed a cut-down series for 2012. It
soon emerged that while there would be a full series of thirteen episodes produced in 2012 though not all of those episodes would be transmitted in 2012.
According to a
reliable poster the sole reason for the delay in the start of production on Series Seven is simply to move the transmissions to darker times of year.
The same poster goes on to assure that Danny Cohen’s
comments at Church and Media Conference on Tuesday that “He [Moffat] needs enough time to get that [Sherlock] done and then start work on the next series of Doctor Who,” was joking. Yes, he doesn’t sound like he’s joking. But, like someone not a million miles away from this keyboard, Cohen apparently has “a very, very dry sense of humor and deadpan delivery, and unless you can see him say it as well (preferably in close-up), you can’t tell.”
It certainly looks like the production and transmission pattern used for the 2011 series will be repeated for Series Seven, it’s just being moved five months further down the calendar. Instead of starting filming in September as Series Six did, Series Seven will probably commence in February. And as with the current series the transmission of Series Seven will be broken up in to two blocks of episodes, the first should start broadcasting in October/November 2012 with the second broadcasting in February/March 2013 with the Christmas Special keeping its usual airdate, which will now be mid-series.
The poster goes on to note that as ever, the BBC hasn’t officially commissioned any further episodes. The BBC rarely commissions a programme for more than one series at a time. However, unofficially it is pretty much a certainty that the series will be commissioned for
at least another two years.
So, there you have it. The shocking news is that we’re going to have to wait about as long between Series Six and Seven as we did between Series Five and Six.
