Bad news for 2012

[Allyn Gibson]

...add to that the fact that he's also working on Sherlock...

And since I've seen the comparison between RTD and Moffat come up elsewhere (and this post gives me a reason to riff)...

Some have cited RTD's ability to run Who, Torchwood, and Sarah Jane as a comparison point for Moffat. "RTD did three shows simultaneously. Why can't Moffat do two?"

It's actually a false comparison.

RTD was a Rick Berman figure on Torchwood and Sarah Jane -- overseeing things, making sure the paperwork was signed and nothing was going over budget. He handed Torchwood off to Chris Chibnall, after polishing off a script that had been collecting dust in the drawer for a decade, and RTD didn't come back to Torchwood in a creative capacity until Children of Earth, which you see in The Writer's Tale fit into RTD's schedule while Doctor Who was on hiatus between "The Next Doctor" and "Planet of the Dead." Similarly with Sarah Jane; he cowrote the pilot and handed it off to others to run.

Moffat has his hands creatively in both Who and Sherlock, because he wants to have his hands in both. Yes, Moffat could hand the reins of Sherlock off to, say, Mark Gatiss, but why should he? More importantly, why would he want to?

 

[Brendan Moody]

^While I don't see any point in trying to compare the workloads, which as you say are different in many ways, I think you're understating RTD's involvement with Torchwood and Sarah Jane. From stuff specifically mentioned in the first edition of The Writer's Tale, he was rewriting scripts for SJA series 1, contributing to the script for TW 2.1, and watching dubs and rushes and edits for both shows. And that's just stuff mentioned in passing during e-mails about his work on Who. He wasn't the head writer on either show, but he was plainly the creative executive producer, not just the money and publicity guy.

One big difference is that during that period TW and SJA were spinoffs with less profile, so RTD could and did minimize his commitment to them (he backed out of writing at least two TW scripts and an SJA two-parter, and mentions that he and Julie Gardner lost track of certain SJA episodes after the last edits) to stick to DW. Since Sherlock is equally important, Moffat doesn't have that option.

 

[bryce]

I am so confused...so what exactly are we looking at here? Does anybody have any real idea what's going to happen next year? No Who? only 1/2 a season airing late in the year? One season/series - the 7th - split between 2012 and 2013? Or does that mean we aren't even going to have a full 13 episode season every again?

I'm just really confused by all the contradictory information flying around here and on other sites - and hell, I'm just confused period by most of what's being claimed. (Maybe because I have a big headache...)

Can anyone simplify this for me.

 

[Bacl]

I'm sure BBC America won't be happy after the $7m they spent advertising the current series (and paying for the Utah shooting for the first two episodes).

That money could have been spent making 7 more episodes.

What a joke the BBC is. Seriously, do they need a PayPal tip jar or something? They can't even manage to produce those jokingly small half-seasons of their most profitable show? Yeesh.

 

[Samurai8472]

Next season(2012) will be about 6 episodes and a Christmas special.

The rest of the season will be in 2013

 

[bryce]

Next season(2012) will be about 6 episodes and a Christmas special.

The rest of the season will be in 2013

Okay...got that...but what about the...um...next season would be season 7, right? So...what about season 8 - which, if we kept with the original schedule would have aired in 2013...?

Will season/series 8 be held until 201 now!?

And instead of getting one season/series a year, are we now going to get one season/series every two years - airing 1/2 a season a year...!?

 

[Winterwind]

Personally in the future I would be happy to see an Easter special ever year followed by a 10 episode season from September-November with a Christmas Special at the end.

I like that idea. Two less episodes on the budget and spread out quite nicely over the year, with the summer off.

 

[Yminale]

I think there is more to it than just budgeting. Maybe Moffat wanted the next season to be his last but the BBC can't find a replacement show runner. The split could give BBC more time to find the Moff's replacement

 

[Lonemagpie]

Next season(2012) will be about 6 episodes and a Christmas special.

The rest of the season will be in 2013

Okay...got that...but what about the...um...next season would be season 7, right? So...what about season 8 - which, if we kept with the original schedule would have aired in 2013...?

Will season/series 8 be held until 201 now!?

Season 8 will start in autumn 2013, whether or not it's split with half following in 2014 - and even if it is, that still means 2013 has a full 13 episodes in it, half in spring and half in autumn.

And instead of getting one season/series a year, are we now going to get one season/series every two years - airing 1/2 a season a year...!?

No - that's only in 2012, and is a better option than having an 18 month gap between seasons 7 and 8, which is the only other option... and which they had to do anyway because they're moving to bigger and better purpose-built studios during a time when they'd normally be shooting a spring season.

 

[Cutter John]

What a joke the BBC is. Seriously, do they need a PayPal tip jar or something? They can't even manage to produce those jokingly small half-seasons of their most profitable show? Yeesh.

QFT.

I mean honestly. Does the BBC always jerk its top rated shows around like this? The folks at ITV must be rubbing their hands together and chuckling to themselves quite gleefully at the news.

Or to be fair, maybe I'm just looking at this like an American. Where a network mucking around with a shows schedule is usually a sign of trouble.

 

[Lonemagpie]

I think there is more to it than just budgeting. Maybe Moffat wanted the next season to be his last but the BBC can't find a replacement show runner. The split could give BBC more time to find the Moff's replacement

No - it's budgeting and the move to a new studio...

 

[Bob The Skutter]

What a joke the BBC is. Seriously, do they need a PayPal tip jar or something? They can't even manage to produce those jokingly small half-seasons of their most profitable show? Yeesh.

QFT.

I mean honestly. Does the BBC always jerk its top rated shows around like this? The folks at ITV must be rubbing their hands together and chuckling to themselves quite gleefully at the news.

Or to be fair, maybe I'm just looking at this like an American. Where a network mucking around with a shows schedule is usually a sign of trouble.

To be honest strict, predictable yearly schedules aren't really the norm for UK TV, some shows get a couple of series a year, others get placed when they can fit the schedules or the people making it and the channels controllers decide to place them.

 

[Saul]

Well this is better than what I read earlier about there being no Who in 2012. 6 episodes sucks bum bums though. We are just getting back into Who again and they pull this crap. I think it's unfair to the show. RTDs got a good run but the series under the Moff is getting jerked around.

My only theory on this is that they need to save on the budget so they can fucking blow us away with whatever they're planning for 2013.

 

[Starkers]

To be honest I think RTD began the process of mucking about with the show when he gave us the specials (though I understood the logic behind the decision I don't think it worked). To be honest I'd rather have half a series next year than just specials.

So is the future set to be half a series in the autumn and the seceond half the following spring? Will we ever see a full 13 episode series all in one go again I wonder?

Edited to add...given that smith is confirmed up to the end of series 7, which will hit mid 2013, does this mean the anniversay year is also going to be a regeneration year? Two Doctors for the price of one?

 

[Lonemagpie]

^^Since he's said things that imply he wants to be there at the anniversary, I suspect he'll quit then, and that the Nov 23rd 2013 episode will be him regenerating into the 12th Doctor. What an anniversary that'd make!

 

[Starkers]

Crikey, that'd be pretty darn cool...although I'll be sad to see Smith go, and a lot may depend on who they hire to be Twelve...

 

[StCoop]

Moffat's comment on Twitter that manages to incorporate spin and patronise people in less than 140 characters!

"Dr Who: misquotes and misunderstandings. [Why would the Controller of BBC One know anything?] But I'm not being bounced into announcing the cool stuff before we're ready. [Half a series next year is all part of The Plan. Just like the mid-series break this year. You still all believe that one, right?] Hush, and patience.[Shut up and wait until we come up with some way of selling this to you.]"

 

[Starkers]

Let's be honest though, it wouldn't matter what Moffat said would it?

 

[23skidoo]

I'm utterly puzzled at this fear and loathing over the new schedule.

Is no one familiar with how American network TV schedules work? They start in the fall, air about half (sometimes less than half) of the episodes in one year, they take a month off for Christmas, and the rest in the new year.

I honestly don't see a problem here. At all.

Now if they'd said "we're commissioning 4 specials and that's it" then OK, I'd say "here comes another gap year" but all I'm seeing is the show shifting to a fall-spring schedule - like it used to be. And like it should, frankly. Doctor Who needs to be appreciated on chilly winter evenings, not sunny spring afternoons (and 6 PM is close enough to being afternoon, especially on a Saturday).

As someone noted above, the UK does not stick to year-to-year scheduling anyway. Red Dwarf had 4-year gap between seasons once. Torchwood is about to come out of a 2-year hiatus, and it's been more than 3 years since we last saw a full-length season of that show.

Moffat put out a Twitter message saying, more or less "don't panic" and I'm taking him at that. Why people are automatically thinking evil of him or of the BBC is puzzling. If you really want to assume this is a great conspiracy to piss on the fans then just stop watching the damn thing because you've turned Moffat into another Rick Berman and I don't need to see Who fandom poisoned by the same negativity that killed Trek fandom.

Reminders: the casting of Catherine Tate and Matt Smith were also condemned as being conspiracies to piss on the fans too. And boy those backfired, didn't they.

Alex

 

[Starkers]

Don't disagree with the bit about this not being a giant evil conspiacy, however when it comes to the US midseason break malarky I have to say I hate it, I like a series to just run concurantly.