I don't know about other DW fans here, but this is exciting. Maybe Capaldi will stay on, maybe he'll go. We know the new companion has been cast, but don't know who it is. In theory, it could be anyone. There's a new showrunner coming in and we get another year of Moffat. There's a new spin-off in the offing, with announcements coming soonish. The BBC novels are kicking along and Big Finish is putting out series with John Hurt, Alex Kingston, David Tennant & Catherine Tate. Holy hell, there's a lot of cool Doctor Who going on. This is exciting. And the anticipation is delicious.
Except, this year Doctor Who is pretty much on hold. We only have one episode, the Christmas special. There's also Class, true, though aside from being set in Coal Hill and Capaldi possibly appearing in an episode, expect that to have very tenuous links to the Who universe over all. Chibnall doesn't officially take over for another two years (okay, one since his season could begin filming next year). I'll grant you, Big Finish has a lot of output, but the novels don't. In fact, the only novels confirmed for this year are Target novelization reprints, a new Tenth Doctor era novel, and The Legends of River Song. I guess you could also include the Lethbridge-Stewart novels as contributing to the Who universe, but those (good as they are) aren't from the BBC. If anything, this is a rather unexciting year for Doctor Who.
I couldn't disagree more. The potential is always better than the actual. You ever read the back of a book and think, "My god, that sounds amazing!" then read the thing and are disappointed? That sense of wonder and excitement and hope is far better. Right now, there's basically infinite potential in the upcoming Who projects. Whereas sitting down to actually watch something, especially last series, is often a let down. With things stuck in a potential state they could go anywhere. When things become realized then they're stuck in an actual state. You get bad guest stars, poor scripts, gaffs, continuity errors, bad arcs, wonky casting, and of course the inevitable fan wonkiness. Nah. Far better to be excited by the potential.
That there is so much new content in an "off" year is an exciting thing for a fandom. More great news is that Doctor Who S1-8 will be available again in the US through Amazon Prime streaming on the 27th.
For me the exciting times was this day in 2005 in the hours leading up to "Rose", wondering what the new Doctor Who was going to be like? Would it tie into old Who? Would it reimagine things too much and go too far away from Doctor Who? I wondered how I would have reacted back then that it would still be on in some form eleven years later.
I posted an entry on my blog about 2016 being the year of no Doctor Who -- except that there's so much Doctor Who anyway. Big Finish, Doctor Who books, spinoff books like the Lethbridge-Stewart and Erimem books, several comics every month, and all the stuff I still have to catch up on. And Class, of course. If you're only interested in the TV series, well, you only rarely have new Doctor Who. This year is just more of the usual state of things. But there are few fictional universes with as much tie-in and spinoff content as this one. There's always a lot of Doctor Who to explore.
People who only like the TV show may only rarely get Doctor Who, but its still generally 12-13 episodes a year, as opposed to 1 episode in a year. Its definitely not a usual state, at least if you came into Who after the 2005 revival. Even Tennant's last year gave 4 specials. I mean, for me I know there are a bunch of old Who stories I haven't seen when I feel the urge to watch some Doctor Who, but it still sucks to have almost no new Doctor Who stuff this year.
Although, in previous years when the classic era was still being put out on DVD, getting the monthly selection was kind of like getting new Doctor Who all year round. Yes, I know, we're talking about stories that were 20-nearly 50 years old, but for me this was how I watched the classic era, the new DVDs that came out every month, plus a handful from the "back catalogue" I would pick up on a monthly basis, took me a little over three years to get through the available material this way. And it was fun. Now, I literally only have new Who when it airs.
I haven't heard of the Lethbridge-Stewart novels. Any details on those? I've generally been frustrated with the lack of consistent novel output. It used to be that there were at least 6 new novels per year, more during the Wilderness Years. Now, it's more like 3 per year, sometimes more if they include additional previous Doctor adventures. Me too. Although, here in the U.S., we're still waiting for "The Underwater Menace" in May. (I also still haven't watched some of the animated stories like "Scream of the Shalka" & "Dreamland.") Meanwhile, American fans that still have gaps in their DVD collections are SOL. Currently on Amazon, there are some stories that are currently selling for $100 or more and an R1 DVD of "The War Games" can't be had for any price! (I recently purchased "Planet of Fire" for around $50 and not a moment too soon. Amazon now has it listed at $300! )
It's a series that picks up after The Web of Fear and focuses on the adventures of Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart in his pre-UNIT (and therefore pre-Brigadier) days. They aren't licensed by the BBC, rather by Haisman and Lincoln, the Brigadier's creators. Here's the TARDIS Wiki's page on them and the official website for the series.
I've read the first two. Not bad. They're managing to get a fair number of books out, like the Erimem folks, and they do the occasional free online short story.
This is getting really annoying now. Back in the Hartnell and Troughton eras, Doctor Who used to be made and broadcast pretty much all year round. In the Pertwee and Baker years, a season lasted 26 weeks - the show was on as often as it was off. Under RTD's tenure, the each series had thirteen episodes (a quarter of the year), plus a special Christmas. One year was taken off, but viewers were notified well in advance and there were special episodes produced for the interim. Nowadays we've had two series that were split in half (the latter taking two years as a result and therefore effectively losing us an entire season). When Capaldi came in it looked as if some stability had been regained (with it now permanently settled as an autumn show), but then we have it casually mentioned to us that the show will be prorogued for an entire year with no Whoniverse programming at all. Between this and the dissolution of Top Gear I'm feel as if my whole televisual existence is slipping away from me.
Well, not quite. We are going a whole year without Doctor Who, but we have Class contributing to the Whoniverse. And indeed, Class was announced before Doctor Who's gap year was made official, leading to some speculation that Class was to serve as compensation for no proper Who for an entire year.