Forget about Moffat and Chibby. Who's ready to wait 12 - 20+ months for a new series of Doctor who?
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This is how I feel. The longer break would be fine if it meant they would be starting fresh with a new Doctor and a new companion. They could treat it like a new series.
Waiting that long just for Moffat and Capaldi to finish up seems like the wrong way to go.
Nothing kills my interest in a show quite like excessively long breaks.
Well to be honest, I have already went a year without any Who i was interested in, that last season for me personally was a complete miss, so I suppose on the bright side I am already acclimatised to no Who, so another year and a half won't really make any difference to me at this point.
I keep thinking about the Friday dump someone (I forgot who, I'm sorry) said and can't help but wonder about the internal politics of the matter. Also wasn't the last time we had a hiatus was four years ago with the summer olympics? With the Olympics again it almost seemed like it was obvious we wouldn't get the series this year. Like I said up thread, I think I'm ok with that.
Would've been nice to have had a tv movie season like Tennant's final year, but I guess given how bad Moffat's direction has gone maybe a gap year will do the show good.
Well, Moffat himself did promise to shorten gaps between seasons, it was the justification he gave for doing a split season back in season 6. And since making that promise the gap between seasons has been increased three times. Regardless whose decision it was, it's still a broken promise.
According to RTD, BBC wasn't very enthused about the 2009 specials since, believe it or not, they had to put more money on the line for them than they would have had a regular season been done. So it doesn't really surprise me they're not going that route again.
Did he actually say "I promise" or "I guarantee" or the equivalent, or did he just express it as an intention? When the decision is not entirely within one person's ability to control, there's no sense in blaming that one person if things don't work out the way they planned. All they can do is try their best.
I guess he expressed it as an intention. Still, I stands out like a sore thumb that the exact opposite came to pass, regardless of who if anyone is to blame.
His quote was something like, "We'll never been more than six months away from new Doctor Who." Realistically, Moffat was never in a position to make a statement like that authoritatively; the scheduling of Doctor Who was (and still is) a decision above his paygrade. That's why I cut Moffat some slack on that statement; it never was and never could be the promise or guarantee that fandom thought it was.
I think that's a fair read. If Chibnall is the person that the BBC wanted for a while and they were waiting for him to be free, then they didn't have many good options for 2016 and 2017 given that Moffat has made it pretty clear, such as in the interviews before the Christmas special, that he really wanted out sooner rather than later.
I admit I'm looking at this from an American perspective, where television series bring on new producers without causing massive hitches in production. I know British television is a different beast, but it seems weird to me that the BBC couldn't line up a producer for a one or two year run to bridge the gap between Moffat and Chibnall. (This has been brought up at Outpost Gallifrey. The response this gets is usually something like, "There aren't that many producers in Britian who are Doctor Who fans. And why would a non-fan take on Doctor Who?" Those answers feel made up to me. There's truthiness to them, but not necessarily truth.) Maybe they tried and genuinely couldn't find someone. But, truthfully, I feel they probably didn't try at all. StCoop is probably correct; Moffat was guilted into one more series, but it was so late in the day that the realistic possibility of a number of episodes in 2016 had already passed.
Yup, this !
Whilst I love Capaldi and still think Moff's run has been better in quality than RTD's, it's all....just continuing. The show's had a long run for any series and there will be inevitable diminishing returns.
I'd say change the format - make episodes a full hour and use two episodes per story, go back to four, six or eight half hour's, or just make hour and a half specials a couple of times a year.
Then again, they could just cancel it, which would be O.K. too...
It's not like fans haven't had to wait years inbetween seasons before. Which while midly annoying is preferable to cancellation. A longer lead time does perhaps have a few advantages.
Longer to work on scripts esp. if they have to tie into an overall arc.
It allows longer for them to find a replacement Doctor for when Capaldi likely leaves at the end of next year.
Longer to work on scripts esp. if they have to tie into an overall arc.
It allows longer for them to find a replacement Doctor for when Capaldi likely leaves at the end of next year.
Yeah... I've been rewatching Classic Who lately and I'm nearing the end of the Hartnell era. In season 3, they went through three producers in one year -- Verity Lambert left, John Wiles took over but clashed badly with Hartnell, so he left after a few serials and Innes Lloyd took over. Back then, they had no trouble changing staffers -- or cast members -- on a dime. There was very little advance planning.
It's a totally ridiculous idea. You don't have to be a fan of something to do it well. I mean, when a show starts out, it doesn't have any fans, because nobody's seen it. The people who come in and write for it at the start, who establish the things that make the fans love it in the first place, are doing it because they're professionals who need to make a living. Heck, Innes Lloyd didn't want to produce Doctor Who -- he didn't even like science fiction -- but he oversaw the entire Patrick Troughton era and is seen as the one who largely defined the successful formula for the series from then on. Nicholas Meyer wasn't a Star Trek fan, but he directed or co-wrote three of the most beloved movies in the franchise.
I think a lot of fans don't understand that what's a hobby for them is a profession for the people who actually make these things. For a professional, caring about the work you do is a matter of professional pride and commitment, not just recreational affinity. So it doesn't matter if you were previously a fan of the series you're working on. If it's your professional responsibility, then you care about doing it well. And creating is not the same as consuming. There are plenty of people who make television but rarely watch television. They're too busy making it, and when they do get free time, they prefer not to be reminded of their work. So being a fan and being an effective creator have nothing to do with each other.
Unless you count "The Feast of Steven."
Innes Lloyd was replaced by Peter Bryant after The Enemy Of The World then later Derick Shermin took over, the Troughton era had three producers. None were all the experienced with science fiction and given the ratings of that era it showed, even though Troughton's Doctor was much beloved by fans, the era wasn't successful
Excetpt it's not being refreshed until 2018. It's coming back next year for one last series with a man in charge who apparently doesn't actually want to be there.
(yes I am naive I know)
I think the reason why a non fan as a producer seems so "threatening" is, because the show has so much history now and continuity (yes, even as losely as DW) and "rules", that a newbie producer/head writer who has no clue about all that couldn't possibly keep it all straight.
A non fan would have no choice, but to take only the basic concept and make his own thing with hardly any relation to what came before.
That means change.
And we all know how whovians react to that.
Of course the mythology stuff could and would always be relegated to the veteran writers.
But you don't need all of that to run the show. The great thing about Doctor Who is that it's constantly reinventing itself. All that really matters is having the madman in his blue box traveling through all of time and space with at least one companion. The rest will fall into place as need be.
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