How many more seasons do this show have left?

[Tomalak]

I do wonder if people have really payed attention to Moffat's episodes, or if they just have some idealised view that he will be the reincarnation of Hinchcliffe and Holmes and usher in the new golden age of Doctor Who.

Watch Silence in the Library! He makes the Doctor into a god who can open the Tardis with a click of his fingers. He obviously loves the series, but has no fawning respect for its traditions and is only too quick to point out its faults. He will have no qualms about changing whatever he likes to make a good story.

 

[Starkers]

Even if it fails, Doctor Who will come back eventually. As RTD once said in one of the commentaries, the series has now been successful twice, so it's a pretty safe bet that someone will try to bring it back again one day.

Well to be honest even if Smith's a disaster (and I personally don't think he will be) I doubt very much that the Beeb would close the whole shebang down. More likely they'd at least try to rescue it by losing Smith and regenerating him into Doctor number 12 before they cancelled the show.

To me, fan wank means dredging up obscure stuff from the classic series.

Which in RTDs five years amounts to a brief cameo by the Macra in one episode. Hardly excessive?

I said "more likely to". I admit that I admire Moffat's imagination and writing much more than RTD's efforts.
I have great hopes that we won't see episodes where everything except the kitchen sink is thrown into the plot, much less use of the sonic magic wand, and no more farting aliens.

To be honest things such as Midnight and Children of Earth suggest to me that in many ways RTD can be as good a writer as Moffat. Two things have precluded this during his Who run, IMO, the first is that RTD can’t/won’t reign himself in sometimes, the second is sheer volume. At most Moffat has had to write two episodes. RTD has written at least 4, plus produced the show, and I think the more you write potentially the less imaginative you can be. Anyone expecting series 11.1 to be full of Blinks is really going to be disappointed, and I fully expect at least one of Moffat’s stories to be below par—of course much like RTD I imagine his below par eps will still be engaging.

I’ve lost a little bit of respect for Moffat since seeing the Time Traveler’s wife because I now realise just how many ideas he seems to have lifted from that. Certain elements of The Girl in the Fireplace and a whole heap of stuff in the library two parter, and if what I hear is correct, certain elements of the 11th Doctor’s relationship to Amy as well.

Of course Who has always been magpie like, and this doesn’t stop me loving the curse of Fenric (The Fog) or Robots of Death (any number of Agatha Christies!)

 

[Icemizer]

As long as this show keeps bringing in the ad dollars it will keep going. The sets can get cheaper, the aliens more TNG, the cgi more obvious but as long as it brings in the green the little blue box will keep spinning.

 

[Stevil2001]

I have great hopes that we won't see episodes where everything except the kitchen sink is thrown into the plot, much less use of the sonic magic wand, and no more farting aliens.

The farting aliens who haven't appeared (outside of the children's series TSJA) since 2005?

And while I don't have have the exact quote to hand Moffat has pointed out in the past the he has given the SS far less plausible functions than anything Davies did and has no plans to stop.

Right. Moffat is the man who had the sonic screwdriver reattaching barbed wire, and I think the first person to have the Doctor using it like a tricorder, doing medical scans in "The Empty Child".

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Right. Moffat is the man who had the sonic screwdriver reattaching barbed wire, and I think the first person to have the Doctor using it like a tricorder, doing medical scans in "The Empty Child".

Well he should definitely go on the naughty step for that.

 

[Mr Awe]

How much time is left for Doctor Who? That's a tough one, but the answer is we have absolutely no way to know. It'll depend on how well the series is doing at any given point. It won't be cancelled until it starts doing poorly for a least a couple of seasons. Even then, it might be retooled rather than canceled, depending on how poorly it's doing.

So, the only thing we can estimate is the minimum amount of time that's left, the lower bound. I'd say a minimum of 2 series. If the the next season doesn't do well, we'll get at least on more for them to make changes.

However, I think odds are great that we'll get significantly more than 2 more years. I'm not expecting the show to tank at all. But, there's no way to know whether the Tennant years were the apex or not until history runs its course.

Mr Awe

 

[wamdue]

yes answering this question for Doctor Who is not as easy for other shows, its long history & the concept of regeneration, both give the show no natural end date. IT really depends on viewer interest the ability of the BBC and the Producers to keep the quality up.

Sure we have a regeneration limit, but that is not impossible to get around, and could be as simple as

the new regenerated Doctor gets up off the floor, surprised, What, I shouldnt be here What, WHAT! A loud booming voice seemingly to come from everywhere & nowhere "ill explain later" the Doctor shrugs his shoulders and says "thats good enough for me"

I guess its possible that Moffatt & Matt Smith might fail, but I dont think its likely, so its safe for at least another 3 years, companions come & go, as if Amy doesn't impress she is soon replaced.

 

[Shazam!]

I think they need to get a new music composer or at least tone it down by 11.

 

[Samurai8472]

*And if she wasn't making a big Hollywood career for herself, he'd no doubt be crowbaring Sally frigging Sparrow in there too.

Sally Sparrow and Matt Smith + Weeping Angels = A massive amount of Moffatness

I wonder if Amy's boyfriend could have been Sally's boyfriend had Carrie committed to season 5.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I think it'll run strong for at least another five years. My personal hope is that whoever is running the show when The Doctor is on his final regeneration will seriously consider ending the show upon his death. I want to see them explore The Doctor facing his own mortality and actually have the guts to end the show with his death instead of finding some gobblegook explanation around the 13 regeneration limit.

The only problem I have with that is this. After so many years, what gives whoever is in charge at the moment the right to end the show? It's almost unfair both to fans of the show and to any future British producer who might think they have a shot at making great Doctor Who episodes.

Now, granted, they could always apply their creativity to something original, but I think the guts it would take to end the show would be tremendous. And what if the last episodes sucked? Then it would really be bad for those who wanted to end it.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I think they need to get a new music composer or at least tone it down by 11.

QFT. More subtlety and less bombast please.

 

[Mr Awe]

If the show is doing well enough, the producer at the end of last incarnation probably would not have the permission to end the show. That would be a higher up decision. A producer can never cancel a show.

If it was doing well at the point, I don't think there's anyway they higher ups would end it. If it was limping along, sure they could make that choice.

Mr Awe

 

[Tomalak]

As long as this show keeps bringing in the ad dollars it will keep going. The sets can get cheaper, the aliens more TNG, the cgi more obvious but as long as it brings in the green the little blue box will keep spinning.

That's not how the BBC works at all.

It's all funded from the licence fee, and sales of shows to other countries and on DVD have no direct bearing on the budget of the show.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

If the show is doing well enough, the producer at the end of last incarnation probably would not have the permission to end the show. That would be a higher up decision. A producer can never cancel a show.

If it was doing well at the point, I don't think there's anyway they higher ups would end it. If it was limping along, sure they could make that choice.

Mr Awe

I'm not sure that's true, at least not in the UK. Gavin & Stacey is popular, ending after this series because the producers want to. Ashes to Ashes, ending after series 3 because the producers want to. Extras, The Office ditto... There are probably more recent examples too but they're the ones that pop to mind right now.

 

[wamdue]

those are all new shows, from one producer, the future of Doctor Who is very much in the hands of the BBC, rather than Stephen Moffatt.

 

[23skidoo]

Regarding the longevity question, while I don't expect to see it last 26 years (other than The Simpsons and Law & Order I do not expect us to ever see shows of that like again), I don't see any reason why this can't make it at least to Season 10. Proportionately speaking DW is just as popular in the UK as NCIS (now in Season 7 and still going strong) and CSI (approaching Season 10 and having survived its equivalent of a Tennant-to-Smith changeover with the replacement of Gil Grissom). If the demand continues, and if the BBC still makes a profit from DW, it'll continue. There might be some doubt as to whether the BBC will continue much longer, but I would think it a safe bet that if the BBC folded, and again assuming DW remained a money-making going concern, that it would be picked up instantly by either a cable network or even one of the non-BBC UK networks. The only concern I have looking ahead is that I don't want to see DW rebooted, or the clock reset, or reimagined. Yes, reimagining has worked really well with shows like BSG. Yes, rebooting/resetting the clock has brought Star Trek back to life. But the RTD era proved that maintaining the original continuity with Doctor Who was viable and could be pulled off without causing the "canon overload" that alienated so many prospective new Trek fans (forcing Abrams to reboot continuity with his movie). He set the successful precedent, so when the current incarnation of the series inevitably ends, whether next year or 5 years from now, when the time comes for it to be brought back yet again, whoever is charged with doing the job will have more than enough incentive to keep the original thread going, rather than starting over or "fixing what isn't broken". Of course, no one expects the Doctor to die after life 13. The Five Doctors, Utopia, and even in a perverse way the 1996 TV movie showed us how the Doctor could get around it. Some have suggested the death of the Time Lords removed the restriction. If you count the Morbius Doctors or the Cartmel Masterplan as canon, then possibly the limit never applied to him in the first place because of him being The Other or half-human or whatever. David Tennant himself said it is the easiest issue to rectify in the world, and can be done with a single line of dialogue. I would hope whoever ends up writing for the 13th Doctor does take the opportunity to ramp up the tension, but like no one believed Bruce Wayne was really killed off earlier this year, so too I can't see anyone really expecting the Doctor to snuff it after life 13 ends. Especially not if the show continues to attract millions of viewers and make millions of pounds for the BBC and/or whoever owns the property when the time comes. Alex




PS. I have no idea what happened to the formatting of my message. Looks like TrekBBS suddenly forgot how to parse paragraphs. I honestly didn't write one unbroken paragraph like that, but for some reason it won't let me fix the formatting.

 

[wamdue]

There might be some doubt as to whether the BBC will continue much longer,

its not quite that bad yet.

 

[Mr Awe]

If the show is doing well enough, the producer at the end of last incarnation probably would not have the permission to end the show. That would be a higher up decision. A producer can never cancel a show.

If it was doing well at the point, I don't think there's anyway they higher ups would end it. If it was limping along, sure they could make that choice.

Mr Awe

I'm not sure that's true, at least not in the UK. Gavin & Stacey is popular, ending after this series because the producers want to. Ashes to Ashes, ending after series 3 because the producers want to. Extras, The Office ditto... There are probably more recent examples too but they're the ones that pop to mind right now.

I'm sure the producers asked for permission to end the show but technically, no, they didn't make the decision.

Unless the UK does it drastically different than the US.

Mr Awe

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

I'm not sure. As has been said, at least a minimum of 2 more seasons. And that's only if both Matt Smith & the 12th Doctor bomb horribly in their 1st year.

How much longer does it have to keep my attention? That's harder to say.

When the new series first started, Seasons 1 & 2 made me believe that they could do no wrong (except for "Love & Monsters" and "Fear Her"). I've never seen another show start out so incredibly strongly.

However, I thought Season 3 was largely dross (except for "Human Nature," "The Family of Blood," & "Blink"). I'd gladly trade most of Season 3 to the oblivion of history in exchange for discovering some new Patrick Troughton stories.

From a story perspective, I wasn't very interested in Season 4 either. What saved Season 4 for me was the addition of Catherine Tate. She gave Donna Noble a depth that Rose & Martha had been missing. Plus, as a skilled comic actress, Donna enabled Tennant to calm the fuck down every once in a while.

I'm trepidatious about Matt Smith & a new companion. While Tennant seemed to me to be a natural progression from Eccleston, I have no idea what they plan to do with Smith. IMO, it will need to be something radically different from what Eccleston & Tennant did. Otherwise, he'll be nothing but a pale immitation.

Similarly, for a new companion, I think they'll need to move away from the Rose/Martha model. I don't want another young ingenue making doe eyes at the Doctor for 13 episodes. I want an actual character, or at least an actress capable of instilling character into her performance.

 

[Starkers]

Well I could be wrong, but I can see progression from Tennant to smith, going on what I've seen of smith, not to mention his outfit.

Eccleston was the damaged, grumpy almost cowardly at times survivor who gave way to Tennant the manic, arrogant romantic action hero who (I reckon) will give way to Smith, the scatty bonkers mad professor trapped in the body of a young man. I can see him being eaily distracted and somewhat vacant, sometimes manic as Tennant, oft times quite thoughtful. Similarly I can see Amy being very different to any of the other new series companions with the exception of maybe Donna. We've seen pictures of her being very forceful, dragging the Doctor this way and that, so I can see her being a very dynamic companion, very ballsy and a take charge kind of girl, and even if there is romance between the two I think Moffat will play it very differently. Though he loves his romance (maybe even more than RTD) I don't recall him ever creating a character as vapid or morose as Martha. Moffat's female characters are strong women. They may be neurotic (Sally) or vague (Jayne) but they're rarely victims, or if they are they're rarely victims for long. I'm expecting a very different dynamic between the Doctor and Amy to what we've seen before.

Man I'm so looking forward to it