Moffat stays for season 10

[Sindatur]

Because if the Tories get their way, there will be no license fee.

Yeah, but then how stupid would a now-commercial BBC have to be to cancel one of its top five shows?

Because it could be seen as squandering money that could be used for other programmes.

Personally, I've always felt that if Auntie lost the Fee and needed Advertising to generate money, then they'd be more than fine, it's the likes of ITV, Channel Four and Channel Five that would suffer.

But doesn't Doctor Who pay for itself, plus have money left over (When you take into account Exporting, licensing fees for extended Universe and Merchandise?) If so, what squandering? It's profitable, which is the entire point of Commercial Television

 

[DimesDan]

Yeah, but then how stupid would a now-commercial BBC have to be to cancel one of its top five shows?

Because it could be seen as squandering money that could be used for other programmes.

That is not how commercial broadcast television corporations work.

Yes I know that. You asked a question, I answered it.

From the sounds of any changes that happen to the BBC though, it will be forced to have the Fee removed but come under more oversight from HMG.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Yeah, but then how stupid would a now-commercial BBC have to be to cancel one of its top five shows?

Because it could be seen as squandering money that could be used for other programmes.

Seen by who? As a commercial television station it wouldn't have to answer to anyone but advertisers, who would be falling over themselves to book spots during DW; a massively successful series popular with a lot of key demographics.

Yeap, i imagine advertisers woud be throwing cash at the BBC left, right and center, for adverts between Who, i think those Who spots alone would be quite a gold mine.

 

[ATimson]

From the sounds of any changes that happen to the BBC though, it will be forced to have the Fee removed but come under more oversight from HMG.

How would that work? If there's no government funding from the Fee anymore, how could they justify any government oversight at all?

 

[Ithekro]

While I don't know about the rest of the government, I was pretty sure the Queen liked Doctor Who.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

While I don't know about the rest of the government, I was pretty sure the Queen liked Doctor Who.

Prince Charles did, too.

 

[DimesDan]

From the sounds of any changes that happen to the BBC though, it will be forced to have the Fee removed but come under more oversight from HMG.

How would that work? If there's no government funding from the Fee anymore, how could they justify any government oversight at all?

I really have no idea, I'm not even sure if Government know themselves.

 

[Lance]

Moffatt will last all of Peter's reigns most likely and that's fine by me. I would like after season 10 that Who takes a hiatus to recharge for several years. Hell with the upcoming Tory slashing to the BBC budget, they might not be able to afford it after 2016

Even if there's a budget cut, I sincerely doubt the BBC would let go of such an iconic show as Doctor Who, particularly given that it is such a huge moneymaker for BBC Worldwide, and particularly given both its huge popularity. How do you justify the television license fee if one of the top three shows the television license payers want is gone?

Those close to the series in the 1980s swear blind the situation was the same: the show brought more money into the BBC than it ever cost to make, and the licence fee being a contract to "give the viewers want they pay for" was no barrier to Michael Grade trying to axe the show for his own personal reasons. Ultimately, it doesn't matter if the show has got 'tenure' at the Corporation, or even if it makes loads of cash for them. If somebody at the BBC can make a reasonable case for ending it and replacing it with something else, then it will be ended and replaced.

Under Davies I'd never have considered it possible. Under Moffat, I'm not so sure. (That isn't a slight against the man himself; but more an observation that Davies was given a blank check, because times were good, whereas Moffat has had to deal with lots of external production factors outside his control, most importantly an ever decreasing budget pool to draw from, which is at least in part a reason why Series 6 and Series 7 each got split in half.)

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Russell T. Davies has implored Moffat to bring River Song back.

Of course, Moffat finds a way to turn the possibility into a sex joke.

Seriously, though, I'd love to see Kingston and Capaldi together. I have the suspicion that River has never met the twelfth Doctor, because the twelfth Doctor was never supposed to exist. That would make an interesting story, one where River is at a loss and doesn't know who the Doctor is.

 

[Ithekro]

Will they call Matt Smith if there is snogging involved? Or will Capaldi manage to resist Kingston's snogging? There is equal cause for River to both love the 12th Doctor and hate the 12th Doctor. This could be "her Doctor" rather than the 11th, thought I image the 11th Doctor really is "her Doctor". Or the 12th could be to grumpy and that is a reason she didn't want the 11th to die, because he'd regenerate into this grumpy man she met at some point.

But then, with River Song, you never can tell exactly how much she knows.

 

[Lonemagpie]

In Silence In The Library, River described Ten as "so young" - well, Smith was even younger, but if she's thinking of an older Scottish Doctor we've now got one....

 

[Sindatur]

In Silence In The Library, River described Ten as "so young" - well, Smith was even younger, but if she's thinking of an older Scottish Doctor we've now got one....

I very much would like to see Capaldi and River onscreen together, but, honestly, even when the episode was first aired, I didn't see that line as referring to wrinkles or anything else along those lines, I saw it as what she saw in his eyes (The eyes are the window to the soul)

 

[Ithekro]

Matt Smith's Doctor was old in terms of his eyes. Even though the next time we know of that the Doctor saw River Song in person, he was only a few years older that when they had met in the Library. He wasn't too many weeks from his regeneration at best and only a few years after the 10th saw River.

The Doctor was so very old when he was actively dating her/married to her. Yet he was like a child at times. But considering she can age as much as she likes (Time Lord bits) and they keep running into each other in the wrong order, she could have been seeing the 12th Doctor on the side, between dates with the 11th. Or she's seen him and didn't like him.

But then she had an advantage of being able to research him and find all his faces. He likely never looks since he doesn't like to look before he goes someplace. She could have (and likely did) visit each Doctor at least once, to get to know him. All of him.

 

[Green Lantern]

Moffat really does look like he's going to be the JNT of the revived series.

 

[Doctorwhovian]

JNT if I remember correctly wanted to leave around the time of the Sylvestor McCoy era (especially because of the behind the scenes mess of the Colin Baker era), but got stuck because they would cancel it if he left.

 

[starsuperion]

In Silence In The Library, River described Ten as "so young" - well, Smith was even younger, but if she's thinking of an older Scottish Doctor we've now got one....

Interesting thought, which then brings me to that very point, silence in the library was set before the events of the big bang, where Matt smith's doctor rebooted the universe, and an opening was essentially laid out in the name of the Doctor for a rewrite of history where River Song because of the big bang may have survived the library and had a late regeneration, her ghosting mind could still be in the central computer and a fully corporeal River could have also escaped after the Doctor left the library planet. So under the timey wimey rule of thumb, it is entirely possible River could return. We've seen the Doctor expend enough regeneration energy to heal while remaining in his tenth body, and Jenny certainly stayed the same when she regenerated, so it could go either way.

 

[Ithekro]

It might be funny if sometime in the future, there was a female Doctor, and they did a mulit-Doctor story with Matt Smith. They can use him at any age, technically, just that any time he actually looks older was some trip from Trenzalor.

But what I think would be funny is if he recognized that she is the Doctor, and she's the one making him run. A quip of "I am a companion now. Companions are cool", would fit by then.

 

[Lance]

Moffat really does look like he's going to be the JNT of the revived series.

JNT if I remember correctly wanted to leave around the time of the Sylvestor McCoy era (especially because of the behind the scenes mess of the Colin Baker era), but got stuck because they would cancel it if he left.

The difference between JNT and Moffat, was that JNT was the last 'in-house' producer of the show (ie, on the BBC's payroll). Indeed, he was very possibly the last in-house producer of drama under the old BBC system, period. The 1990s are when the system changed, and the BBC started employing freelance producers on a contractual basis, rather than farming their own in-house team. Flash forward to now, and the new series producers are all 'freelancers' who are contracted for fixed twelve-month terms which must be renewed each year (unlike JNT, who as a BBC employee had official "tenure" at the corporation, so even when they didn't have an actual job for him to do, they still had to pay him -- it's worth noting that when Doctor Who finally got cancelled in 1989 and they didn't have another job lined up for him anymore, they employed him as a 'consultant' for the video range instead).

Basically JNT was nailed into place, and unless the head of drama lined up another gig for him within the BBC, then his three options were to stay put on Doctor Who, settle for being paid to sit around twiddling his thumbs until his boss found him another job, or resign from the BBC entirely. JNT stayed on Doctor Who because his boss told him to. In the case of Moffat, he can part ways with the show anytime he likes, because he isn't employed in-house. The only reason he's there is because he chooses to stay on Doctor Who.

 

[diankra]

The difference between JNT and Moffat, was that JNT was the last 'in-house' producer of the show (ie, on the BBC's payroll). Indeed, he was very possibly the last in-house producer of drama under the old BBC system, period.

That is the case: he was the last staff producer left at the BBC Drama department after the move to outsourcing/freelancing came in, and as you say he could only have left Who if his bosses had transferred him to another series, or he resigned from the BBC as a whole.
However, there are a couple of times when he stayed for another year in part because he was worried that any replacement would come in with a brief to "End it after one more year."
So John Nathan-Turner was motivated by a mix of self-interest and concern for the series wasn't always apparent to his critics at the time (including myself).

 

[USS KG5]

From the sounds of any changes that happen to the BBC though, it will be forced to have the Fee removed but come under more oversight from HMG.

How would that work? If there's no government funding from the Fee anymore, how could they justify any government oversight at all?

I really have no idea, I'm not even sure if Government know themselves.

They couldn't and won't - I don't think ending public service broadcasting in the UK is even part of the plan.

What the Tories object to is the license fee, a flat independently set tax in theory paid by everyone, that creates a series of ludicrous prosecutions filling up the courts for those who don't pay it. One statistic said 80% of pending prosecutions in some magistrates courts were for non-payment.

The government forsee a much leaner BBC, that still is funded and regulated by government, or more likely an independent body, but without the quite high flat tax.

It is good for Doctor Who - as it actually returns a profit to the BBC, it is quite bad for services like the BBC websites.

The license fee exemptions are also really stupid, never watch broadcast TV but spend your whole life on BBC News and iPlayer? No requirement for a license, fundamentally unfair.

I make it a point never to agree with anything Cameron wants, I can't stand his agenda, but the license fee does need a change of approach.