Would a November special be so bad? It would remove the pressure to make it Christmassy.
I think that, whenever they're going to start the season in the fall, they should do an Easter special. I feel like this is especially crucial in cases like Seasons 8 or 11 when we're starting with a new Doctor and I can't friggin' wait for 8+ months to see what the new Doc is really like. (Maybe even moreso in Whittaker's case to take the edge off the doubters who object to a female Doctor. The longer it takes before we actually see her, the more rampant overheated speculation we're going to get.)
Quoted for Truth. In fairness I have less of an issue with Chibnall's work that I did in his Torchwood series 1 days, but I still don't think he's ever written anything to the level of Moffat or RTD or Whithouse, and that's my worry (but then again if he surrounds himself with great writers and his idea of having a writers room takes off then this may not be an issue. There's no rule that says the showrunner has to be the best writer on the show I guess
I was never particularly blown away by RTD's scripts (with the sole exception of "Midnight"). He would occasionally posit great scenarios that would lead to big, bombastic finales. And his season premieres would usually be appropriately light & fun. But when you get right down to it, all of his scripts have been a bit basic. He's never really had a gift for a great hook the way Moffat has.
Granted, Moffat could sometimes get himself into trouble by making his stories overly convoluted ("A Good Man Goes to War," "The Wedding of River Song," "The Name of the Doctor," "The Time of the Doctor"). And in some of his more stripped down simple stories, his boredom tends to seep through ("The Bells of Saint John," "The Pilot"). But I'll always be immensely grateful to him for giving us "The Eleventh Hour," "The Pandorica Opens," "The Big Bang," "The Impossible Astronaut," "The Day of the Doctor," "Deep Breath," "Heaven Sent," "The Husbands of River Song," "World Enough & Time," and "The Doctor Falls."
What's brilliant about Whithouse is that episodes like "Vampires of Venice," "The God Complex," & "Under the Lake" aren't trying to reinvent the show like the best Moffat episodes are; they're just executing the formula with absolute perfection!
That also makes sense of the pre-season marketing and trailers, which suggested very strongly a pre-Christmas regeneration. I'm not talking about ending the trailer with the mid-season fakeout regeneration. I'm talking about the whole "Tune in for Peter Capaldi's final adventures" angle. There was very much a sense, especially from BBC America, that this run of twelve episodes was the end, full stop. Because, as now seems likely, at the time the marketing plan was made, that was the intention.
Huh. I was always assuming that Capaldi would go at the end of the Christmas special, just like Tennant & Smith. I never got any other impression from the marketing. I just figured it's Capaldi's final adventures because it's his final season.
What's the hook to get people to tune in in November? Christmas specials take advantage of the fact that it's Christmas day, and people don't have much else to do anyway, so why not a Doctor Who special? This results in a larger percentage of people tuning in for the broadcast of the episode than you'd get in November when say life, work, some other shit gets in the way and people decide against watching it live and settle for DVR, streaming and all the various alternatives.
I'm telling you, you Brits need to consider adopting Thanksgiving. It's all the gastronomic indulgence of Christmas but without the stress of needing to buy anyone any presents yet. It gives the end of the year some much needed structure.
(Although, I gotta say, I didn't like Series XI quite as much as Series X. IMO, the show is usually at its best when it's a low-budget bottle show. That's why Series I & II will always be my absolute favorites.)
