Season Six and Seven: Spring/Autumn 2011

[DimesDan]

So the Moff has been telling people his plans for Doctor Who Next Year and here it is on the Guardians website:

The new series of Doctor Who will be split into two for the first time, with its showrunner, Steven Moffat, promising the show's biggest ever cliffhanger – "an earth-shattering climax".
Next year's 13-part series, the sixth since Doctor Who returned in 2005, will run for seven episodes and then return in the autumn for another six.
Moffat said the Easter "mid-season finale" would be a "game-changing cliffhanger".
He added that next year's Doctor Who would run as two separate series, allowing him to double the number of "event episodes" in the new run, and meant fans would never be more than a few months away from the next instalment of the hit BBC1 show.
"Looking at the next series I thought what this show needs is a big event in the middle," Moffat told the Media Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival.
"I kept referring to a mid-season finale. So we are going to make it two series – seven episodes at Easter building to an earth-shattering climax, a cliffhanger we could never normally do because it would be too long before it came back. An enormous game-changing cliffhanger that will change everything.
"The wrong expression would be to say we are splitting it in two. We are making it two separate series.
"What I love about this idea is that when kids see Doctor Who go off the air, they will be noticeably taller when it comes back. It's an age for children. With an Easter series, an autumn series and a Christmas special, you are never going to be more than few months from the new series of Doctor Who.
"Tart that I am, we will now have two first nights and two finales, twice as many event episodes as we had before."
Moffat, who was also responsible for BBC1's acclaimed updating of Sherlock Holmes, took over stewardship of Doctor Who from Russell T Davies last year. His first series in charge was acclaimed by viewers and critics alike.
Moffat gave festival delegates a first glimpse of this year's Christmas special, guest-starring Michael Gambon and Katherine Jenkins.
Moffat said he chose Matt Smith as his Doctor on the very first day of casting.
"He has that air about him, he's like a young man built by old men from memory," he added.
He first saw Karen Gillan, who plays the doctor's assistant Amy Pond, on video and was worried that she was "wee and dumpy". When he met her, he said, he was "expecting a beachball and met this giant flame-haired goddess who is slightly too tall for my comfort. Standing next to her when she has heels on, you feel like the sidecar of a motorbike".
Moffat dismissed some press criticism, early in this year's series, that Amy Pond was "too sexy".
"That's like being too funny, too nice, too enjoyable," said Moffat. "I was roaring with laughter at the article in the Daily Mail, which said when did Doctor Who assistants have to be sexy. Since the beginning! There was one in a leather bikini — we're in the nursery compared to that."
Moffat said the show's budget had remained broadly similar despite BBC cuts. But he admitted: "I don't understand numbers. It's a decent budget. I beg for money and more rubber green people and eventually they say OK, you can have a third rubber green person."
He added that he had not considered a female Doctor, which he said would not have been appropriate at this time in the show's history.
"No we didn't. I think about it sometimes and maybe it will happen someday. It wouldn't have been right this time," he said. "A woman can play the part. You have to remember the single most important thing about regeneration is you must convince the audience and the children that's it's not a new man, it's not a different man, it's the same one. It's a bigger ask if you turn him into a woman."
Discussing his future, Moffat said he would not be leaving the show "for a while yet".
Gillan, in the same TV festival sessions, said she was committed to the show for the new series.
She added that filming on the show, which lasts 11 days a fortnight for nine months, meant she was unable to work on any other projects. As for her future, she said she was committed to the new series but was taking it one season at a time.
"I have no idea. You just have to take it series by series, you can't really look beyond that so who knows? I'm having fun right now," she added.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Interesting...I wouldn't mind this if it happened...and the "game changing event" cliffhanger is this the episode we should expect to see River in since she stated the next time the two meet everything changes? For some reason I don't think we'll ever get their first chronological meeting.

 

[Joe Washington]

I would love there to be a female Doctor. Maybe she can be the doctor's next regeneration. Imagine a woman with the Doctor's energetic oddball personality.

 

[Mr Light]

So, seven in the spring/summer, six in the fall?

 

[Sci]

Hmm. I wonder if that means that the six episodes in the fall will be classified as Series Seven, or if they'll all be considered part of Series Six.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Hmm. I wonder if that means that the six episodes in the fall will be classified as Series Seven, or if they'll all be considered part of Series Six.

Moffat says in that Guardian article that they're separate seasons: "The wrong expression would be to say we are splitting it in two. We are making it two separate series."

 

[Kelso]

My prediction: Instead of a single 13-episode series for $90, we'll be able to get two 6-7 episode series for $65 apiece.

 

[Sci]

Hmm. I wonder if that means that the six episodes in the fall will be classified as Series Seven, or if they'll all be considered part of Series Six.

Moffat says in that Guardian article that they're separate seasons: "The wrong expression would be to say we are splitting it in two. We are making it two separate series."

Yeah, but is he speaking legally or metaphorically? Is he calling them separate series in terms of story structure or in terms of how they are legally classified by the production staff? Will this be classified as two series by contract, or just in terms of how the story works?

In other words -- is this split creating two seasons de facto and de jure, or just de facto?

 

[Takeru]

For some reason I don't think we'll ever get their first chronological meeting.

We already saw it from the Doctor's point of view.

I want to see River meeting the Doctor for the first time, but I don't want it to be treated like a big thing. It would be funny if she just showed up at the end of a random episode after the Doctor gets used to running into her again and again and when he walks over and aks "Hey Song, have we done this and that yet?" she just looks at him like he's a crazy stalker. The next episode could start with the Doctor mentioning how awkward it was or something like that.
I just don't want the first time she sees him to be the last time he sees her, I don't like the idea of their respective timelines being reversed, it really should be all over the place.

What could be a game changing event anyway? It would have to be something that involves either an established character or something that changes the show or the universe fundamentally and it has to be something unexpected so I don't think it's "Oh my god, River killed the Doctor!!!", that was implied so much no one should be sursprised by it.

I assume the cliffhanger will reveal who controlled the Tardis in last seasons finale, whoever it was already blew the thing up, so it wouldn't make much sense if they tried to keep the secret for too long. The game changing part will be the person's identity.
Maybe it's Rory, the 1990 tag didn't mean nothing, it was the first hint that Rory is not who he seems to be, Moffat just played dumb and Rory didn't wait for Amy because he loves her so much, he's a sadistic bastard who want's to fuck with the Doctor, so he pretends to be awesome and makes the Doctor truly like and appreciate him even if it means waiting for 2000 years and then he stabs him in the back just for shits and giggles. Due to time travel he already knew how the events of series 5 would play out, so he willingly let himself be eaten by the crack and his reappearance in The Pandorica opens wasn't a cosmic coincidence at all.

No, that doesn't make much sense, it's probably a good thing I'm not a writer.

 

[DAK]

I found the interview with Moffat here on youtube.

I hate this idea. If the first part is series 6 and the second half is series 7, we're basically getting gypped half a season's worth of episodes both times. Worse, that would put Matt Smith at the end of his 3-year contract. Great news for the cast and crew no doubt, as it would considerably lessen their work load, but it sucks for us fans.

 

[Sci]

I found the interview with Moffat here on youtube.

I hate this idea. If the first part is series 6 and the second half is series 7, we're basically getting gypped half a season's worth of episodes both times.

.... no, we're not. We're still getting 13 episodes, which is what we'd get in the spring.

Worse, that would put Matt Smith at the end of his 3-year contract.

Only if this contractually counts as two separate series rather than one series split in two. We don't know that.

 

[Takeru]

Worse, that would put Matt Smith at the end of his 3-year contract.

It wouldn't, they'd still film the 13 episodes back to back, they just air some of them later the same year. How would that take 2 years of his contract? (I assume it's a 3-year contract, not a 3-series contract)

 

[Samurai8472]

No Daleks next year either

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/cult/s7/doctor-who/news/a269483/moffat-no-daleks-in-next-who-series.html

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I'm not sure how I feel about this. I feel like I'm being greedy but I want to have 13 episodes all at once, damnit!

No Daleks next year either

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/cult/s7/doctor-who/news/a269483/moffat-no-daleks-in-next-who-series.html

Now, this is great news!

 

[DAK]

I found the interview with Moffat here on youtube.

I hate this idea. If the first part is series 6 and the second half is series 7, we're basically getting gypped half a season's worth of episodes both times.

.... no, we're not. We're still getting 13 episodes, which is what we'd get in the spring.

Moffat called them Series 6 and Series 7. When they get released on DVD you'd better hope they only charge half price then.

Worse, that would put Matt Smith at the end of his 3-year contract.

Only if this contractually counts as two separate series rather than one series split in two. We don't know that.

See above.

Worse, that would put Matt Smith at the end of his 3-year contract.

It wouldn't, they'd still film the 13 episodes back to back, they just air some of them later the same year. How would that take 2 years of his contract? (I assume it's a 3-year contract, not a 3-series contract)

I thought it was per series. I hope I'm wrong.

 

[Candlelight]

No Daleks next year either

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/cult/s7/doctor-who/news/a269483/moffat-no-daleks-in-next-who-series.html

Funny, they said that about season one, that 'Dalek' would be it.

They also said the Daleks wouldn't appear in season two.

Considering the new Paradigm Daleks have yet to prove themselves as dangerous villains (their first appearance they killed three other Daleks and that was it, their second they had to form an alliance with other species, their third had one of them begging not to be exterminated...). Moffatt himself said he doesn't know how to write Dalek stories, and rightly so.

It's a pity. I think splitting the show is a bad idea, and a lean towards how shows are screened in the US.

 

[Sci]

I found the interview with Moffat here on youtube.

I hate this idea. If the first part is series 6 and the second half is series 7, we're basically getting gypped half a season's worth of episodes both times.

.... no, we're not. We're still getting 13 episodes, which is what we'd get in the spring.

Moffat called them Series 6 and Series 7.

No, he didn't, he said that it's inaccurate to say they're splitting series six and more accurate to say they're two series. Whether he was speaking metaphorically or not, we do not know.

When they get released on DVD you'd better hope they only charge half price then.

Who the hell buys the DVDs new? I wait until their prices are much lower on the used market.

 

[Candlelight]

.... no, we're not. We're still getting 13 episodes, which is what we'd get in the spring.

Moffat called them Series 6 and Series 7.

No, he didn't, he said that it's inaccurate to say they're splitting series six and more accurate to say they're two series. Whether he was speaking metaphorically or not, we do not know.

If they're part of the same production block then I would still call them Season Six.

If the remaining six episodes were filmed later in the year, it's Season Six and Seven.

 

[The Wormhole]

It's basically one season split in two. Yes, I know Moffat is telling us not to think of it this way, but at the end of the day, it's still 13 episodes, split up over the year.

I'm of two minds on this. One, I hate, hate mid season breaks which have become all the rage on American shows in recent years. Especially with Sci-Fi (or SyFy, whatever they call themselves) which have mid season breaks longer than the hiatus between the actual seasons.

But on the other hand, I like they are classifying them as seperate seasons. Getting back to what I said about SyFy, I often wonder why they don't just classify one ten episode period of BSG or Stargate or whatever as a season. You air ten episodes, end the tenth on a cliffhanger, take the show off the air for several months, release those ten on DVD, might as well drop the pretense of it being the same season and start classifying it as a seperate season. Nice to see Doctor Who is doing it this way.

Still, a wait and see, I guess. I would prefer all 13 episodes to air together, but it could be interesting to see how this plays out.

Oh, and that thing about no Daleks. As much as I love the Daleks, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to give them a rest. But still, what the hell was the point to redesigning them if we aren't going to see the new design very often. In Victory of the Daleks, they emerge from fog, wipe out the RTD era Daleks, introduce themselves by their titles (what the hell does "Eternal Dalek" mean anyway?) talk about detonating a bomb, and then leave. Then in The Pandorica Opens they are just one of many aliens assembled, and The Big Bang just features a stone sculpture of a Dalek. And since they are supposedly not returning next year, then what the hell was the point in redesigning them? S5 could have saved money and not compromised their stories at all by keeping RTDaleks and not creating these new Power Ranger Daleks.

 

[Bacl]

No Daleks next year either

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/cult/s7/doctor-who/news/a269483/moffat-no-daleks-in-next-who-series.html

Thank God almighty!

Now just keep the cybermen away too and we'll be all set.