Series 5 to be shown in two halves?

[diankra]

If I remember rightly, Doomsday was on before the 3rd/4th place off between Germany and Brazil. I don't think the show was affected at all by the World Cup last time.

There was definitely A match on BBC1 immediately before Doomsday, as I clearly recall Gary Lineker announcing that Doctor Who would definitely start on time, even if they had to cut the post match chat. If I can find the relevant Radio Times easily (it's the one with Daleks and Cybermen playing football on the covers) I'll check, just to deal with that niggling 'Oh, I ought to know' feeling

 

[HappyDayRiot]

I only remember at all because I was on holiday that day and demanded the girl in the pub put the Doctor on, and we watched final in the same pub, but I'm pretty sure the final was on the Sunday. The Doctor was definitely on as normal though, otherwise I wouldn't have known what time to go to the pub to see it!

Ah apparently it was Portugal in the play-off, not Brazil. And it was on 8th July 2006, which was indeed the Saturday. Not a bad attempt but I can't find what time it kicked off!

EDIT ah no it kicked off at 21:00 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_FIFA_World_Cup

If there was something on before... rugby maybe? Or if Lineker was involved, golf? Early July could even have been Wimbledon.

I'm putting far too much thought into this.

 

[Stevil2001]

Might also give the production team the chance to see how the audience react to young Smithy, and possibly make changes for the later episodes.

I doubt it. Even if they do split the season, once they start filming, they're probably not going to stop, preferring to do a continuous nine-month block. You can't really let the staff go off for a bit and come back/

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Even if they do split the season, once they start filming, they're probably not going to stop, preferring to do a continuous nine-month block. You can't really let the staff go off for a bit and come back/

They'd also have most of the season in the can by February, and if they're filming out of order, it's possible they could have filmed some of the late episodes first. While it might be possible to do pick-ups for the later episodes once the season began, it would also be more trouble than it was worth.

Thus, I concur. It's not practical to rejig the last half of the season based on the audience reaction to the first half.