But can they leave out Rowan Atkinson, Richard Grant, Jim Broadbent and Hugh Grant? The real numbers' 8, 9, 10 & 11 to Joanna's #12
Ahh, that old chestnut
I think we can still expect a gap year after every four years. In The Writer's Tale, RTD explains the 2009 break was planned back in 2006,* as he feels after every four years, a show should take a year off. Indeed, he even added that had he remained Doctor Who showrunner indefinitely, there would always be a gap year after every fourth season. So depending on how long RTD's next term is, we can expect at least one hiatus.
I considered that, but the new element is the Disney funding. Will they be OK with a gap?
I would expect when Disney and RTD made their deal, something like this would have been discussed. Besides, any potential "gap years" that happen on RTD's watch are more likely to be similar to 2009 in that we still get Doctor Who specials throughout the year rather than a whole year without new content like we got during Moffat and Chibnall's eras. And with the Disney funding, I can see them really leaning into the gap year specials, making them bigger in scope than the typical episodes, making them perhaps movie-like. There was already a bit of embellishment with the 2009 specials, location shooting in Dubai, bigger name guest stars. With Disney funding? No telling where they'd go.
Absolutely, and the spin-offs could begin in different years so that their fourth seasons would be staggered in different years and only one show would be on hiatus on any particular year. Although, I find it far more likely that RTD would only be a senior executive on any spin-offs with the day to day showrunning handled by someone else, like he did previously. On Torchwood, that was Chibnall, Gareth Roberts on SJA. In which case, those showrunners would have the final say on whether they wanted to do a gap year with their show. Certainly, SJA went for five years without a gap and would have gone six were it not for the unfortunate event that transpired during the fifth season.
Oh, I'd definitely be surprised if we got more than ten episodes a year, if that. Shorter seasons are en vogue these days, and indeed, the live action Star Wars and MCU shows on Disney+ don't even get ten episodes a season. The one exception is Andor, though that's more about accommodating that show's narrative structure. Also, Andor is meant to be a limited series that will end after its second season.
The problem here is there's a whole extra set of legalities in place which prevents the modern series from referencing the Cushing movies, as proven when Moffat had to excise the reference to them from Day of the Doctor at the last minute.
That was a digital deep fake of Peter Cushing.
Oh, you're probably thinking of Wayne Pygram in Revenge of the Sith. Calling that a "performance" is probably being generous though, he literally just stood there for ten seconds or so. It's only because of the credits we know that was even supposed to be Tarkin.
