Next Doctor Who Season Split in Two

[Logan Westbrook]

Next Doctor Who Season Split in Two

2011 will have the same amount of Doctor Who, but it will be more evenly spread throughout the year.

If you're a big fan of the new Doctor Who, you'll be familiar with the dry months between the end of one season and the start of the next. Sure there's the Christmas special, but that's just a tiny drop in an otherwise Doctor Who-less few months. But next year will be different, as show boss Steven Moffat has decided to split the season into two parts.

Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival in Scotland today, Moffat said that he felt the show needed a big event in the middle of the season. He said that a Doctor Who season was 13 episodes long, which was enough for two seasons of most BBC shows, so rather than show them all at once, it would be split into two blocks, one shown in the spring as usual, and the second shown in the fall. He added that the spring series would "build to an Earth-shattering climax," calling it a "gamechanging" event for the character. In a BBC press release, Moffat also said that the split series meant that fans would be treated to twice as many season premieres and twice as many finales.

It sounds like the loose story arcs of previous series might not be quite so loose when the show resumes next year. When you've only got seven episodes - which is how long the blocks will be - and you're building to some big event, it doesn't leave a much time for a lot of side stories.

Source: Bleeding Cool [http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/08/29/doctor-who-to-split-into-two-half-series-in-2011]


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[tomtom94]

Yay for cliffhangers!
Don't really see any reason to complain.

 

[Nerf Ninja]

Cool that means I'll be able to take a break from Matt Smiths terrible acting then.

 

[phoenix352]

Cool that means I'll be able to take a break from Matt Smiths terrible acting then.

shame on you Matt was a good doctor, sure he wasn't David Tennant but he gave it a good go could of had worse like that guy from season 1 *cringe* .

 

[Arkhangelsk]

How awesome. But unfortunately for me I can't watch BBC, so I can't watch them on my TV.

On another note, I've never understood what people have against Matt Smith. He's a great actor, he brings out the silliness that makes the Doctor great, but he doesn't go overboard with it. Sure, he's no David Tennant, but here's the thing: Only David Tennant is David Tennant, and all the actors who've played the Doctor before can't be cloned either. They all had to quit sometime, you can't keep one forever, and David (who seems to be the popular one) stayed a pretty long time. Matt Smith may be different, but there's no point in asking them to take back Christopher or David, because A)They quit for a reason, and B)It would be a huge *****-slap against Matt.

 

[SomeBritishDude]

It sounds like the loose story arcs of previous series might not be quite so loose when the show resumes next year. When you've only got seven episodes - which is how long the blocks will be - and you're building to some big event, it doesn't leave a much time for a lot of side stories.

This is my main worry about this. The best Doctor Who episodes for me are short stories with neat premise and a plot which rounds itself off at the end. Wouldn't only 6 or 7 episodes leave you with very little time for what Doctor Who excels at, throwing the same characters into very different situations? Hell, more than one 2 parter per series would mean only 4 or 5 unique stories in total. It wouldn't help if a show famous for it's plot holes tries to sustain one continual story over the coarse of 6 episodes.

Doctor Who has always been terrible when it comes to climaxes (last series being one of the worst, an over the top ending without the writing or budget to sustain it). If this means the show will become about leading up to this one climax which will lightly be shit anyway I'm not sure how well it's going to work. It'd be nice if they just ended each series with another interesting one parter, maybe with more at stake but still short and sweat.

 

[T'Generalissimo]

I can't really comment on the Doctor's current incarnation because I haven't watched Doctor Who for quite some time now. The reason I stopped was because every fucking series had to build up to this incredibly poorly written and stupid climax, which always seemed to be trying to top the previous series' already over-the-top climax. I only enjoyed the one episode plots where they would just go somewhere weird and do something interesting, so I guess this is not going to be the series for me. Oh well, I hope this will be an improvement for everyone who likes Doctor Who.

 

[Nerf Ninja]

Cool that means I'll be able to take a break from Matt Smiths terrible acting then.

shame on you Matt was a good doctor, sure he wasn't David Tennant but he gave it a good go could of had worse like that guy from season 1 *cringe* .

Yeah Ecclestone shouldn't have been in it, it should have been Tennant from the start. However I personally don't feel that Smith was even vaguely good. (Just my opinion) I reckon Benedict Cumberbatch would have been a better choice but then we wouldn't have got the awesome Sherlock which was written by Moffat too. Sherlock was obviously what Moffat put more effort into.

This is my main worry about this. The best Doctor Who episodes for me are short stories with neat premise and a plot which rounds itself off at the end. Wouldn't only 6 or 7 episodes leave you with very little time for what Doctor Who excels at, throwing the same characters into very different situations? Hell, more than one 2 parter per series would mean only 4 or 5 unique stories in total. It wouldn't help if a show famous for it's plot holes tries to sustain one continual story over the coarse of 6 episodes.

The OLD Doctor Who stories were just like that, they'd have one story told over six to twelve episodes, maybe even more.

 

[Alon Shechter]

Bring David or Christopher back ye bastards!
Then I might consider watching it.

 

[Quaxar]

Oh Moffat, you clever bastard! Why didn't you just say "we will shorten the season, but air two in one year"? It's basically this, all the elements are there...

 

[MikailCaboose]

This way sounds much better than the old way of broadcasting them. I approve!

 

[NeedAUserName]

Maybe this means we'll get a lot less episodes that are more or less complete filler, with a tiny insight into Amy and Rory/The Doctors relationship.

 

[Arkhangelsk]

How awesome. But unfortunately for me I can't watch BBC, so I can't watch them on my TV.

Why not? :/

OT: This is great; waiting for nearly 9 months for that show to return is really brutal, especially since most things on TV are shit.

I live in Sweden, we don't have BBC on our TV's. D:

 

[are.you.the.god.its.me.vader]

Seems like an interesting way of doing things - Who-less months are pretty sucky.

 

[imnot]

I can't really comment on the Doctor's current incarnation because I haven't watched Doctor Who for quite some time now. The reason I stopped was because every fucking series had to build up to this incredibly poorly written and stupid climax, which always seemed to be trying to top the previous series' already over-the-top climax. I only enjoyed the one episode plots where they would just go somewhere weird and do something interesting, so I guess this is not going to be the series for me. Oh well, I hope this will be an improvement for everyone who likes Doctor Who.

I do agree most of the finale's where pretty poor. the toclofane and Tennants last one where good.

 

[Plinglebob]

rather than show them all at once, it would be split into two blocks, one shown in the spring as usual, and the second shown in the Autumn

Fixed.

While the idea of extra series finales doesn't fill me with much hope, the idea of splitting it into 2 over the course of the year is definitely something I can get behind as I'm fed up with having nothing decent to watch for 6 months.

 

[Eri]

What is he smoking? I don't care if most bbc shows are 5-6 episodes a season, 13 episodes BARELY makes for a season. Not ever having 20 episodes is pretty in-excusable as far as I'm concerned.