Author Topic: The end of Doctor Who  (Read 13585 times)

ChiliFan

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on: June 22, 2008, 01:45:02 PM
I don't know if it's been mentioned on here before, but the plan is after 4 fantastic and successful seasons of the new Doctor Who, when the current season comes to an end in 2 weeks' time on BBC1 and in the near future on Sci Fi Channel USA, there will be no new season showing next year! The next season isn't due to be shown until 2010. I think the main reason for this is so that current Doctor David Tennant can go off and play in a live season of Shakespeare. Instead of a new season, there will just be 3 TV specials, which I think will be like the Christmas specials, or perhaps including the 2 Christmas specials, with only one additional special. I think this is scandalous and almost as bad as the classic Doctor's worst enemy Michael Grade, who cancelled one season, then cancelled the series altogether. I can't believe there isn't a big campaign against this action. I'm sorry to say, that it now seems too late to do anything about it.



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Reply #1 on: June 22, 2008, 01:55:38 PM
I think you're overreacting.  As you said, it's coming back in 2010 and it's going on hold because Tennant has other work.  Tennant currently has no desire to quite the role; I saw him on Graham Norton's show last year and he said it's the "best job in the world."  Furthermore as long as the show is successful they won't kill it off.

I say make some lemonade out of these lemons.  Catch up on some reading or other viewing when there's no new Doctor Who to watch.

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ChiliFan

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Reply #2 on: June 22, 2008, 02:14:41 PM
I think that David Tennant should leave rather than Doctor Who having no new season next year. He has a duty to Doctor Who not to do things like this. If you look at how long each of the other Doctors (apart from Tom Baker) have lasted, then it seems his time is up anyway. There was also an indication of this in the episode "Planet Of The Ood", where a big thing was songs which each had a deep meaning, then one of the Ood said "Your song is coming to an end soon, Doctor". If or when there's another regeneration, this will probably be kept secret like when Eccleston regenerated into Tennant. Although everyone knew that Eccleston had quit we didn't know he'd regenerate at the end of season 1. Of course, no one should worry that this will bring Doctor Who closer to the very end because a Time Lord can only regenerate 12 times and he's already regenerated 9 times, because this is Sci Fi so there's always a way of getting over this. In The Five Doctors, The Master (who had already used up all his regenerations, then taken over Tremas' body) was offered a new cycle of regenerations. Not only that, but the very first Doctor travelled with his Grandaughter Susan, so he has had at least one child and at least one grandchild, who could now be in hiding with their minds stored in a fob watch, as in Human Nature/The Family Of Blood as well as Utopia, both season 3 episodes.

« Last Edit: June 22, 2008, 02:30:39 PM by ChiliFan »



davedoty

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Reply #3 on: June 22, 2008, 03:12:16 PM
I see no problem with the show taking a year off.  Four specials (it's four, not three - I suspect they weren't counting the Christmas special at first, but are now), is the equivalent of 8 regular eps, which is actually more than many British shows get, and more screen time than Who got during it's last four years of the classic show, with 14 25-minute episodes.

And while I wouldn't mind seeing a new Doctor, the deciding factor shouldn't be that there will only be 8 hours of new material next year.  That's silly.

Anyway, if you really think it's such a crime, you'll be happy to know that RTD is leaving after the four specials.  You can pretend he was fired as punishment for this, if you like.

Me, I'm just ecstatic to know that when the next full season appears in 2010, it will be helmed by the brilliant Stephen Moffat, rather than the uneven RTD.



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Reply #4 on: June 22, 2008, 03:31:58 PM
And while I wouldn't mind seeing a new Doctor, the deciding factor shouldn't be that there will only be 8 hours of new material next year.  That's silly.

Me, I'm just ecstatic to know that when the next full season appears in 2010, it will be helmed by the brilliant Stephen Moffat, rather than the uneven RTD.

Agree completely.  And I'm far from being tired of seeing Tennant as The Doctor.  I'm happy to keep watching him as long as he's willing to stay on.

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ChiliFan

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Reply #5 on: June 22, 2008, 03:53:51 PM
The petition to save Doctor Who is available here http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?SAVEWHO

I'm devastated by the plan to have no new Doctor Who series until 2010 and I think people should at least say that they're disgusted by this. I've checked and I first heard the news in early September last year. I was planning a campaign and hoping to hear about someone else's campaign which I could give my support to, but unfortunately there hasn't been any real action.




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Reply #6 on: June 22, 2008, 04:34:17 PM
The petition reads as follows:

Quote
To:  Jane Tranter

We, the undersigned, urge Jane Tranter to re-consider the reckless decision to abandon Doctor Who, the critically acclaimed TV Show, after the fourth series of the re-birth.

This information has come to light from respected fan luminaries and those in the know and we DEMAND it is clarified.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The show is not being abandoned.  Get a grip already.   ::)

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Reply #7 on: June 22, 2008, 04:47:36 PM
The other thing is that this has been planned for and announced for at least a year and a half, and it's as much RTD's plan for wrapping up his run on the series as Tennant's wanting to do other roles, in fact I think RTD's plan came before Tennant's looking around for other things to do. Bad Wolf.

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Reply #8 on: June 22, 2008, 05:20:09 PM
The petition to save Doctor Who is available here http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?SAVEWHO

I'm devastated by the plan to have no new Doctor Who series until 2010 and I think people should at least say that they're disgusted by this. I've checked and I first heard the news in early September last year. I was planning a campaign and hoping to hear about someone else's campaign which I could give my support to, but unfortunately there hasn't been any real action.

Geez, that's exactly the sort of behavior that will mean that if the time comes and Dr Who will actually get dropped, it will be so much harder to start a petition. You are *way* over-reacting, making a fool of yourself, and of the entire Dr. Who fandom as well. Be patient, wait the year, and don't act like the sky is falling.



Sandikal

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Reply #9 on: June 22, 2008, 07:34:01 PM
Does anyone know just how long Dr. Who has been around?  I remember watching it on PBS back in the early Seventies when our cable just got us better reception on the San Diego stations and brought us the Los Angeles stations for the first time.  Dr. Who has been around nearly as long as I have.



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Reply #10 on: June 22, 2008, 07:46:35 PM
Does anyone know just how long Dr. Who has been around?  I remember watching it on PBS back in the early Seventies when our cable just got us better reception on the San Diego stations and brought us the Los Angeles stations for the first time.  Dr. Who has been around nearly as long as I have.

Ran pretty much continuously (well, a series every year anyway) from 1963 to 1989, a full twentysix years with seven different actors playing The Doctor.  Then it was cancelled.  An attempt was made to revive it on US TV with the 1996 television movie featuring Paul McGann as the 8th Doctor, but that was his one and only time onscreen in the role.  Nothing further until the revival in 2005 with Eccleston as the 9th Doctor.
« Last Edit: June 22, 2008, 07:48:55 PM by stePH »

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Reply #11 on: June 23, 2008, 12:42:50 AM
Thanks!



ChiliFan

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Reply #12 on: June 23, 2008, 05:26:05 PM
Doctor Who started the day after Kennedy was assassinated. You can find an episode guide for the classic series on the BBC Doctor Who website. The exact location is http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/episodeguide/ . I can't believe Doctor Who has been suspended again after the years people had to live without it. When it was suspended before, then cancelled, this was due to the then controller of BBC1 programmes Michael Grade who hated Doctor Who because he said the special effects weren't good enough, but I think he was also trying to spite his Dad Lew Grade who helped produce various cult Sci Fi series. Michael Grade didn't understand that it's not special effects that make a good story, and compared it to Star Wars, but he could have given Doctor Who a bigger budget anyway, so that's no excuse. He tried to explain his decision years later in a talk show about people's pet hates which I think was called "Room 101", and had the cheek to cite a fight scene between Dr Solow (Ingrid Pitt) and a monster called The Merkur in the classic 5th Doctor story "Warriors Of The Deep", which was a fantastic story based on a cold war between two power blocks in the mid 21st Century, where only trained people with neural implants could fire the missiles. The story featured the return of some prehistoric 3rd Doctor monsters called the Silurians and the Sea Devils, as well as touching on pollution. Another reason or excuse for the cancellation was poor viewing figures (ratings), but this was due to increasing levels of censorship, which turned the 7th Doctor's era into something like slapstick comedy, although his later episodes were darker.

Doctor Who was revived by subverting the chain of command, because BBC Wales produced it, although they took on CBC as partners. As I've said before, I think that whoever plays Doctor Who has a duty to the series not to go off and make a big committment to something else, which is what's happened here. I don't think this gap year was always the plan, especially as when they made the new first season, they didn't know if they'd get a second season. A big threat to Doctor Who was when Michael Grade became BBC Chairman, then a cross party group of MP's formed a committee to stop him from cancelling Doctor Who again. The decision to have a gap year was announced on about September 5, 2007, as if it was a foregone conclusion. Another thing which fans should watch out for is any suggestions to make a Doctor Who film featuring the current cast. This would kill the series in the same way as it did to Red Dwarf. Craig Charles who played Lister now runs a minicab company in the ITV soap Coronation Street and DJ's a show on BBC Radio 1, so Red Dwarf is dead and buried. I don't know if anyone on here has seen Hyperdrive which is a recent BBC Sci Fi comedy. A good idea for a Doctor Who film would be the Time War featuring Christopher Eccleston, as well as characters from the classic series.



 
« Last Edit: June 23, 2008, 05:31:29 PM by ChiliFan »



ChiliFan

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Reply #13 on: June 23, 2008, 05:59:07 PM
I like to add a few comments in this message instead of re editing my last message. Fans get quite passionate about Doctor Who and I'm sure there are lots of fans who are upset that the series has been suspended again. In my search for any campaigns against this, I found out that one fan had complained to the BBC about the general attitude of the new series, including the kind of language used, comments such as the Doctor in the first episode "Rose" reading a celebrity magazine and saying "That'll never work. She's an alien and he's gay!" and even claimed that Doctor Who had been remodelled on the soap Eastenders! Another fairly obsessive thing that happened years ago was that 5th Doctor Peter Davision  received death threats because some fans thought that after 7 years of Tom Baker, no one else could play the Doctor. In the USA, the best known Doctor was Tom Baker, due to trade protectionism meaning that American TV networks avoided buying foreign programmes as much as possible, but this had broken down up to a point later on. Tom Baker's episodes got good distribution, which was followed up by at least some Peter Davision episodes. I think episodes from every single Doctor's era have been shown in Canada.

Each Doctor had his own perrsonality and a different outfit. The first Doctor looked quite elderly, had long hair like a scientist in an era when hardly any men had long hair, and wore a black suit with a white shirt and some kind of tie. Subsequent Doctors had more outlandish outfits, such as 2nd Doctor Patrick Troughton in a clown type costume and a Beatle haircut, Jon Pertwee in theatrical capes, velvet jackets and ruffled shirts, before leading on to the famous Tom Baker with his long scarf, etc. This was followed by Peter Davison an an Edwardian Cricket Umpire's outfit, Colin Baker in his multicoloured coat, then toned down for Sylvester McCoy, which just a few question marks, an umbrella, and a Panama hat.

It seems than Paul McGann was never accepted by lots of fans or even most fans because he appeared in an Americanised version of Doctor Who which just didn't work. His TV movie got low ratings in the USA because of whatever was shown on another network at the same time, so the years of planning were all for nothing. For anyone who hasn't yet seen the latest episode "Turn Left", I can tell you that it was an episode where one character's history was rewritten from a point where they were made to turn right instead of turning left. It also indicates that the last 2 episodes of season 4 will be a spectacular climax.

« Last Edit: June 23, 2008, 06:12:18 PM by ChiliFan »



Heradel

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Reply #14 on: June 23, 2008, 06:16:04 PM
I like to add a few comments in this message instead of re editing my last message. Fans get quite passionate about Doctor Who and I'm sure there are lots of fans who are upset that the series has been suspended again. In my search for any campaigns against this, I found out that one fan had complained to the BBC about the general attitude of the new series, including the kind of language used, comments such as the Doctor in the first episode "Rose" reading a celebrity magazine and saying "That'll never work. She's an alien and he's gay!" and even claimed that Doctor Who had been remodelled on the soap Eastenders! Another fairly obsessive thing that happened years ago was that 5th Doctor Peter Davision  received death threats because some fans thought that after 7 years of Tom Baker, no one else could play the Doctor. In the USA, the best known Doctor was Tom Baker, due to trade protectionism meaning that American TV networks avoided buying foreign programmes as much as possible, but this had broken down up to a point later on. Tom Baker's episodes got good distribution, which was followed up by at least some Peter Davision episodes. I think episodes from every single Doctor's era have been shown in Canada.

It seems than Paul McGann was never accepted by lots of fans or even most fans because he appeared in an Americanised version of Doctor Who which just didn't work. His TV movie got low ratings in the USA because of whatever was shown on another network at the same time, so the years of planning were all for nothing. For anyone who hasn't yet seen the latest episode "Turn Left", I can tell you that it was an episode where one character's history was rewritten from a point where they were made to turn right instead of turning left. It also indicates that the last 2 episodes of season 4 will be a spectacular climax.



Listen, this is from the guy that's got Bad Wolf (at time of writing) all over his sig and various titles, calm down. It's undergoing a reduced schedule for a year while RTD finishes up his run and Moffat takes over. It's very, very successful, is paying for itself, and will return. Scripts have been ordered, contracts signed, it'll happen. Furthermore, RTD is pretty vocal about not caring about what the fans think, so you're screaming very loudly at a deaf man who doesn't even care.

Also, if someone wants to learn about Dr. Who, there's tens of thousands of words about him in his various incarnations at Wikipedia.
« Last Edit: June 23, 2008, 06:17:59 PM by Heradel »

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Reply #15 on: June 23, 2008, 06:35:31 PM
I just skimmed over the last few posts, but i thought i'd just say that i'd rather Dr. Who hibernate while Tennant does his thing rather than they replace Tennant with a new doctor and continue uninterrupted. If it weren't for sentimentality, he'd even beat out Tom Baker as my favorite Doctor... he still might.



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Reply #16 on: June 23, 2008, 06:56:41 PM
It's a TV show. It's not like they're cancelling oxygen.

Hell, as many people have pointed out, it's not even like they're cancelling Dr Who. Getting this worked up because they're producing slightly fewer episodes this year is just bizarre.

Oh, and the main reason Red Dwarf got cancelled had nothing to do with the ill-fated movie (which never even got out of negotiation), but was because the last couple of seasons were shit and nobody watched them.

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Reply #17 on: June 23, 2008, 07:54:54 PM
Wintermute:  That slap down was a little on the harsh side.

Chilifan:  I'm afraid you had it coming to you.  You made your point and the group responded to it.  If you have counter-comments to their responses, we'd love to hear them.  But you're retreading the same ground.  Dr. Who is a cash cow right now.  They're not going to kill it.  If anything (like with BSG), the time off will have fans chomping at the bit for more.



ChiliFan

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Reply #18 on: June 23, 2008, 09:28:41 PM
I'm really not upset about the last message by Winternute. It pales into insignificance compared to the suspension of Doctor Who. This, as well as the loss of Star Trek has really been getting me down. The loss of Stargate: SG-1 has been cushioned by Stargate: Atlantis as well as the Stargate: SG-1 movies. I feel I've got over the loss of Red Dwarf now. As for oxygen being cancelled, it does feel almost as serious as that for me.  :'( I watch and enjoy BSG, but at the end of the day it's a remake of an old Sci Fi series, although the new version as developed its own identity. The original lasted 2 seasons, then finished. BSG is no Doctor Who, which is the most flexible format possible. It would be possible to develop another series as flexible as Doctor Who, using some other kind of transport to travel through space and time. I've recently been having some Doctor Who marathons and I was surprised that I'd forgotten important points in some of the episodes, so I haven't seen them as many times as I should've done. Unfortunately, not even this will make up for the suspension of Doctor Who.

 



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Reply #19 on: June 23, 2008, 10:09:47 PM
I'm really not upset about the last message by Winternute. It pales into insignificance compared to the suspension of Doctor Who. This, as well as the loss of Star Trek has really been getting me down. The loss of Stargate: SG-1 has been cushioned by Stargate: Atlantis as well as the Stargate: SG-1 movies. I feel I've got over the loss of Red Dwarf now. As for oxygen being cancelled, it does feel almost as serious as that for me.  :'( I watch and enjoy BSG, but at the end of the day it's a remake of an old Sci Fi series, although the new version as developed its own identity. The original lasted 2 seasons, then finished. BSG is no Doctor Who, which is the most flexible format possible. It would be possible to develop another series as flexible as Doctor Who, using some other kind of transport to travel through space and time. I've recently been having some Doctor Who marathons and I was surprised that I'd forgotten important points in some of the episodes, so I haven't seen them as many times as I should've done. Unfortunately, not even this will make up for the suspension of Doctor Who.

 

   It's not being suspended.  The 'gap year' with the three specials, which has been recently upgrade to four specials NOT as far as I know including the Christmas special is for three very dull, very necessary reasons:

-Everything the BBC puts out has to be HD compliant by 2010.  Most of the sets, the TARDIS especially, are NOT HD ready.  The Gap Year is serving, as a result, as a means of both upgrading the sets AND teaching the crew how to use the new kit, a job which is by all accounts, akin to learning how to do your job all over again.

-The Gap Year is also being used as a transition point for Russell T Davies and Stephen Moffat's runs to overlap, with Davies' work stepping down and Moffat and his team of writers and producers stepping up.  Again, the Gap Year means that a group of very talented writers and producers get eased into what is one of the largest jobs in English TV.  In other words; it's being used as a means of keeping the series, which is a VAST, runaway critical and commercial success of an unprecedented level, in safe hands. 

-It seems pretty likely there's a narrative element to it too.  I've heard rumours that the specials will deal with the Time War, or that they'll pick up on threads from the season 4 finale.  Also, something to consider; none of the Who specials to date have been small potatoes.  NONE of them.  These are going to be long and very, very large scale stories.

   Then there's Torchwood, which is being moved to BBC1 as a piece of event TV in the Gap Year and the Sarah Jane Adventures which is getting a season order twice the length of the last one in the Gap Year.  This isn't a show being suspended, this is a show being evolved.  And that's something that Doctor Who has always been about.



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Reply #20 on: June 24, 2008, 03:54:18 AM
This has been really informative.

Do you think they'll ever show Torchwood on the Sci-Fi Channel?  I loved the first season, but we only get BBCA on our downstairs television.  I can never get that TV to myself and even if I could watch it downstairs, I wouldn't with my son in the room.  It definitely borders on an "R" rating.



ChiliFan

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Reply #21 on: June 24, 2008, 02:50:38 PM
I'm really not upset about the last message by Winternute. It pales into insignificance compared to the suspension of Doctor Who. This, as well as the loss of Star Trek has really been getting me down. The loss of Stargate: SG-1 has been cushioned by Stargate: Atlantis as well as the Stargate: SG-1 movies. I feel I've got over the loss of Red Dwarf now. As for oxygen being cancelled, it does feel almost as serious as that for me.  :'( I watch and enjoy BSG, but at the end of the day it's a remake of an old Sci Fi series, although the new version as developed its own identity. The original lasted 2 seasons, then finished. BSG is no Doctor Who, which is the most flexible format possible. It would be possible to develop another series as flexible as Doctor Who, using some other kind of transport to travel through space and time. I've recently been having some Doctor Who marathons and I was surprised that I'd forgotten important points in some of the episodes, so I haven't seen them as many times as I should've done. Unfortunately, not even this will make up for the suspension of Doctor Who.

 

   It's not being suspended.  The 'gap year' with the three specials, which has been recently upgrade to four specials NOT as far as I know including the Christmas special is for three very dull, very necessary reasons:

-Everything the BBC puts out has to be HD compliant by 2010.  Most of the sets, the TARDIS especially, are NOT HD ready.  The Gap Year is serving, as a result, as a means of both upgrading the sets AND teaching the crew how to use the new kit, a job which is by all accounts, akin to learning how to do your job all over again.

-The Gap Year is also being used as a transition point for Russell T Davies and Stephen Moffat's runs to overlap, with Davies' work stepping down and Moffat and his team of writers and producers stepping up.  Again, the Gap Year means that a group of very talented writers and producers get eased into what is one of the largest jobs in English TV.  In other words; it's being used as a means of keeping the series, which is a VAST, runaway critical and commercial success of an unprecedented level, in safe hands. 

-It seems pretty likely there's a narrative element to it too.  I've heard rumours that the specials will deal with the Time War, or that they'll pick up on threads from the season 4 finale.  Also, something to consider; none of the Who specials to date have been small potatoes.  NONE of them.  These are going to be long and very, very large scale stories.

   Then there's Torchwood, which is being moved to BBC1 as a piece of event TV in the Gap Year and the Sarah Jane Adventures which is getting a season order twice the length of the last one in the Gap Year.  This isn't a show being suspended, this is a show being evolved.  And that's something that Doctor Who has always been about.

As for the issue of HD, I've justed checked up on it and it seems things are more complicated. The BBC are claiming that they have no plans to film Doctor Who in HD because the number of special effects would mean that it would take longer to produce, so that there would only be a new series every 18 months instead of every year. They also say that Torchwood is in HD due to having fewer special effects. In that case I don't care if Doctor Who is never filmed in HD. I don't think HD compliant is exactly the same as HD. I think the solution is to hire more people to work on the production side of Doctor Who.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1013054
« Last Edit: June 24, 2008, 03:07:34 PM by ChiliFan »