BBC: No full Doctor Who series in 2012
It looks like the rumours regarding Doctor Who, sparked by Private Eye, weren’t that far off. While the BBC clearly won’t say the show is in chaos and has committed to another 14 episodes, when they’re going out is a concern. According to Digital Spy, BBC One controller Danny Cohen has confirmed Doctor Who will not get a full-length series in 2012. Instead, some of the 14 episodes will air in 2012, and the remainder will be broadcast in 2013, possibly as part of a run of anniversary episodes.
Of course, the series is split this year. We’ve already have the first seven episodes, culminating in A Good Man Goes to War, and the rest will air in the autumn. However, this makes sense, because Doctor Who’s ratings fell off a cliff during summer broadcasts. Running the show in late spring and early autumn increases the number of eyes watching. But splitting the series over 2012 and 2013 effectively reduces Doctor Who to the UK’s second-shortest run tier, the six- or seven-episode series. With the show finally gaining a foothold in the USA, it’s bizarre that the BBC is reducing output further, and I can only imagine the show is now too expensive for the corporation, despite its potential for sales and merchandising. Either that or some higher-ups at the BBC still hate the show (as was well documented in the 1980s) and are reigning it in.
Regardless, this seems a crazy decision for the BBC to make. Doctor Who has become a flagship show, and although it’s not to everyone’s tastes, it’s inventive, unique, fun and quintessentially British. Still, I’m sure the BBC won’t have trouble filling the time-slot with yet another generic talent show.
UPDATE: Show-runner Steven Moffat on Twitter:
Dr Who: misquotes and misunderstandings. But I’m not being bounced into announcing the cool stuff before we’re ready. Hush, and patience.
What this means is anyone’s guess, given that Cohen’s words left little alternate interpretation.
UPDATE 2: BBC blames 2012 Who shortfall on show-runner Moffat’s workload, since he’s also dealing with the second series of Sherlock.
UPDATE 3: Moffat on Twitter say the BBC are talking shit.
I wonder how this is fully accounted for.
For example, I wonder if BBC makes it (and pays for it), and sees (eg ) 100m GBP going out the door.
Then BBC Worldwide* sell it overseas, and make back 200m in worldwide rights and DVD sales. But thats given back to the BBC as a lump sum, so they dont see that Dr who cost 100m and brought in 200m.
Could be panic’ed accounting….. Either way, you have a point. The yanks like 24 episode runs (personally, I like 12 part series, but hey….), and a 7 parter might as well be a mini series for them….
* where I used to work
The US will tolerate 13-episode runs, but it’s also about content over a single year. 14 episodes of Who, split into two lots of six and a Christmas episode, seems at the absolute limits of what the US will accept; so the BBC cuts that in half. The worrying thing is that this is precisely what the BBC did to Who in the 1980s: the scheduling changed every week, the run got cut in half, and then it was run into the ground. This news really doesn’t bode well for the show.
Maybe it is a trend that is coming from American TV though – The Walking Dead was a short season, Falling Skies will be likewise.
The future of the show/franchise may actually hinge on how well the new run of Torchwood (part American funded and filmed over there) does…
Walking Dead was effectively an extended pilot, though, to see if the series could grow. The second set of episodes will number 13, not six.
As for Doctor Who’s future hinging on the success of the dreadful Torchwood, I sincerely hope not. Frankly, I hope Moffat and co. ret-con Torchwood out of the Who continuity entirely.