StalkerUKCG
Banned
Don't talk to me about the figures, The switch from 5 inch to 3.5 has ruined any future collecting I planned on doing. Character options are cheap
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Doctor Who Series Seven |OT| The Question You've Been Running From All Your Life
- Thread starter Mr. Sam
- Start date
- Status
Don't talk to me about the figures, The switch from 5 inch to 3.5 has ruined any future collecting I planned on doing. Character options are cheap
PlanetSmasher
Banned
So basically, Moffat being a dick, as per usual. Big surprise.
Poor Barrowman. Guy clearly loves being part of the show, it's sad he's not getting to come back. Maybe they'll bring him back once Moffat is gone.
Future Foundation
Member
I think Bobby was referring to A Good Man Goes to War. Moffat originally had Jack as part of the army that the Doctor rounds up, but Barrowman was unavailable due to scheduling conflicts with Miracle Day.
Yeah I'm sure Moffatt really hates the character he created and it's all a hissy fit.
Or maybe it's that the anniversary special is going to be the same length as a normal episode and there's only so much recent history that can be justified to be included, considering Jack Harkness has been on the air only a year ago.
But no, it couldn't be that. Just Moffat Moffating.
KuwabaraTheMan
Banned
Minor point of correction: RTD created Captain Jack, not Moffat. Moffat was simply the writer assigned to write his debut story. Although obviously he had a big influence in how the character was played, particularly with regards to the flirting nature, and he was the one who came up with the missing memory element to his story. And the idea that he would have some hatred of the character certainly is absurd.
plagiarize
Banned
not that I think the anniversary special should have everyone in it, but am I crazy to think that we haven't seen Jack in almost two years now? Are you counting radio appearances or something? Miracle Day aired in summer of 2011.
I stand corrected. Feels like more recently than that. Point still stands.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
So for this past week I've been helping run a workshop with some 10-12 year olds to "build a TARDIS". The original plans called for it to be accurate in every detail, from the roof to the "Police Call Box" signs to the window trimming, but unfortunately we ran out of time severely and only got the walls up:
The main instructor and I are going to go in on our own time and finish it up though, because the place we're working for wants it as a permanent fixture. I'll post some more pics when we get everything together. A lot of it is already cut down, it just needs to be assembled.
The main instructor and I are going to go in on our own time and finish it up though, because the place we're working for wants it as a permanent fixture. I'll post some more pics when we get everything together. A lot of it is already cut down, it just needs to be assembled.
PlanetSmasher
Banned
I got my picture taken in the TARDIS (well, a TARDIS, being used as a prop for an improvised Who show) last weekend.
It was pretty amazing. Brought my Tenth sonic screwdriver with me too, to make the picture double-apt.
It was pretty amazing. Brought my Tenth sonic screwdriver with me too, to make the picture double-apt.
peanutbutterlatte
Member
Going to the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff on Wednesday. Should I be excited?
Exterminieren
Banned
If it's a shootout between five minutes of interesting plot or interactions between the characters we already know of, or crowbarring Barrowman in, any showrunner worth their salt would do the former. Space is already clearly at a premium in the special, and it isn't being a dick to make choices like that.
So is budget the only reason the special is only an hour long (or whatever the BBC air length is)?
If it's one thing that has come out of Doctor Who behind the scenes it's that their budget is pitiful for how well it does. They were even given less awhile back which definitely did not help matters. No doubt this has played a huge part in the 50th anniversary being a mere one hour show with no real guest stars from the past. They simply can't afford it.
It's amazing how BBC has so often screwed up with Doctor Who despite what it brings them.
It's amazing how BBC has so often screwed up with Doctor Who despite what it brings them.
Broken Joystick
At least you can talk. Who are you?
Here's the VFX Breakdown to that fantastic trailer posted earlier if anyone's interested. http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_412369&feature=iv&src_vid=YD997i_89RM&v=HZXP9FMm9w4
Exterminieren
Banned
Stunning bit of work, that.
Got to love the South Park-style bobbing Tennant!
Got to love the South Park-style bobbing Tennant!
Jorok Goldblade
Member
BBC doesn't want to preempt their reality shows.
APZonerunner
Member
The BBC is taxpayer funded, and so the budget is defined by more than what is popular. The good side of this is it lets things like Planet Earth have astonishing budgets for their viewership; the bad side that sometimes shows like Who are left malnourished. Over all it's a good thing, though, and I think the constraints often actually produce a better show.
The length of the special is down to a weaker production team behind the scenes who just roll over to whatever the BBC says, I think; Julie Gardner always managed to fight the good fight for a better deal for Who and secure extended running times, but Moffat has never had anyone that ferocious.
KuwabaraTheMan
Banned
In addition to not having a Julie Gardner like figure, there's also the fact that Jane Tranter was always very accommodating for the show and really supported it, while the current BBC brass doesn't seem as interested in it. I think there's plenty of blame to go around in that department.
APZonerunner
Member
I want to table a topic of discussion here - Matt's "Thank you and goodbye" video the BBC released a few weeks ago.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01bqbpb
Doesn't anyone else think this video is... well, bloody weird? The timing of it; the fact he filmed it from Detroit in downtime from the movie he's filming... the fact he's doing it now, thanking the crew, Moffat, Karen, Arthur, Jenna -- when he's still officially due to go back and work with all of them (not Karen/Arthur, but still) as soon as that film wraps for the Christmas special? This video seems like a very final goodbye.
And then there's that hair! Matt's Doctor hair is long, and I'm struggling to believe it'll grow back in time for the end of July. I also can't see him wanting to play with a wig, given how much a part of his fluid, constantly-moving Doctor its foppishness is... and I can't see Moffat changing the iconic hair of this Doctor for the final episode.
The more I think about this video the more that I think the 'regeneration at Christmas' thing is a clever bit of misdirection; they can't keep Matt's departure entirely secret, as it's news that would undoubtedly ripple through the UK TV world, if not from Matt leaving from the casting of the next Doctor - somebody would talk to the press. What they could do, though, is misdirect when it's going to happen, and have it be a massive surprise at the end of the 50th.
Of course, the new Doctor seemingly isn't cast -- but that doesn't stop them bunging a wig on Matt for a one-minute "moment of regeneration" bit as a pick-up once he's back in the UK. That's very different from him playing the full role in the wig. Or two effects shots of the two actors filmed months apart parsed together, as with Eccleston and Tennant...
Just a theory, but, yeah.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01bqbpb
Doesn't anyone else think this video is... well, bloody weird? The timing of it; the fact he filmed it from Detroit in downtime from the movie he's filming... the fact he's doing it now, thanking the crew, Moffat, Karen, Arthur, Jenna -- when he's still officially due to go back and work with all of them (not Karen/Arthur, but still) as soon as that film wraps for the Christmas special? This video seems like a very final goodbye.
And then there's that hair! Matt's Doctor hair is long, and I'm struggling to believe it'll grow back in time for the end of July. I also can't see him wanting to play with a wig, given how much a part of his fluid, constantly-moving Doctor its foppishness is... and I can't see Moffat changing the iconic hair of this Doctor for the final episode.
The more I think about this video the more that I think the 'regeneration at Christmas' thing is a clever bit of misdirection; they can't keep Matt's departure entirely secret, as it's news that would undoubtedly ripple through the UK TV world, if not from Matt leaving from the casting of the next Doctor - somebody would talk to the press. What they could do, though, is misdirect when it's going to happen, and have it be a massive surprise at the end of the 50th.
Of course, the new Doctor seemingly isn't cast -- but that doesn't stop them bunging a wig on Matt for a one-minute "moment of regeneration" bit as a pick-up once he's back in the UK. That's very different from him playing the full role in the wig. Or two effects shots of the two actors filmed months apart parsed together, as with Eccleston and Tennant...
Just a theory, but, yeah.
Is the trailer official or fanmade? So much work went into it...
I do not get why this has to happen, though...is not Doctor Who bigger now than it ever was, with the increasing US audience as well?
The Elite
BOSS
First thing I thought when I saw the video. I'm not really sure what's going on to tell you the truth but saying goodbye to everyone, including the crew, at this point definitely seems a bit premature considering that he has one more episode to film with them.
The only problem is that everyone is going to know about the misdirection, if there is one, when they actually start filming the Christmas Special and Matt is not involved. The Christmas Special should start filming August/September from what I recall?
Not sure how they will handle the hair though. Maybe they will play it into the story somehow.
APZonerunner
Member
The ratings are bigger than ever overall, yeah. In the UK Series 4=5, while 6 and 7 were both a bit below that but still strong, at the level of Series 3. Nothing has quite reached the heights of Voyage of the Damned and The End of Time, but they were special cases. Smith-era Who figures are typically several million worse than Tennant's on transmission, but a larger timeshift of people watching online etc makes up for it.
That said, I do think that the show is less dominating of the public consciousness in Britain than it was during Tennant's run. Tennant's announcement of his departure or Catherine Tate's return and things like that made the front pages, for instance, whereas Smith's departure was sort of relegated to the TV news pages.
As a Who fan, I will honestly never forget the week after The Stolen Earth aired, with the regeneration cliffhanger. Every single breakfast and talk show, radio or TV, was speculating. Every paper. It even made the 10pm news the night the show aired, that there'd be a shock regeneration - which was of course faked out. For two weeks, the entire of the UK press and media basically had ages and minutes devoted to just being like this thread. Journey's End went on to be watched by 10.6 million people (for perspective, Name of the Doctor was watched by 7.4m) so this clearly had an effect.
That stuff is weird; viewership clearly hasn't dropped, but Smith's run has been less of a 'watercooler show' than Tennant's, I guess. That stuff does make a difference, as in addition to having a Julie Gardner figure to fight and kick and scream for extra minutes and money, she had the ammunition of being able to point to that cultural significance. Cultural significance is a big thing to the BBC, and a big part of their government/taxpayer remit.
Who is hugely influential in terms of the view of British TV/entertainment abroad, particularly in the US, but the BBC commissioning process doesn't give a shit about that. It's funded by the British taxpayer, for the British. If it happens to have an international market as well, that's a nice bonus, nothing more.
Is it really that unusual for the Doctor to get a haircut?
APZonerunner
Member
This is a character who doesn't really change his clothes... and in this incarnation, his hair is a large part of his visual identity. It's a pretty big deal - and Matt's hair was one of the things that got him the part; if you rewatch the confidential that reveals Matt, Moffat says that his hair was what "sealed the deal."
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Could it be because of the new childrens-show-ey vibe they went for on Smith's run?
APZonerunner
Member
It's really hard to say. I'm no TVist!
That said, if I was hypothesising, I'd kinda argue the opposite - that Tennant's run was marketed much more as a straight-up family/kids show, whereas the renewed success of the show in the US, where it's marketed as a nerd's sci-fi show, a friendlier Star Trek, has had a knock-on effect on the production and changed some of the tone at a production level, for better or for worse.
That shift happened after the success of Series 5, really - 5 just follows the RTD-era model to the letter, but is a little cleverer about the time-bending aspects of the story with the opening, the stuff with Rory and the finale. But Series 5 blew up in the US, largely off the back of the success of Torchwood as well as its own merits, and then was marketed similar to Torchwood. I think chasing that sort of American production value is what led to Series 6 being structured how it was.
If you read some of the UK papers, Moffat's Who has generally (especially post Series 5) reviewed as a show that has charm and wonder about it in advance of the Tennant/Eccleston stuff, but also as one that is a bit too self-indulgent with some of the longer-run stuff. Series 6 was received much more harshly in the UK than the US, for instance - I think in the UK the depth of the River stuff turned a lot of people who prefer "monster of the week" off, to be honest.
But maybe it's not about that, and is instead about tone - The End of Time assumes a wealth of knowledge and really takes the piss with the "Makes more sense if you've seen previous episodes, but if not LOL ROLL WITH IT" attitude, but it also has a really good AI (Audience Appreciation Index, a thing the BBC gathers for everything it airs to gauge its quality) for a pretty middling pair of episodes. It's difficult to tell.
I think a lot of people in this thread would be pretty surprised by what the highest rated episodes of modern Who in the UK are, by both viewing figures and the Appreciation Index - it's fascinating, and not at all what you'd expect.
killer_clank
Member
Also worth pointing out at this point that the AI indexes haven't actually dropped on average during Moffat's run.
APZonerunner
Member
No, they haven't. I'm nit using this as a crutch to shit on Moffat as I think he's doing a great job and that he and Davies are equally flawed geniuses in different ways, but this is what I mean - a quick jaunt to wikipedia:
Appreciation Index all-time-highs:
The Stolen Earth (91) / Journey's End (91)
The Parting of the Ways (89)
Doomsday (89)
Silence in the Library (89) / Forest of the Dead (89)
The End of Time 2 (89)
The Eleventh Hour (89)
Arse-end:
The End of the World (79) / Love & Monsters (76)
Anything above 80 is considered 'excellent' by the BBC. Only two episodes of new Who have failed to get 80. Every story from series 3 through to series 6 scored 85 or more except Victory of the Daleks and the Smith xmas specials, which in fairness have a higher audience, so the show is impressively consistent by anybody's standards, really. Series 7 had a few sub-85s, though - Rings, Cold War and Nightmare in Silver - a first for Moffat's run.
It's worth noting that the higher an audience a show gets the more difficult it is to get a high score - shitty daytime TV shows that get 300,000 viewers regularly score in the 90s, because that very targeted, niche audience loves those shows in a very specific way. That diminishes the achievement of some (Library/Forest were only watched by 6m or so) but makes others like Journey's end and The End of Time (10m each) even more impressive, in a sense.
It's clear, anyway, that the show is very consistently in that 85-88 range after Series 3 (1 ranged between 81 and 85 generally, 2 between 83 and 88) but Smith's era has struggled to reach those 'talk of the town' high 80s/early 90s scores that made Who in Tennant's run very socially piercing. It was, for a while, one of those shows that almost everyone was watching AND talking about; my mom, my gran, etc.
These same episodes are the top performers in ratings also:
1) Voyage of the Damned (13.3m / 86)
2) The Next Doctor (13.10m / 86)
3) The End of Time 2 (12.27 / 89)
4) A Christmas Carol (12.11 / 83)
5) The End of Time 1 (12.07 / 87)
6) The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe (10.77 / 84)
7) Journey's End (10.57m / 91)
8) The Waters of Mars (10.32 / 88)
9) The Eleventh Hour (10.08m / 86)
That's everything above 10m. Of course, this begins to make an argument of the episodes that are for big dumb masses (excluding Christmas ones) doing the best, for obvious reasons, but... yes. What I'm saying, I suppose, is that those 'big dumb masses' episodes and 'event episodes' are the ones that gather the tabloid/mass public interest and speculation, which in turn can be used as ammunition to secure the show more money and time. Smith has (for better, for worse) had less of these event episodes, and so gathers less traction in The Sun, the Mirror, the Mail etc etc, which in turn puts the show in a slightly weaker position for negotiating stuff like extra air time and episode length, even if the average quality is actually higher/more consistent/better. Off the back of Journey's End, it's no surprise they were able to negotiate the second part of The End of Time up to 90 minutes, for instance.
I'll be bummed out if the 50th doesn't at least hit Waters of Mars numbers! Not that it matters in the end, I suppose. But I want the show to be as front and centre as possible as a fan.
I find all this stuff incredibly interesting! Terrible nerd.
Exterminieren
Banned
It's worth noting that iPlayer and other online catchup methods are being added on to the figures as of this year. Judging by the consistent high placing Who gets on the iPlayer chart, that could favour Who over other shows.
Box of Bunnies
Banned
Clearly they need to cast Kylie as Doc Twelve.
User 100115
Banned
John Barrowman finally got married today.
A cute 'on the way to the chapel' video.
And the happy couple.
A cute 'on the way to the chapel' video.
And the happy couple.
Maybe it's just something he's doing on his own, of his own volition, rather than the more official ones that Tennant, RTD, et al. did at the end of their run.
John Barrowman finally got married today.
A cute 'on the way to the chapel' video.
And the happy couple.
Time for Jack to settle down with his partners of choice?
Mama Robotnik
Member
There's a great series of photos on the Doctor Who website today from the Royals visit to the set.
The Doctor looks very very different:
And Jenna-Louise Coleman appears to be tiny!
The Doctor looks very very different:
And Jenna-Louise Coleman appears to be tiny!
SquiddyCracker
Banned
This is some crazy work.
Man, digital video editing is something nowadays.
We're so close to being able to create our own movies from scratch, without the need for actors.
infiniteloop
Member
I like Matt's hair like that.
EleventhDoctor
Banned
What are the chances that Prince Charles actually watches Doctor Who.
Keyser Soze
Member
He apparently told Matt he first watched it when he was 15
Charles DOB - 1948, so he would be 15 in 1963 - 1964
If that was not just some clever PR, it adds up to him watching series 1
Why would anyone be surprised by him watching it? He's a prince, it's not like he couldn't afford a tv.
And Jenna-Louise Coleman appears to be tiny!
Prince Charles as companion for the Christmas special?
Exterminieren
Banned
We know that the Queen requested series 1 boxsets for Balmoral back in 2005. This isn't news.
EleventhDoctor
Banned
The Queen is an RTD fan confirmed.
peanutbutterlatte
Member
"One doesn't understand why that big-haired woman is still around"
Me and the girlfriend planned to go to The Doctor Who Experience on Wednesday, and when we went to get the bus we got told we couldn't get dropped off outside there because the roads were closed, due to Prince & Not Quite Princess visiting. As if I needed another reason to detest royalty!
It was all fine in the end, turns out they were at the BBC Cymru Studios up the road and not the actual experience. If I knew Matt & Jenna were there, we would have waited around outside to see if we could get a glimpse of them!
(The actual experience itself was a little... disappointing.
The first half was great for kids, but I feel there was a lot missing from the actual exhibition section. Very much balanced in favour of the new Matt Smith stuff.
Rafa=FedKilla
Banned
Jenna is tiny, i thibk the queen is taller than her.
Exterminieren
Banned
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