RTD's 20-year plan...

[MacNimon]

Has anyone read this month's issue of SFX magazine? I had a quick glance through the RTD interview when I was in my local WH Smith's at the weekend, and found a few of his comments of interest. Whether they're true or not may be a different matter entirely...

It was his comments about there only being the 3 specials in 2009 that caught my attention. He claimed that this has been reported all wrong, that the 'gap year' was planned as long ago as filming The Runaway Bride; it just hadn't been reported. This allowed Tennant to take on his Hamlet role, and apparently it was just a coincidence that both stories were reported so closely to each other, which lead to people getting the wrong impression.

It seems that all along, this was part of RTD's 20-year plan for the series...regardless of whether he's still in charge or not (and he's not saying), it looks as if we're going to have full seasons for 3 or 4 years in a row, then there will be another gap year (with presumably a few more specials), with this pattern being repeated for as long as necessary. This way, he reckons that the public won't get fed up with the series, and the occasional gap years will whet their appetite for more...after all, he says that the series is one of "the jewels in the BBC's crown" and they want to treat it right. And he reckons this is the way to ensure it has at least a 20-year life-span.

Thoughts, everyone?

[Rob McCow]

This whole '20 year' thing is clearly nonsense, it's just a nominal amount of time that the show might run for if all goes well. When the time comes round for the year of 'specials' again, who knows what will be appropriate? Perhaps it'll all get pulled out to make a movie for the big screen.

I think it's foolish to speculate what might happen two years hence, never mind twenty!

[Perry Vale]

Thoughts, everyone?

He's talking his usual bollocks.

The "gap year" is due to budget cuts, and the need to get DW ready for HD, which the Beeb have promised everything will be filmed in by 2010. He's one of the best revisionists going, he'll have you believe that it was always the plan Eccleston was only going to do one year in the role.....

Maybe they'll start having "gap months" for Eastenders?

[Stuart Wallis]

RTD seems to have confused wishful thinking with foreknowledge. It's entirely possible that the bubble will burst at any moment - we'd all like to see the series go on for as long as possible, but people being people, they can go off the series at a moment's notice; and the BBC being the BBC, they or a Grade-esque figure at the corporation can decide that the series isn't worth doing any more. Or BBC Cardiff can burn down at any moment and nowhere can be found to make it; DT can be knocked into the path of a train tomorrow, etc. So many variables. Sorry to be pessimistic...

[Milky Tears]

This thread is about twenty days too late.


Mad fans have been spouting guff about that RTD interview all month.

[Simon R]

Absence makes the nose grow longer...

[WhiteCrow]

I think it's foolish to speculate what might happen two years hence, never mind twenty!

Surely the most foolish thing is to read SFX - that magazine is just dire these days. I'm sure they then went on to ask RTD about Buffy the Vampire Slayer (SFX's obsession). Joss Wheldon is due to produce series 5 which will include Sarah Michelle Gellar as the Doctors new kick ass assistant to Anthony Heads 11th Doctor you know!

[Si Hunt]

The "gap year" is due to budget cuts, and the need to get DW ready for HD, which the Beeb have promised everything will be filmed in by 2010. He's one of the best revisionists going, he'll have you believe that it was always the plan Eccleston was only going to do one year in the role.....

I think the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. I very much doubt it's all as planned as RTD makes out, but then again the above just makes me depressed!

However, I do think it is wrong of Russell to promise a long future for Doctor Who, which he virtually did in DWM the other month. As others have pointed out, it's not his promise to make. Hopefully we'll get a few more years of Doctor Who yet, but he can't be sure of that. No program has a gauranteed future, not even "Coronation Street". As a Doctor Who fan, he of all people should know that. In 1983 Who's future had never looked more secure, yet two years later it was cancelled and six years on it was off the screens. He should remember that before making such rash assurances.

Si.

[Alex]

Being optimistic, you could claim it's a message to the BBC rather than the public. I think he knows right now that he's one of the hottest properties in tv (whether you agree with that or not), with Queer As Folk, Bob and Rose, The Second Coming, Casanova et al showcasing his versitility.

The Beeb will definitely not want him to move to another channel, so if he wishes to have Who on the screens (at least whilst it's popular / his reputation is intact), then why not - after all we've seen programmes cancelled in the past just because someone high up at the beeb doesn't like it (See Stewart Lee and Richard Herring's career for example), or because rating's have dipped even a little.

[Captain Tancredi]

The impression I get is that RTD confuses (or blurs the line between) "that was definitely meant to happen" and "that's one of the contingencies we planned for". Possibly not a bad thing when you have to deal with fans who see every change of tack as the series about to be cancelled, but it still comes across as trying to make the best of a bad thing in spite of the evidence.