Series 7 comissioned: Gap Year in 2012...14 episodes and Matt Smith confirmed

[Awesome Wells]

BBC One Head of Comms and Fiction Sam Hodges has confirmed that Matt Smith will return for a third series as the Doctor.

Hodges announced on Twitter this afternoon: "Doctor Who is returning. Fourteen new episodes have been commissioned with Matt Smith as The Doctor."

Doctor Who's mid-series finale 'A Good Man Goes To War' aired last weekend, with the show returning to BBC One for the remaining six episodes of Series 6 in the Autumn.

Guest star Simon Fisher-Becker, who plays Dorium Maldavar, recently told CultBox that "everything will be answered in Episode 13 (of Series 6), but then something else will be asked, so you’ve got the cliffhanger to the new series."

http://www.cultbox.co.uk/news/headli...ing-matt-smith

Hooray! Never any doubt, really.

[Perry Vale]

Hodges announced on Twitter this afternoon

Now there's a co-incidence... Glad I didn't start a thread about the other story coming out of Twitter earlier...

[Alex]

Hooray! Never any doubt, really.

Heh, except apparently Private Eye suggested earlier that there was...

Over the weekend we brought you the news – from Matt Smith’s own lips – that he was off to LA to look for work. This came in addition to rumours and suggestions that Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill were also auditioning for new roles, which lead us to the conclusion that Something Is Up at BBC Wales.

And despite some of the more bizarre “ostrich” comments both here and on Twitter we’re pretty sure that the BBC isn’t being straight with Doctor Who fans concering the timing, scheduling or even commissioning of Series 7.

Our suspicions have been further aroused by an interesting story in the latest issue of Private Eye (dated June 10th, available from your local newsagent or supermarket or via www.private-eye.co.uk) which details the departure of Piers Wenger to Film4, blames the Series 6 split on poor budget control and scheduling, indicates concerns over the likelihood of the second set of episodes from the 2011 run being ready in time for a Christmas DVD release (something that you may already have heard)and even goes so far as to claim that producers Tracie Simpson and Peter Bennett refused to return to the show after being dismissed, something which may or may not be related to their working relationship with Piers Wenger and Beth Willis.

You will need to buy the new edition of the magazine this week to get the full story, but the following ties in with what we’ve already suspected (and been “informed” by other sources…):

Programme chiefs in London were horrified to learn recently that BBC Wales is proposing not to make a full series of Doctor Who in 2012, but instead to put the programme on hiatus and merely bash out four “specials” as it did in 2009. Which will leave an enormous hole in the BBC1 Saturday night schedule and a bigger one in the profits of BBC Worldwide, and will mean the corporation will be paying lead actor Matt Smith to spend most of the rest of this year doing nothing.

Now let’s just put all of this into perspective. Private Eye isn’t exactly famous for its fandom of Doctor Who. They’re a satirical/investigative journalism periodical that has been a thorn in the side of the British Establishment for years, and rightly so; long may they continue.

Private Eye has no real interest in whether Doctor Who is continuing or not, and any claims of pro or anti-BBC bias can be roundly dismissed as their editor, Ian Hislop, is a star of Have I Got News For You and makes various documentaries for the broadcaster.

The situation, therefore, is this: the BBC needs to come clean, sort out the questions over Matt Smith’s future and stop keeping us in the dark about the issues raised by Private Eye.

http://www.kasterborous.com/2011/06/series-7-postponed/

So I think that's why this news has come now, so that fans don't worry...

[Perry Vale]

It doesn't say which year the 14 episodes will appear....

[Rob McCow]

It all sounds too likely to me. Never mind the bean-spilling over Eccleston, the Moffat era is going to make for a wild biography one day!

[Awesome Wells]

You missed an important part of that article...

Announcement Update (Or Lack of&hellip
Premier PR have just told me that the BBC are not planning on making any announcement regarding this matter. Premier PR deal with the majority of Doctor Who PR from DVD releases, Doctor Who: The Adventure Games and other games to the show in the media, so…

It looks as though anything concerning this story is going to be left up in the air for the time being. This isn’t a complete surprise and it will likely remain this way until either the BBC make an official announcement in their own time or have their hand forced 2005/2007 style and the story is jumped on by the press.

Good to see they're keeping up with the news...

[Awesome Wells]

What is a "bizarre ostrich comment"?

[Milky Tears]

DOOOOOOOMED IN 2012!?

[Perry Vale]

Ida must be EXPLODING right about now....

[Lissa]

14 episodes split Autumn 2012/Spring 2013 by any chance?

Doctor Who is the one show which can't be held to ransom or ruined by stars or producers who are bigger than the series but the BBC will still find a way not to make it.

[Lissa]

And now this from the Guardian:

Fourteen new episodes of Doctor Who starring Matt Smith have been commissioned with "a good chunk" of them airing next year, the BBC has confirmed.

It follows a report in Private Eye that producers BBC Wales were proposing not to make a full series of the hit show in 2012 and instead air four specials.

A BBC spokesman said 14 new episodes have been ordered but it is not yet known how many will be aired in 2012.

The corporation may reveal more details later on Tuesday.

He denied the decision to split the current series 13-part run into two tranches was taken for financial reasons, saying showrunner Steven Moffat made the decision for "narrative" reasons.

The spokesman said: "The new commission is a big commitment, not many other shows have such a commitment so far in advance. We do not know yet how many will air in 2012."

[Andrew Curnow]

My guess would be that, despite claims to the contrary, the split this year has been a way of shifting the transmission from Spring to Autumn. So we will get a full run this year... but then the next lot will be Autumn 2012, so I can certainly believe some of this 14 (does that include the 2011 Christmas special? Or 2012?) won't air until 2013.

[Ian Lethbridge-Stewart]

My guess would be that, despite claims to the contrary, the split this year has been a way of shifting the transmission from Spring to Autumn. So we will get a full run this year... but then the next lot will be Autumn 2012, so I can certainly believe some of this 14 (does that include the 2011 Christmas special? Or 2012?) won't air until 2013.

I really hope that turns out to be true!!!

[Si Hunt]

"bash out four specials"?!

Si.

[Darren]

This could all tie in with rumours that ITV were moving X Factor to Spring.

[SiHart]

I'm pleased! Bugger that, I'm delighted Matt Smith is staying on!

I'd like Doctor Who in January/ Feb/ March mostly though.

[Rob McCow]

DOOOOOOOMED IN 2012!?

I'd been wondering where YOU were.

[Awesome Wells]

Does a kindly mod want to insert the missing "s" from "commissioned" into the title of this thread, please? I feel a bit dirty for having omitted it.

[Milky Tears]

I'd been wondering where YOU were.

I'm always hanging around, weeping in the background.

[FlyingBeastie]

He denied the decision to split the current series 13-part run into two tranches was taken for financial reasons, saying showrunner Steven Moffat made the decision for "narrative" reasons.

I don't buy that. Considering the narrative and how he said "it's going to be a looong Summer" cos we were left with a "cliffhanger".

Seeing the Doctor get shot and die or begin to regenerate for the final moments of the episode would've been a cliffhanger. I think that this whole break, for narrative purposes, doesn't make sense and is superfluous.

My bet is on financial issues. Hence the murky future for the series in 2012. The main cast members seemed quite gung-ho for work in America when they were at the premiere. Just sayin'.

[Perry Vale]

Or maybe he wants to start on the xmas special later than usual because he's still working on Sherlock, and that would leave them with a very small window to get the series ready for a usual easter start.

[Zbigniev Hamson]

I don't buy that. Considering the narrative and how he said "it's going to be a looong Summer" cos we were left with a "cliffhanger".

Seeing the Doctor get shot and die or begin to regenerate for the final moments of the episode would've been a cliffhanger. I think that this whole break, for narrative purposes, doesn't make sense and is superfluous.

My bet is on financial issues. Hence the murky future for the series in 2012. The main cast members seemed quite gung-ho for work in America when they were at the premiere. Just sayin'.

Yes but, you don't really buy anything Moffat says do you, so we could have guessed that

[FlyingBeastie]

In this case it's not just Moffat, but the BBC as well.

I don't mean to harp on about X-Men, but I don't think it's a big coincidence almost the majority of the cast was British. And I've been noticing many of my fave Brit actors have been popping up on American television as well, including Billie Piper who gave an interview not too long ago about how the window of work for Brit actors on the silver screens in the UK is quite narrow (no weight jokes please) I also know of people who have been laid off at the BBC recently, hence I'm drawing these conclusions.

[J.R. Southall]

The real reason for this year's break is neither financial nor narrative, but production. Under RTD, in order to finish transmitting a series in early July, filming had to be completed by March. However, this year (partly due to other commitments - such as all the extra filming that's been going on for exhibitions, DVDs, and so on, it has to be said!) filming didn't finish until May.

Next year, I believe early Septemeber until late November has been mentioned. I'm just saying!

[Anthony Williams]

Frankly, I'm surprised how no-one has commented on how seriously everyone the press were taking Private Eye as a source. It's like they've forgotten that it's satire...