Friday Poll: Did You Mind The Gap?

[Rob McCow]

I'm gonna come right out and say it - I think that the gap has been a great idea, for a number of reasons.

With the 13 week run, there always seemed to be a 'sag' episode, like 'The Long Game' or 'The Doctor's Daughter'. Although it's debatable whether 'The Rebel Flesh' counted as a sag (I really enjoyed it) there isn't that slight sense of tiredness in the middle that we got with the 13 episode seasons.

Also, it's given us some extra Doctor Who to look forward to in the year! Normally by this point we'd be thinking what a long time it was until Christmas with only the spin-off serieses to keep us happy, but we've got proper Doctor Who starting in just over a week's time!

So I'm all for the gap. I'd be happy if they did it again next year (or whenever we're getting new Who). What do you think?

[Si Hunt]

I think it's generally a good idea. It hasn't neccessarily been done in the best way - we were lead to be prepared for the infamous "game changing cliffhanger" and then the Doctor just tootled off happily in the TARDIS looking for a child he knew would be ultimately safe anyway.

But it's nice to ration Who and still have some stories to come when normally we'd have to wait another whole year, Christmas Special excepted.

I think they should do it like one off singles - just put them on every time they finish one, with a moments notice.

Si.

[Ian Lethbridge-Stewart]

I think it's a good idea so long as the BBC publicise the return properly each time. We wouldn't want casual viewers missing episodes because they didn't realise that the show was back yet.

It's strange I know what Steve means about 13 episodes seeming a bit of a slog sometimes, but then we used to watch it over 14 weeks at the tail end of the original series - maybe it's something to do with the longer episodes?

Speaking personally I never found the 14 week run of the McCoy years to sag - mind you, some of that was because I was too busy cringing

I hope this year's gap hasn't spoilt viewer's enjoyment of the whole series; as Si and Steve said at least we haven't had a drought of episodes between mid-July through to Christmas.

[SiHart]

I thought it would be awful. It wouldn't work, that it would feel wrong to split the season. But it was all right wasn't it. OK, they could have done a better cliffhanger (the Ganger Amy one would have been fabulous AND "GAME CHANGING!" in a way the one at the end of A Good Man Goes To War probably wasn't...) but it was fine.

And now we still have Doctor Who to look forward to!

However, it should have started a bit later if you ask me, as we're going to be away for several of the episodes now. Boo!

[Si Hunt]

I have to say given the golden opportunity to finally run Doctor Who in its spiritual home of dusky winter evenings again, the decision to begin the series in summer ratings-hell at the end of August is somewhat odd.

Si.

[SiHart]

Well traditionally that was always when Doctor Who began in the autumn schedules...

[Si Hunt]

It used to run for 26 weeks though. A six week season will be over by the time the clocks go back!

Si.

[Zbigniev Hamson]

I have to say given the golden opportunity to finally run Doctor Who in its spiritual home of dusky winter evenings again, the decision to begin the series in summer ratings-hell at the end of August is somewhat odd.

Si.

I must say (again I think) I still find it odd that there seems to be this opinion about winter evenings being the spiritual home of Doctor Who. If you look back at the history of the show (before 2005), it doesn't really hold up. For the first six years it was on pretty much all year round. For the next 5 it was on from January til June (so basically mid-winter to mid-summer). Okay... THEN it was on in Autumn/Winter for about 7 years, but even then it started in August. Then it was on at the beginning of the year for 4 years, which I suppose is technically winter, but the half of winter when the days are getting longer, rather than when the "nights are drawing in". It's only really the last 4 seasons that were exclusively at the dark end of the year. Then we get McGann in May

THE MEMORY CHEATS!!!!!!!

[Larry]

I never had a problem when they announced series 6 would be in 2 halves and I can honestly say the gap hasn't bothered me at all - just some times when you have a 13 episode season there is a danger that the casual viewer will get bored and turn off mid season. But by splitting it in two you're keeping things threash and perhaps stand a better chance of keeping hold of those casual viewers which can only be a good thing.

[Alex]

I didn't mind it, and it's not a terrible thing, but I'd have preferred a full length 13 episode season.

[J.R. Southall]

It's worked really well this year, with two 'half' series almost the normal length of a regular series, but I'm not sure this is an experiment that was ever meant to be repeated in the same way - this "You're never more than a few months away from new Doctor Who" will seem especially ironic after Christmas when the next series is probably going to be eight or nine months distant. I think the reason it seemed less of a slog watching Doctor Who for months on end back in the seventies and eighties is because television in general - and the series in particular - was a completely different beast back then. In the Pertwee years especially, you'd spend as long watching just one story as you will this autumn with the whole second half of the series. But because the instalments were shorter and that's what you were used to doing anyway, then that just seemed normal at the time. I very much doubt you could pull that off these days!

[Anthony Williams]

I didn't mind it, because I REALLY haven't been enjoying this series so far! I doubt I could've stomached a full 13 episode series of the quality that we've had so far.

Only story that'd I'll return to with any regularity will probably be The Doctor's Wife.

[Zbigniev Hamson]

It was badly hyped, and they probably put the gap in the wrong place (or maybe it wouldn't have seemed so bad without the hype), but in general it's not a bad thing. It's like 1974 all over again

[Dirk Gently]

I didn't mind the gap...bloody trains!

Seriously though, I'd be quite happy to have next years split again, but I would like to see the series become 7 Winter/Spring ep's & then 7 Summer/Autumn ep's with a Christmas special. The DVD releases could then be 5 x 3 ep's.

[Martin Curnow]

It's quite nice to be welcoming back the season again after the summer. Just hope it doesn't get hit in the ratings coz the X-Factor is on the other side.

[J.R. Southall]

The question of whether or not the gap was in the right place...

I think it was. Remember, a good portion of the watching audience (if not the majority of it) will have been children, and to take a three-month break at the end of The Almost People would have been perhaps just a little too disturbing for many of them. The revelation that River is Amy and Rory's daughter will still have been a huge surprise for them, but it leaves you hanging on a positive note, and with the Doctor rushing off into further adventures you're actually quite geared up for an exciting return in the autumn. It's a bit like having the Bad Wolf cliffhanger coming after the Doctor's announcement that "Rose - I'm coming to get you!" rather than immediately the Dalek spaceships show up on the scanner.

[Dirk Gently]

Would it be spoilers if I said the next series will be in two parts spread over 2012/2013?

[Anthony Williams]

No

[Perry Vale]

I'm rather pissed off that the BBC appear to have taken the BBC HD repeat showing away with this new run. I bet it's something to do with the poor Bluray sales for S5...

Apart from that I'm really looking forward to it returning, and haven't been bothered by the break at all. It's probably worked in my favour too, as I've been able to avoid all trailers and spoilers (apart from the strategically placed monster on this week's radio Times cover), so it should be that much fresher and special when I watch it.

[FlyingBeastie]

I think it makes sense if the show is structured like this from now on. There wasn't much of a cliffhanger for the break, but in the future I can totally see some great potential in splitting the season up like this.

[Jason Thompson]

I thought the gap was fine. But then this bieng British TV we're used to 6-series episodes of all sorts of things anyway, so having two half-length seasons instead of one full one seems good to me.

Shame they split it on a rubbish cliffhanger though.