Moffat: Doctor Who not being reduced

[Anthony Williams]

Steven Moffat has recently given an interview to The Daily Beast, commenting on several things.

On Danny Cohen's comment about not airing a full series next year:

First of all, we are airing in 2012. The only thing that’s happening is that we’re moving a bit later...There’s lots of reasons for that that will become clear quite soon...It is certainly not a reduced episode count. Do you think the BBC would really let that happen? With an average audience of 10 million?…Doctor Who’s international profile is huge. It’s never been more successful. You’re not going to reduce a show like this. The opposite is going to happen, in fact.

On Series 6 being so arc-intensive:

This is the most arc-intensive we’ve ever been and I’m throwing the lever the other way next year.

On one day leaving Doctor Who:

I’ll run out of stamina before I run out of ideas is the absolute truth, because I am living a life without a single day off...So, at a certain point, that may prove to be too much. I’m not feeling that right now. I love doing it. I slightly dread the idea of leaving, to be honest. It would be really hard to feel that the Doctor isn’t mine anymore…That day did come for Russell, and he did say to me, because I was asking how he felt, “I love it as much as I ever have, but I just don’t want to do it anymore.”

Go and read the full article. It's quite a good read.

What do we all think? Are we relieved that next series will be slightly less arc-intensive? Do we trust in the Moff when he says that the number of episodes won't be cut, or are we just waiting for Danny Cohen to turn up and put his foot in it?

[SiHart]

I'd love a run if stand alone of episodes like we used to have. Nothing to connect them except the Doctor and his companion(s) have brilliant adventures in time and space. It'd be such a novelty now!

[Rob McCow]

Free me from the arc!

[Anthony Williams]

I'd think that Moffat's comment that he's "throwing the lever the other way next year." would suggest that there'll either be an extremely loose arc (a la Bad Wolf or Torchwood) or none at all.

I certainly hope that there's just no arc whatsoever, and we can have 10 stories (7 stand alone, 3 two-parters) that are self contained

[Andrew Curnow]

No arc would suit me fine. What I really love about the old days is just how totally unconnected stories were. Even in the sort-of linked Key to Time series, the events on Tara could be happening in a totally different universe to those on Atrios, and I really like that. Nowadays, where the Sontarans and Daleks and Cybermen are all well aware of each other and meet up to sort out the Doctor, it's "too small" a universe for me.

Plus, I found the first half of the season a real struggle at times, and feel it was being dragged down by the arc elements being included.

[Si Hunt]

I'm drawn to the "opposite in fact" comment. I can't see them being able to make any more Who, so I wonder if there'll be a new spin-off now that "Torchwood" is sounding its death rattle and Sarah Jane is gone. You could just see "Where The River Flows" set for a March 2012 launch if Who is pushed back later in the year.

Si.

[Alex]

I'm happy with all of that. Whilst I'm a big fan of the arc this year, I wouldn't want such a thing each and every season, and am glad they're changing the format about and quite happy to do so.

[J.R. Southall]

It may be something to do with the fact that they're not making Doctor Who as quickly as they used to. Under RTD/Julie Gardner, they produced 14 episodes in a nine month block with a three month rest period. Nowadays, that nine month block seems to be stretching to over ten months, and so it's possible that while they'll continue to make blocks of 14 episodes, it may be that every once in a while there needs to be a "half year" to allow production chance to catch up with broadcast.

A seven or eight episode 2012 will allow for a full 14 episodes in 2013 (if not the 20 episode run that people have been rumouring... "The opposite is going to happen, in fact"); it's possible that a 14 episode 2012 might have led to a reduced episode count in the anniversary year, and no one would have wanted that.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

It's kind of funny when you consider how much in the 90s the story arc sent us into fan-gasms, how these days we're all a bit "I'm so over story arcs". Thanks I think to series like Lost which were so incredibly arc heavy

[Rob McCow]

The trouble is that RTD did very similar story arcs over his four years, with a 'catchphrase' and a recurring image, rather than carefully crafting stories that lead into each other.

With Moffat, he's committed the sin of having a story arc that leaves lots of threads hanging at the end of the year. It can be very wearying to spend 12 months plus wondering who stole the TARDIS with River Song in it in The Pandorica Opens.

[Larry]

I'd love a run if stand alone of episodes like we used to have. Nothing to connect them except the Doctor and his companion(s) have brilliant adventures in time and space. It'd be such a novelty now!

me to. my least favorite seasons in the classic series were seasons 16 and 23, so I've never really been a fan of the ongoing series arc - it might be ok for the fans but for the casual viewer who just watches the odd episode it can be very off putting as references will be made to the on going arc and they won't have a clue what's going on.

[Jason Thompson]

The trouble is that RTD did very similar story arcs over his four years, with a 'catchphrase' and a recurring image, rather than carefully crafting stories that lead into each other.

Indeed. Doctor Who was never so formulaic as it was during the four full seasons he did.

Contemporary Earth with aliens to introduce the new companion/Doctor
Off to the future
Off to the past
(Reversed in seasons 3 & 4)
Mid-season quite lightweight 2-parter involving monsters trying to take over Earth.
Late-season 2-parter much darker in tone
Doctor-lite episode
Big two-part finale (usually involving Daleks) in which a companion or a Doctor leaves.
All with threads of an arc set up in part 1 and resolved in part 13.

With Moffat, he's committed the sin of having a story arc that leaves lots of threads hanging at the end of the year.

I don't mind that so much now because it's a novelty, but if every season has unresolved issues acting as a cliffhanger into the next it will get old quick.

[Andrew Curnow]

Just to say, I didn't realise this had actually been confirmed anywhere but Tom's editorial in today's DWM says, "there are huge plans in motion for when the show returns next Autumn" - so that would seem to be a definite move from Easter to Autumn for 2012.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Just to say, I didn't realise this had actually been confirmed anywhere but Tom's editorial in today's DWM says, "there are huge plans in motion for when the show returns next Autumn" - so that would seem to be a definite move from Easter to Autumn for 2012.

Blimey is it that week of the month again already! The last four weeks seem to have flashed by.
I don't know if the move to Autumn had been officially confirmed but the fact that the Christmas special is only being filmed now and Series 7 proper doesn't start filming until the new year gave it away.

[FlyingBeastie]

It all depends on whether or not we'll get better supporting characters and a run of episodes like we've had with Night Terrors, TGWW, and God Complex as far as I'm concerned.

But, I dunno... there has to be a bit of an arc. I dunno how a bunch of standalone adventures would work out (I mean, I've only ever fully watched the Davison through McGann run fully) and even then, that was television of a different time.

So yeah. I'd have to see how it's executed.

[Andrew Curnow]

I disagree, I don't see why we need to have any sort of an arc. I mean, other than the word 'Bad Wolf' there wasn't really an arc in season 1, but I wouldn't say it was missing anything - and I think maybe the time is right for a show that you can really tune into any week and understand what's going on. With Lost and Fringe, for example, they were/are effectively impossible to just 'channel hop' onto and understand.

[Alex Me]

It would nice to be relatively arc free for a bit. A small linking theme like the "Bad Wolf" adventures would be enjoyable though, as long as we don't end up with a growing list of unanswered questions.

It's kind of funny when you consider how much in the 90s the story arc sent us into fan-gasms, how these days we're all a bit "I'm so over story arcs". Thanks I think to series like Lost which were so incredibly arc heavy

I think these things go in cycles. Arc's are in for a few years until people get tired with them and then stand alone stories become the big thing, and a few years after that a series comes along that does a big arc well and they become a big thing again.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

This thread isn't supposed to be about arc vs. standalone so I'll just try and nudge us gently back on topic... I think if you're doing a continuous run of episodes there does have to be some kind of pay off for the viewers who've watched every episode. I suspect in hindsight (given his recent comments about pulling the lever the other way next year) Moffat realises he's tried to be a bit too clever with some of this year's arc but I think he's earned the right to experiment with the format.
If we ever have another shorter run of specials then I'd certainly prefer more stand-alone stories.

[Si Hunt]

I think the Master would be in favour of Doctor Who being reduced.

Si.

[Rob McCow]

Indeed, he would probably say something like 'At last Doctor, I've finally cut you down to size!'

Although apparently the Doctor is dying in two week's time. So why they're bothering doing any more episodes at all is a mystery to me. (He's probably a ghost in the Christmas Special).

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Nah, the universe won't let him die. He's going to regenerate into Arabella Weir.

(I really really hope that's made up bs on my part).

[Anthony Williams]

Nah, the universe won't let him die. He's going to regenerate into Arabella Weir.

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