Series 7 news & rumours *spoilers*

[Anthony Williams]

Firstly, with what is apparently a move to the Autumn for Doctor Who, it seems fairly apparent that the 50th anniversary story could be part of the regular series, rather than a special.

If that is the case, then presuming a 13-episode season, if they were to start it on Saturday 31st August, then the final episode would fall on the anniversary. As Richard said, I'd rather not see a regeneration on the anniversary episode. What seems like a distinct possibility to me, is that the anniversary episode is feature length.

I guess that time will tell, though!

[J.R. Southall]

I wouldn't be remotely surprised if the episode broadcast on November 23rd 2013 didn't start with the incoming 12th Doctor, who then meets up with the 11th who regenerates into this 12th at the end of the episode (having spent some time in the company of the 10th in the meantime).

Not wishin' for, just speculating.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

I wouldn't be remotely surprised if the episode broadcast on November 23rd 2013 didn't start with the incoming 12th Doctor, who then meets up with the 11th who regenerates into this 12th at the end of the episode (having spent some time in the company of the 10th in the meantime).

Not wishin' for, just speculating.

I would actually love it if they sneakily introduced a new Doctor by having him turn up pretending to be someone else for a whole story and only revealing his true identity at the end. I think that would be just about the only way of doing it as a genuine surprise as opposed to making a big song and dance about it beforehand as the press would only need to be told the pretend character name.
That said I still don't think the 2013 finale/special will be the right time to tell this story!

Anyway back to series 7 - does anyone know whether or not Amy and Rory are in the Christmas special?

[Larry]

I
Anyway back to series 7 - does anyone know whether or not Amy and Rory are in the Christmas special?

Well Karen, is due to be starting in the West End play this month , at the same time filming for the christmas special is taking place so I'll be surprised if she is in it.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

More of a random speculative thought but having recently re-listened to The Christmas Gnomes with all the "Doctor Who" business in it I found myself thinking about the oldest question again this morning.
And the thought came to me, knowing Moffat's increasingly twisted logic, that the whole thing could be like a bad joke...
(and I'm not one of those who believes he hates the fans so I'm playing devil's advocate here)

Q: Doctor Who?

A:You Just Said It!

Although if it is "The Fall of the Eleventh" Moffat's going to find "I don't want to go" quite hard to beat so at least it would be just as memorable, if only for all the wrong reasons.

[J.R. Southall]

I'm not sure the question is actually "Doctor who?" verbatim, inasmuch as it might more likely be a paraphrasing of the same. (After all, revealing the question a scant half-hour or so after you've revealed that there's going to be a question doesn't seem terribly Moffat.)

So while the question will undoubtedly be concerned with the Doctor and his origins - who he really is - there might well be just a little more to it than simple "Doctor who?"

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

I'm not sure the question is actually "Doctor who?" verbatim, inasmuch as it might more likely be a paraphrasing of the same. (After all, revealing the question a scant half-hour or so after you've revealed that there's going to be a question doesn't seem terribly Moffat.)

So while the question will undoubtedly be concerned with the Doctor and his origins - who he really is - there might well be just a little more to it than simple "Doctor who?"

The Oldest Question was first mentioned in Let's Kill Hitler (when the Doctor asks the Teselecta what the Silence are) so we actually had 5 weeks to wonder what it might be!

[J.R. Southall]

The Oldest Question was first mentioned in Let's Kill Hitler (when the Doctor asks the Teselecta what the Silence are) so we actually had 5 weeks to wonder what it might be!

Yeah sure, but you get my drift ... is Moffat that kind of guy? Or would the question itself likely not be revealed until the following year? He's setting up a future arc here; it would be like telling us "Silence Will Fall" and then revealing what and why just a couple of weeks later, and a year or more before it becomes relevant.

[Dave Tudor]

So while the question will undoubtedly be concerned with the Doctor and his origins - who he really is - there might well be just a little more to it than simple "Doctor who?"

Personally, I think it IS that simple - I believe that Moffat's pressing the reset button and bringing the mystery back to the character and the series, back to the way in which we simply wonder 'Doctor who?' I think he's made it clear that the character has become too god-like and legendary in his own universe, and I'm confident that he just wants to go back to the ways of old, as if he's set up these big, series-spanning arcs so that he can bring such arcs to an end. That's not to say I think he will dispense with arcs entirely, but I don't think they will be on such a scale. And while it's true that such ideas as 'the Oldest Question' and 'the Fall of the Eleventh' sound grand and awe-inspiring, that's all they need to be - ideas which inspire us without having to be realised in the series. After all, the Time War always sounded far more impressive than it ever could have been depicted as on-screen.

[J.R. Southall]

I have a feeling, though, that while we might be in for a short period in which there's no (or very little) arc of any kind, eventually 2013 will see matters come to a head, and the Silents will return, the question will be asked, the Silence Will Fall, the Eleventh will Fall, and the TARDIS will explode...

And the new, twelfth Doctor will appear. And all in the episode broadcast on November the 23rd, too.

That just seems to me like the simplest and most obvious way to go about things. And for all his 'complicated' plotting (which is just a big old disguise), Steven Moffat does do the simple and most obvious thing in the end (River was the Doctor's wife and she was Amy's daughter, even after everything else).

[Dirk Gently]

I have a feeling...eventually 2013 will see matters come to a head, and the Silents will return, the question will be asked, the Silence Will Fall, the Eleventh will Fall, and the TARDIS will explode...

And the new, twelfth Doctor will appear. And all in the episode broadcast on November the 23rd, too.

I would love that to be what happens. It would be a proper pay off for the last 2 years (possibly 3) of wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey stuff. And a great way to start a new Doctor. I would be eager again in a way I've not been since waiting for Rose.

[Larry]

I have a feeling, though, that while we might be in for a short period in which there's no (or very little) arc of any kind, eventually 2013 will see matters come to a head, and the Silents will return, the question will be asked, the Silence Will Fall, the Eleventh will Fall, and the TARDIS will explode...

And the new, twelfth Doctor will appear. And all in the episode broadcast on November the 23rd, too.

).

and do you know what would make that even more brilliant - if we didn't know a regeneration was even coming - yes I know impossible in todays internet fan forums mass media world but it would be great if it happened.

[J.R. Southall]

and do you know what would make that even more brilliant - if we didn't know a regeneration was even coming - yes I know impossible in todays internet fan forums mass media world but it would be great if it happened.

You know, it doesn't have to be so impossible. If they don't start filming on the successor's first proper episode until after the regeneration has transmitted, there's no reason they couldn't at least try and keep it a surprise (I'm sure this was the intention with Eccleston/Tennant, but somewhere along the line it all went tits up).

Or else, if as I suggested the 'next' Doctor takes a full part in the regeneration story itself, they could simply give the actor some character name (better if it's an historical, to truly deflect attention; imagine telling the world "We've cast Benedict Cumberbatch as George Orwell," nobody would bat an eyelid ... only for Cumberbatch to turn up on screen playing Doctor #12 instead!) and pray for the real reason for the casting to stay secret!

[Dirk Gently]

The biggest problem I see with that is the bods in charge of Doctor Who like to trumpet that kind of stuff all over Breakfast news etc. and gain lots of publicity in order to get ratings up.

They can't keep a secret & neither can the crew working on the programme. The only possible way they have of keeping a regeneration secret is by filming say 4 different endings to the episode & allow an "accidental" leak of info that the regeneration is fake ending number 2 of 3. Thus keeping speculation about which of the others is the real one...even from the crew.

The down side to this is that it would prove terribly expensive, I would have thought, to film multiple endings. Even if they would make great DVD extras.

[Martin Curnow]

Blond Moment - totally misunderstood the comments regarding 12th Doctor.

Original post deleted. Move along, please.

[J.R. Southall]

Damn! You can't just tease us like that!

[Awesome Wells]

The biggest problem I see with that is the bods in charge of Doctor Who like to trumpet that kind of stuff all over Breakfast news etc. and gain lots of publicity in order to get ratings up.

They can't keep a secret & neither can the crew working on the programme. The only possible way they have of keeping a regeneration secret is by filming say 4 different endings to the episode & allow an "accidental" leak of info that the regeneration is fake ending number 2 of 3. Thus keeping speculation about which of the others is the real one...even from the crew.

The down side to this is that it would prove terribly expensive, I would have thought, to film multiple endings. Even if they would make great DVD extras.

Sorry Tim, but I think this is pretty harsh - particularly on the crew. As far as I know, they sign non-disclosure agreements and have little access to anything outside their own specific purvey to prevent any inadvertent - or deliberate, yes - leakage of information. Maybe I've missed it, but I've never seen any information that has been traced back to cameramen/grip pullers/set designers/etc. Leakage of spoilers was, I thought, the strict perogative of the over-eager fans visiting location shoots or after attending previews or tabloid/gossip mag hacks stuck for a story.

As for the 'bods in charge', I'd say it's not a case of being unable to keep a secret; it's a case of maximising publicity for the programme.

[J.R. Southall]

And that knocked that train of thought on the head.

http://www.starburstmagazine.com/col...r#comment-1261

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

And that knocked that train of thought on the head.

http://www.starburstmagazine.com/col...r#comment-1261

Hmm, I was just going to say I was sure he said something a while back about turning 30 whilst playing the Doctor but as he's about to turn 29 in a few days if you count turning 30 whilst being on TV which this time next year he probably will be then he'd just about do it. Still he has previously commented on what he'd like to see happen in the 50th anniversary so unless the execs have decided they want to introduce a new Doctor for the start of the anniversary year I think it might still be too early to say for definite.

Another thought just occured they could introduce a pretend 12th Doctor and have Matt make a surprise return for the Anniversary?

[duncan]

They did that in DWM several years ago and the pretend Doctor was based on Nick Briggs if I recall.

[J.R. Southall]

They did that in DWM several years ago and the pretend Doctor was based on Nick Briggs if I recall.

I believe you're right.

And I think Matt's words about turning 30 while the Doctor were only by implication, another reading of which suggested he'd be done playing the Doctor by the time he was 30...

This is Steven Moffat's Doctor Who though, so I fully expect his regeneration to be only the start of the story of how he left...

[Philipnet]

Matt Smith is quoted as saying:

Well, hopefully soon, you know. I've got another year of Doctor Who, but then I'm certainly going to come and give it a shot – come and hang out in LA.

But does that mean that he's quitting in 2012?

http://io9.com/5852304/matt-smith-qu...tor-after-2012

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

They did that in DWM several years ago and the pretend Doctor was based on Nick Briggs if I recall.

I'm well aware of Party Games or whatever it was called but I personally place the comic strip as least significant in terms of canonical importance so I don't mind the idea being reused and in any case they're very unlikely to have the Doctor turn out to be Shayde on TV. I've not got problem with ideas from other mediums being reused and if you look at some of the books we've had over the last few years there have been similarities with subsequent TV stories.

However given that we still don't know exactly how many of the 14 episodes Matt is definitely contracted for are being shown next year it's too early to be reading any significance into his comments.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

First official image from this year's Christmas Special... title to be announced on Children in Need tomorrow!

[J.R. Southall]

Oh, and in other news...

In this month's DWM Production Notes, Steven Moffat reveals just a little more about the plans for 2013: "Doctor Who is going to enter production for the longest sustained period we've ever attempted ... We needed time to prepare for everything we've got planned, (which is) why we needed this little gap."

In other words, there might be less Doctor Who next year, but 2013 will see just as much as (if not more than) usual.