Series 7 news & rumours *spoilers*

[Martin Curnow]

Here you go Tim...

The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe - Prequel

"So, Emlyn; what happens next?"

[SiHart]

Looks like it's all going to be stand alone episodes from the stuff Moffat says in his interview in DWM...

[Si Hunt]

It seems to be one extreme or the other with Moffatt. One year he brings back every monster every for the season finale, the next we get no old monsters at all. Up to now we've had story's so linked and complex that no-one can understand them, now we're not even going to get a single two-parter.

One of the nice things about RTD's Who was that you had a little bit of everything.

Si.

[SiHart]

Steven Moffat announces "The final days of the Ponds are coming during the next series. Then the Doctor will meet a new friend"

[Si Hunt]

Hurrah.

Si.

[Alex]

I've very mixed feelings about this, and I really wish this had been kept a secret, as it would have been a lot more effective that way. I read it on the front page of Digital Spy, where there was no attempt to hide it at all, nor that it will be a "heartbreaking end" to their story.

It was always going to happen at one point or another, obviously, but I really like Amy and Rory, and they may just be my favourite new series companions (it's either them or S1 Rose, anyway) and I'd have liked for them to stay on for the whole of this season, and then perhaps go sometime shortly after that. That all said, I am looking forward to seeing Matt get to play with a different kind of companion. I just hope it's not a horribly s***e one. Or even worse, Donna back again. That would make me cry.

[Awesome Wells]

Not sure if this needs tags in a thread marked *spoilers*, but what the hey....


RIP Amy and Rory.

Literally.

Or one of them at least.

I hope. Preferably in the first story of the next series.

Harsh? Well, I love Amy and Rory, but they've already had a decent, heartfelt, well-written goodbye scene from the Doctor. And unless they're not going to appear together or have their memories wiped again or whatever things worked last season, post The God Complex, the only way I can presently see of NOT at least partly Rose Tylering it (ruining the wonderful end of a character's final story forever by bringing back the character later for some pisspot episodes and negating the previous emotional glory) for the Ponds is by having at least one of them killed off.

Doctor Who has already said that travelling with him might get Amy killed; Rory has died more often than contestants on the Late Late Breakfast Show. I suggest the best solution, if they are to return, is to have them offed in the opening story. Get gone, stay gone, or be gone.

[Si Hunt]

Genuinely don't get how anyone could even think this worth talking about. They've already left! They had a goodbye scene in the last series!

In fact, if you discount the new Radio Times cover (which could just be, kind of, general) no-one's said they're even coming back next year yet.

So we're in the weird situation where, having written them out, before telling us that they're coming back, we're told they're leaving again.

And we're supposed to care?

Si.

[wombatskidude]

It's ironic, given what a tight ship Moffat runs these days, that he personally blurts out such a huge spoiler.

(In RTD's day, you'd practically know the entire plot of every story, before the first episode was even broadcast)

[Si Hunt]

Publicity is a neccessary evil these days; this is helpfully timed a week before the next Doctor Who episode for a bit of added attention.

I'm sure it was no different in RTD's day, and there were a fair few surprises kept for the episodes - notable examples being the Doctor's almost-regeneration, Rose's return in Series 4 and the return of the Macra.

Si.

[Zbigniev Hamson]

One of the nice things about RTD's Who was that you had a little bit of everything.

In a rigid, unwavering format, repeated year on year ad nauseum...

[Andrew Curnow]

Publicity is a neccessary evil these days; this is helpfully timed a week before the next Doctor Who episode for a bit of added attention.

As you know, I try and avoid spoilers, but since the headline for this one was on the homepage of the BBC News site I'm afraid I failed! However, personally I'd say it seems a very odd bit of timing - I agree with Si totally that publicity is an inevitable part of it all now, and in general RTD's era was superb at that. But to announce this sort of thing now, when we're at least nine months from even the start of the next run, is very bizarre - surely they should be bigging up the impending Christmas Special, not talking about next year. It would be a bit like Davies saying how great Tennant's going to be, halfway through The Empty Child.

[Dino]

As you know, I try and avoid spoilers, but since the headline for this one was on the homepage of the BBC News site I'm afraid I failed! However, personally I'd say it seems a very odd bit of timing - I agree with Si totally that publicity is an inevitable part of it all now, and in general RTD's era was superb at that. But to announce this sort of thing now, when we're at least nine months from even the start of the next run, is very bizarre - surely they should be bigging up the impending Christmas Special, not talking about next year. It would be a bit like Davies saying how great Tennant's going to be, halfway through The Empty Child.

That last bit was my of the night! Plus, this groundbreaking, earth shattering unheard of plot development was page 3 of at least the Daily Mirror, so the starting pistol has been fired for the first shot of this actual thing to be spoiled in the media.
I've just thought, maybe Moffatt will big up the Christmas special in tomorrow or next week's newspaper?

[Darren]

It may be that both actors have found other work which is about to be public which would make it obvious that they were leaving DW.

[brandynigma]

Or perhaps their final days will be:

"Pond 1 and Pond 2! Shall we go have some adventures?"
"No."
"... Oh. Righto then."
*opening titles*

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

I'm sure they'll get a better send off than that but it is a little bit wierd to announce this before they've even cast the new girl (I'd love it to be a boy but I live in the real world about these things although I'll be very happy to be proved wrong!). Maybe they felt this was something that would keep up interest.
I must've been watching a different season finale to some people this year btw. Rory and Amy were written out at the end of The God Complex but they then appeared briefly in the following week's episodes and were written back in as main characters during the last episode. All that didn't happen was for them to be reunited with the Doctor in this version of reality where time is running normally. I'm sure that will happen soon enough though.

[J.R. Southall]

They are having a very weird time of it, coming and going like no companions we've ever seen. Look at where they were at the start of The Impossible Astronaut and then look at what's happened with them since The God Complex (as Richard points out). Even Rose had a far more straightforward storyline than these two. That was the very odd thing about The Wedding of River Song; just exactly what were we supposed to make of Rory and Amy...?

[Zbigniev Hamson]

Surely the real story is the revelation that she hasn't left yet, not that she's going to leave next year.

[J.R. Southall]

Quite so. The story that they'll be leaving during the next series was presented as if it should have been obvious to anyone reading/listening to it that Amy and Rory hadn't yet left yet, when in fact we not only saw them leave, we then saw what their life was like after the Doctor. Twice! And not only that, but we're also about to have a Christmas Special in which they play no significant part.

And people moaned about Rose's return...

[SiHart]

At least Rose left a season between returns.

[Anthony Williams]

Basically, it's all a huge balls-up!

[Larry]

It's ironic, given what a tight ship Moffat runs these days, that he personally blurts out such a huge spoiler.

(In RTD's day, you'd practically know the entire plot of every story, before the first episode was even broadcast)

but at the same time he's been in the game long enough to know that he also needs to keep feeding the fans just enough info to get us talking about series 7..

[J.R. Southall]

A couple of friends and I have been speculating about Mark Canton as the companion to follow Amy Pond. He did, after all, get a blue envelope in The Impossible Astronaut.

[FlyingBeastie]

It's ironic, given what a tight ship Moffat runs these days, that he personally blurts out such a huge spoiler.

(In RTD's day, you'd practically know the entire plot of every story, before the first episode was even broadcast)

Eh, I'd disagree. I've never gotten the feeling Moffat has run a particularly tight ship in terms of spoilers.

Then again, the plots in his series have been so simple I've sussed out most of the "spoilers" before they were even revealed.

As for RTD, I'll admit I don't know much about spoiler leaks because I've never sought them out. But, I was always under the impression that whatever was leaked wasn't the true twist.

Like with "End of Time". We all saw those screencaps of Dalton in the Timelord garb, but what did that really tell us? Sure we knew the Timelords were coming back, but we didn't know to what extent.

For those of us who couldn't wait, we knew Derek Jacobi and John Simm were The Master and that he'd eventually run as Harold Saxon. But I don't remember anyone figuring out who the Toklefane were before it was revealed they were the folks from Utopia. And, yes it was crap, but I don't think any of us guessed the whole "Jesus" Doctor finale.

I feel like Moffat depends too much on twists, which is why he keeps throwing so many hissyfits over fans reading spoilers. If his stories actually had substance to them, he wouldn't care what fans know because in the end what we know isn't even the true crux of the tale.

And if you still had to ask after all that, the answer is Yes- I'm so glad they're leaving I'm planning on throwing a party over it. And you're all invited.

[Anthony Williams]

And if you still had to ask after all that, the answer is Yes- I'm so glad they're leaving I'm planning on throwing a party over it. And you're all invited.

Carefull... those of us in the USA might actually turn up