Doctor Who Confidential

[duncan]

I must say that having two children myself, one of which was just 6 when Confidential started, I totally disagree that by showing it right after the main show ruined the magic. For a child who may have been scared by the start of The Unquiet Dead, or of monsters in bedroom cupboards as in Fear Her, it settled their mind to see that the old woman wasn't really a corpse walking and was just an actress. Also, that monsters in the bedroom cupboard don't exist. Obviously, I can only speak from experience but my scared 6 year old went to bed far happier after watching confidential.

[Llordllama]

I think I stopped watching Confidential regularly around season 3 of NuWho, I just felt it had run its course. Not to say that I didn't dip in occasionally (I think I watched the Night Terrors one this season and that's been the first one since the 11th Hour). There's only so much behind the scenes guff I can take. There's a reason loads of extras on my DVD collections don't get watched, and I'm surprised the Beeb kept it going this long.

Now could they pump some of the saved money back into the main show please, and buy a couple of new Cybermen!

[Perry Vale]

It's about time, really. Although I've probably watched all of them, it was a good idea that, like most modern tv shows (Big Brother, X Factor, I'm A Celebrity, The Appentice etc.), should have been cancelled after the first series.

The format didn't lend itself, being shown immediately afterwards, a better idea (IMHO) would have been to have a series retrospective at the end of each season.

Now could they pump some of the saved money back into the main show please, and buy a couple of new Cybermen!

No. The money being saved is from BBC3's budget, nothing to do with BBC1.

I hope in time honoured tradition, the final edition goes out 30 seconds before the Xmas special has finished.

[Dino]

And the harsh lesson is they should of made a fusion of Confidential and TOTALLY DOCTOR WHO. In fact, Totally Doctor Who should never been cancelled. I know there's been wacky bits of the cast in Confidential, TDW had the greatest moment when the actor who played er... the human Dalek guy, he was all relaxed talking about his life in New York...
... and OK, it wasn't done on purpose as TDW did this at the end of show, but it wasn't even 6 years after 9/11 but the BBC didn't think anything significant in not telling the actor they were going to set off the fire alarms.
Thankfully the actor was a professional and you had the reassuring presence of Kirsty O'Brien. But if you find the clip Look.At.His.First.Facial.Reaction!



It wouldn't surprise me if the actor complained behind the scenes and this added to the weight of cancelling TDW. I can't think of a Confidential moment (Although some were close, and the cast got a lot more relaxed a lot more. Farewell Confidential, I felt weird about you in 2005 and I never fully got on board, but if it means more money can be spent on DW then... you know, OH! IT ISN'T MAKING A DENT ON how DW funded so there's no need to swear then. Thanks.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Confidential was a strange beast.

Sometimes I'd watch an episode I'd enjoyed, but having listened to how "absolutely amazing ... never been done before" I'd be a bit "nah". But sometime's it'd make me appreciate a bit more something I wasn't too fussed about.

It's a strange thing, sometimes knowing too much of the magic can ruin the magic.

Best would be the whole "return of an old enemy" profile of a villain.

At it's worst was the Voyage of the Damned, where half the program was given to how they made a song which you only heard in the background ...

[Stuart Wallis]

But the reputation of Doctor Who fans, and by association the show itself, is reasonably respectable in the eyes of the media right now. Let's have a return to the good old days of the mid eighties where we all turn into fanatical, obsessive, hating bastards who organise campaigns and picket lines and annoy the people actually making our show.

If the editor of the official magazine could start a row with one of the major newspapers TV editors, that would help too.

Let's go!

Si.

Well if this is the way you feel, you probably should!

I've not seen it either. Confidential, Totally and - I'll get lynched for this, I know it! - Torchwood were too much to launch on the public at once, on top of the parent programme, so i've not gone out of my way to see any of them - and i've only seen a few SJAs for the same reason. Get your heretics here!

[Larry]

OK, this is a shame, but on the other hand the show was getting a bit desperate.

Then again, why cut 45 minutes of what must be an incredibly cheap show to make?

and nothing high lighted that more than a couple of weeks back when they had a feature on Karen, driving a car round a motor circuit and Arthur, swimming with sharks. The mistake they made with Confidential, was to increase it from a 30 minute show to a 45 minute one as I just don't think there is enough content per episode to keep you intrested. Even the "making off" documentary on the classic dvd's only last at most 30 minutes so I certainly don't see the need in 45 minutes.

TBH I can't say I'm dissapointed at this news Confidential, was great in the first 2 or 3 series but for me every episode has just got a bit to boring and samey. I do record it every week but most of the time I only watch bits of it and fast forward through the boring bits.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Really disappointed by tonight's edition overall. I liked "Death is the only answer" although will need a re-watch as a friend started talking in the middle and I liked the Alex Kingston narrated time line of River Song which sounded as if Moff himself might have written it but as a finale it was lacking. At the end I found myself remembering the edition that accompanied The Parting of the Ways and Simon Pegg's parting line of narration "Goodbye Doctor number nine you were a Northern star" leading into a clip compilation accompanied by Snow Patrol. That was a million miles better than what we got tonight.

[Si Hunt]

I feel from Twitter like I'm in a very small minority, but I can't bring myself to support all the campaigns to "save" Doctor Who Confidential. I appreciate some people must love it, but I just feel everyone is jumping on a cause for the sake of it. People like nothing better than demonstrating that "the masses" can have a voice and change things, people power etc! And it seems to me more about that than about forcing them to keep making a really good series.

Si.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

I haven't signed any of the petitions or engaged with any of the for or against polls elsewhere either. There has been a lot of silly stuff in my twitter time line over the last couple of days. I'm hoping certain people (no one from PS I hasten to add!) will calm down soon or I might start unfollowing.
If the decision had come following the broadcast of the 2009 specials I might have been more vocal in my support for DWC but as it has been during the last two series it has been significantly lacking so I think it needs resting. We didn't need Totally Doctor Who and we don't need the current watered down version of DWC.

[Awesome Wells]

I feel from Twitter like I'm in a very small minority, but I can't bring myself to support all the campaigns to "save" Doctor Who Confidential. I appreciate some people must love it, but I just feel everyone is jumping on a cause for the sake of it. People like nothing better than demonstrating that "the masses" can have a voice and change things, people power etc! And it seems to me more about that than about forcing them to keep making a really good series.

Si.

I don't know about their motivations as regards to supporting these campaigns but I'd rather people mobilised en masse behind a cause that was truly worthy than a doomed attempt to say an ultimately rather pointless TV show. As I've said elsewhere, I'm sorry for anyone who may lose their job as a result of Confidential's cancellation - and anyone who may be upset to lose it as something they enjoy - but I have no real interest in it and furthermore, these misguided efforts may be to the detriment of the parent show.

I'm sorry, but there really are more important things to worry about than this.

[Rob McCow]

Petitions don't achieve much these days.

Last night's was quite good - the chronological narrative of River Song's life was a much needed treat as it turned out! So nice to have it all laid out in order. Also, Silence In The Library has progressively become a more and more important story... kind of inevitably.

I thought 'Death Is The Only Answer' was great! It didn't quite make sense, but it was loads of fun. Nicholas Grace's Einstein was an absolute hoot. Well done to those schoolkids!

[Alex Me]

I admit I'm not too saddened by the news, I never really watched the show. It went on too long, and after the first couple of year they rarely had any new revelations about how the show was made.

[Andrew Curnow]

Even the news of the cancellation hasn't motivated me to watch any from the second part of the season - and I'd guess they're probably dropping off the iPlayer about now.

They'll be interesting in thirty years time, when we watch multi-hi-def-discanodes of them in our Elder Persons' Homes, and mumble about how young that Matt Smith looked back then, and chuckle about Moffat's 2011 perm, but at the moment it's a struggle to be bothered.

[Simon R]

We've still got 4 or 5 from this year to watch plus one got missed for some reason. It's simply too long. Half an hour would have been more than enough.

[Larry]

I had the final episode of confidential, on record on my Sky planner, but because I didn't check about other recordings I was doing at the time it clashed with some thing else and the recording failed. I wasn't bothered in the slightests and haven't even had any desire to watch it on i-player .

[Dino]

THE MOFF STRIKES BACK!!!!

Steven Moffat has blasted the BBC at the axing of Doctor Who Confidential.

It was announced that the BBC Three behind-the-scenes show would not return next year. And now the executive producer has criticised his BBC bosses for the decision.

Writing in his Production Notes column in Doctor Who Magazine this month, Moffat railed that:It seems hard to grasp. All shows have their time, and all shows end, but not, in all sanity, while people still watch and love them. I’m not supposed to say it, but I’m going to say it anyway: bad day, bad decision.Announcing that decision to axe Confidential, channel controller Zai Bennett had pledged to plough resources into more original commissions, which as well as the acclaimed likes of Being Human and The Fades include Hotter Than My Daughter and Young, Dumb And Living Off Mum.

Moffat pointed to the show’s recent Script To Screen writing competition as an example of the programme's value providing a "magic moment when television opened up and told so many children ‘yes you can do it now'. Describing the day when he, Matt Smith and producer Marcus Wilson visited the winners, saying: “For once we weren’t visitors from the impossible unattainable world if television – they’d seen that they could be part of it too, and they’d even seen it happen... among all those children who took part in Script To Screen, possibilities opened up and futures changed. Tell me what is more important than that."

Recalling his own experience, he continued: "When I was a kid, Doctor Who made me want to see behind the scenes. Seeing behind the scenes made me never want to leave and, one day, incredibly, got me the job of a lifetime. It did the same for Russell [T Davies] and David [Tennant]."

Damning the decision further, he continued: "I know these are straitened times. I know we're all at sea and the night is colder, but you don't start burning the lifeboats to keep warm. Or, to put it another way, you might want to think about the future if you're planning to live there."

An online petition to save Doctor Who Confidential has so far gathered almost 55,000 signatures.

http://www.nme.com/filmandtv/news/st...dential/251488

[wombatskidude]

I'd agree with most of that. It really doesn't make a lot of sense to axe something as cheap and successful as Confidential.

Are the Beeb hoping for another 6music situation here? They announce they're axeing something good, so there's a huge backlash with thousands of people telling them how great it is. They thereupon bring it back, having cancelled a dozen other things while everyone was distracted.

[Rob McCow]

To be honest, if it had a year off I'd be entirely happy.

[Logo Polish]

Doctor Who Confidential has not been a particularly "successful" series this year. It wasn't getting into the top tens for BBC3 or the top thirties for "other channels". That suggests a rating of, at most, about 500, 000 and it's not surprising if the BBC therefore feel it's outlived its usefulness and that they'd be better off looking for something new to replace with it, something that might prove more popular.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

I definitely agree with Steve and Logo's posts. I think the series in it's current format (racing cars, scuba diving and all) needs a rest but there's definitely room for a behind the scenes offering. Perhaps they should look to do some stuff as VAM for future DVD boxsets as there probably isn't a place for it on BBC Three (or Four) at the moment.

[Perry Vale]

It really doesn't make a lot of sense to axe something as cheap and successful as Confidential.

I've seen a couple of people say on this thread that Confidential is "cheap" to make, what are you basing that on? I don't know the figures either, but with at least 30 people employed to work on it in the credits, and all the travel/accomodation for everyone, I'd guess a series comes in around the £2m mark. Is that cheap?

As for successful, as Logo has pointed out that's not the case any more. Not really a surprise to me, given it's rather repetitive nature and this year's decision to move the second half of the parent series to the autumn. The parent show has faced much stiffer competition against Vernon Kay and X-factor, which as 'must see' tv, it has coped with in most respects, but Confidential will never be in that bracket so it was bound to suffer in the tough saturday night schedules.

[Anthony Williams]

I've seen a couple of people say on this thread that Confidential is "cheap" to make, what are you basing that on? I don't know the figures either, but with at least 30 people employed to work on it in the credits, and all the travel/accomodation for everyone, I'd guess a series comes in around the £2m mark. Is that cheap?

Not to mention paying for the rights to all the music that they use!

[Zbigniev Hamson]

I couldn't care less that it's been cancelled and I'm a Doctor Who fan. Moffat's just having a rather self-indulgent whinge.

[Rob McCow]

I don't think Moffat is being self-indulgent. I think that he's more protecting his show and the livelihoods of the Confidential team.