Has Brian Terranova cracked the reason for the 2012 episode reduction? Kasterborous’ own Associate Editor has been doing a bit of thinking about the current state of play concerning Doctor Who Series 7 and its likely scheduling, and has hit upon an interesting possibility.
Let’s list the episodes from 2005 to Christmas 2011:
13 Episodes – Series 1
1 Episode Christmas 2005
13 Episodes – Series 2
1 Episode Christmas 2006
13 Episodes – Series 3
1 Episode Christmas 2007
13 Episodes – Series 4
5 Episodes Christmas & Specials 2008-2010
13 Episodes – Series 5
1 Episode Christmas 2010
7 Episodes – Series 6: Part 1
6 Episodes – Series 6 Part 2
1 Episode Christmas 2011
——————————
Total: 88 episodes as of 2011.
1 Episode Christmas 2012
13 Episodes Series 7
(These are the 14 episodes that have been commissioned.)
Now for Series 1 through 6 that’s 88 as you can see; add in 12 of the 14 commissioned episodes for Series 7/Christmas and you will have reached episode 100. Schedule it right, oh say November 23rd (which is a Saturday in 2013), and the 12th episode would be the Fiftieth Anniversary Special – either as a solo 100th episode or a part 1 of a three part anniversary story.
Either way you have episode 12 being a 100th episode big event episode on Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary!
Good thinking Batman! I like this wholly positive theory very much.
Well considering that the 200th over all story was commemorated by the number 200 being put on the front of a bus, I doubt they’ll arrange things simply for the 100th new episode but anything’s possible!
The more I think about it, the more I think it will go like this and I base it on the fact that Matt Smith can’t/won’t stay forever:
* Series 7 starts late autumn 2012 with River as his companion…
* Christmas special 2012
* Remainder of series 7 afterward ending in spring 2013 with the full tale of the Doctor and River’s time together.
* Smith’s contract is up at this point but they contract him for the big anniversary special in November 2013 where he and River marry.
* Then Smith regenerates in the 2013 Christmas special.
A lot less Who over the next couple years but my best guess.
I like the way Rick’s vision of Series 7 pans out, especially River becoming a full time companion.
I have to admit that in my head River’s ‘proper’ Doctor would be either 12 or 13 but I’d be happy enough if it did end up being 11.
The one factor that does concern me is his prophecy that Matt Smith will leave the show in 2013.
After my initial “how can they replace Tennant” concerns, Matt has completely won me over and is for me the best Doctor we’ve ever had.
The fan in me would like him to remain in charge of the Tardis for the forseeable future and, although i’m sure he wants to expand his acting CV and probably fears being typecast, I do believe he has lots more to offer in the role before any need for regeneration.
This is why I am upset at the reduction of Who episodes during 2012. It seems to be a criminal waste of his talent if the majority of next year are ‘Who free’. We won’t get another chance to have him as The Doctor, this opportunity should be exploited to the full.
Yeah, I used to just think that river would be destined to meet a future Doctor but since A) who knows how many incarnations they’ll now say he has and B)if they just extend the amount, we’ll never see her as she’ll always be “somewhere in the future” and I for one would like to see the romance, the wedding, and the parting since I imagine it would be a great story. AND I think that Moffat has to be/will demand to be the writer of it and that makes me think it’ll happen in the next year. Fingers crossed anyway.
The Moff just confirmed that there doing all the episodes this year, but there just moving them to a later broadcast in autumn.
But good point, they’d be stupid not to use 23/11/13 as the special date. It’s such a oppurtunity!
Four episodes in and clearly River is not the companion for this year or next. We will see her in the next episode though.
As far as I’m concerned, this year’s episodes and next’s are seperate seasons, seven and eight, with half the usual number of episodes to reduce cost. Any other explanation is spin.