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He WHAT???
DO. NOT. WANT.
I mean, serioualy, WHAT. THE. FUCK.?
We get 13 episodes plus a Christmas special per year. I'm happy with that, because I think that once you start getting series that are longer than 12 or 13 episodes, it gets difficult to maintain a decent story, the standards of scriptwriting and production values. (The only show that, IMO has ever managed to sustain incredibly high quality over a 22 episode season was S2 of The West Wing.)
But splitting a series of DW in half, airing six months (ish) apart? No thanks.
Moffat says it's to serve the storytelling because he wants to put in a massive "game-changing" cliffhanger. Well, okay, I'm all for something like that. But having to wait MONTHS rather than DAYS for the resolution? Is he stupid, or what? I know people who got fed up with all the twisty-turny, timey-wimey plotty stuff in S5, who couldn't get invested in the new characters and stopped watching as a result. What makes him think that the audience will want to wait months for the resolution of this "game-changing" twist? **
I keep banging on about this, but the DW audience is not just made up of fans. There's a large contingent of casual viewers and that makes up the majority of the viewing numbers. I haven't seen a detailed analysis recently, but I remember reading something a while ago in which the numbers of casual viewers vs. fans was actually rather surprising. If anyone's got any info on that, I'd be interested to read it.
But mySpidey PR-bullshit sense is also tingling, because I can't help wondering if what Moffat's saying is really putting a brave face on the fact that he's been told that he has to do this for some reason. I can't see how splitting a series in two would mean they could make financial savings - if anything I'd think it would be more expensive if the filming and production has to be split into two. On the other hand though, if they film everything in the same way as now, splitting the season could save money in post-production as there will be more time to work on some things. Rush jobs always mean overtime.
Whatever the reason, I'm certainly one very uhnappy bunny about this news. Has anyone started a campaign to bombard the BBC with protests yet?
**I do realise that many complete series/seasons of many shows end on cliffhangers - but I'm going to dig my heels in and whine "but that's different!". I also know that most episodes of Classic Who ended on cliffhangers - but we usually only had to wait a week for their resolution.
So yeah. I'm pissed off.
ETA: There is some spoilery speculation in the comments.
I mean, serioualy, WHAT. THE. FUCK.?
We get 13 episodes plus a Christmas special per year. I'm happy with that, because I think that once you start getting series that are longer than 12 or 13 episodes, it gets difficult to maintain a decent story, the standards of scriptwriting and production values. (The only show that, IMO has ever managed to sustain incredibly high quality over a 22 episode season was S2 of The West Wing.)
But splitting a series of DW in half, airing six months (ish) apart? No thanks.
Moffat says it's to serve the storytelling because he wants to put in a massive "game-changing" cliffhanger. Well, okay, I'm all for something like that. But having to wait MONTHS rather than DAYS for the resolution? Is he stupid, or what? I know people who got fed up with all the twisty-turny, timey-wimey plotty stuff in S5, who couldn't get invested in the new characters and stopped watching as a result. What makes him think that the audience will want to wait months for the resolution of this "game-changing" twist? **
I keep banging on about this, but the DW audience is not just made up of fans. There's a large contingent of casual viewers and that makes up the majority of the viewing numbers. I haven't seen a detailed analysis recently, but I remember reading something a while ago in which the numbers of casual viewers vs. fans was actually rather surprising. If anyone's got any info on that, I'd be interested to read it.
But my
Whatever the reason, I'm certainly one very uhnappy bunny about this news. Has anyone started a campaign to bombard the BBC with protests yet?
**I do realise that many complete series/seasons of many shows end on cliffhangers - but I'm going to dig my heels in and whine "but that's different!". I also know that most episodes of Classic Who ended on cliffhangers - but we usually only had to wait a week for their resolution.
So yeah. I'm pissed off.
ETA: There is some spoilery speculation in the comments.
no subject
You know, they pulled a similar thing with a completely different fandom a few years back: Trekkies, specifically the ones who watched The Next Generation, will probably gladly recount to you the story of "The longest summer" where they had to wait an entire series to find out if the main protagonist had been assimlated by evil aliens and if his former crew had just blown him up... it didn't have the same effect for me popping in a DVD ten years later but it must've been HELL for the fans at the time... you can get there was a big ratings jump when autumn finally rolled around.
I guess he COULD be just doing the whole "putting on a brave face" thing (at the very least I get the series was adveristed to the bosses at the BEEB based on the whole "this will bring in more money and viewers" thing; though whether or not that reflects on his own reasoning for it is anyone's guess: what they think and what they tell the bosses who hand out the cash in order to get stuff done could be two different things) but at the moment I'm trying not to think that way, because... well because I don't want to spend six months to a year getting stressed out over this. I can't change it...I've loved what we;ve had the last five or six years so much, the thought of it going out that way leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, and seems unnessecary since that this point we have no REAL conclusive proof that this is the beginning of the end.
Though I agree with you that the Beeb is at it with their budgeting lately. The BBC seems to be a bit of a mess. I'm doing animation at uni and they actually opened up to a FIRST YEAR CLASS offering a contest for aniamtion series pitches: five years ago, the BBC would NEVER have done that. So that says something about how... well, desperate they are.
On the other hand... with that in mind, why would they then cut one of their BIGGEST merchandise earners and a show which, even in spite of a slight drop in viewers lately, is bringing in more attention than almost everything bar the televised football matches?
As for having to wait months to see a conclusion... irking, yeah. But then Doctor Who's endings are... not always happy, not always great but usually it leads to a victory for the good guys and I'm going to stick with that mind set for now. it's not like they're gonna destroy the universe XD so (tempts fate)... how bad can it really be?
no subject
Viewing figures can be made to say many different things, and although there appeared to be a general downward trend in S5, they were bolstered by iPlayer and timeshifted figures. It also didn't help that it was never on at the same time from week to week.
I do think that Moffat is toeing the party line and putting a positive spin on it; after all, series 6 is in production and most of the scripts will have already been completed, which makes me think that the split wasn't part of the original plan. If it heralds a move to the autumn permanently, well, okay, I think that would be a better home for DW, but I think there are better ways to do it,
The thing that annoys me with the Beeb is this - I don't object to paying my licence fee; even though I moan about them sometimes, I do think that on the whole they do a good job. My problem is that, as a publicly funded broadcaster, they shouldn't be producing the sort of
crapprogrammes that are already done ad infinitum by the commercial channels. The BBC in the UK is not funded by advertisers, so they shouldn't be competing for viewing figures with commercial channels. Most of the people who work for the Beeb earn less than they would in the commercial sector - but people want the prestige of wotking at the BBC. So what I'm saying basically,is that they should drop all the crappy reality shows and let ITV have free rein with them, and stick to making decent programmes that a large number of people want to see.