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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
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.