Doctor Who 2011: Season 6 AND 7?
by Kyle Anderson on August 31, 2010
Every time we turn around it seems there’s new Doctor Who news. Just the way I like it! Yesterday saw a big huge piece of information directly from Steven Moffat himself. As I originally saw via Radio Free Skaro, this came from the Edinburgh International Television Festival. Read the full article here. Split seasons worked okay for Battlestar Galactica so I’m fine with it.
What do YOU think?
I guess it’s now my duty to open up the comments section to fanboy speculation! I just watched the Tennant Episode The Doctor’s Daughter, and in that spirit I’d really like to see Jenny come back.
This is an interesting approach, great that their dividing the wait time by dividing the season.
Jenny would be interesting.
Now to speculate how the Daleks will be in the Mid-season climax
Is the cliffhanger going to be the episode written by Neil Gaiman?
I do like being only a few months from the new Doctor Who.
Jenny, yes!
I would love this! Because i’m having serious Doctor Who withdrawl, Christmas is just too far away!
@yogahz – No, Gaiman’s script is supposedly airing third in the season, so it won’t be part of a cliffhanger. Hopefully neither Jenny nor the Daleks will be involved in the two-parter that splits the 2011 series. I’m guessing it’ll be something involving River Song, or whoever/whatever is behind The Silence.
I love this idea. This kind of schedule is working great for some series on USA. Just wondering if the new serieswill follow the 2 week delay in The States?
I don’t know why this announcement makes me uneasy. I think it’s okay to split up the season like they’ve been doing on USA, but don’t call it a separate series. I really can’t explain why that bothers me.
Split seasons worked OK for BSG *in theory*, but SciFi Channel took their sweet time in between halves toward the end. As long as BBC 1 doesn’t toy with our patience like that… cool.
I’m fine with it. Seeing as Doctor Who does have a really long season by BBC standards. And quite a few shows here have done it too, we just don’t see those “mid-season finales” as a real finale because we’re used to a season being at LEAST 13 episodes.
And I’m all for always being a few months away from new Who.
I absolutely can’t stand that so many TV shows take this route now. I thought the original cause of shows having such a huge hiatus mid-season was due to the writers strike (Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Heroes, etc.) Since that point it seems to be generally acceptable for shows to randomly go off the air to return after a long break (V, Caprica, etc.) I’m sure the TV executives are thinking that taking a large break builds up the tension and therefore the ratings for the mid-season return, but this can also blow up in their faces as people lose interest or find other things to watch. That won’t probably won’t happen with such a beloved show like Doctor Who, granted, but I know I’m going to despise the long wait over the summer…
I agree with Teressa. These partial seasons drive me nuts. It’s part of the reason I don’t bother with the Typo Network any more. The other part is that after airing six episodes, and disappearing for several months, I can’t remember what happened the last time the show aired.
Finally, I just didn’t enjoy this last season of Doctor Who. There’s no subtlety in Moffat’s writing, I loathe the new iDalek, and I hated the whole “end of the Universe, oh wait, Amy Pond imagines all of existence back into being” routine.
Mike… rethink what you’re saying here. You’re bordering on heresy.
Moffat is a terrible show-runner. The show’s quality has taken a precipitous fall under his watch. (Where’s Russell T. Davies when you need him?)
Most of the last series turned into a monotonous “monster-of-the-week.” The Doctor’s arrogantly-played omnipotence has sapped the show’s dramatic tension and viewer empathy. By making the Doctor practically invincible for most of the series (preceding the finale), we’ve lost investment in caring for him. What’s to care about if he’s never really at risk? (Not to mention the addition of wooden acting, and the lack of chemistry between the main characters.)
As a result, I have no faith in Moffat’s decision-making. The cynical part of me thinks the series split is more about commercialism and distracting _from_ the story rather than serving it.
Call me—justifiably—bitter. He’s ruined a fairly great show in no time flat.
@ Marc in Chicago
While I sort of agree about the chemistry between the actors (I became less and less invested in Amy Pond as the season went on) I totally disagree with your assessment of last season. If you’re objecting to the Doctor’s “omnipotence,” where were you during the last of Tennant’s era? He was easily more arrogant than Smith’s been playing it. Has there been a single episode during the entirety of Doctor Who, all the way from Hartnell forward, that you actually were worried the Doctor might not make it through? It’s a given that he’s going to make it and he’s over 900 years old so you’d assume he’s used to being put in danger. That’s what makes the character so awesome is his brazen disregard for his own safety. I guess that’s arrogance, but the nicer way to say it would be bravado.
I really hope the mid-season finale isn’t the Daleks. I’ve mentioned before, I don’t really like the Daleks, or at least they way they’ve been portrayed since “Parting of the Ways.” Sontarans and Cybermen are what I’d like to see more of.
I’m quite sure the Daleks will not be part of the cliffhanger. I’m going to guess that the first arc is going to be about River, and the second is going to be about The Silence. Or it could be the other way around. If that Daleks are going to be involved, which I’m sure is inevitable seeing as they’re as much a staple as the Cybermen, they’re going to be a single-episode story. I doubt they’re going to play a very large role in either “finale”
I’m so far behind…
@ Marc in Chicago:
“Call me—justifiably—bitter. He’s ruined a fairly great show in no time flat.”
Actually, that’s what RTD did, with his immature, two dimensional fail of a character known as Rose Tyler. She was a weak, cliche character who made The Doctor into an equally weak and uninteresting puppy dog who had no mind of his own. (And she didn’t have chemistry with neither Nine nor Ten.) Not to mention that RTD’s episodes were some of the worst of the series. (i.e. “Love and Monsters.”)
“Most of the last series turned into a monotonous ‘monster-of-the-week.’”
This shows how little you’ve paid attention. Everything from season five was building to a final arc: the silence, the cracks, and the Pandorica. Even the seemingly “stand alone” episodes (i.e. “The Beast Below,” “Victory of the Daleks,” and “Vincent and The Doctor”) ended up being part of the finale: Liz X, Winston Churchill, and Vincent along with his paintings. Moffat carefully crafted season five to weave in elements that would all be pulled together in the finale, such as The Doctor from the finale traveling back to visit Amy in “Flesh and Stone” and tell her that she needs to trust him.
The chemistry and relationships that The Doctor has developed with Amy, Rory, River, and even characters that have only lasted an episode or two trumps a majority of the relationships The Doctor developed under RTD’s thumb/episodes. Even the weakest episodes Moffat has written in season five are lightyears better in quality when compared with the strongest episodes RTD wrote throughout seasons 1-4.
And as for Jenny, I also hope Moffat will choose to bring her back. I heard that he was the one who asked her not to be killed off, which was the original plan for the character. I’d love to see her back in season six! I’m not sure when Moffat plans to let Amy and Rory get back to their real lives, but I would love to see Jenny become the next companion after they leave, as Ten promised her in “The Doctor’s Daughter.” (Though I would like to see Jenny meet Amy at some point. I think The Doctor would have his hands so full with the two of them, since they are quite alike. It’d be even better if River were also involved, because I see River as his wife, Jenny his daughter, and Amy is kind of like an “adoptive daughter” who i think Eleven got really attached to because she reminded him of Jenny and provided him a “second chance” to be a fatherly figure in her life [one of the reasons he's grossed out by the idea of her being sexually attracted to him/kissing him]. River and Amy already have a really great relationship and I think it would be adorable to see them accept Jenny into their fold. Poor Doctor…Amy and River already gang up on him, I can only imagine if Jenny joined the mix.)
Three words: bring Jenny back!
I really don’t care about the mid-season finale. I love the show, and I love the current cast.
Rose pissed me off beyond belief, so I guess i’ll take whatever I can get with companions.
And I feel Jenny would be rather awkward in the current season…three companions is too many story-lines.
Yeah, I don’t think Jenny would really fit in the new regime. Somewhat, that’s what River’s job is, to be the recurring companion. I half expected a Jenny spinoff series, but that never materialized. She was too heavily steeped in RTD’s mythology and Moffat’s got his own agenda to deal with.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could see Jenny’s adventures, much like Sarah Jane, while waiting those few months for The Doctor to return?
Teressa and Mike – I agree! Dr Who under Moffat has tanked. Don’t like Dr Who 11, or scrawny Jenny, Rory is just a shallow shadow man. Christmas Who fell flat. And now a split season – this is not a Dr Who I will continue to follow.
I agree completely with Maddie. I couldn’t stand the way Rose was always acting like she was in heat, and while I wouldn’t object to Jennie returning for a one-off episode, three companions are unwieldy for story-telling purposes. As for the current incarnation, I finally conceded that Tennant topped Tom Baker, but by the end of The Eleventh Hour all I could say was, “David who?”
I would like to comment on Paula Douglas’s comment above….how could any Doctor Who fan think at any time that that bow tie wearing sissy with his dainty mannerisms could ever beat the trully believable and compelling performance that David Tenant gave us. Also the obvious choice of that twerp was nothing more than a gambit to satisfy the daffy teenage girls who watch. How are true Doctor Who fans suppose to believe that some supposed sex symbol doufous (who as far as I am concerned is not cute or sexy) is the a Timelord that is over 900 years old…. BAHHH. I just wish that Tenant could come back because he was the best of all the incarnations, and he didnt stick a frozen fish stick into custard and slop his toad like tongue around his lips and proclaim that he loves this.
Though I loved Tennant, I have to say that this Doctor is growing on me. I agree that some of the plots of the episodes seemed too contrived (the season finale in particular) but I did feel that the last season had a sweet and tender quality that was lacking in the latter angst-ridden Tennant episodes. The Van Gogh episode was an example. I also feel that the Doctor and Amy have great chemistry–just a new a chemistry. There is a caring, slightly paternal element in his attitude, perhaps because he first met her as a child.
Hi! I’m a fan of doctor who (even though my sister hates it) I love the mystery. Mystery and new things have been there for me and opened my eyes to possibilities. When I’m older I’m hoping to go to U.K but now I’m currently in the U.S. Doctor Who is very exciting and is very interesting!
Personally I think that Doctor Who just keeps getting better. More mystery and things to think about, but not to the point where it makes no sense. Being a fan of Lost, and having just started watching Doctor Who recently I must say Doctor Who became my favorite episode after I saw episode 1 of series 1. Matt Smith brings his own thing to the Doctor, as did every other person to ever play him. This is vitally important that the doctor has a lot of the same features he usually does, with numerous new quirks combined. Seeing as every time he regenerates he becomes a new person…literally…physically…he is still the knowledgeable, fun guy that he will always be, but certain things such as his tastes have to change to make each actor’s portrayal their own and each new regeneration a new mysterious…then well known version of the Doctor. I for one love this particular part about the show. That the Doctor can be change and still be the Doctor….he just can’t be ginger…lol
I was catching up on the newest season. I really hope they’re just messing with us and the doctor doesn’t really die… I’d love to see Jenny come back too. She’s a Time Lady so they dont even need the same actress (they could say she regenerated or something). I also keep referring back to the episode where the Doctor first meets River and how she says that it’ll will kill her when she knows everything about him but he knows nothing about her. When you think about it it kind of does kill her…