Doctor Who Series 5 Thread

[Burson_Fouch]

Disagreements aside, some spoiler notices posted in the latter sections of this thread would be appreciated.

BBC Amercia is still 5-6 episodes behind the brit schedule.

[HGervais]

I'm sorry. You are right of course.

[Polynikes]

I offer my apologies too. I wonder why BBC America shows these programmes several weeks in arrears. The BBC knows that Dr Who has a worldwide fanbase, with a high level of active participation on websites (both BBC and others). It seems odd to be more than a week behind terrestrial transmission here in the UK.

[HGervais]

For all the nonsense about Matt Smith not being popular and the show losing viewers or the BBC looking to recast the role comes the news of the series final ratings:
Final figures are now available for the BBC HD showing of Doctor Who: The Big Bang and give the episode an official rating on the channel of 0.58 million viewers. This, along with the previously reported figure of 6.12 million viewers on BBC One, gives the episode a total rating of 6.7 million viewers. Full details for the week are still not available, but it is likely this will make Doctor Who the 10th most watched programme of the week.

Final figures for the whole series show that, despite recent press speculation, Doctor Who is still achieving remarkable ratings for the BBC and remains one of its most successful products. Once consolidated figures are published then the five series of the show, shown since the return in 2005, have all achieved remarkably similar average ratings of around 8 million viewers. Matt Smith’s first series just out-rates David Tennant’s first two series but comes behind Tennant’s last series. The variable earlier start times given to Series 31 compared to recent series appear to have resulted in more of the audience recording the show for later viewing, meaning lower overnights, but balanced when final consolidated figures are published

In terms of Chart position, once HD figures are included, Doctor Who has finished in the weekly top twenty throughout the series, with seven episodes finishing in the top ten. The high was 3rd place for The Eleventh Hour and the low was 20th for The Lodger, shown against World Cup football. The average chart placing was 12th, which again is higher that achieved by three of the previous four series.

One of the big successes of the recent series has been the take up on iPlayer. This year was the first time the whole series has been available during its run. Over 2 million have now accessed The Eleventh Hour and it has become by far the highest accessed programme in the BBC iPlayer history. The iPlayer simply measures those who have accessed the programme and no data is available to covert this figure to ratings in the conventional sense. However the figure does give an indication of how popular the programme is with the audience.

[HGervais]

From Steven Moffat & Mark Gatiss-Sherlock. Episode 1/"A Study In Pink." Awesome. Head to the intertubes or have a region-free player and pick it up at the end of next month.

[HGervais]

Even with something like the Proms it's clear just how much Matt Smith owns the role of The Doctor. Come on Christmas.

[Polynikes]

For information, I heard a radio interview with Steven Moffat in which he said that next year, there will be two shorter series of 6-7 episodes, one in spring and one in autumn, rather than one series with a continuous block of 13 episodes. (At least that is how it will be for BBC viewers - not sure if this will be the case in other countries). His thinking was that he wanted to create an "exciting mid series finale", without leaving too long a wait for the "reveal", and he also wanted to leave shorter gaps between series/specials for Dr Who fans.

[HGervais]

Yes I knew that. I think I posted that information in one of the TV watching threads. I'm all for building excitement in the franchise but I can't help but wonder if changing the schedule for Doctor Who is a way to help give Moffat more time to work on his Sherlock series...which as you know was a HUGE hit for BBC this summer and left us with a mother of a cliffhanger.

[HGervais]

Classic Who DVD news from my new Verdict blog here..

[the5thghostbuster]

Yes I knew that. I think I posted that information in one of the TV watching threads. I'm all for building excitement in the franchise but I can't help but wonder if changing the schedule for Doctor Who is a way to help give Moffat more time to work on his Sherlock series...which as you know was a HUGE hit for BBC this summer and left us with a mother of a cliffhanger.

Moffat addressed this issue in DW Monthly. He states that while the series is broken up, it does not change the production schedule at all because they still need to have the series done in time so as to get cracking on the NEXT series afterwards. There is no way they could slow Who down at all, even if they liked.

[mavrach]

Just watched through Series 5. At this point are we still warning for spoilers? Well, just in case:

SPOILERS




Anyways I didn't like Series 5 as much as I'd liked the previous series. Now let me disclaim that I'd never seen any Who prior to Eccleston's run, so I have no frame of reference, and I understand that this Series is a throwback to ealier Who periods.

That being said, from seeing Series' 1-4, I'm used to Doctor Who being so damn epic. It's typical to see him fighting issues that have the whole planet's attention. I mean we've seen various Prime Ministers involved, a US President getting killed, multiple planetary invasion attempts, and even having the entire damn planet (amongst others!) being stolen in effort to collapse all universes. The scale of the show has always impressed me.

Now THAT being said, it's really tough to see this series of Who and seeing only a few characters involved in the stories at a time. Both two-parters each only have a small handful of characters, even though the implications are as great (affecting the whole planet), the stories still feel little because there only seem to be a few people whom are actually aware of the situation. It really raises the stakes to show scores of people running in terror and hoping somebody will save them.

The foreboding doom didn't wonk me over the head like the previous ones had. These were too obvious. Regardless of whatever plot was going on, there was just a crack in the wall shot at the end of every episode, and it was obvious the entire time. Previously the ties were either hiddon (Saxon) or obscure (Bad Wolf), so it made repeated viewings more valuable because you could pick apart the clues.

I liked Amy Pond, but she didn't have the presence that Rose or Donna had. Frankly her best quality was that she was so damn hot. But I find it interesting that Series 6 will be the first time that the same Doctor & companion BOTH return together, so this will probably prove to be a good opportunity to develop their relationship.


But I probably just need to watch the series a few more times to see it in perspective and try not to compare it to what I've seen. Scale wasn't the focus of this series and this is doing things to try to differ itself. I mean Amy is from a little village, as opposed to Rose/Martha/Donna coming from London, and The Doctor's interacting with her was on a much more personal level than the rest had been. The finale was suitable to the series, while still remaining epic and it did a lot with the time element.

And River Song is truly intriguing, and I love that he keeps meeting her out of order. From her appearance in Series 4, I figured he met her at the end of her life then was going to meet her younger in regular time as a companion, but it looks like they're going to play with time with her, which is what Who does best.

[kristy]

I love Doctor who and have enjoyed it's all season 5 episodes. But now i am so excited for new season 6, which is going to be premier in 2011. But BBC has still not announce a perfect date for it. They just introduce it to be split into two parts transmitting in spring and autumn, So that fans of this show can enjoy excited Doctor Who cliffhangers and plot twists ever. With this announcement i become so excited, But why they didn't share an exact date. I hope they've surprised date for all doctor who fans in New year.

[the5thghostbuster]

I love Doctor who and have enjoyed it's all season 5 episodes. But now i am so excited for new season 6, which is going to be premier in 2011. But BBC has still not announce a perfect date for it. They just introduce it to be split into two parts transmitting in spring and autumn, So that fans of this show can enjoy excited Doctor Who cliffhangers and plot twists ever. With this announcement i become so excited, But why they didn't share an exact date. I hope they've surprised date for all doctor who fans in New year.

Welcome to the Verdict!

The BBC, and other British networks, don't tend to announce start dates until close to the actual date of airing, partly out of a desire to throw off the competition. That said, WHO has tended to start in March/April. The new split series idea might change that though. Either way, we'll likely be waiting till the month before WHO starts till we have a firm date.

[HGervais]

We will probably see part one of series 6 sometime in the April area with part two, or series 7, sometime in October. I can't wait. Really. I can't wait.