Sea Devils And Die: GeroniMoffat's Doctor Who In The 2010s

^ this is only on internet btw, TX is six days later, ie the first available Saturday night slot

Is budget on series so far a result of the series now being broadcast on the same date to several audiences?

The budget reductions are completely unrelated to foreign TX dates AFAIK

had thought it might indicate people from the foreign markets putting extra money in or something. Hence there being so much more money to spend.
Think that was the case with Paul McGann's one off too. Though maybe the production was just taken to the U.S.?

Hence there being so much more money to spend.

you seem to have a slightly confused idea of what "budget cuts" and "reductions" mean

McGann's was an isolated production in a 16 year gap (and yes, was produced in America), so there's absolutely nothing to compare it to. Unless you count Virgin Books special effects budgets

I liked McCoy! :(

He had an awful, awful intro story, but things really picked up after that.

9And this is based just on the TV stuff, never really read the books)

I'd liked McCoy because I'd seen him in other things before that including some stage performances before he broke into TV as far as I know. I don't remember liking him that much as a Dr. or overly disliking him.

I liked McCoy in the books a lot more than I liked him on the show.

So you're saying he's actor made for the written word?

haha basically

really what I'm saying is that most of his scripts were really not suited for television; in books, where you can see characters' internal monologues, his stories were much better (even the novelizations of his stories were better than the actual shows)

Not sure I like the idea of knowing what's going on in the Doctor's head; he's supposed to be inscrutable.

I rewatched the last episode last night and I'm not seeing anything suggesting a major budget decrease, seem sto be as glossy looking as I've ever seen it. Multiple sets, large amount of CGI & at least some external filming in every episode. & That isn't just using central Cardiff locations and shopping malls in out of business hours.

Was the theory that the budget got slashed because they reused a chair?
They've probably bee reusing bits and pieces throughout the history of the show.

the theory that the budget was reduced came from both production staff and BBC executives saying basically every year that the budget has been reduced

That and this series being split in two, over two years - which at any other time you would have thought meant two years' budget but apparently not this time.

and Doctor Who Confidential being axed because the budget had been cut too much to afford it

It's weird that this is the BBC's most popular show internationally, it has a huge following through Itunes in the States and they continue to have budget problems. You would think there is some kind of revenue through international licensing or something.

It's not the show that has budget problems it's the BBC. The government has been salami slicing the licence fee cutting the grant for world service. It's not just Doctor Who; this is a world where charlotte green has taken voluntary redundancy.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/worldwide/160712annualreview.html

I'm a long way from the UK, and I'm aware that a recession can't be helping the situation, still makes me scratch my head a bit.

BBC Worldwide also paid over £100M for 2entertain.

Dr Who is by far the BBC's biggest source of revenue outside the licence fee* - but that money goes to fund the BBC in general, and not to the programme.

*iirc in 2005 the Beeb immediately become the fifth-largest fiction publisher in the UK due to the series tie-in novels

2/3 through and about to do myself

I expected more from toby shithouse tbh

sigh, *whithouse*

just heard the line delivered at 36:28, going back to shithouse

the theory that the budget was reduced came from both production staff and BBC executives saying basically every year that the budget has been reduced

probably explains the show's recent and growing obsession with america

You not like it? Was a bit slow and didn't really deliver on the wham-bam-action stuff, but I was glad to have a more complex, moody episode after the whizz bang shenanigans of the first two. Mercy as a theme throughout this series? Also, as some vigiliant nerd on the Graun webiste pointed out, the flickering lights we've had in each episode so far are what happen when the Angels are coming... Nice subtle touch that, far less clunky than the "OH LOOK ANOTHER CRACK!" stuff of yore. For all that Moffat is an arrogant sod he does actually seem to have taken the criticism of the previous two seasons on board...

Wow that got dark.

I liked it a little more than the first two episodes, they felt geared towards a slightly younger audience and were a little whizz bang "dinosaurs on a spaceship". Looking forward to the rumored Angel episode.

the doctor's mercilessness at the end of the dinosaurs one didn't feel that for-kids at all to me. the first would have been fine but i saw the twist coming a mile away.

ditto this twist, actually, except luckily it wasn't about the twist at all.

Unless I'm mistaken, everyone's motivations kept getting changed mid-scene?

Liked that one quite a bit. Reminds me of "Boom Town," another one nobody except me seemed to like.

They nicked a plot device from Three Amigos - I didn't imagine it, did I? They did nick a plot device from Three Amigos?

Amy seems to have a short memory. "We don't roll like this" - er...yes, you do. You did it last week (or at least the Doctor did).

The 'coming next week' sequence seemed to give away a bit too much of a possible way to write the Pond's out. Or perhaps it was another red herring.

Amy seems to have a short memory. "We don't roll like this" - er...yes, you do. You did it last week (or at least the Doctor did).

a) Amy prob didn't know what the Doctor did last week

b) last week was ten years on from the Ponds' first TARDIS adventure - this one might have been from years earlier than that

there was a date that I never managed to read that flashed up at the beginning of the scene in the Indian Rocket command place last week. What was it, thought it looked like it was a few years in the future but I'm not sure what it was.
Anybody catch it?

b) last week was ten years on from the Ponds' first TARDIS adventure - this one might have been from years earlier than that

have we been given reason to believe that this set of adventures are happening 'out of order' for the ponds, or the doctor, or both? or is this just a suspicion based on moffat's great love of timeywimeyness?

no reason at all, just that given SUCH a huge jump forwards (last year's Xmas special was two years after the previous episode for them - don't think we got a specific year in Pond Life or Asylum) it's possible

Indian Space Agency was in 2367

No, we don't know whether these are in order or not. The only thing we can say for sure is that Rory says he's 31 in last week's epsiode which means the Amy and Rory that are picked up for that episode are from 2020 (which is coincidentally the same year as the other NuWho Silurian story). I reserve the right to mention this date again in two weeks when the series ends. I didn't see or hear anything in this which suggests when these Ponds are collected, or even which Ponds (see also Two Ponds theory to explain last season's timelines).

I'm quite enjoying this series' structure - 'Doctor turns up, discovers problem, solves it, buggers off' is very much more my type of thing as I really couldn't give a shit about series arcs (or, in fact, even the notion of series finale epics) - but the scripts have just been average at best. Next week looks like it has lots of promise but I don't hold out much hope for the finale in two weeks as I think the concept is overplayed. (See? I worked hard to make that sentence absolutely spoiler-free)

I thought Indian Space Agency was concurrent with Ponds which might be why I didn't take that in. Not that that would make much sense if supposed to be now/present world & Indian space Agency was leading world power.

Actually, it explains Amy's "this isn't how we roll" comment if she hasn't lived last week's episode yet.

apart from the Ponds' age, the Doctor says he's 1200 years old now. he was 900-something at the time of The Impossible Astronaut.

The Doctor's age is not that reliable tbh, it varied massively through the 'classic' series and I don't think has even been consistent in NuWho.

I didn't mind that ep. Enjoyed Ben Browder as Sheriff (Farscape nerd reporting for duty) ... found myself humming the High Noon theme by the end for no good reason. Bit dark, bit silly. Not bad!

Calling the horse "Susan" gave me major lols

Moffatt deliberately makes the Doctor's age unreliable, bcz the Doctor himself has no way of actually measuring it

Rather enjoyed this one. Less hyperactive than usual.

Boring moral dilemmas are boring.

Interestingly, have just watched elsewhere a comparison of the opening titles this season and they've been getting darker each episode. Some other things to note are flickering lights, and we know what they indicate in NuWho...

http://youtu.be/gNaLVAHXJzk

Other things from every episode are eggs (first episode self explanatory, second episode features dinosaur eggs, third has a spaceship shaped like one) combined with choosing to use the word "terminate". "Eggs" "terminate". Well, the Doctor has been getting more ruthless and killing people since he took his anti-dalekisation bracelet off. He's also been mistaken for a medical doctor in both - was he in the dalek episode? Maybe by Oswin?

Might that not just be what happens when you introduce yourself as "The Doctor" and people haven't already heard of you?

I like the general theme of "self-contained stories where Amy and Rory question whether they want to keep doing this but see what happens to the Doctor when they don't" that they have going

I am semi hoping that they meet the new companion when they leave and that knowing the Doctor will be traveling with a humanizing influence allows them to feel better about turning to their own lives but that's really the sentimental fan in me talking; I'm also kind of hoping they both blow up

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2012/sep/15/doctor-who-karen-gillan-arthur-darvill?INTCMP=SRCH

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2012/sep/15/doctor-who-town-called-mercy?INTCMP=SRCH

oh the theme is clearly the dr's xmas list, mentioned in eps 2 and 3