The Doctor Who thread


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The "who could be next?" bit is clearly bullshit, but otherwise I think this smells legit. Smith has been talking about moving to Hollywood for over a year, and has refused to comment on anything after the 2013 Christmas special. He'll have done three full series plus some specials at that point, which is pretty much the norm. There were a flurry of "Matt Smith is back for Series 8" stories over the summer, but I don't remember those stories ever actually coming from anyone involved.

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There are a couple of reasons that won't happen in the middle of a modern season. First off, they've employed each actor under a contract, usually one year or two at a time. Discontinuing a contract mid-stream can be very unpleasant for all parties and I doubt that the BBC will want to pay for the additional episodes Matt Smith or whoever is contracted to work in. Not only that but if it was sprung on the cast and crew, there could be walk-outs and leakage to the media out of spite. Before you pull out the Ponds as, "They can do half-season contracts" they're companions. Hardly the same thing as the central character of the series. Not only that but it wasn't a surprise when they left for good. We all knew it was coming which leads into part 2 of my argument of why it will never happen.

Another reason it's unlikely: Unlike in the classic series, Doctor Who is much more mainstream today. We're talking covers of Entertainment Weekly, Radio Times, etc.. The chance that the BBC would pass up on that much free publicity is near-impossible. I remember we knew about Matt Smith a year before he ever stepped foot in the TARDIS. Not only that but how they shoot the episodes would mean that the second half of the Series would almost exclusively have to be shot on a soundstage so no one could take pictures and notice the old doctor was in none of them, BBC legal would have to draft non-disclosures on anyone on the set of those soundstages to keep them from leaking stuff, and then you still have the problem of the old Doctor not taking a new role while something is going on. If the new Doctor is doing Hamlet the same time he should be shooting, people will know something's up.

So yeah, a surprise regeneration will probably never happen due to the internet, legal, and just the sheer difficulty of it all. This isn't 24 where everyone's contract included a paragraph stating that their contract can be canceled at any time.

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Regenerations were never secret or surprises on the classic series, either. A Doctor announcing his intention to leave is, and always has been, a good long news item, and then the announcement of the new Doctor is another one right after it. Every Doctor changeover has always been a huge publicity event for the show. For that matter, so have Companions; the only actor leaving that was ever unannounced ahead of time was (to the best of my knowledge) Matthew "Adric" Waterhouse. By and large, the BBC want a good, exciting show, but they are MORE interested in making sure you WATCH it. And the massive free publicity that comes with a change in lead actor will never be sacrificed for a cool "gotcha" moment.

And re: the prequel clip... very charming, but... again? Really?

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I wasn't trying to suggest that it be kept a total secret. That would be a big ask. Just that they changed it up a bit and have it not be at the end of a series all the time.

I would more than welcome a regeneration episode coming 3 episodes in or something.

Obviously it would be announced that Mat was leaving and some else was taking over but that don't have to tell us the exact episode of that particular series it took place in. They could at least try and give us that.

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I agree that it would be really cool and interesting if they could do that. Logistically, though, it does cause problems. As Will said, actors' contracts don't generally allow for abrupt leaving mid-series. Smith would be under contract for the entire series, regardless if he was in it or not; i.e., if he regenerated in episode three, the BBC would need to pay him for the ten other episodes when he wasn't actually working. Unlikely that either the Beeb, or Smith for that matter, would want that. It also means that if he's under contract to do Doctor Who, Smith would be contractually unavailable to work elsewhere, regardless of whether or not he was actually acting. Also, whoever is the Twelfth Doctor (typing that is weird) would also be under contract for a series, meaning the BBC is paying two actors full time for the same role.

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For anyone with access to BBC iPlayer, there's a Doctor Who version of Pointless Celebrities, with the pairs being Leela/Jamie, Seven/Ace, Peri/Jake and Wilf/Sylvia, with Richard Osman's assistant being K-9. I won't say who won. Also, the woman who plays Sylvia surprised me as a plummy-voiced thespian with a huge grin.

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From the SFX review of the book

The pattern pieced together from multiple sources is so troubling that Richard Marson feels compelled to address the elephant in the room. “Was John Nathan-Turner a paedophile?”, he asks. He concludes that there is no evidence that he was. Nathan-Turner and Downie may have made indecent propositions and (particularly in Downie’s case) pursued them forcefully. Their targets may also often have been under the homosexual age of consent at the time – 21 – but as Marson points out, that was an unjust law. It’s equally true that JN-T was not alone when it came to inappropriate behaviour – plenty of straight male BBC employees used their aura of celebrity to wow youthful conquests too. He doesn’t deserve to have additional opprobrium heaped on him simply because he was gay.

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