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Production News, Spoilers & Speculation: 60th Anniversary / Season 01 & 02 (Disney+/BBC)

DanaK

By DanaK
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DanaK
DanaK

They apparently are back for the 60th. I can't get the link to work though ETA: A different link to the press release that works https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2022/doctor-who-david-tennant-an

Anduin
Anduin

He'd better fix her terrible send off. Give her her memory and character development back!

DanaK
DanaK

I figured I would create this now since there are a ton of rumors right now on various casting and some valid sources saying shooting for the 60th anniversary in the Spring. So here we go on stuf

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DanaK

DanaK

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1 hour ago, madhacker said:

Oh, Neal better be playing The Master against Tennent and Donna.

There’s a lot of speculation he’ll be playing the Toymaker

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libgirl2

libgirl2

On 6/13/2022 at 5:02 PM, benteen said:

NPH is awesome casting. He would make a great American Doctor. Toymaker seems to be a good guest. He and The Meddling Monk are long overdue a return.

I would love either one! 

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gonzosgirrl

gonzosgirrl

(edited)

Sorry, I don't have a link, but David Tennant (fan page) on Facebook posted this photo with credit to  @ FilmDevotion

I does my fangirl heart good to see David in Doctor Who again.

290068606_577868230377863_7406709196873677074_n.jpg

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DanaK

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(edited)

Good info in the article. To sum up, David is the 14th Doctor, Ncuti the 15th, 3 60th anniversary specials will be broadcast in November 2023 and Ncuti will apparently debut his first season over the Christmas holidays in 2023

Edited by DanaK
Fixed the first year error
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sugarbaker design

sugarbaker design

(edited)
On 10/24/2022 at 12:11 AM, DanaK said:

Good info in the article. To sum up, David is the 14th Doctor, Ncuti the 15th, 3 60th anniversary specials will be broadcast in November 202e and Ncuti will apparently debut his first season over the Christmas holidays in 2023

November 2022?  November 2023?

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Llywela

Llywela

7 hours ago, DanaK said:

Davies explains David Tennant regeneration costume twist https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/doctor-who-david-tennant-regeneration-costume-twist-newsupdate/

I mean, I would see his point more if a) Whittaker hadn't specifically chosen her outfit to be gender neutral, something anyone could wear, no matter their gender, and b) we hadn't literally just seen Sacha Dhawan wearing her outfit and looking amazing in it. Tennant is taller than Dhawan, granted, so would struggle to pull it off as well as he did, but still. Not the greatest reason to randomly regenerate the clothes for the first time in 17 years of New Who.

I like Davies a lot, I usually enjoy what he writes, but I don't agree with all the choices he makes, not by a long shot. If there is no plot reason for the clothes regenerating, if he did it purely to avoid having Tennant in Whittaker's clothes for even a single scene before popping back into the TARDIS to change, then I am disappointed.

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DanaK

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My summary of the recent Doctor Who Magazine issue with David on the cover, summarizing the coverage of the 60th specials, Series 14 and some discussion of the Jodie's recent era. I've used spoiler space because of the length

Spoiler

The new Production Team

Joel Collins – Executive producer

Phil Collinson – Executive producer; worked with Davies during his first tenure on Who

Vickie Delow – Producer

Julie Gardner – Executive Producer, co-founded and co-runs Who’s co-production company Bad Wolf, worked as BBC’s Head of Drama during Davies’ first tenure

Scott Handcock – Script Editor, previously worked on Doctor Who Confidential and The Sarah Jane Adventures

Ellen Marsh – Co-producer. Mentioned she is looking forward most to the new companion, saying she thinks they are “one for the ages”

Chris May – Producer

Philip Sims – Production Designer. He looks forward to designing a new Dalek

Jane Tranter – Executive Producer, co-founded and co-runs Who’s co-production company Bad Wolf; worked at BBC during Davies’ tenure overseeing the BBC’s drama, comedy and film output

Directors

The new series is set to begin shooting in December

Chanya Button – directed the 3rd 60th anniversary special. She said of that special to have a short nap and a granola bar before watching it, as a lot is going to happen very fast

Dylan Holmes Williams – directing Block 1 of the next series (season)

Tom Kingsley – directed the second 60th special

Rachel Talalay – directed the first 60th special. She most looks forward to showing off her whole episode and showboating the new Tardis

Letter from the Showrunner (Russell Davies)

He indicated at the time of writing he was sitting there with ten scripts in front of him, 4 specials and 6 episodes of the new series so far, with Episode 7 blinking away on the screen.

The first line of episode 7: INT. COFFEE BAR, USA – DAY, 1947.

Special One contains these 3 words – westerly, pelican, dreams.

Davies goes into detail how this all came about. During the lockdown in the UK (in 2020), Doctor Who Magazine’s Emily Cook organized Tweetalongs, with the cast and crew of selected episodes tweeting with fans worldwide. David Tennant, Catherine Tate and Davies had gathered online to watch “The Runaway Bride”. Afterwards (Dec 18 2020 as Davies checked his phone), Catherine texted him to say how much she had enjoyed it. Davies texted back saying they should get David to do more Doctor and Donna as he loved it so much. He’s not sure he really meant it. Catherine replied that they should do it, “The Doctor and Donna – The Lost Adventures”. Davies thought that was that, that it wasn’t really going to happen. Then on December 23, Catherine texted Davies that David said he’d do it in a heartbeat and she asked who do they talk to and let’s get the band back together. Davies double-checked with David, who said yes. Davies felt he had to be professional. He felt that as a former Who producer, he had a job to do. If David and Catherine had expressed a wish to return, it was his job to let the BBC know, feeling it was his duty. He knew the 60th anniversary was coming up in 3 years. He vaguely knew current showrunner Chris Chibnall was only doing 3 years as showrunner. He indicated he and Chibnall were old mates, texting about various things, but he rarely asked Chibnall about Doctor Who because Chibnall gets enough work texts and friendship is more important. He figured he would just throw it out there and felt since Chibnall was doing the busiest job on TV, he didn’t want to add to his workload. So Davies emailed Piers Wenger, the BBC’s Director of Drama (he’s no longer at the BBC) and asked something like he had no idea about their future plans, but would this David/Catherine reteam fit in somewhere? A Special? The anniversary? An extra? A one-off maybe? Wenger responded back that it was interesting, thanked him, and that he would get back to Davies. Then months passed but he understood people were busy, especially with learning how to make TV with the lockdown and the pandemic and he was busy himself in January 2021 with It’s a Sin premiering and that Doctor Who felt very much in the past (in terms of him doing anything more with it I think). Until…To be continued in the issue after next, because next month is Christmas

Production Diary by script editor Scott Handcock

This is to be a regular column in DWM for the foreseeable future. I’ll just note some highlights

Wednesday August 31 – first in-person script meeting in London for Episode 3 of Ncuti’s first season. The script prompts use of the phrase “hapax legomenon”

Monday September 5 – James Page joins the team. He’ll be working as brand manager for BBC Studios and dividing his team between them and the show. Beyond what they are producing there in the studios, he will be responsible for Doctor Who’s life off-screen, ensuring that all the books, audios, comics, podcasts, exhibitions and everything else push to be bigger and bolder than ever

Tuesday September 6 – First cut showing of the second 2023 special at Wolf Studios. Executives and producers gather in the edit suite to watch and as they leave, their enthusiasm for it is infectious. Davies is beyond thrilled

Thursday September 8 – DWM sends the first 2 scripts for their 14th Doctor comic strip that picks up from The Power of the Doctor’s cliffhanger regeneration

Friday September 9 – The first draft of Episode 6 arrives in his inbox

Monday September 12 – Second draft of Episode 3 is delivered ready for the department heads

Thursday September 15 – Edits of the 3 2023 specials are sent to the BBC and Disney+ for notes

Saturday September 24 – Secret companion auditions take place in London, with Ncuti in attendance

Monday September 26 – First day of pre-production on Block 1. He also does some indescribable research. Davies has to FaceTime him because it’s so difficult to communicate in writing. Davies, raps out a rhythm on his desk, one you would instantly recognize. “But what’s it called?”, Davies asks. Answer: Shave and a haircut…two bits” Note from me: Hear it on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shave_and_a_Haircut

Thursday September 29 – Production Executive Steffan Morris visits Pen-y-Byrn, a special education school in Swansea, where the students use Doctor Who as the inspiration for their termly film projects. Steffan was enthusiastic about the work they do and it’s a reminder how much this show impacts people in different ways

Filming of David’s half of the regeneration scene

DWM was invited to the filming of David Tennant’s half of the regeneration, which happened on May 13, 2022. Russell Davies could not attend in person because he was doing some work on his Nolly miniseries. The filming was done in front of a massive green screen and the Tardis prop was there too. David didn’t know at the time quite how the reveal would play out in the special, that there would be some doubt with viewers as to who would show up on the other side of the regeneration. He indicated he didn’t know if such coups could be pulled off in the modern world, but that’s what they were aiming for. Rachael Talalay was the director for this segment, as Jamie Magnus Stone, who directed Jodie’s half of the regeneration 7 months before, was filming in Australia, so Talalay picked the torch. Talalay shows David Jodie’s half of the regen on a laptop, but only her final 45 seconds. David and the gang were impressed that it was done outside the Tardis on a clifftop (using green screen). Cute note: the video of the regeneration cuts to black at the end with the caption: “Over to you, Russell!”.

In terms of writing his part of the regeneration, Davies indicated he had come in with no pre-conditions. He had presumed like always that the regeneration happened in the Tardis, so he was happy it didn’t this time and it suited his plans perfectly. But he also said that whatever Chibnall had done, he would have fitted into it, as he doesn’t think it’s the place of incoming showrunners to tell outgoing showrunners what they want. Chibnall over Zoom told DWM that he wanted Jodie to regenerate outside, at a physical site in the real world. Like David’s Chibnall’s co-executives had assumed the regeneration would happen in the Tardis and were taken aback when they learned it wouldn’t. Chibnall indicated that the assumption that it was always that way was all the more reason to do something different. VFX artist Ben Pickles said that there was only so many times you can watch the Doctor destroy their home before a viewer starts to wonder why they don’t just step outside. So Pickles thought it made a lot of sense to do the regeneration outside this time. He thought that if you could choose to die anywhere, why not pick a clifftop at sunrise. That would also free up the regeneration energy to be as big and beautiful as possible and that there was literally no ceiling on how huge you can make it. Chibnall also wanted to connect it back to the very first image of Jodie that they released, that of her walking on a sunlit clifftop revealing her costume for the first time. He says ever since that first image, he thought that’s the final image and that he always knew the regeneration would be some kind of iteration of that.

The Scottish Highlands backdrop of that first image of Jodie had been replaced for the regeneration by Durdle Door, a renowned natural limestone arch on the Dorset coast. Director Stone initially hadn’t realized Chibnall meant literally on top of Durdle Door, as he thought it would be done on location at the beach. When he got it clarified that it was on top, he decided he had to use green screen. He felt it would have had a different feel – a colder, more blustery feel – if they had shot it on location. He felt that wouldn’t have fit the scene so well, as he felt the regeneration had to feel warm and triumphant. Chibnall didn’t want it to be a death march. He wanted the 13th to end as she started. He felt that there was a 13th Doctor spirit that he wanted to keep in her final moments and he wanted her to still be authentic to herself. She had a moment where she didn’t want this to be over, but he felt she was a Doctor who goes into challenges with positivity and generosity and that’s how she is in the end. Ultimately, she’s looking to other people, to the next Doctor, thinking of them with the Tag. You’re it line. She’s delighted for who she’s going to be.

Talalay and David work to line up him with Jodie on a screen from her filming. He takes a selfie with the Tardis and indicates he’s sending it to Jodie as he’s been texting her and sending her pictures since she isn’t there and they are friends. They do several takes, which DWM describes. Davies talks about his decision to change the clothes, which has been detailed elsewhere.

DWM indicated that the 3 60th specials will each be an hour long

In a sidebox, DWM talked about the post-filming editing of Jodie’s final words, where the editor cut out her final line that it’s going to be brilliant and moved the sentence that ended with “Tag. You’re it.” to the end. In David’s filming, David added the bit about the teeth

In another sidebox, VFX artist Ben Pickles talks about how he did the special effects for the regeneration, which included using drone footage that director Stone shot of Durdle Door. Pickles chose a take just before sunrise, added a CG sun on top of it, with CG lighting on the edge of the cliff and stock footage of the water to get beautiful reflection in the waves. He needed to match the lighting so he did a CG 3-D scanned cliff for all of David’s shots. Another reason to do it that way was because Durdle Door doesn’t actually have anywhere to stand on at the top. He says there’s no perfect flat surface for the Doctor and the Tardis. He had to effectively saw off the top of the rock formation so that they would have somewhere sturdy to walk around on

Comic Strip

Just to highlight that it’s a four-page strip of the 14th Doctor’s first adventure after regeneration. There’s also a column on the inside story of the creation of the strip. The strip will have a story that will run for a full year (13 episodes) in the magazine. Davies feels that the strip will underline that the 14th Doctor is real and not an illusion or anything like that. The strip will cover the first hour of the new Doctor’s life. That would have been mentioned in the 3rd special with 2 lines, but they’ve been cut

Misc

There's also an article on creating the Daleks for The Power of the Doctor special

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Llywela

Llywela

(edited)

Yeah, I think any attempt to create spin-offs centred around villains would be missing the fundamental point of Doctor Who, which has always been about people. Ordinary people thrust into extraordinary situations, fighting to help others. Daleks and Cybermen have proved popular villains over the years, but they can't be protagonists in their own right, they were created and developed as villains for the good guys to defeat. They have no redeeming features. You can't build a show around them as protagonists without undermining the central concept of them.

Doctor Who has had spin-offs before, and the reason they worked was because, like DW itself, they were centred around people, ordinary people thrust into extraordinary situations. Any future spin-off would need to have that too. The only way any Dalek or Cyberman spin-off would work is if they too were built around people fighting against those villains (without help from the Doctor). Show us what life is like for, say, colonists of a planet in the far future, invaded and captured by Daleks, living under occupation, fighting back, that kind of thing. Human protagonists. Daleks and Cybermen cannot work without heroic protagonists to kick against them.

Edited by Llywela
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Anduin

Anduin

47 minutes ago, Llywela said:

Yeah, I think any attempt to create spin-offs centred around villains would be missing the fundamental point of Doctor Who, which has always been about people. Ordinary people thrust into extraordinary situations, fighting to help others. Daleks and Cybermen have proved popular villains over the years, but they can't be protagonists in their own right, they were created and developed as villains for the good guys to defeat. You can't build a show around that without undermining everything else.

Doctor Who has had spin-offs before, and the reason they worked was because, like DW itself, they were centred around people, ordinary people thrust into extraordinary situations. Any future spin-off would need to have that too. The only way any Dalek or Cyberman spin-off would work is if they too were built around people fighting against those villains (without help from the Doctor). Show us what life is like for, say, colonists of a planet in the far future, invaded and captured by Daleks, living under occupation, fighting back, that kind of thing. Human protagonists. Daleks and Cybermen cannot work without heroic protagonists to kick against them.

There's something to be said for the antihero. Yes they're bad, but they're fighting against something worse. Not sure you can get worse than the Daleks, though. Unless you tone them down in order to make their enemies even worse. But yeah, I don't see it working.

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Llywela

Llywela

Just now, Anduin said:

There's something to be said for the antihero. Yes they're bad, but they're fighting against something worse. Not sure you can get worse than the Daleks, though. Unless you tone them down in order to make their enemies even worse. But yeah, I don't see it working.

An antihero has to have redeeming features, something an audience can latch onto and root for. Daleks and Cybermen don't have redeeming features - by design. They quite deliberately have nothing about them that an audience can latch onto and root for. They can't work as protagonists. But they could potentially work as the villains of a spin-off show with actual heroic figures at its heart, fighting against them. Although even in Doctor Who the audience tends to tire of them pretty quickly!

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DanaK

DanaK

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1 hour ago, Llywela said:

I like how they get Millie Gibson's name wrong. Some interesting tidbits in there, though.

Several spelling mistakes too. It makes me think they were rushing to get the article out

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DanaK

DanaK

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Note that Davies apparently clarified elsewhere in the issue that he uses Christmas as a placeholder for the whole festive period, including New Years, so the holiday specials could still be on NYD

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DanaK

DanaK

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My summary of the latest Doctor Who Magazine issue, out this month. I've summarized Davies' showrunner column and Scott Handcock's production diary and noted a few other things in the issue. Put behind spoiler space for length

Spoiler

Summary of DWM Dec 2022 issue

From Russell Davies' Letter from the Showrunner column, where he counts down to Christmas [I'll just summarize as much as possible]
12. A 12 month wait (he wrote this in November). Count on annual Doctor Who, no gap years, lots of content
11. Ncuti's first line at the end of the trailer started with "Now", but it was clipped "because the top of the shot is on the move". The storm sky seen in the trailer was cgi'd in just for the trailer so to hide the real location because it would give too much away.
10. Scene 10 of Episode 2 of the next season is "INT. CANTEEN. DAY.
9. The Fifteenth Doctor's first full season will be 8 episodes long, with a Christmas special making it 9 episodes every year (when he says Christmas, that's his generic term for the festive period between Christmas and New Year). He knows that's less episodes than the last full season, but he says give them time, they have plans and that's a promise
8. An 8-word title. He says big news soon on that
7. Page 7 of Special One contains the line "Oh, Nerys and her big mouth!"
6. As a Christmas treat, he'll give 6 words from Special Two: wild, Southhamption, vegetable, Flux, bean and starlight
5. Five goo-ooold riiiings! He loves that bit [it's not clear if that's a hint or he just loves the line]
4. He says the new logo is diamond-shaped for the diamond anniversary, but that's not strictly true. They chose it because they loved it. The BBC designed a special diamond-texture version for the 60th, but the logo itself is staying
3. The UK had 3 Prime ministers in 3 months. They were hoping on the night of the Power of the Doctor premiere, politics would stay quiet because they had recorded in interview with David Tennant and correspondent Lizo Mzimba hoping to make the BBC News. David had recorded the interview on October 22 in between performances of his play "Good". Then it was all set for transmission unless something happened. In the show, Jodie regenerates into David and Boris Johnson pulled out of the race to become the next leader of the Conservative Party. They got bumped, but then the BBC News program was extended. [He doesn't make it clear if the the interview was shown or just that Doctor Who was reported on]
2. Block One of two episodes started shooting at the beginning of December. He wonders if the locations will make the news by the time you are reading this. Some are far flung, some are very much not [It's not clear if he means where they are shooting or what locations are supposed to be represented]
1. For the first time ever, he's writing a Christmas special at Christmas. The 2023 script has long been signed off for end-of-year 2024

Production Diary from script editor Scott Handcock [he was writing this in November 2022; I'm just going to do highlights]:
Monday, October 3 - Block One tone meeting at Bad Wolf in Cardiff. First draft of a Block Four script was delivered
Tuesday, October 4 - Creature meeting in Cardiff, where executive producers meet with Neill Gorton, Will Cohen and Dan May to talk through the monsters for the upcoming series. A lot of concept development had already taken place, but this breaks down the practical requirements. Block One director page turn. Davies meets with director Dylan Holmes Williams and Handcock, standing in for producer Vicki Delow, to discuss the scripts and running through each script, working through how it should feel and what it should look like.
Wednesday, October 5 - Davies confirms a name for some anonymous monsters in Block One. Scott can't help referencing 2 old Fourth Doctor and Seventh Doctor adversaries, but to say any more might give them away [it's not clear if these monsters are those monsters or just similar or talked about in the old episodes]
Monday, October 10 - Block One audition scenes are watermarked for Andy Pryor and his casting team. Millennium FX embark on movement tests for the newly named creatures
Tuesday, October 11 - Block One page turn in Cardiff to discuss the scripts. Motion graphics tests take place on Stage One. In London, cast and crew gather at a cinema for a press screening of Jodie Whittaker's last episode The Power of the Doctor
Wednesday, October 12 - New companion Millie Gibson is cast. More scenes are watermarked for cast auditions, and a full script is issued to a leading guest actor for Special One.
Sunday, October 16 - Draft two of a script for Block Two is delivered
Monday, October 17 - ADR recording takes place at Bang Post Production in London, capturing dialogue for the Special one guest star
Monday-Thursday, October 17-20 - New drafts [of scripts] delivered across the week. On Monday, they received draft one of a Block Three script, followed by a second draft for Block Four on Tuesday, drafts two and three for Block One on Wednesday, and a second draft for the second Block Four episode on Thursday
Sunday, October 23 - The Power of the Doctor goes out on the BBC. Millions of viewers tune in to say goodbye to Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor  - and David Tennant makes the news with his debut as her successor. A special teaser trailer airs immediately afterwards, offering glimpses of Catherine Tate, Neil Patrick Harris, and Ncuti Gatwa
Monday, October 24 - Chris May starts in Cardiff. He'll alternate production blocks with Vicki Delow. Senior producers interview a potential director for Block Three
Tuesday, October 25 - Ncuti appears on the US talk show Live with Kelly and Ryan to announce the new partnership between Disney+ and the BBC. Later that day he attends a lunch at Queensyard in New York where Doctor Who's brand-new logo is revealed. Back in the UK, interviews for the series' new assistant script editor take place, and a fourth draft of a Block Three episode is delivered to the executive producers and it has a reworked opening sequence
Wednesday, October 26 - A fourth draft script for Block One is delivered
Thursday, October 27 - Block One stunt meeting with stunt coordinator Derek Lea and first assistant director Geraint Havard Jones. Producers and visual FX gather for a "talking heads" meeting
Friday, October 28 - The senior producer group send over their notes on a Block Four script and meet to conduct another interview for their Block Three director
Sunday, October 30 - Davies delivers ADR notes for Specials Two and Three
Monday, October 31 - Editor Tim Hodges returns to the edit suites to complete some fine editing on the Specials. Davies meets with Dylan [director] to discuss locations for Block One. Neill Gorton and his team from Millennium FX meet to discuss the creatures from the first filming block. Ncuti and Millie meet with costume designer Pam Downe for their initial fittings. Later, they relocate to Stage 1 at Wolf Studios for photo shoots and interviews outside the Tardis

Also in the issue:

DWM introduces several of the new production team

New companion Millie Gibson interviewed

In the ratings column, Tom Spilsbury explains how the 13th Doctor's era ended on a high

Part Two of the 14th Doctor's comic strip Liberation of the Daleks

The next issue of DWM will be on January 5. We will likely get a continuation of Davies' story about how he came back to the show and we will get Part 3 of the Liberation of the Daleks comic strip

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supposebly

supposebly

Am I the only one who is very annoyed with all these announcements for November 2023 while I won't have a new one to watch this Christmas?

No offense to all of you who are kind enough to share all the news! I do appreciate them. I just want a Doctor Who for Christmas since I'm not going anywhere this year.

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DanaK

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1 hour ago, supposebly said:

Am I the only one who is very annoyed with all these announcements for November 2023 while I won't have a new one to watch this Christmas?

No offense to all of you who are kind enough to share all the news! I do appreciate them. I just want a Doctor Who for Christmas since I'm not going anywhere this year.

That’s the hazards of a production changeover sadly…

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Llywela

Llywela

12 hours ago, supposebly said:

No offense to all of you who are kind enough to share all the news! I do appreciate them. I just want a Doctor Who for Christmas since I'm not going anywhere this year.

As @DanaK said, the absence of a holiday special this year is due to the timing of the handover - and let us remember how close we came to there not being a handover at all, to the show simply stopping after Chibnall stood down. Easy to complain now, but if we cast our minds back to when Chibnall's departure was announced, there was genuine concern that that might be it, that there was no one willing to take over. We were lucky to get any Doctor Who content at all this year, since as far as I recall Chibnall originally wanted to leave after series 13 but was persuaded to produce one last special episode for the BBC's 100th anniversary, which ended up being Whittaker's regeneration episode, the passing of the baton. Davies then agreed to return to the show, but there was never any chance that his material would be ready in time for this Christmas, that's just how production schedules work. The scripts had to be written, the actors and production team hired, the studios and locations booked. We are getting three special episodes next year for the show's 60th anniversary - and again, let us remember that at one point we didn't think there would be any anniversary episodes at all.

I've seen fans elsewhere complaining that they don't want Tennant for the three 2023 specials, they wanted to go straight to Gatwa, and to those fans I would like to point out that without Tennant and Tate, there probably wouldn't be any specials, because Gatwa was committed to another show and wasn't available in time for that filming block. Even when Davies returning was announced, we didn't expect to get any new material in 2023 for that reason.

So personally, although I miss having a holiday special this year, I am just glad that we have new Doctor Who to look forward to at all!

And that we already know there will be a Christmas special in 2024, because Davies has already written it!

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supposebly

supposebly

(edited)
On 12/23/2022 at 3:22 AM, Llywela said:

As @DanaK said, the absence of a holiday special this year is due to the timing of the handover - and let us remember how close we came to there not being a handover at all, to the show simply stopping after Chibnall stood down. Easy to complain now, but if we cast our minds back to when Chibnall's departure was announced, there was genuine concern that that might be it, that there was no one willing to take over. We were lucky to get any Doctor Who content at all this year, since as far as I recall Chibnall originally wanted to leave after series 13 but was persuaded to produce one last special episode for the BBC's 100th anniversary, which ended up being Whittaker's regeneration episode, the passing of the baton. Davies then agreed to return to the show, but there was never any chance that his material would be ready in time for this Christmas, that's just how production schedules work. The scripts had to be written, the actors and production team hired, the studios and locations booked. We are getting three special episodes next year for the show's 60th anniversary - and again, let us remember that at one point we didn't think there would be any anniversary episodes at all.

I've seen fans elsewhere complaining that they don't want Tennant for the three 2023 specials, they wanted to go straight to Gatwa, and to those fans I would like to point out that without Tennant and Tate, there probably wouldn't be any specials, because Gatwa was committed to another show and wasn't available in time for that filming block. Even when Davies returning was announced, we didn't expect to get any new material in 2023 for that reason.

So personally, although I miss having a holiday special this year, I am just glad that we have new Doctor Who to look forward to at all!

And that we already know there will be a Christmas special in 2024, because Davies has already written it!

But I don't want to be reasonable!🥺 I just want to whine a bit!

I wasn't too concerned with not having any Doctor Who after Chibnail's and the Clara years of Moffat's tenure but now that I know RTD is back, I'm actually excited about it again.

Edited by supposebly
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JustHereForFood

JustHereForFood

On 12/7/2022 at 2:23 PM, DanaK said:

Note that Davies apparently clarified elsewhere in the issue that he uses Christmas as a placeholder for the whole festive period, including New Years, so the holiday specials could still be on NYD

I don't care which day it is, I just need a Doctor Who special sometime over the holiday season. This year's Christmas already sucks so much, the absence of it for the first time since 2013 when I started watching feels like just another stone added to the pile.

 

On 12/22/2022 at 9:21 PM, supposebly said:

Am I the only one who is very annoyed with all these announcements for November 2023 while I won't have a new one to watch this Christmas?

No offense to all of you who are kind enough to share all the news! I do appreciate them. I just want a Doctor Who for Christmas since I'm not going anywhere this year.

Yes. This.

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DanaK

DanaK

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23 hours ago, DanaK said:

Neil is saying "Worldwide premiere" in some sort of accent for those hard of hearing

Whatever it is is set to play after Strictly Come Dancing according to the Doctor Who Twitter account, so about 6:25 or 6:30pm UK time or about 1:30pm in the US East Coast time

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DanaK

DanaK

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(edited)

More details from TVZone UK https://www.tvzoneuk.com/post/doctor-who-trailer-images-and-cast-revealed-for-anniversary-specials

'Russell T Davies, showrunner says: “We wanted to give fans, friends and families a lovely little Christmas present - with a promise that 2023 will be a riot of Doctor Who goodness!'

ETA: BBC press release that TVZone was cribbing from https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2022/doctor-who-sneak-peek-60th-anniversary-year

Edited by DanaK
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