BBC confirms Series 6 to be split into two halves
The BBC Press Office has today announced that the sixth series of Doctor Who will be split into two halves to accommodate a ‘big plot twist’ halfway through the series.
Confirming reports from yesterday, Matt Smith’s second series will begin over the traditional Easter 2011 period, and will run until Episode 7, when ‘one of the most exciting Doctor Who cliffhangers’ of all time will keep viewers ‘on the edge of their seats’ until the series resumes with the remaining 6 episodes later in the Autumn.
Steven Moffat said: “The split series is exciting because viewers will be treated to two premieres, two finales and more event episodes. For the kids it will never be more than a few months to the next Doctor Who! Easter, Autumn, Christmas.”
Meanwhile, over at The Guardian website there’s a video of the showrunner’s initial announcement at the Edinburgh TV Festival this morning, in which he explains: ”Doctor Who will come back for 7 episodes at Easter, building up to an Earth-shattering climax in Episode 7. There will be a huge game-changing cliffhanger, one we could never do normally at the end of a series. It will change everything for the Doctor, Amy and Rory.”
He continued: ”In order to give you time to recover, we’ll let you go off, have your summer holidays, then come back in the Autumn for another 6 episodes in what will be Series 7, I suppose. We’re not just splitting it, we’re making two separate series.”
What do you think of the news? As always, let us know your thoughts about it below!
If its just a one off to accomodate clever storytelling its a good thing. If it’s a sneaky way to move into the moronic American way of messing with TV then it’s a bad thing.
@Steve
I’m not being naive, and the ‘explore a different way’ thing you quote me as saying is from Moffats own mouth. HE wants this to have a go at doing something new. This is a good thing, an exciting thing for anyone interested in seeing something new. The idea that it’s in any way the BBC trying to gently pave the way for axing the series is absurd paranoid ********.
Apologies for using the word ********there, I actually meant to put the much milder ********; I guess I’m just a potty mouth.
@Steve
The reason for calling it series six and seven, at a guess, would be because the two halves would be quite different, Moffat himself says the end of the first half would be ‘game changing’, so like two different series. Also, as there would be a gap, most people would think of it as a new series rather than a continuation of what was on months before.
Also, they’re both on in the same year, rather than just six episodes a year, so who cares?
Wait, did someone really just star out those words?! By ‘eck!
I’m not happy about this at all. I want more Doctor Who not what we have being diluted throughout the year. Its a disgrace. If this were a 20 episode season then giving out time off would be fine but this is just nonsense. A cliffhanger is a cliffhanger. Its always resolved whether its over a few episodes or a further six. This smacks to me of an experiment to see whether Doctor Who would get bigger figures during the autumn. Thats fine because if it isn’t then don’t do it at all unless your going to increase the amount of episodes produced.
@Steve
As a Heroes fan, I would know that they split Season Three into two volumes – Volume Three: Villains, and Volume Four: Fugitivies. Just like the plan was to split Season Two into three volumes, until the Writer’s Guild strike struck. Do your research properly, next time.
Also, he said, “I suppose” not “This second half will definitely be labelled ‘Series Seven’”. Just like he’s been calling Series Five “Series One” and Series Six “Series Two”. However, the BBC have said the series will be split into two halves, not series.
Moving to the “American way” would mean that there would be around 24 episodes in a series, and then that would be split in half.
I don’t see any reason to panic. I can think of at least two terrific shows (Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes) where there were only 8 episodes in a series. Torchwood had spectacular ratings for Children of Earth and that was only five episodes.
In fact most of the good BBC shows (this is only my opinion, of course) have relatively short series.
Honestly I prefer this way because it means less time waiting between series!
Please don’t post potential spoilers in comments. Thanks!
@TE
Sorry about that