SO. Farewell then Doctor Who, which has now disappeared for the summer, with the remaining six episodes from this year’s series due to be screened in the autumn. Farewell too, to executive producer Piers Wenger, who is leaving the BBC for a job at Film4. Could the two things be related?
News of Wenger’s intended departure followed the curious announcement the previous month that he was stepping down as head of drama at BBC Wales to work as a “creative leader” instead.
Commercial disaster
The decision to split the current series in two, meanwhile, was taken last year when it became apparent that both budgets and schedules on Doctor Who were running so far out of control it would be impossible to complete a 13-part series in time for a spring transmission.
Now, however, there are fears that the second tranche of episodes may not even be completed in time for BBC Worldwide to release a DVD box set of the series in time for the Christmas market, which would be a commercial disaster.
Show insiders blame much of the chaos on the decision taken by Wenger and his fellow executive producer Beth Willis last year to dispense with the services of producers Tracie Simpson and Peter Bennett, both of whom had worked on the programme since 2005. The pair were subsequently invited to return but declined.
The first series of their new joint venture, Baker Boys, was broadcast in January, with a number of other former Who crew also listed in its credits. “They decided they’d far rather work for less money than endure any more of Piers and Beth,” whimpers the Eye’s man in the Tardis. “The show is in a hell of a mess.”
Any old Ood
Showrunner and lead writer Steven Moffat has become expert at papering over the cracks, re-ordering episodes and finding creative reasons for spectacular monsters and CGI creations to be given as little screen-time as possible to save cash. But there was general dismay when sci-fi legend Neil Gaiman – whose much-anticipated episode had already had to be held over from the 2010 series due to a lack of funds – had to be informed that a further £200,000 shortfall in the budget meant he would have to rewrite it to include not the alien he had intended but instead an Ood which had been knocking about in the props store since 2006.
This, however, was far from the end of the bad news.
Programme chiefs in London were horrified to learn recently that BBC Wales is proposing not to make a full series of Doctor Who in 2012, but instead to put the programme on hiatus and merely bash out four “specials” as it did in 2009. This will leave an enormous hole in the BBC1 Saturday night schedule and a bigger one in the profits of BBC Worldwide, and will mean the corporation will be paying lead actor Matt Smith to spend most of the rest of this year doing nothing.
Soon after the Eye was published on Tuesday, the BBC confirmed that there will NOT be a full series of Doctor Who broadcast during 2012 but only “a good chunk” of episodes.
Sherlock's success means less Doctor Who in 2012
Danny Cohen said there would not be a 13-part run of Doctor Who next year
Writer Steven Moffat's commitments to BBC One drama Sherlock will mean fewer Doctor Who episodes in 2012, the channel's controller has said.
Speaking at a media conference in Derbyshire, Danny Cohen explained the consequences of a new Sherlock series.
"He [Moffat] needs enough time to get that done and then start work on the next series of Doctor Who", the BBC One boss said.
So there will be [Doctor Who] episodes, but not as many."
Doctor Who is one of the BBC's flagship shows. The series typically runs for 13 episodes every year.
Last week the BBC announced that they were filming 14 new Doctor Who episodes, including a Christmas special, to be broadcast from next year.
But Mr Cohen said that not all of the commissioned stories would be transmitted in 2012.
"There will be some episodes, but there won't be a full series, so we won't have a 13-part run," he told the audience at The Church and Media Conference.
Mr Moffat is one of BBC One's key writers, who oversees all Doctor Who episodes.
He is also one of Sherlock's executive producers, and is currently writing one of the show's three new episodes.
"There's only so many hours a day he can be awake," Mr Cohen said, referring to Mr Moffat's workload.
"The man has to sleep and eat, and he's got a family."
Both programmes attract high viewing figures and between them received five nominations at May's TV Bafta's, with Sherlock winning two prizes.
"Steven Moffat is the creative driving force behind Doctor Who. He also, rather magically at the same time, created and got to air Sherlock. So we have to get that balance right," Mr Cohen said.
"There'll be more episodes again in 2013, for the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who. So that's a big year."
The remaining six episodes of the current series will air on BBC One later this year.
EXEC-TERMINATION!
GROUNDED: Delays in filming the next series
of Doctor Who mean the Tardis is unlikely
to take flight much before February.
SO. Farewell then to another executive producer at Doctor Who, with Beth Willis following Piers Wenger out the door. A PR storm has already followed the Eye’s revelations of behind-the-scenes calamity under the leadership of the gruesome twosome and the reduced number of episodes that will air next year.
This time the corporation was taking no chances. As Willis prepared to return to her former employer, independent producer Kudos, BBC Drama controller Ben Stephenson and showrunner Steven Moffat lined up to offer fulsome praise (and there’s a phrase that’s often misused). Meanwhile more lowly staff at BBC Wales – uncowed by a threat of punishment “in the strongest possible way” should they be proved to have leaked any information to Private Eye – tell us that “we are planning a party for the day they leave Wales, and we will be buying a cake for your informant when we discover who it was.”
Tardis not cleared for take-off
Production on Doctor Who is meanwhile running several months behind the usual schedule. The Christmas special – hitherto filmed in June or July each year – will not see cameras roll until September. Filming on the next series customarily starts shortly afterwards: this time the Tardis is unlikely to take flight before February next year.
The corporation’s commercial arm, BBC Worldwide has had a good look at the figures for 2009, the last year when a smaller number of episodes than usual aired, and has noted that sales of its flagship kids’ title Doctor Who Adventures dropped by nearly two-thirds. It has now reconsidered plans for a massive magazine partwork it was to release in the run-up to the programme’s 50th anniversary in 2013. It has, to use a technical publishing term, been “sh*tcanned”.
They're a victim of their own success really. They've gone from a cheap show with shaky sets and simplistic effects to blockbuster quality material. Alongside this they have pretty much become the Number One show in the UK, where it is financed and made.
If it collapses here because of financial decisions, what becomes of the fans? They might have to make some serious decisions and this could be to cut the effects and rely on storyline.
storyline? for a 7pm childrens/family tv show?
shush! Kevin will get mad
I'm really not sure what their options are if they have to reduce the FX budget. Where could they save money and still have a No.1 show?