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BBC defends Doctor Who outlook

Crisis, what crisis? BBC denies behind-the-scenes dramas on production of Doctor Who.

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The BBC has denied talk of overspending on Doctor Who under former BBC Wales’ head of drama Piers Wenger, and watered down any fears of a ‘production crisis.’

Wenger succeeded Julie Gardner as Head of Drama for BBC Wales but left in May, and has himself been with Faith Penhale.

Wales On Sunday reports Wenger’s time at the show was dogged by rumours of massive overspends, filming overruns and the departure of many crew members who had been stalwarts of the series since it was relaunched.

The report follows recent fan panic to BBC1 Channel Controller Danny Cohen saying that there would be no full series in 2012.

In fact fourteen episodes have been commissioned but it is still unclear how many will be filmed next year, with another block likely to be split ahead of the show’s 50th anniversary in 2013.

Steven Moffatt recently tweeted, “14 eps + Matt DEFINITELY. I’ve got a plan and I’m NOT TELLING YOU WHAT IT IS. Now hush or River shoots you with her Spoiler Gun.#formaqueue”

But there are suggestings that as few as four episodes could end up being filmed in 2012, with Matt Smith potentially being paid his full year’s salary.

BBC communications boss Julian Payne said, “Doctor Who in 2011 has had one of it’s strongest performances with 10.3 million people tuning in.

“Moving forward it is business as usual for the show. We are preparing for the new series now and Stephen (Moffat, head writer) is hard at work on the Christmas show as we speak.”

Moffatt also recently tweeted: “The scheduling of Dr Who has got NOTHING to do with Sherlock.”

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  2. To be honest? I think it’s the suits at the beeb not used to moffat’s style and the way he works. It’s a huge shift from the RTD years, lets just hope they don’t scare him off. I like his work.

  3. @Bill – you may also be disappointed to learn that behind the scenes understanding is that Doctor Who will definitely be commissioned for a further two years.

    On the other hand, every other person should be over the moon 🙂

  4. @Bill: I’ve said it once I’ll say it a thousand times: If you don’t like the show don’t comment on it!!! (P.S. I bet Bill/Ben/Adam are the same person.) Ahem…

    @Jack!: Uh… how would you know whether Piers Wenger was the right fit for the show or not? He and Julie Gardener worked entirely behind the scenes, their jobs were to get the show in on time and on budget. Which is a 24/7 job from what I’ve read in Doctor Who Magazine. I’m surprised Julie Gardener stayed 5 years. Piers Wenger has every right to entertain offers from other companies.

    If the ‘rumours’ of him overspending and overruning on filming were true then Film4 would not have offered him the job to head that branch of Channel 4.
    By the way, film overruns are the fault of the director not the Producer, if such a thing were happening the director would be fired.

    As for people leaving, have you seen what Micheal Pickwoad has done since he came aboard? Doctor Who looks better now than it ever has (A Good Man Goes to War & Christmas Carol are prime examples.)

    People move on, it’s television and particularly Doctor Who which is a high demand job, this is almost funny. I mean back in the 1960’s producers were changing almost every 6 months (No seriously, they were.) for a time at a time when Doctor Who was going out 40 eps a year. I don’t imagine people were stressing about how the show would survive because John Wiles left after the aformentioned 6 months, I doubt anyone watching knew who was in charge back then.

    We only worry now because of how prolific the news on every aspect of these peoples lives are. Doctor Who is up and about, we shouldn’t worry if it stays off for a while, it’s died once and regenerated (Not counting 96…) it’ll do it again.

  6. So Bill is here, how long before Adam and Bill turn up?

    I hate we have to wait until Sept for the rest of the season, it might seam complicated right now but I’m betting there is a method in their madness.

    I want a full season of 13 eps next year and not broken into 2 parts!

  7. There was something not quite right with the first seven episodes this year … in general I felt the scripts were too complicated at least … but the BBC will not allow Doctor Who to “drop the ball” as it is their biggest money spinner through merchandising etc … and Piers was not the right fit for the show all along… if only we could get Julie Gardiner back from the USA!!!!

  8. Someone suggested that the reason for the break in next year’s schedule was due to the Olympics messing everything around. Not sure if that fits, but it almost makes sense.

  9. I was incredibly dubious and not impressed when the Ecclestone series was announced and trailered. But the actual show quickly won me over and it’s been going from strength to strength since. Long live the Doctor!

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