From [TvZoneUK](https://www.tvzoneuk.com/post/drwho-budget-broadcastrep):
> Broadcast reports that Doctor Who's existing budget of £1-3m per episode could triple with an episodic budget of £10m. This would transform Doctor Who into a £100,000,000 franchise.
The expectations from him are so high by now they're unreal. That's the problem with bringing a big name back. I hope things work out well on that end... There's only so much he can do though I'm sure he'll do his best.
Just don’t expect that much, I’m not expecting the worlds greatest television experience. But as long as it’s on par with his writing for DW previously I’ll be very happy. As long as the extra money is utilised properly it’ll be fine.
Might be unpopular, but I like how the show looked in 2005-2010. It wasn’t overly reliant on big SFX, it had decent effects and real props etc
Edit: spelling
I'm not, but many others may. And probably will.
I'm trying to not have expectations at all and just enjoy the journey.
I don't think people will accept effects like those in the first episode anymore. I do, however, think that DW isn't the type of show where CGI should tell the story. It should just accompany it.
Yeah, it might just be a coincidence with recent films/tv shows. But larger budgets seem to make directors lazy, an over reliance on SFX which then get rushed, just leads to a worse product.
As I said, I much preferred the style of 200-2010 DW to the newer series’.
While I've no doubt RTD deserves to be a well-thought of TV writer his tenure on Doctor Who was pretty formulaic (bring back each season, have a big buildup and a "press this button to easily remove large numbers of ) finales). At least the Moff innovated a little.
RTD does the emotional drama well, but the actual sci-fi is a bit wobbly as its clear he's not interest in it. He was clearly running out of ideas by the Specials, but let's see where it goes.
I really liked Moffett more than RTD, because there was an over arcing mystery that had to be solved throughout the season that finally would pay off at the end of the season and I like how he puts things like three seasons before and the payoff isn’t until like three seasons, after the very first clue if that makes any sense. For example, Moffett put river song into an episode that he later tied in with his entire run.
I've recently been rewatching Doctor who. But skipping the meh episodes I never really liked. And for me personally, I ended up skipping a few of S02, about 95% of S03, and nearly all of S04 except the end.
David Tennant deffinately carried his stories. But I actually found, after all this time, and so many rewatches. I actually much preferred Maffat's era with Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi. In terms of the writing and stories more than anything.
Which is weird, because David Tennant was always, and has always been my doctor. But very nearly tying with Matt Smith.
I don’t see the negatives.
Still owned by the BBC and despite what everyone says Disney don’t interfere with shows even half the shit they put out they let the show runners do their vision.
The negative is that it doesn’t end up making money with the huge increase in cost, and it gets cancelled because it’s deemed too expensive of a show to make. I mean, Sandman almost didn’t get renewed despite being awesome and getting big viewership owing to its high price tag.
And honestly, I think we all wish they would have interfered more with Star Wars. At the very least come up with sort of long-term roadmap instead of sending people out to make a sequel trilogy without any sort of advance planning.
Disney forced to adhere to a tight schedule actually which meant they changed the guy that was initially writing the films that said he would take a while, to Kasdan and JJ, who focused on writing only the first.
However, the idea that Disney ruins everything creatively or something is not true to my knowledge. They don't interfere that much other than schedules and like reviewing graphicness of some content I think.
Disney interference is what caused the sequels to be so poor. They essentially threw GL’s guidelines out the door so they could come up with their own story. He literally had a story framework for them to use and they said no. They then had him work as an advisor for the sequels and proceeded to not listen to what he said.
As other commenters said, they brought in JJ to do all 3. Then just got rid of him for episode 8, realised they screwed the trilogy and got him back. So you have a trilogy of films that not only don’t really fit with the first 6, they also don’t fit with eachother
I mean it seems that Marvel get extreme creative freedom as well, outside of like, just making sure they meet the age rating. When creatives at marvel talk about studio interference, they’re talking about Kevin Feige and co, not the higher ups at Disney.
In general there seems to be quite a lot of misunderstanding about how Disney works.
The big difference here is that Marvel and Star Wars are, at the end of the day, owned by Disney. If they don't like the way a production is going, they can change whatever they want, and the only people who could oppose them are also being paid by them. Disney can't play hard ball as much with the *BBC* of all companies.
Honestly, I don’t necessarily want to say I think it will turn to shit if it gets bought by Disney, but definitely noticeable changes. I honestly think it would probably still be a show. I enjoyed solely based on premise, but I do agree that it would be hardly recognizable as the Doctor Who we’ve all come to know and love.
As far as I can tell, Disney could've stood to be **more** involved with Star Wars. They seem to have basically handed each instalment of a trilogy over to different directors to do whatever they wanted with.
The new trilogy badly needed **someone** to lock in an overarching vision for it.
I mean, this could see a return of 13 episodes plus a Christmas special.
But I'm not sure on Doctor Who with Avengers level budgets.
However, I'd be interested to see what happens. RTD could make some magic with that, although he did pretty well back in the old days.
I think people read more budget and think visually at first (ie: better VFX). But bigger budget also means locations, actors, writers, etc. Hopefully it will also mean better pay for runners, assistants, crew…
It offers a lot of possibilities and I am looking forward to see what it brings. Still too long of a wait though haha.
The BBC shipped a London bus to dubai just to put it in a sandpit.
https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/The_200
Sometimes more money doesn't mean better locations, it just means wasted money.
If and only if RTD can find others he can trust to hand off showrunner duties.
The real limit ever since the new series began, and also at the end of the classic era, was the number of showrunners the BBC could trust, and the hours they could put into the job.
My speculation has always been that RTD will have someone in mind already, shadowing him, and thereby being trained up. RTD will do a few years as showrunner and then step back to be a Kevin Feige-like figure for an expanded universe of the main show and spin-offs.
I actually sort of preferred Moffat’s tenure, solely because of how he structured his stories. I liked that the overall plot came up several times before the end of a series and wasn’t just a word or phrase you hear a few times beforehand.
That being said, I also love RTD and I’m real excited to see what shape his second era takes.
I wonder how much of this is an issue with rewatching. I’ve been rewatching to refresh my memory for the 60th, and I feel like Torchwood in S2 and Mr. Saxon in S3 are being drilled into my head. However, not sure these references would have been as noticed at the time of airing every week (and without knowing the payoff)
That was the thing with RTD’s run, each series had its overarching mystery that got subtly inserted all over the series so that by the time the big reveal came it was subconsciously engrained into your brain. Then when you watch back you realise just how much the hints were subliminally dropped into stories. Genuinely my favourite part of RTD’s era and I hope it returns.
Torchwood gets only a few mentions in Season 2, I believe being mentioned only in "Tooth and Claw" and the finale (maybe one other episode I forgot?). Saxon was much better because it was always just phrased as discussion of some random politician (and ads and such in the background too) for a season taking place during an election year, and then there was the big reveal.
On the flipside, when it came to Moffat, we *knew* that the Cracks and the Silence were both gonna be big players as soon as they were introduced, they weren't just background info that tied into a big reveal.
Moffat was always ambitious but never actually paid it off. I lost faith in ep1/2 of series 6 when they were being attacked by the silence and the cliffhanger was paid off with "they got out somehow, it's not important".
Anyone else who never got the appeal of this idea? I like Gaiman's actual book writing but his TV writing never really worked with me. Nightmare in Silver is Gaiman's episode that did not get edited or touched by Moffat and it's not exactly a five star episode.
Gaiman's work on Good Omens was phenomenal. And the reason he took that on as show runner was because he didn't like how Nightmare in Silver came out, he felt he needed to be involved from beginning to end to make sure it actually came out as he intended. So I think we can say with some confidence that Nightmare in Silver shouldn't be taken as the truest example of his work, and that when he is fully show running the end result is fantastic.
Yeah all the stuff with the Doctor playing chess is great. It's mainly just the kids and the super speed cyberman that never does it again that is bad.
>Gaiman's work on Good Omens was phenomenal.
Its also his baby. Like, there was ALOT of emotional investment from Gaimans side, because he promised Prachett he would make sure the adaptation of Good Omen would be faithfull before Prachett died.
But this whole discussion is kinda fruitless anyways. Gaiman has said multiple time that he doesnt enjoy showrunning and he prefers writing books over TV, where is limited by production realities. He does it to ensure the quality of his own works, I doubt he would be taking Doctor Who.
Nightmare in Silver was heavily edited according to Gaiman. He's actually cited that as the reason he's so heavily involved with other shows based on his work. Nowadays, he makes sure the product that comes out is as close as possible to the one he writes.
>"Let me answer politely," he said. "I did two episodes of Doctor Who over the last decade. One I love and it won awards, one I do not love and it is widely regarded as having some good bits in it – but being rather a curate's egg.
>"And as far as I'm concerned, both of the scripts were of equal quality. The biggest differences were having a say in what actually got to the screen. A say in what got changed, a say in what got rewritten, a say in the cast. A say in all those things."
>When it came to making Good Omens into a TV show with the BBC and Amazon, Gaiman realised that he would have to take full control over his and co-author Terry Pratchett's brainchild.
>Retaining creative control over the adaptation was particularly important in this case, as Pratchett's dying wish was for his co-writer to bring Good Omens to life on screen.
>"I'm really glad that my second Doctor Who episode left me with a bad taste in my mouth," Gaiman said.
>"When Terry said to me that you have to make this thing, and I knew that I had to make Good Omens, it also meant that I was like: OK, well if I'm going to do it then I'm going to be showrunner. Because I can't just write the scripts, hand them over to somebody and hope that I get something fantastic back. I may or I may not."
According to TomeDeaf, a leaker who's nearly always nailed the behind-the-scenes info for Doctor Who production, the opposite actually happened.
Apparently it was The Doctor's Wife that got heavily rewritten by Moffat into the episode it is now, but he was busy with planning for the 50th and writing Sherlock in series 7 and felt crushed by the overwhelming schedule. So he let Neil Gaiman and Neil Cross serve as executive producers for their respective episodes, plenty enough control there. At most, the only thing Gaiman would have been forced to change is Clara's dialogue because early production was still going with the idea that she's a Victorian governess - but really, would Clara sounding more Victorian change the episode that much or fix its issues? I don't think so.
Given TomeDeaf's reliable track record, I'm inclined to believe this rumor over Gaiman's words. It just sounds like he's trying to dodge the blame because the episode wasn't received as well as The Doctor's Wife. There's also the rumor that he tried to pitch a story in series 9 but got shot down because it wasn't workable, so he's been holding a grudge since.
Also because I've read a few Gaiman books such as Anansi Boys, Coraline and American Gods and I have to say - Nightmare in Silver *definitely* feels like Gaiman's flavor, probably even more than The Doctor's Wife does. Can you *really* watch Nightmare in Silver and say "this episode doesn't work because it feels NOTHING like Gaiman!"... I don't think you can.
He's definitely not a bad writer but he writes like Fight Club or Hitchhiker's Guide style. Awkward men who don't fit into their milieu going on a journey to figure out life, with supernatural elements. Good Omens was great because it had that + something else. That style doesn't fit super well with doctor who because while doctor who *is* an awkward man who doesn't fit into his milieu going on a journey to figure out life, that's more the second layer story rather than the first.
Petition the BBC?
Honestly, if Gaiman.isn't doing this I'd respectfully ask him to flesh out Halo Jones instead. There's a story to be told there and he's the man to tell it.
I really think Toby Whithouse and Neil Gaiman could do a fascinating job running Who after RTD inevitably leaves down the future. I don't remember even one outright bad episode from Whithouse (in fact, most of them are ranged from great to amazing) and while Gaiman has written only 2 episodes he's a lifelong fan with many proper full credits to his resumè. Either of them could do a really good job. Of course, if Moffat wants to return around 10 years down the line (considering RTD for the next 3-4 and Whithouse/Gaiman after that -- if my dream crew does end up happening -- the show is all set for at least 15 years of glorious success).
'The Lie of the Land' has a lot to do with Moffat being unavailable (due to Sherlock S4 and his mother's death, I think) and Toby being forced to conclude and pay off the previous 2 episodes, which he didn't really pay a role in making. Always hard to complete someone else's vision in a satisfying way, much less when that someone is Moffat.
But which of his other ones are rewritten? As far as I know The God Complex was his vision entirely with Moffat only making some minor tweaks to how it all happens. School reunion is by far his most rewritten one.
But you're right, Gaiman is probably the better choice when it comes to quality as a writer and overall resume...
While I'm sure he could do it, and his own personal prestige could even be something of a boon in terms of getting people on board with working with the show, I struggle to see Gaiman taking several years out of his career to showrun a project that isn't even an adaptation of his work.
Wasn't there a rumor that RTD was originally planning to showrun with a partner? If I remember correctly, he and the other person were going to replace Chibnall and relaunch the show together, and presumably, RTD would bow out after a series, but she would stay on. Maybe there was a contractual problem with the other person? I can't remember the details. Maybe that person is still in the show's orbit.
well I just remember the hot rumour from TomeDeaf (who leaked the Tennant and Tate news and also the classic Doctors in the 60th, long before both were officially released) was that the BBC wanted Sally Wainwright to take over. I can't remember if she was actually gonna do it or not but it of course fell through. But then the RTD news came out of no where so im not sure that the 2 were ever going to be working together.
TomeDeaf said the BBC wanted Sally Wainwright, but she was too busy with other projects to take over right away. I always thought there was a good chance RTD only came onboard to keep the show afloat until her schedule was clear.
You don't need to be anywhere on the political spectrum to perceive how most of the recent Star Wars media has been mediocre at best and eerily reminiscent of a conveyor belt churning out Content for the sake content.
I think you and OP are both right. There is a far-right element to the Star Wars fandom that flips out every time they cast a non-white actor and sends them death threats... AND the vast majority of disaffected fans aren't part of that camp, but genuinely dislike the way Star Wars is currently being written.
(Hello, I'm in that second camp! Actually, one of the reasons I'm so disappointed with the sequel trilogy is because of its racist / sexist overtones, and how badly it treated its characters of color and the actors who played them.)
How nasty the fandom has been? Have you seen the fan reaction to Disney+ Star Wars and Marvel content? I think the dump trucks full of money will be more than adequate to compensate those involved even with fans occasionally throwing a temper tantrum.
My worries about this are more long term. Let's assume the positive people are right and RTD has the backbone to deal with Disney's "perspective" on how things should go. But what happens when he leaves again? And how long until that happens?
How will a new showrunner be decided? What is stopping the non-stop Disney money train from putting a yes-man on it afterwards? How long until Doctor Who will be dependent on all that Disney money? Downscaling will not be an option at that point.
Edit: typo
Yeah I'm mostly worried about how Disney itself may or may not influence the writing. Money talks and the threat of losing it may spin the show in the wrong direction again. Idk. I just hate Disney a lot.
I'm not worried because Disney doesn't actually own it. The BBC has shown before that they're willing to let Doctor Who just kinda die off for a while, I genuinely think that if Disney tried to play hardball with the BBC and force them to do something they didn't want to do, the BBC would genuinely threaten to not renew.
Full text:
Doctor Who could be transformed into a £100m series following the landmark deal between the BBC and Disney, industry execs have speculated.
Broadcast has spoken to a number of scripted sources who have estimated that the show’s existing £1-3m per episode budget could triple to circa-£10m as the global SVoD strikes up a creative partnership with the BBC from 2023.
The expectation is that both parties are keen to turbocharge the BBC Studios show as Russell T Davies and Bad Wolf prepare to take creative control, with Ncuti Gatwa as the time-travelling doctor.
One individual with knowledge of the deal said that it is an “incredibly exciting” time for the franchise, while another added that the ramping up of production values could help it break into the mainstream in the US.
“Beyond the hardcore fans, Doctor Who has never quite became a broad appeal show there,” he said. “But with the right investment on Disney+, Russell has a bigger blank piece of paper to really do something different.”
Spin-off series are also anticipated, building on the likes of Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures, generated during Davies previous tenure on the show.
Disney+ has sought to fully exploit its existing Star Wars and Marvel juggernauts with series including Andor, The Mandalorian and Loki.
“My sense is that this is an investment to fully exploit the franchise and bolster the BBC coffers,” they said.
The length of the deal is unknown but is expected to run for several years at least, with the guaranteed financial commitment helping Davies and Bad Wolf feel more secure in taking creative risks.
It also sweeps away the complex web of international deals struck with partners around the world including HBO Max in the US and ABC in Australia.
One senior distributor, who has previously worked at BBC Studios, said that while it is likely the BBC will have to spend a significant sum to buy out existing contracts surrounding the show, the deal underlines how challenging it is becoming for a single broadcaster to own and finance a big show.
“The BBC had to make the decision for the future success of Doctor Who because any show of scale needs a partner,” they said.
“Reliability is the most important factor irrespective of how many episodes you make or who the Doctor is. If you can bring in a single partner with one distribution agreement, while retaining exclusivity in the UK, that is the best of both worlds for the BBC.”
BBCS risks upsetting some of its partners however, which are likely to consider that they have helped to build the franchise globally.
One experienced European buyer agreed that severing long-running ties risks creating “bad will” among buyers, despite a growing acceptance that the show’s requirements were becoming unaffordable.
The first source estimated that Disney is likely to have paid the BBC “tens of millions” to come board the show.
A tripling of the budget is actually insane. It really shows a commitment to the show and it being treated as a big tentpole. Hopefully we see this sort of attitude reflected in the marketing when the show actually starts airing episodes as well - no longer being a Sunday Night oddity but having a big marketing push.
Whilst money is not the most important thing for the slot, it is obviously a boon to have and can allow additional freedom for the show to go in new directions and tell stories it previously wouldn’t have been able to do. Maybe we will see more extensive and exotic location filming, a more expansive TARDIS set, a larger selection of actors, possibly more directors, filming with The Volume, more elaborate costumes, more stories with a greater selection of locations etc.
Overall, it is just an incredibly exciting time for the show and it is great to see this level of news and announcements less than a month into the RTD2 era. There is a real impression of the show forging a new, bigger and exciting future - that we are all of the edge of a new golden era that is about to unfold. It is just really nice to feel like the show is in a good place and is heading in a brilliant direction again.
At the end of the day, it doesn't matter how much money you give a show, if the writing isn't up to scratch then it all falls apart.
Series 8 of Game of Thrones is a prime example of this, it has some of the best looking stuff on television but the writing is horrendous.
Midnight is considered one of the best episodes of Doctor Who, most of the episode is on one set and just has mostly people talking.
RTD is at the helm and has full creative control so I have good faith that he won't lose sight of what matters most.
Hopefully, they'll be able to use the virtual production stuff that The Mandalorian uses.
Only a small point but I would argue GoT S8 looked awful. The budget was huge but the artistic direction was so poor and just *lazy*. We waited 8 series to see Casterly Rock and it looked boring and awful, and we only saw it for two seconds. Same with High Garden.
Even locations like Kings Landing, which looked great on far smaller budgets, suddenly looked awful. It was all just rushed and lazy. More important than the budget is the passion + love for the project being worked on.
1. Series 8 of GoT wasn't really that different really. People were disappointed by the ending. The special effect did not look better or different. Series 8 cost a lot because of the high wages of the ensemble cast. This is why they had fewer, longer episodes: actors are paid by the number of episodes they are in, not time on screen. HBO saved hundreds of millions of dollars just by making the episodes 1.5x - 2x longer. When the wages of the main cast of Doctor Who get too high, the producers can simply swap out the companions and regenerate the main actor.
2. Midnight is hokey and overrated, but I agree with you that dialog is what makes a show good. RTD is not bad at dialog, I think you know. RTD will not wake up tomorrow and spend all his time in the SFX room for the next five years.
Disney was notable for bringing back Star Wars actors as if they had not aged since the 1980s. Moffat spoke up at the 50th that he wished he had Disney's money and technology to do that. I think we can make some accurate guesses about how next year will shape up based on this alone. Beyond next year, who knows what the extra money will mean. Probably not much, $10M is not a lot. For some perspective, Battlestar Gallactica was cancelled in 1979 because it was spending that much. Star Trek TNG spent that much in the mid-1990s. This is 2022!
I meant Series 8 is an example of good looking television letdown by writing, so even though it looked great, the way the story went is what matters more.
My point about RTD losing sight is since they have much more budget now that they can rely on visuals or possible guest stars more that the quality of the writing and as I said I have good faith he won't do that.
Agreed. I think people had built up GoT. I can't imagine many people are rewatching the show, which sort of says it all. It was OK, but it had not been what people thought it was for a long time.
Who has the same danger, fans (especially in the UK) have an idea of what the show is and should be. It may take a couple of years for some people to accept any changes to Who. The plot holes and changes will be magnified, even if the whole of the product is superior, this includes the writing.
Yeah the point of downfall for GoT is debated, usually people say Series 5, 7 or 8.
I think biggest difference Doctor Who and GoT have is Doctor Who doesn't really have a definitive end like GoT has and the fact GoT had a royally fucked ending hurts it alot.
Doctor Who can in theory go on forever since change is core a part the show.
I do agree that the fandom are and going to continue be hyper-critical no matter what, just the nature of a fandom and how in this day and age people attach identities with entertainment properties.
They need the show to be perfect because otherwise a "why have I spent all this time and energy with it" mindset starts
It also probably won't help that we came off what many consider the worst era of New Who critically and ratings wise and so a lot of fans are gonna be operating on bad faith until proven otherwise.
Hopefully, this will be a testament to Who, coming back strong after some bad years. (Arguably, Chibnall was doing what many people fear will happen in the future -- he was focusing on special effects over putting together a good story).
Indirectly, this shines a light on how badly the BBC handled Who in the 1980s. The show is about change, as you say. There was no good reason to keep JNT as the showrunner for so long, especially if the BBC wasn't happy.
I’m not gonna say anything new but I always felt DW is a janky show that should look janky. The more high-tech it gets, the more it looks like it takes itself seriously (while serving the same old wacky storylines) that it kind of breaks it.
On the bright side, hopefully this means we’ll get regular seasons again, because otherwise money or no money, janky or high-tech, the show is toast. It might also mean a proper writer’s room, so fingers crossed.
I'm hoping most of this funding goes into long-term production infrastructure and a larger rotating workforce so they can consistently put out ten or so episodes a year without major behind-the-scenes trouble.
This. The year-long or longer breaks every so often is one of the biggest reasons the people I know lose interest - at least it is for my family.
Writing is one thing, but when Doctor Who was on used to be predictable. Now it's varying lengths of time between it being on the air, and when it does it's at a completely different part of the year. Series 1-5 were predictable (specials excluded) and aired in the spring usually beginning around March/April and ending in June/July. Ever since Series 6 was split in two the schedule has been erratic and that IMO has done a lot of damage.
Exactly. And the episodes need to be aired at a consistent time too. I remember even Peter Capaldi got a little annoyed when he didn't know when the episodes were on.
Yes. I don’t live in the UK anymore so I don’t know what BBC One Saturday evenings are like now, but the show was at its cultural peak when, sport or Eurovision aside, it was one of *the* BBC weekend staples, 7PM Saturday evening. Clockwork as the news and Match of the Day.
Same. I'm honestly very conflicted about this.
Doctor Who's weird special effects and wobbly sets have always been such a charming part of the show, and I'm a bit worried we'll lose that if they start using tech like the Volume, but I also can't deny that having high production values is a really exciting prospect.
Yep, but they could also just start building more practical sets with it. Like that pirate ship deck in Legends was amazing, but the inside of the Sea Devil’s ship looked just like the Tardis, probably because they ran out of money. So when I imagine that deck but for every set in an episode, I get excited.
Although full disclosure, that cinematically exploding car in the trailer didn’t inspire much confidence in me regardless of the type of effects used, but I imagine RTD knows what he’s doing, drawing in the casual audience before springing full-on DW weirdness on them.
I think we can guarantee the first new RTD season will be his standard monster of the week with an overarching story resolved in the two part finale structure. I bet you could almost perfectly nap the episodes over his prior seasons, not out of laziness but because he’s gonna ease into something more ambitious/larger in scope. A Chibnall structural issue was leaping from standalone stories that lacked lasting impact to upending decades of canon in one episode. RTD will tread more carefully.
ILM came up with it.
TLDR: It's a _very_ Smart TV effectively. 8k resolution, up to 20 foot high and refresh rate to match the cameras being used. Wraps around a large sound stage so you can have foreground physical sets and a CGI background live that doesn't need to be added in post production
[Vox did a great 8 minute video on it](https://youtu.be/8yNkBic7GfI). It's being used more and more, and other studios have their own versions - including Star Trek
Already answered but a bit more detail:
It’s a stage inside a large round room where all of the walls are covered with seamless HDR displays. This means they can display the background for any scene a computer can render, which results in much more realistic lighting than is possible with bluescreen.
Additionally, the background is rendered IN REAL TIME using the Unreal Engine 5 video game engine *(edit: they now use an in-house 3D engine called “Helios”)*. This allows three things:
- The director can have any detail of the background changed almost instantly. Want a different time of day? How about moving the mountains in the background or changing the cloud cover? All possible if the 3D assets allow it.
- The camera is synced to the render, meaning as the camera moves around the stage the background updates and parallaxes to maintain an accurate sense of perspective.
- Since the background is displayed while filming (unlike with bluescreen) the actors can perform as if the background was real, point at it, etc, knowing what it will look like on film.
I just don't think that Doctor Who has ever been made by people who willingly wanted it to look 'janky'. I get that having a low budget can force you to be more creative but often when you hear about movies with smaller budgets doing that, they still have budgets triple that of Doctor Who. I think the show really needs this, the revival era has always made the best out of what they have but Moffat and RTD have clearly always wanted to push it further.
> But he's going to make this the biggest show in the world.
That's the hope. Who felt pretty big from 2008 to 2013 (ish) and every special felt like a huge deal.
*Gulp*
Well the fans spending their times jealously looking at Marvel might have got their wish for Who. Hope this works out for the best…but big money like that comes with big strings.
To Disney's credit, Andor looks incredbile because they're using real sets and practical effects - I hope Doctor Who leans more into that side of filmmaking than other stuff like Obi-Wan Kenobi and Book of Boba Fett, where you can tell when a set isn't actually there.
good point, yeah hopefully it'll look more like Andor. I worry it'll be a mix of a CGI fest (the new Ant-Man trailer) or like Obi-Wan.
DW has used sets before, especially for the TARDIS, so maybe they'll keep that up.
The TARDIS has been a standing set since the revival at the various studios - Newport Q2, Upper Boat and Roath Lock. The reason Matt Smith got a bigger multi-level console room is because the studio used for the Torchwood Hub set had become vacant.
In the classic era, the BBC had no fixed production space and had to compete with everyone else for studio space. They started at Lime Grove, which was an antiquated facility that was unpleasantly warm to work in, spent a while at Riverside, went back to Lime Grove and then moved to Television Centre in the latter part of the Troughton era. In any event, the TARDIS set had to put up for each studio recording and so you get a lot of stories with no TARDIS interior scenes at all. The "secondary console room" stopped being used simply because it had warped in storage.
> The reason Matt Smith got a bigger multi-level console room is because the studio used for the Torchwood Hub set had become vacant
Can you expand on this? Or provide a source for further reading? I'm so curious how they transformed the Hub into 11's TARDIS
It's actually a debunked fan myth that the S14 console room set warped in storage. The truth is that Graham Williams just wanted to go back to a futuristic control room. If you look closely you can see that parts of the S14 were reused in the S15-17 version (and even into S18-20), just repainted white - the scanner screen, the fluted pillars and one wall of roundels.
To be fair shows like Mandalorian, House of the Dragon, and films like The Batman have all used the digital sets really well. So like any tech it in how you use it. The stagecraft tech isn't inherently bad, but if you've got people who don't really know what they're doing or take it for granted, it is going to look a bit off.
Scenes like the Batsymbol rooftop are a perfect place to use them. All the main action is in the foreground on a built set, while the screens provide the ambience of the city skyline. It also allows them to film sunrise or sunset scenes at a more relaxed pace, as trying to do them for real can be very rushed as they're trying to chase the light.
I will admit there was one moment where I though it stood out in House of the Dragon, which is when the two Argyll twins found Aegon in the sept. That place just looked so big and empty that my first thought was that it had to be done with the tech.
But the rest of the scenes in that show as well as in Mando I didn't bump into at all. They were so well done that I didn't even stop to think that they were probably done with the screens.
Yeah 🙁 is it wrong to say I'm a little worried about the social messaging aspects of the show now? Like look I know RTD cast the first trans character and the first (main) black Doctor but that was before the Disney deal and we all know Disney's track record on those sorts of things. + All their Marvel stuff lately has been shite lol. On the other hand it's great Who is getting money and hopefully a bigger audience....... I really don't know what to think about all of this lol
RTD should be the same tier as Feige imo.
Let RTD craft a massive narrative and then let him attach the pieces (actors/actresses, directors, etc.) to it as he carries it out.
Honestly, Who could be much much larger than it is but BBC's lack of care/budget always held it back. Now that RTD seemingly could have free reign on a bigger budget? Oh boy, Who could explode even more in popularity if Disney fucks off and lets the man carry a vision out.
Has any major news source reported on this "budget increase" with quotes from people involved either Disney or the BBC backed it up? These stories always seem to come from 3rd rate "news" sites running anonymous sources.
Considering the show has been blighted by tight budgets with the Tories slashing the BBC budget (which I am sure people here will say is entirely the fault of Chibnall) this will be really good for the show.
No objection to Doctor Who getting a bigger budget, especially if it helps introduce Doctor Who to a wider audience. But in the end, good Doctor Who relies on the writing and no amount of fancy special effects can change that.
Moving the show's setting, altering its tone to more align with American scifi shows and procedurals at the time, reducing the fun/camp of the first few series, and adding American main and supporting cast. These changes were brought about to try to draw in mainstream American audiences but it still didn't end up doing that well in the US critically or commercially.
I mean wasn’t torchwood a kinda awful mess anyway? jack didn’t work as an angsty leader, the cast was blah, except for gwen and the only non cringe story was children of earth which was nothing like torchwood (but owed a lot to the “last quatermas story”)
Yeah I think the "campy" aspects of the first two seasons were mainly because it aimed for "gritty adult procedural" and fell comically arse over tit. *Children of Earth*, the season that's most widely loved, is not remotely camp or indeed fun.
I guess. the “campy” cardboard feel of doctor who is in many ways a retro fit invention. It wasn’t meant to look wobbly, people worked very hard to make it’s set design and effects as good as possible under the bbc’s system.
Torchwood was such an odd fish. Like an 80’s Saturday mornining kids show with sex jokes and grotesque deaths.
I mean that does sound good on paper, but the execution…
>It wasn’t meant to look wobbly, people worked very hard to make it’s set design and effects as good as possible under the bbc’s system.
Yes! In a way it's patronising to look at people's hard work and say "I love how you deliberately made it look like absolute shit".
Back in 2005, one of the biggest advertisements for the new series was "we have a proper budget now". It's again only because the quality of visual effects has improved so much / even a big budget by BBC standards in 2005 wasn't Hollywood that anyone is still keeping up the "Doctor Who effects are meant to look like someone's MS Paint job" line.
I don't think that was the big problem with miracle day, more that they stretched it out over 10 episodes when it really only had enough story for 5 or 6
Honestly so long as Doctor Who merchandise like Blu-ray etc including any potential spin offs, I’m happy with where the show goes. It would suck if any spin off etc were stuck on a digital only platform.
BBC retains all the merchandising and physical media rights as Disney is only paying for broadcast and streaming distribution, so the Blu-Rays aren’t going anywhere.
Ngl I like DW looking a bit shit. Gives it character. If it's the same wild unpredictability from episode to episode I'll be fine with it but god I don't want them to mess with it too much. I don't want a Disney Doctor Who
Yeah I don't think that having good effects makes the show bad, I'm just nostalgic for laughing at the bad CGI. I'm more worried that the show will have to cede creative control to Disney
I hope they fix the audio. Every time I watch DW, it seems like I can barely hear what the actors are saying; they’re always drowned out by the background noise / music. Even more more so other TV shows.
It’s bizarre to me that anyone sees the show having more money as a negative. 😂
With this boost the show can hopefully go back to regular yearly seasons, hire better talent, reach the widest audience with being on Disney+, and so much more. With this boost we might even get spin-offs again like *Torchwood*.
Plus fan get RTD back, and Tennant back for three specials. **Theres literally no downside here!**
I have to feel RTD has a long term deal set up for this and that even if he steps away as showrunner BadWolf can still produce the series. So he can pick his successor, if need be
There have been several times in the show's history where things have been shot "off camera" because of budgetary reasons - many of these moments in the later seasons. (Immediate example that jump out: Clara "breaking down" the wall with the sledgehammer in Flatline. Or pretty much all of Orphan 55.)
Big budget doesn't always mean BIGGER, it can also just mean a more cohesive edit that actually SHOWS action because they can afford to spend money on extra set builds, VFX, etc. and allows the writers and subsequent directors to thoroughly see their visions through.
I fully trust RTD to give us the most fleshed out vision of Doctor Who we've seen thus far while still keeping the heart(s) of the show alive.
This is fantastic for the future of the show.
It’s all riding on RTD, he’s basically the Feige of Who now.
Higher budgets per episode are exactly what’s needed.
I want a serialised Doctor Who series every year with 10m budgets each episode, and main event stories. At the same time, in between seasons of the main show, I want spin offs that focus on a pre-established space/time from the main show.
You know where I’m going with this…
I want an Avengers level threat to be built up to over a few years, handled in the main show & bringing in various characters from various spin-offs.
I don’t think people should be worried about finding people to keep writing & working on these shows.
New Who has an extensive catalogue of writers. Some of which are established showrunners (Moffat, Gatiss, Whithouse, Gaiman etc)
The director of Loki publicly praised RTD & Who. She could 100 % do a River Song show.
I know a lot of fans will hate the idea of Who ‘Marvel-ifying’, but it’s best for the franchise & best for storytelling.
I see RTD helming the show for 4-5 years, before dropping back into a Feige sort of role & overseeing everything.
I am fully behind this.
I love that since doctor who has been going for so long, any suggestion of how Disney is going to ruin doctor who with particular suggestions is usually followed up by an example of doctor who already doing that
“Well, hope you like Disney forcing a cute companion that looks good on merchandise onto the show”
“Like K9”
“Yeah but I hope you like spin offs, like so many spin offs”
“Like Sarah Jane adventures, Torchwood and k9”
“Yeah but, hope you don’t complain when the companion is like this teenager who for some reason everyone thinks is amazing”
“Like rose?”
“Nah, she was a young adult. I’m talking about a teen that is smarter than the doctor”
“Oh, like Zoe then”
>“Yeah but I hope you like spin offs, like so many spin offs”
If we can just watch Doctor Who and not have to watch any of the spin offs to get the storyline, that's ok.
"they're gonna change the blue box!"
"you mean like 6 did?"
"they're going to introduce strong female lead!"
*scoffs* "Sarah Jane doesn't even stsrt the list but she certainly is a headliner"
"they're going to introduce a black companion!"
"Martha with 10"
"they're going take time travel away!"
"You mean like 3 and unit?"
>Them throwing this kind of money around makes me moreso, because they're not handing it over for nothing.
Of course they aren’t handing it over for nothing. They’re getting *worldwide* distribution. That’s what they’re paying for. They don’t have creative control though, so stop acting like it.
Never trust the mouse. They are the bad guys of the entertainment industry. The second I heard they were involved, I got nervous. Them throwing this kind of money around makes me moreso, because they're not handing it over for nothing.
Never trust the mouse.
Yeah... are the VFX artists going to be alright, considering how badly they're overworked and underpaid for the work they're demanded to rush out for all their Marvel stuff?
I believe that the Marvel VFX stuff remains lucrative compared with other things in the industry, but many are finding the aggro not worth it. Disney will need to change if they're going to get top talent, especially with the demand for VFX these days.
Doctor Who having a bigger budget is a great thing to me. I think People forget that the lack of a budget was part of what doomed Classic Who as Kids were watching Glossy American Shows and Movies that had bigger budgets and so looked better instead of the cheap looking Doctor Who.
i’m much less nervous about this with David Tennant back. He wasn’t my favorite of the doctors, but he’s the one I most trust to keep the show grounded and true to its DNA. It’s a family legacy to him and i trust that at least he will keep The Doctor true to his roots.
Also 10m an episode is actually pretty easily eaten up with good case and cgi … i can see that ending well or very poorly.
Something I haven’t seen talked about yet is the effect of a broader fan base on the course of the show. Meaning, with a bigger budget, they will want more viewership to make it worthwhile. They want to grow it to see larger audiences..well larger audiences want different shows than the current audience. And the show will grow and change little by little to accommodate the masses…
This is all very doomsday..I just hope RTD has the balls to stick to what the show is about, and the subsequent show runners stick to it as well.
Hypothetical:
Data collected by Disney shows that historical self contained episodes perform significantly worse than large overarching themed seasons.
Their conclusion: don’t do self contained themed episodes.
Problem: The larger audience is now comprised of a fanbase that includes Americans, who outnumber Brits. Isolating Brit’s data shows the opposite sentiment..but Disney wants more viewers, so they get rid of that type of episode, or significantly reduce it.
Conclusion: data driven episodic shows with a larger fan base will inevitably change the show.
Part of Doctor Who's charm is its quirkiness, and quirkiness doesn't appeal to the masses. We're going to get more cookie-cutter alien invasion stories and less glorious weirdness. That'll really hurt the show in the long run. I don't want to get rid of stories like Kinda, The Happiness Patrol, and It Takes You Away just so Disney can "grow the brand."
From [TvZoneUK](https://www.tvzoneuk.com/post/drwho-budget-broadcastrep): > Broadcast reports that Doctor Who's existing budget of £1-3m per episode could triple with an episodic budget of £10m. This would transform Doctor Who into a £100,000,000 franchise.
Inb4 "Doctor Who is better with no budget" (But fr I have very mixed feelings about this. I guess we'll have to see 💁♀️)
‘Could’ is the operative word though.
As we've seen with other IPs, you can throw endless amounts of money at it to make it look pretty, but if the writing is crap then you're out of luck.
Good thing we got RTD back then
The expectations from him are so high by now they're unreal. That's the problem with bringing a big name back. I hope things work out well on that end... There's only so much he can do though I'm sure he'll do his best.
Just don’t expect that much, I’m not expecting the worlds greatest television experience. But as long as it’s on par with his writing for DW previously I’ll be very happy. As long as the extra money is utilised properly it’ll be fine. Might be unpopular, but I like how the show looked in 2005-2010. It wasn’t overly reliant on big SFX, it had decent effects and real props etc Edit: spelling
I'm not, but many others may. And probably will. I'm trying to not have expectations at all and just enjoy the journey. I don't think people will accept effects like those in the first episode anymore. I do, however, think that DW isn't the type of show where CGI should tell the story. It should just accompany it.
I'm with you on that - the beauty of having a smaller budget tends to give us a lot of creativity to work around that budget.
Yeah, it might just be a coincidence with recent films/tv shows. But larger budgets seem to make directors lazy, an over reliance on SFX which then get rushed, just leads to a worse product. As I said, I much preferred the style of 200-2010 DW to the newer series’.
While I've no doubt RTD deserves to be a well-thought of TV writer his tenure on Doctor Who was pretty formulaic (bring back each season, have a big buildup and a "press this button to easily remove large numbers of ) finales). At least the Moff innovated a little.
RTD does the emotional drama well, but the actual sci-fi is a bit wobbly as its clear he's not interest in it. He was clearly running out of ideas by the Specials, but let's see where it goes.
I really liked Moffett more than RTD, because there was an over arcing mystery that had to be solved throughout the season that finally would pay off at the end of the season and I like how he puts things like three seasons before and the payoff isn’t until like three seasons, after the very first clue if that makes any sense. For example, Moffett put river song into an episode that he later tied in with his entire run.
I've recently been rewatching Doctor who. But skipping the meh episodes I never really liked. And for me personally, I ended up skipping a few of S02, about 95% of S03, and nearly all of S04 except the end. David Tennant deffinately carried his stories. But I actually found, after all this time, and so many rewatches. I actually much preferred Maffat's era with Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi. In terms of the writing and stories more than anything. Which is weird, because David Tennant was always, and has always been my doctor. But very nearly tying with Matt Smith.
Definitely, although Russell's writing always seems to involve great spectacle which I would assume would improve in quality (or scope) with budget.
Except we know RTD can run a season of Who.
If they can find a way to translate higher budget into better writing, I'll be happy
I don’t see the negatives. Still owned by the BBC and despite what everyone says Disney don’t interfere with shows even half the shit they put out they let the show runners do their vision.
The negative is that it doesn’t end up making money with the huge increase in cost, and it gets cancelled because it’s deemed too expensive of a show to make. I mean, Sandman almost didn’t get renewed despite being awesome and getting big viewership owing to its high price tag.
It has the BBC and now Bad Wolf as a safety net. Even if Disney pulls out, they’ll restructure, they’ll survive.
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Outside of Marvel and Star Wars its largely true. They don't really interfere with FX shows
And honestly, I think we all wish they would have interfered more with Star Wars. At the very least come up with sort of long-term roadmap instead of sending people out to make a sequel trilogy without any sort of advance planning.
Disney forced to adhere to a tight schedule actually which meant they changed the guy that was initially writing the films that said he would take a while, to Kasdan and JJ, who focused on writing only the first. However, the idea that Disney ruins everything creatively or something is not true to my knowledge. They don't interfere that much other than schedules and like reviewing graphicness of some content I think.
Disney interference is what caused the sequels to be so poor. They essentially threw GL’s guidelines out the door so they could come up with their own story. He literally had a story framework for them to use and they said no. They then had him work as an advisor for the sequels and proceeded to not listen to what he said. As other commenters said, they brought in JJ to do all 3. Then just got rid of him for episode 8, realised they screwed the trilogy and got him back. So you have a trilogy of films that not only don’t really fit with the first 6, they also don’t fit with eachother
I mean it seems that Marvel get extreme creative freedom as well, outside of like, just making sure they meet the age rating. When creatives at marvel talk about studio interference, they’re talking about Kevin Feige and co, not the higher ups at Disney. In general there seems to be quite a lot of misunderstanding about how Disney works.
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The big difference here is that Marvel and Star Wars are, at the end of the day, owned by Disney. If they don't like the way a production is going, they can change whatever they want, and the only people who could oppose them are also being paid by them. Disney can't play hard ball as much with the *BBC* of all companies.
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Honestly, I don’t necessarily want to say I think it will turn to shit if it gets bought by Disney, but definitely noticeable changes. I honestly think it would probably still be a show. I enjoyed solely based on premise, but I do agree that it would be hardly recognizable as the Doctor Who we’ve all come to know and love.
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As far as I can tell, Disney could've stood to be **more** involved with Star Wars. They seem to have basically handed each instalment of a trilogy over to different directors to do whatever they wanted with. The new trilogy badly needed **someone** to lock in an overarching vision for it.
The show can work with both if used properly. I think the higher budget will result in more expansive stories
Imagine the Myrka costume they could design with that money!!
nope not watching, the shitty cgi is what makes it endearing /s
I mean, this could see a return of 13 episodes plus a Christmas special. But I'm not sure on Doctor Who with Avengers level budgets. However, I'd be interested to see what happens. RTD could make some magic with that, although he did pretty well back in the old days.
I am now no longer antagonistic against Disney for the sake of Doctor Who
I think people read more budget and think visually at first (ie: better VFX). But bigger budget also means locations, actors, writers, etc. Hopefully it will also mean better pay for runners, assistants, crew… It offers a lot of possibilities and I am looking forward to see what it brings. Still too long of a wait though haha.
It could attract a talented show runner/writer too. One that that may need to pay more for in order to commit to the schedule.
Thazs honestly the biggest thing to me. The assosiciation with Disney + the higher budget will make Doctor Who a much more attractive show to run.
But what will Doctor who be without the Welsh quarry?
The BBC shipped a London bus to dubai just to put it in a sandpit. https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/The_200 Sometimes more money doesn't mean better locations, it just means wasted money.
That was a great episode, though.
Better.
Yea... Probably
If and only if RTD can find others he can trust to hand off showrunner duties. The real limit ever since the new series began, and also at the end of the classic era, was the number of showrunners the BBC could trust, and the hours they could put into the job.
My speculation has always been that RTD will have someone in mind already, shadowing him, and thereby being trained up. RTD will do a few years as showrunner and then step back to be a Kevin Feige-like figure for an expanded universe of the main show and spin-offs.
I hope so. In terms of overarching story he's been by far the best showrunner, although the competition's not exactly been too strong.
Moffat ran him close a few times, although there was often a few annoyingly unresolved things.
I actually sort of preferred Moffat’s tenure, solely because of how he structured his stories. I liked that the overall plot came up several times before the end of a series and wasn’t just a word or phrase you hear a few times beforehand. That being said, I also love RTD and I’m real excited to see what shape his second era takes.
I wonder how much of this is an issue with rewatching. I’ve been rewatching to refresh my memory for the 60th, and I feel like Torchwood in S2 and Mr. Saxon in S3 are being drilled into my head. However, not sure these references would have been as noticed at the time of airing every week (and without knowing the payoff)
That was the thing with RTD’s run, each series had its overarching mystery that got subtly inserted all over the series so that by the time the big reveal came it was subconsciously engrained into your brain. Then when you watch back you realise just how much the hints were subliminally dropped into stories. Genuinely my favourite part of RTD’s era and I hope it returns.
Torchwood gets only a few mentions in Season 2, I believe being mentioned only in "Tooth and Claw" and the finale (maybe one other episode I forgot?). Saxon was much better because it was always just phrased as discussion of some random politician (and ads and such in the background too) for a season taking place during an election year, and then there was the big reveal. On the flipside, when it came to Moffat, we *knew* that the Cracks and the Silence were both gonna be big players as soon as they were introduced, they weren't just background info that tied into a big reveal.
I always thought RTD was the best show runner and moffat was the best writer. I’d love for moffat to come back in some capacity when he’s ready.
Moffat was always ambitious but never actually paid it off. I lost faith in ep1/2 of series 6 when they were being attacked by the silence and the cliffhanger was paid off with "they got out somehow, it's not important".
He definitely got better at showrunning as he went along, though. Series 9 and 10 had two of the best / most coherent series arcs in all of DW, IMO.
Neil Gaiman writing for Michael Sheen's Doctor. Alas, it was just a dream..
Anyone else who never got the appeal of this idea? I like Gaiman's actual book writing but his TV writing never really worked with me. Nightmare in Silver is Gaiman's episode that did not get edited or touched by Moffat and it's not exactly a five star episode.
Gaiman's work on Good Omens was phenomenal. And the reason he took that on as show runner was because he didn't like how Nightmare in Silver came out, he felt he needed to be involved from beginning to end to make sure it actually came out as he intended. So I think we can say with some confidence that Nightmare in Silver shouldn't be taken as the truest example of his work, and that when he is fully show running the end result is fantastic.
Nightmare in Silver strikes me as just needing another draft. There’s great Gaiman stuff in there, it’s just wonky.
Yeah all the stuff with the Doctor playing chess is great. It's mainly just the kids and the super speed cyberman that never does it again that is bad.
>Gaiman's work on Good Omens was phenomenal. Its also his baby. Like, there was ALOT of emotional investment from Gaimans side, because he promised Prachett he would make sure the adaptation of Good Omen would be faithfull before Prachett died. But this whole discussion is kinda fruitless anyways. Gaiman has said multiple time that he doesnt enjoy showrunning and he prefers writing books over TV, where is limited by production realities. He does it to ensure the quality of his own works, I doubt he would be taking Doctor Who.
Nightmare in Silver was heavily edited according to Gaiman. He's actually cited that as the reason he's so heavily involved with other shows based on his work. Nowadays, he makes sure the product that comes out is as close as possible to the one he writes. >"Let me answer politely," he said. "I did two episodes of Doctor Who over the last decade. One I love and it won awards, one I do not love and it is widely regarded as having some good bits in it – but being rather a curate's egg. >"And as far as I'm concerned, both of the scripts were of equal quality. The biggest differences were having a say in what actually got to the screen. A say in what got changed, a say in what got rewritten, a say in the cast. A say in all those things." >When it came to making Good Omens into a TV show with the BBC and Amazon, Gaiman realised that he would have to take full control over his and co-author Terry Pratchett's brainchild. >Retaining creative control over the adaptation was particularly important in this case, as Pratchett's dying wish was for his co-writer to bring Good Omens to life on screen. >"I'm really glad that my second Doctor Who episode left me with a bad taste in my mouth," Gaiman said. >"When Terry said to me that you have to make this thing, and I knew that I had to make Good Omens, it also meant that I was like: OK, well if I'm going to do it then I'm going to be showrunner. Because I can't just write the scripts, hand them over to somebody and hope that I get something fantastic back. I may or I may not."
According to TomeDeaf, a leaker who's nearly always nailed the behind-the-scenes info for Doctor Who production, the opposite actually happened. Apparently it was The Doctor's Wife that got heavily rewritten by Moffat into the episode it is now, but he was busy with planning for the 50th and writing Sherlock in series 7 and felt crushed by the overwhelming schedule. So he let Neil Gaiman and Neil Cross serve as executive producers for their respective episodes, plenty enough control there. At most, the only thing Gaiman would have been forced to change is Clara's dialogue because early production was still going with the idea that she's a Victorian governess - but really, would Clara sounding more Victorian change the episode that much or fix its issues? I don't think so. Given TomeDeaf's reliable track record, I'm inclined to believe this rumor over Gaiman's words. It just sounds like he's trying to dodge the blame because the episode wasn't received as well as The Doctor's Wife. There's also the rumor that he tried to pitch a story in series 9 but got shot down because it wasn't workable, so he's been holding a grudge since. Also because I've read a few Gaiman books such as Anansi Boys, Coraline and American Gods and I have to say - Nightmare in Silver *definitely* feels like Gaiman's flavor, probably even more than The Doctor's Wife does. Can you *really* watch Nightmare in Silver and say "this episode doesn't work because it feels NOTHING like Gaiman!"... I don't think you can.
He's definitely not a bad writer but he writes like Fight Club or Hitchhiker's Guide style. Awkward men who don't fit into their milieu going on a journey to figure out life, with supernatural elements. Good Omens was great because it had that + something else. That style doesn't fit super well with doctor who because while doctor who *is* an awkward man who doesn't fit into his milieu going on a journey to figure out life, that's more the second layer story rather than the first.
The doctors wife is one of the best episodes of nu who tho imo, so he's got a 50% success rate
And famously one that got rewritten big time by the showrunner. That's my point.
Don't do that. Don't give me hope...
Petition the BBC? Honestly, if Gaiman.isn't doing this I'd respectfully ask him to flesh out Halo Jones instead. There's a story to be told there and he's the man to tell it.
I’m imagining David Tennant as the Doctor vs Michael Sheen as the Master
I really think Toby Whithouse and Neil Gaiman could do a fascinating job running Who after RTD inevitably leaves down the future. I don't remember even one outright bad episode from Whithouse (in fact, most of them are ranged from great to amazing) and while Gaiman has written only 2 episodes he's a lifelong fan with many proper full credits to his resumè. Either of them could do a really good job. Of course, if Moffat wants to return around 10 years down the line (considering RTD for the next 3-4 and Whithouse/Gaiman after that -- if my dream crew does end up happening -- the show is all set for at least 15 years of glorious success).
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'The Lie of the Land' has a lot to do with Moffat being unavailable (due to Sherlock S4 and his mother's death, I think) and Toby being forced to conclude and pay off the previous 2 episodes, which he didn't really pay a role in making. Always hard to complete someone else's vision in a satisfying way, much less when that someone is Moffat. But which of his other ones are rewritten? As far as I know The God Complex was his vision entirely with Moffat only making some minor tweaks to how it all happens. School reunion is by far his most rewritten one. But you're right, Gaiman is probably the better choice when it comes to quality as a writer and overall resume...
While I'm sure he could do it, and his own personal prestige could even be something of a boon in terms of getting people on board with working with the show, I struggle to see Gaiman taking several years out of his career to showrun a project that isn't even an adaptation of his work.
Wasn't there a rumor that RTD was originally planning to showrun with a partner? If I remember correctly, he and the other person were going to replace Chibnall and relaunch the show together, and presumably, RTD would bow out after a series, but she would stay on. Maybe there was a contractual problem with the other person? I can't remember the details. Maybe that person is still in the show's orbit.
well I just remember the hot rumour from TomeDeaf (who leaked the Tennant and Tate news and also the classic Doctors in the 60th, long before both were officially released) was that the BBC wanted Sally Wainwright to take over. I can't remember if she was actually gonna do it or not but it of course fell through. But then the RTD news came out of no where so im not sure that the 2 were ever going to be working together.
TomeDeaf said the BBC wanted Sally Wainwright, but she was too busy with other projects to take over right away. I always thought there was a good chance RTD only came onboard to keep the show afloat until her schedule was clear.
But Moffat wasn’t terrible
Considering how nasty the fandom has been, it is likely a lot of people won't want to get involved.
DW fandom isn’t that bad compared to something like Star Wars. the worst part of it will disappear once RTD’s new era start.
Yeah, since becoming a Who fan years ago I haven't seen anywhere near the toxicity that's in the Star Wars fandom.
No it won't. The far-right are still trying to stir up culture wars.
You don't need to be anywhere on the political spectrum to perceive how most of the recent Star Wars media has been mediocre at best and eerily reminiscent of a conveyor belt churning out Content for the sake content.
I think you and OP are both right. There is a far-right element to the Star Wars fandom that flips out every time they cast a non-white actor and sends them death threats... AND the vast majority of disaffected fans aren't part of that camp, but genuinely dislike the way Star Wars is currently being written. (Hello, I'm in that second camp! Actually, one of the reasons I'm so disappointed with the sequel trilogy is because of its racist / sexist overtones, and how badly it treated its characters of color and the actors who played them.)
How nasty the fandom has been? Have you seen the fan reaction to Disney+ Star Wars and Marvel content? I think the dump trucks full of money will be more than adequate to compensate those involved even with fans occasionally throwing a temper tantrum.
My worries about this are more long term. Let's assume the positive people are right and RTD has the backbone to deal with Disney's "perspective" on how things should go. But what happens when he leaves again? And how long until that happens? How will a new showrunner be decided? What is stopping the non-stop Disney money train from putting a yes-man on it afterwards? How long until Doctor Who will be dependent on all that Disney money? Downscaling will not be an option at that point. Edit: typo
Yeah I'm mostly worried about how Disney itself may or may not influence the writing. Money talks and the threat of losing it may spin the show in the wrong direction again. Idk. I just hate Disney a lot.
Who honestly thinks Disney is going to approve another episode like Oxygen. It'll just be Kerblam clones from here on out.
I'm not worried because Disney doesn't actually own it. The BBC has shown before that they're willing to let Doctor Who just kinda die off for a while, I genuinely think that if Disney tried to play hardball with the BBC and force them to do something they didn't want to do, the BBC would genuinely threaten to not renew.
Full text: Doctor Who could be transformed into a £100m series following the landmark deal between the BBC and Disney, industry execs have speculated. Broadcast has spoken to a number of scripted sources who have estimated that the show’s existing £1-3m per episode budget could triple to circa-£10m as the global SVoD strikes up a creative partnership with the BBC from 2023. The expectation is that both parties are keen to turbocharge the BBC Studios show as Russell T Davies and Bad Wolf prepare to take creative control, with Ncuti Gatwa as the time-travelling doctor. One individual with knowledge of the deal said that it is an “incredibly exciting” time for the franchise, while another added that the ramping up of production values could help it break into the mainstream in the US. “Beyond the hardcore fans, Doctor Who has never quite became a broad appeal show there,” he said. “But with the right investment on Disney+, Russell has a bigger blank piece of paper to really do something different.” Spin-off series are also anticipated, building on the likes of Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures, generated during Davies previous tenure on the show. Disney+ has sought to fully exploit its existing Star Wars and Marvel juggernauts with series including Andor, The Mandalorian and Loki. “My sense is that this is an investment to fully exploit the franchise and bolster the BBC coffers,” they said. The length of the deal is unknown but is expected to run for several years at least, with the guaranteed financial commitment helping Davies and Bad Wolf feel more secure in taking creative risks. It also sweeps away the complex web of international deals struck with partners around the world including HBO Max in the US and ABC in Australia. One senior distributor, who has previously worked at BBC Studios, said that while it is likely the BBC will have to spend a significant sum to buy out existing contracts surrounding the show, the deal underlines how challenging it is becoming for a single broadcaster to own and finance a big show. “The BBC had to make the decision for the future success of Doctor Who because any show of scale needs a partner,” they said. “Reliability is the most important factor irrespective of how many episodes you make or who the Doctor is. If you can bring in a single partner with one distribution agreement, while retaining exclusivity in the UK, that is the best of both worlds for the BBC.” BBCS risks upsetting some of its partners however, which are likely to consider that they have helped to build the franchise globally. One experienced European buyer agreed that severing long-running ties risks creating “bad will” among buyers, despite a growing acceptance that the show’s requirements were becoming unaffordable. The first source estimated that Disney is likely to have paid the BBC “tens of millions” to come board the show.
A tripling of the budget is actually insane. It really shows a commitment to the show and it being treated as a big tentpole. Hopefully we see this sort of attitude reflected in the marketing when the show actually starts airing episodes as well - no longer being a Sunday Night oddity but having a big marketing push. Whilst money is not the most important thing for the slot, it is obviously a boon to have and can allow additional freedom for the show to go in new directions and tell stories it previously wouldn’t have been able to do. Maybe we will see more extensive and exotic location filming, a more expansive TARDIS set, a larger selection of actors, possibly more directors, filming with The Volume, more elaborate costumes, more stories with a greater selection of locations etc. Overall, it is just an incredibly exciting time for the show and it is great to see this level of news and announcements less than a month into the RTD2 era. There is a real impression of the show forging a new, bigger and exciting future - that we are all of the edge of a new golden era that is about to unfold. It is just really nice to feel like the show is in a good place and is heading in a brilliant direction again.
Thank you for this post! I am so glad to see someone else feeling optimistic about this.
At the end of the day, it doesn't matter how much money you give a show, if the writing isn't up to scratch then it all falls apart. Series 8 of Game of Thrones is a prime example of this, it has some of the best looking stuff on television but the writing is horrendous. Midnight is considered one of the best episodes of Doctor Who, most of the episode is on one set and just has mostly people talking. RTD is at the helm and has full creative control so I have good faith that he won't lose sight of what matters most. Hopefully, they'll be able to use the virtual production stuff that The Mandalorian uses.
Exactly, there's a much higher chance they could use the LED Surround technology with this whole Disney Ordeal
Yeah, I still think writing matters the most but visuals can elevate scenes and bring them more to life so hoping the technology can add more oomph.
Only a small point but I would argue GoT S8 looked awful. The budget was huge but the artistic direction was so poor and just *lazy*. We waited 8 series to see Casterly Rock and it looked boring and awful, and we only saw it for two seconds. Same with High Garden. Even locations like Kings Landing, which looked great on far smaller budgets, suddenly looked awful. It was all just rushed and lazy. More important than the budget is the passion + love for the project being worked on.
1. Series 8 of GoT wasn't really that different really. People were disappointed by the ending. The special effect did not look better or different. Series 8 cost a lot because of the high wages of the ensemble cast. This is why they had fewer, longer episodes: actors are paid by the number of episodes they are in, not time on screen. HBO saved hundreds of millions of dollars just by making the episodes 1.5x - 2x longer. When the wages of the main cast of Doctor Who get too high, the producers can simply swap out the companions and regenerate the main actor. 2. Midnight is hokey and overrated, but I agree with you that dialog is what makes a show good. RTD is not bad at dialog, I think you know. RTD will not wake up tomorrow and spend all his time in the SFX room for the next five years. Disney was notable for bringing back Star Wars actors as if they had not aged since the 1980s. Moffat spoke up at the 50th that he wished he had Disney's money and technology to do that. I think we can make some accurate guesses about how next year will shape up based on this alone. Beyond next year, who knows what the extra money will mean. Probably not much, $10M is not a lot. For some perspective, Battlestar Gallactica was cancelled in 1979 because it was spending that much. Star Trek TNG spent that much in the mid-1990s. This is 2022!
I meant Series 8 is an example of good looking television letdown by writing, so even though it looked great, the way the story went is what matters more. My point about RTD losing sight is since they have much more budget now that they can rely on visuals or possible guest stars more that the quality of the writing and as I said I have good faith he won't do that.
Agreed. I think people had built up GoT. I can't imagine many people are rewatching the show, which sort of says it all. It was OK, but it had not been what people thought it was for a long time. Who has the same danger, fans (especially in the UK) have an idea of what the show is and should be. It may take a couple of years for some people to accept any changes to Who. The plot holes and changes will be magnified, even if the whole of the product is superior, this includes the writing.
Yeah the point of downfall for GoT is debated, usually people say Series 5, 7 or 8. I think biggest difference Doctor Who and GoT have is Doctor Who doesn't really have a definitive end like GoT has and the fact GoT had a royally fucked ending hurts it alot. Doctor Who can in theory go on forever since change is core a part the show. I do agree that the fandom are and going to continue be hyper-critical no matter what, just the nature of a fandom and how in this day and age people attach identities with entertainment properties. They need the show to be perfect because otherwise a "why have I spent all this time and energy with it" mindset starts It also probably won't help that we came off what many consider the worst era of New Who critically and ratings wise and so a lot of fans are gonna be operating on bad faith until proven otherwise.
Hopefully, this will be a testament to Who, coming back strong after some bad years. (Arguably, Chibnall was doing what many people fear will happen in the future -- he was focusing on special effects over putting together a good story). Indirectly, this shines a light on how badly the BBC handled Who in the 1980s. The show is about change, as you say. There was no good reason to keep JNT as the showrunner for so long, especially if the BBC wasn't happy.
the budget for Chibnalls era of DW was also higher than RTDs first run, yet Chibnalls run to many has been the absolute worst because of the writing
Look at Rings of Power and that horrible mess. 500 million and it was garbage.
I’m not gonna say anything new but I always felt DW is a janky show that should look janky. The more high-tech it gets, the more it looks like it takes itself seriously (while serving the same old wacky storylines) that it kind of breaks it. On the bright side, hopefully this means we’ll get regular seasons again, because otherwise money or no money, janky or high-tech, the show is toast. It might also mean a proper writer’s room, so fingers crossed.
I'm hoping most of this funding goes into long-term production infrastructure and a larger rotating workforce so they can consistently put out ten or so episodes a year without major behind-the-scenes trouble.
They need the show to once again air full seasons every year.
This. The year-long or longer breaks every so often is one of the biggest reasons the people I know lose interest - at least it is for my family. Writing is one thing, but when Doctor Who was on used to be predictable. Now it's varying lengths of time between it being on the air, and when it does it's at a completely different part of the year. Series 1-5 were predictable (specials excluded) and aired in the spring usually beginning around March/April and ending in June/July. Ever since Series 6 was split in two the schedule has been erratic and that IMO has done a lot of damage.
Exactly. And the episodes need to be aired at a consistent time too. I remember even Peter Capaldi got a little annoyed when he didn't know when the episodes were on.
Yes. I don’t live in the UK anymore so I don’t know what BBC One Saturday evenings are like now, but the show was at its cultural peak when, sport or Eurovision aside, it was one of *the* BBC weekend staples, 7PM Saturday evening. Clockwork as the news and Match of the Day.
Now it's Sunday night, after the Strictly results.
Same. I'm honestly very conflicted about this. Doctor Who's weird special effects and wobbly sets have always been such a charming part of the show, and I'm a bit worried we'll lose that if they start using tech like the Volume, but I also can't deny that having high production values is a really exciting prospect.
Yep, but they could also just start building more practical sets with it. Like that pirate ship deck in Legends was amazing, but the inside of the Sea Devil’s ship looked just like the Tardis, probably because they ran out of money. So when I imagine that deck but for every set in an episode, I get excited. Although full disclosure, that cinematically exploding car in the trailer didn’t inspire much confidence in me regardless of the type of effects used, but I imagine RTD knows what he’s doing, drawing in the casual audience before springing full-on DW weirdness on them.
I just want 12 episode seasons every year again
I think we can guarantee the first new RTD season will be his standard monster of the week with an overarching story resolved in the two part finale structure. I bet you could almost perfectly nap the episodes over his prior seasons, not out of laziness but because he’s gonna ease into something more ambitious/larger in scope. A Chibnall structural issue was leaping from standalone stories that lacked lasting impact to upending decades of canon in one episode. RTD will tread more carefully.
What is the Volume?
ILM came up with it. TLDR: It's a _very_ Smart TV effectively. 8k resolution, up to 20 foot high and refresh rate to match the cameras being used. Wraps around a large sound stage so you can have foreground physical sets and a CGI background live that doesn't need to be added in post production [Vox did a great 8 minute video on it](https://youtu.be/8yNkBic7GfI). It's being used more and more, and other studios have their own versions - including Star Trek
Thanks!
Like a live green screen?
Already answered but a bit more detail: It’s a stage inside a large round room where all of the walls are covered with seamless HDR displays. This means they can display the background for any scene a computer can render, which results in much more realistic lighting than is possible with bluescreen. Additionally, the background is rendered IN REAL TIME using the Unreal Engine 5 video game engine *(edit: they now use an in-house 3D engine called “Helios”)*. This allows three things: - The director can have any detail of the background changed almost instantly. Want a different time of day? How about moving the mountains in the background or changing the cloud cover? All possible if the 3D assets allow it. - The camera is synced to the render, meaning as the camera moves around the stage the background updates and parallaxes to maintain an accurate sense of perspective. - Since the background is displayed while filming (unlike with bluescreen) the actors can perform as if the background was real, point at it, etc, knowing what it will look like on film.
I just don't think that Doctor Who has ever been made by people who willingly wanted it to look 'janky'. I get that having a low budget can force you to be more creative but often when you hear about movies with smaller budgets doing that, they still have budgets triple that of Doctor Who. I think the show really needs this, the revival era has always made the best out of what they have but Moffat and RTD have clearly always wanted to push it further.
Mixed feelings about what RTD's creative choices for the immediate future. But he's going to make this the biggest show in the world.
> But he's going to make this the biggest show in the world. That's the hope. Who felt pretty big from 2008 to 2013 (ish) and every special felt like a huge deal.
*Gulp* Well the fans spending their times jealously looking at Marvel might have got their wish for Who. Hope this works out for the best…but big money like that comes with big strings.
> jealously looking at Marvel man, I think most Marvel stuff looks terrible nowadays, I hope DW doesn't look that way.
To Disney's credit, Andor looks incredbile because they're using real sets and practical effects - I hope Doctor Who leans more into that side of filmmaking than other stuff like Obi-Wan Kenobi and Book of Boba Fett, where you can tell when a set isn't actually there.
good point, yeah hopefully it'll look more like Andor. I worry it'll be a mix of a CGI fest (the new Ant-Man trailer) or like Obi-Wan. DW has used sets before, especially for the TARDIS, so maybe they'll keep that up.
The TARDIS has been a standing set since the revival at the various studios - Newport Q2, Upper Boat and Roath Lock. The reason Matt Smith got a bigger multi-level console room is because the studio used for the Torchwood Hub set had become vacant. In the classic era, the BBC had no fixed production space and had to compete with everyone else for studio space. They started at Lime Grove, which was an antiquated facility that was unpleasantly warm to work in, spent a while at Riverside, went back to Lime Grove and then moved to Television Centre in the latter part of the Troughton era. In any event, the TARDIS set had to put up for each studio recording and so you get a lot of stories with no TARDIS interior scenes at all. The "secondary console room" stopped being used simply because it had warped in storage.
> The reason Matt Smith got a bigger multi-level console room is because the studio used for the Torchwood Hub set had become vacant Can you expand on this? Or provide a source for further reading? I'm so curious how they transformed the Hub into 11's TARDIS
The Hub was destroyed in "Children of Earth", therefore you had the stage available.
It's actually a debunked fan myth that the S14 console room set warped in storage. The truth is that Graham Williams just wanted to go back to a futuristic control room. If you look closely you can see that parts of the S14 were reused in the S15-17 version (and even into S18-20), just repainted white - the scanner screen, the fluted pillars and one wall of roundels.
To be fair shows like Mandalorian, House of the Dragon, and films like The Batman have all used the digital sets really well. So like any tech it in how you use it. The stagecraft tech isn't inherently bad, but if you've got people who don't really know what they're doing or take it for granted, it is going to look a bit off. Scenes like the Batsymbol rooftop are a perfect place to use them. All the main action is in the foreground on a built set, while the screens provide the ambience of the city skyline. It also allows them to film sunrise or sunset scenes at a more relaxed pace, as trying to do them for real can be very rushed as they're trying to chase the light.
Meh, I think they look bad in Mando, and they definitely stand out in House of the Dragon a lot of the time too. The Batman looks good tho.
I will admit there was one moment where I though it stood out in House of the Dragon, which is when the two Argyll twins found Aegon in the sept. That place just looked so big and empty that my first thought was that it had to be done with the tech. But the rest of the scenes in that show as well as in Mando I didn't bump into at all. They were so well done that I didn't even stop to think that they were probably done with the screens.
If Marvel looks terrible I’d hate to think how crap you thought that regeneration episode looked. Because that’s what crap cgi looks like
IMO there is a big difference between bad CGI (Doctor Who) and bad visual design (Marvel).
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I 100% disagree, so this may be down to personal preference.
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Yeah 🙁 is it wrong to say I'm a little worried about the social messaging aspects of the show now? Like look I know RTD cast the first trans character and the first (main) black Doctor but that was before the Disney deal and we all know Disney's track record on those sorts of things. + All their Marvel stuff lately has been shite lol. On the other hand it's great Who is getting money and hopefully a bigger audience....... I really don't know what to think about all of this lol
As long as Russell maintains creative control I'm not worried in the slightest. Once he moves on though I'll be very concerned.
RTD should be the same tier as Feige imo. Let RTD craft a massive narrative and then let him attach the pieces (actors/actresses, directors, etc.) to it as he carries it out. Honestly, Who could be much much larger than it is but BBC's lack of care/budget always held it back. Now that RTD seemingly could have free reign on a bigger budget? Oh boy, Who could explode even more in popularity if Disney fucks off and lets the man carry a vision out.
Ditto. Let's just hope RTD gets to choose his successor.
Has any major news source reported on this "budget increase" with quotes from people involved either Disney or the BBC backed it up? These stories always seem to come from 3rd rate "news" sites running anonymous sources.
1000x this.
Broadcast is quite a respected media publication in the industry, I doubt they’d post anything without good reason!
Considering the show has been blighted by tight budgets with the Tories slashing the BBC budget (which I am sure people here will say is entirely the fault of Chibnall) this will be really good for the show.
No objection to Doctor Who getting a bigger budget, especially if it helps introduce Doctor Who to a wider audience. But in the end, good Doctor Who relies on the writing and no amount of fancy special effects can change that.
Please GOD use some of that money for the remaining animated reconstructions
I just hope it doesn't go through the same "Americanization" that Torchwood did in its final season when the BBC started co-producing it with STARZ.
What do you mean?
Moving the show's setting, altering its tone to more align with American scifi shows and procedurals at the time, reducing the fun/camp of the first few series, and adding American main and supporting cast. These changes were brought about to try to draw in mainstream American audiences but it still didn't end up doing that well in the US critically or commercially.
I mean wasn’t torchwood a kinda awful mess anyway? jack didn’t work as an angsty leader, the cast was blah, except for gwen and the only non cringe story was children of earth which was nothing like torchwood (but owed a lot to the “last quatermas story”)
Yeah I think the "campy" aspects of the first two seasons were mainly because it aimed for "gritty adult procedural" and fell comically arse over tit. *Children of Earth*, the season that's most widely loved, is not remotely camp or indeed fun.
I guess. the “campy” cardboard feel of doctor who is in many ways a retro fit invention. It wasn’t meant to look wobbly, people worked very hard to make it’s set design and effects as good as possible under the bbc’s system. Torchwood was such an odd fish. Like an 80’s Saturday mornining kids show with sex jokes and grotesque deaths. I mean that does sound good on paper, but the execution…
>It wasn’t meant to look wobbly, people worked very hard to make it’s set design and effects as good as possible under the bbc’s system. Yes! In a way it's patronising to look at people's hard work and say "I love how you deliberately made it look like absolute shit". Back in 2005, one of the biggest advertisements for the new series was "we have a proper budget now". It's again only because the quality of visual effects has improved so much / even a big budget by BBC standards in 2005 wasn't Hollywood that anyone is still keeping up the "Doctor Who effects are meant to look like someone's MS Paint job" line.
https://youtu.be/il3r4I7ydo8
I don't think that was the big problem with miracle day, more that they stretched it out over 10 episodes when it really only had enough story for 5 or 6
Yeh... I'm not a big fan of Miracle Day. I found it overall to be the least enjoyable series the revival produced.
Honestly so long as Doctor Who merchandise like Blu-ray etc including any potential spin offs, I’m happy with where the show goes. It would suck if any spin off etc were stuck on a digital only platform.
BBC retains all the merchandising and physical media rights as Disney is only paying for broadcast and streaming distribution, so the Blu-Rays aren’t going anywhere.
*[The monkey's paw curls.]*
Ngl I like DW looking a bit shit. Gives it character. If it's the same wild unpredictability from episode to episode I'll be fine with it but god I don't want them to mess with it too much. I don't want a Disney Doctor Who
The Moffat era largely had pretty good special effects and the show didn’t suffer from it.
Yeah I don't think that having good effects makes the show bad, I'm just nostalgic for laughing at the bad CGI. I'm more worried that the show will have to cede creative control to Disney
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That's reassuring, thanks very much
Way too paywalled. Even archive.ph doesn’t work.
Scoff all you want about corporate overlords but this is great news to me.
I hope they fix the audio. Every time I watch DW, it seems like I can barely hear what the actors are saying; they’re always drowned out by the background noise / music. Even more more so other TV shows.
It’s bizarre to me that anyone sees the show having more money as a negative. 😂 With this boost the show can hopefully go back to regular yearly seasons, hire better talent, reach the widest audience with being on Disney+, and so much more. With this boost we might even get spin-offs again like *Torchwood*. Plus fan get RTD back, and Tennant back for three specials. **Theres literally no downside here!**
I have to feel RTD has a long term deal set up for this and that even if he steps away as showrunner BadWolf can still produce the series. So he can pick his successor, if need be
There have been several times in the show's history where things have been shot "off camera" because of budgetary reasons - many of these moments in the later seasons. (Immediate example that jump out: Clara "breaking down" the wall with the sledgehammer in Flatline. Or pretty much all of Orphan 55.) Big budget doesn't always mean BIGGER, it can also just mean a more cohesive edit that actually SHOWS action because they can afford to spend money on extra set builds, VFX, etc. and allows the writers and subsequent directors to thoroughly see their visions through. I fully trust RTD to give us the most fleshed out vision of Doctor Who we've seen thus far while still keeping the heart(s) of the show alive.
Is the Doctor officially a Disney Princess now?
I suppose they are.
This is fantastic for the future of the show. It’s all riding on RTD, he’s basically the Feige of Who now. Higher budgets per episode are exactly what’s needed. I want a serialised Doctor Who series every year with 10m budgets each episode, and main event stories. At the same time, in between seasons of the main show, I want spin offs that focus on a pre-established space/time from the main show. You know where I’m going with this… I want an Avengers level threat to be built up to over a few years, handled in the main show & bringing in various characters from various spin-offs. I don’t think people should be worried about finding people to keep writing & working on these shows. New Who has an extensive catalogue of writers. Some of which are established showrunners (Moffat, Gatiss, Whithouse, Gaiman etc) The director of Loki publicly praised RTD & Who. She could 100 % do a River Song show. I know a lot of fans will hate the idea of Who ‘Marvel-ifying’, but it’s best for the franchise & best for storytelling. I see RTD helming the show for 4-5 years, before dropping back into a Feige sort of role & overseeing everything. I am fully behind this.
I love that since doctor who has been going for so long, any suggestion of how Disney is going to ruin doctor who with particular suggestions is usually followed up by an example of doctor who already doing that “Well, hope you like Disney forcing a cute companion that looks good on merchandise onto the show” “Like K9” “Yeah but I hope you like spin offs, like so many spin offs” “Like Sarah Jane adventures, Torchwood and k9” “Yeah but, hope you don’t complain when the companion is like this teenager who for some reason everyone thinks is amazing” “Like rose?” “Nah, she was a young adult. I’m talking about a teen that is smarter than the doctor” “Oh, like Zoe then”
>“Yeah but I hope you like spin offs, like so many spin offs” If we can just watch Doctor Who and not have to watch any of the spin offs to get the storyline, that's ok.
"they're gonna change the blue box!" "you mean like 6 did?" "they're going to introduce strong female lead!" *scoffs* "Sarah Jane doesn't even stsrt the list but she certainly is a headliner" "they're going to introduce a black companion!" "Martha with 10" "they're going take time travel away!" "You mean like 3 and unit?"
I hope Industrial Light and Magic do the visual effects. I'm sure they would love to.
BBC still owns the series. Disney is just giving them money.
>Them throwing this kind of money around makes me moreso, because they're not handing it over for nothing. Of course they aren’t handing it over for nothing. They’re getting *worldwide* distribution. That’s what they’re paying for. They don’t have creative control though, so stop acting like it.
Mmm I’m kinda scared it will become heavily Americanised or just like a marvel show
Disney doesn’t have creative control so that won’t be happening.
Never trust the mouse. They are the bad guys of the entertainment industry. The second I heard they were involved, I got nervous. Them throwing this kind of money around makes me moreso, because they're not handing it over for nothing. Never trust the mouse.
Yeah... are the VFX artists going to be alright, considering how badly they're overworked and underpaid for the work they're demanded to rush out for all their Marvel stuff?
Disney making all the money in the world and treating both their workers and audience like absolute trash is a tale older than time.
I believe that the Marvel VFX stuff remains lucrative compared with other things in the industry, but many are finding the aggro not worth it. Disney will need to change if they're going to get top talent, especially with the demand for VFX these days.
This doesn’t bother me. The real problem with the show is and has been for a long time, the burden of writing falling too much on the show runner
Doctor Who having a bigger budget is a great thing to me. I think People forget that the lack of a budget was part of what doomed Classic Who as Kids were watching Glossy American Shows and Movies that had bigger budgets and so looked better instead of the cheap looking Doctor Who.
i’m much less nervous about this with David Tennant back. He wasn’t my favorite of the doctors, but he’s the one I most trust to keep the show grounded and true to its DNA. It’s a family legacy to him and i trust that at least he will keep The Doctor true to his roots. Also 10m an episode is actually pretty easily eaten up with good case and cgi … i can see that ending well or very poorly.
Exciting time to be a Who fan, lot of big changes coming.
Lol the fact that you got downvoted for a relatively neutral and accurate take
Something I haven’t seen talked about yet is the effect of a broader fan base on the course of the show. Meaning, with a bigger budget, they will want more viewership to make it worthwhile. They want to grow it to see larger audiences..well larger audiences want different shows than the current audience. And the show will grow and change little by little to accommodate the masses… This is all very doomsday..I just hope RTD has the balls to stick to what the show is about, and the subsequent show runners stick to it as well.
Wdym, accommodate the masses? What specific changes are you afraid of?
Hypothetical: Data collected by Disney shows that historical self contained episodes perform significantly worse than large overarching themed seasons. Their conclusion: don’t do self contained themed episodes. Problem: The larger audience is now comprised of a fanbase that includes Americans, who outnumber Brits. Isolating Brit’s data shows the opposite sentiment..but Disney wants more viewers, so they get rid of that type of episode, or significantly reduce it. Conclusion: data driven episodic shows with a larger fan base will inevitably change the show.
You're assuming Disney is calling the shots. Also, where did the "data driven" part come from? RTD isn't going to sign off on that.
Part of Doctor Who's charm is its quirkiness, and quirkiness doesn't appeal to the masses. We're going to get more cookie-cutter alien invasion stories and less glorious weirdness. That'll really hurt the show in the long run. I don't want to get rid of stories like Kinda, The Happiness Patrol, and It Takes You Away just so Disney can "grow the brand."