Howling:Why a split in the series?

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Why on earth have they made a split, its just stupid. The only way the split would have been good if they where going to give us more episodes but there not. I'll be honest the episodes last year was awful they where all rushed. The whole season was amazing but as episodes themselves where all pretty poor, felt like they where on for like 10 mins. I understand they want to keep doctor who on for the whole year but why not give us more episodes then. There obviously more interested in the stupid Sherlock thyan Doctor Who. What do you think? -- Michael Downey 13:19, August 29, 2010 (UTC)

Just in case anyone's wondering: The Doctor Who News Page - Next Series to be transmitted in two halves

The US shows do it, admittedly they do it with twice as many episodes, but there is a mid-season cliffhanger in a lot of US sci-fi shows.

I think it's a good, mix the format up a little bit. --Tangerineduel 15:30, August 29, 2010 (UTC)

i always thought the next step would be more episodes, but a split does come as a welcome suprise Revanvolatrelundar 15:39, August 29, 2010 (UTC)

Three ideas come to mind.

The first is that it is a means to push the web games, books, Torchwood or Sarah Jane as a mid season bridge. Use the main brand to make more out of the spin offs.

Second is that it starts in the UK and gets ahead of the rest of the world. The rest of the world starts to show the new series a little later. The lenght of the break to timed such that the UK, US, AUS etc will have the final episode at the same weekend. That way the BBC makes more from the rights world wide.

Finally they have two ideas of how to end the series. They may do the principle photography for both, but by splitting the seasons they get to judge the public opinion as to which will work (think about the "happy" ending for 1st series of 24)196.216.51.138 17:39, August 29, 2010 (UTC)

I have to agree with Michael, I thought the same thing about series 5, that it was all too rushed. Mind you, it was a fantastic series, but it seemed like they were trying to fit way too much into 45 minutes. With this split, it will split the 13 episodes into 7 in the spring and 6 in the fall, they will be trying to cram even more stuff into the episodes, with only 7 episodes to do it in at once.

I do, however, like the idea of having the show be sort of year round. From June to December is way too long to wait for a new episode. Semian2 18:17, August 29, 2010 (UTC)

I think this would actually be better. It means we'll have it in the beginning of the year, four or five months of speculating, then another set of episodes, instead of a set of episodes, nine months of speculating etc and boredom. I suppose what it also means is that, they could do pickups while they are filming the next series as well, so the can completely smooth over any errors that could have occurred. For example, the future Doctor having a black wrist watch. If they'd aired the Big Bang in the Autumn, they'd have been able to spot that during editing, then go back and do pickups while they were filming the next series, unlike what they did do, where filming was wrapped up completely before the episode aired. The Thirteenth Doctor 21:06, August 29, 2010 (UTC)

Honestly I don't have an opinion on the matter yet because I follow US sci-fi series that regularly split their seasons like this and I don't think that it's a big deal. However we are talking Doctor Who which has 13 episodes per season compared to US series which usualy have up to 20+ episodes per season(24, Stargate SG-1, Battlestar Galactica, ect) which gives them a reason for spliting the season, and I haven't seen any British series of any kind to have at least 20 episodes. So if Steven Moffat wants to experiment with the series' format than he should be carefull because one mistake like the one made by John Nathan-Turner and the series goes of air in less than 5 years(and during those 5 years the series will have cosiderably lower ratings). In my opinion(which I made while writing this) the series is fine the way it is. I'm curious to see what happens but it had a bad efect on a US Sci-Fi series called Heroes.Time Guardian 17:03, August 30, 2010 (UTC)

Actually, I can see why their doing it. What goes on in the autumn winter months? Nothing. Easter time this year, what did we have? Great weather, tennis, football... all those things, taking away from the ratings. Considering these things, it actually did pretty well. If they split it up and six episodes are in the winter months, people are more likely to watch it. While it is cold outside they'll stay inside and watch TV essentially getting more live viewers than during warmer months.

Did they not used to do that in the classic series though? Have two different ones in a year? --The Thirteenth Doctor 17:13, August 30, 2010 (UTC)

Strictly Come Dancing

Ok. I've found an article that says it will be transmitted in two halves so that Strictly Come Dancing isn't up against the X-Factor. [1] So basically, the BBC is pitting the show against X-Factor in order to raise another show's ratings. --The Thirteenth Doctor 18:07, August 30, 2010 (UTC)

So basically Doctor Who will suffer thanks to the BBC and Strictly Come Dancing. Great -- Not!!! And there are lots of blogs and articles now calling the second half Series 7 and even steven moffat has refered to it as Series 7. I really think we should consider changing because if you think about it, he's just doing what they did in the classic series because none of the seasons had a set amount of episodes. -- Michael Downey 18:22, August 30, 2010 (UTC)