Series 5 (Doctor Who 2005)

Series 5 — 2010
Doctor:	Eleventh Doctor
Companions:	Amy, Rory
Key crew
Executive producer(s):	Steven Moffat, Piers Wenger, Beth Willis
Producer(s):	Tracie Simpson Peter Bennett Patrick Schweitzer
Series details
Start date:	3 April 2010
End date:	26 June 2010
Premiere network:	BBC One
Typical episode length:	45'
More info
Main DWM coverage in issues:	405, 410, 417, 418, 419, 420, 421, 422, 423, 424, 431
Main DWMSE coverage in issues:	26, 27
Key reference books about the season:	The Pandorica Opens, The Complete History 63, TCH 64, TCH 65, TCH 66
Confidential:	Series 5 (CON)
Action figures for this series
Official trailer
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Series 5 of Doctor Who ran between 3 April 2010 and 26 June 2010. It starred Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor, Karen Gillan as Amy Pond and Arthur Darvill as Rory Williams. The series opened with The Eleventh Hour and concluded with A Christmas Carol.

In September 2018, it was revealed that Jodie Whittaker, the Thirteenth Doctor in Series 11 onward, was almost going to appear as another character in this series.

On 10 February 2020, the series was released as a deluxe Steelbook Blu-ray along with Meanwhile in the TARDIS, additional scenes, four Monster Files, a three-part video diary, thirteen Doctor Who Confidential cut-downs, six in-vision commentaries, outtakes and over 20 teasers and trailers.

Overview

It consisted of ten stories and thirteen episodes. With the beginning of this series, the show was now helmed by new showrunner Steven Moffat.

New production team

Beth Willis, Steven Moffat and Piers Wenger in a publicity shot for Series 5.

In May 2008, it was announced that Steven Moffat, who had written Hugo Award - winning or - nominated scripts for the revived series in each of its first four seasons and whose association with Doctor Who dated back to his writing the Comic Relief parody The Curse of Fatal Death in the late 1990s, would succeed Russell T Davies as head writer and producer of the series. Davies officially retired from involvement with the series after the 2009 specials and announced he had no plans to retain any direct connection to the series, now Moffat's tenure had begun. However, in 2009 he said he would remain involved with production of Torchwood for the foreseeable future, and hoped to see further crossovers with Doctor Who, indicating he might not completely sever his ties with the parent show. Though a single 2010 two-parter of The Sarah Jane Adventures, Death of the Doctor, featured the Eleventh Doctor and former companion Jo Grant, the following year, Russell T Davies' Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures was cancelled due to the passing of Elisabeth Sladen. Following Torchwood: Miracle Day's broadcast in 2011 and Davies' return to the United Kingdom, Torchwood has also been put on hold.

Moffat stated that no characters from the Russell T Davies era would return in series 5. This did not prove entirely true. River Song, a Moffat-created character from the Russell T Davies era, returned in four episodes of this series.

Fellow executive producer Julie Gardner also left at the end of 2009. She was replaced by Piers Wenger. Beth Willis was added as a third executive producer — giving the show three execs for the first time since Mal Young left at the end of Series 1. The line producer of the series — a position once held by Phil Collinson — was split between Tracie Simpson and Peter Bennett, two members of the production staff who had risen to prominence during the 2009 specials. For the first time since 2005, the series also credited a co-producer, Patrick Schweitzer, for episodes 6 and 10, the two episodes filmed in Croatia. Other senior members of the production staff, such as production designer Ed Thomas and composer Murray Gold remained at their posts.

Several departments underwent big changes beginning with The Eleventh Hour. Directors of photography Rory Taylor and Ernie Vincze — who between them had fairly evenly split responsibilities since 2005 — left, along with Davies and Gardner. They were replaced by a series of individuals, each handling only one or two episodes of the series.

The costume department came under the leadership of Ray Holman, who replaced Louise Page, the longest-serving designer since the Hartnell era costumer Daphne Dare. The change, however, was not just the replacement of one individual with another, as Holman brought in members of his design company to fill junior positions in the costume department.

Series 5 also saw a subtler behind-the-scenes change, especially for the more junior members of the production team. Combined with the general economic downturn that saw an across-the-board cut in jobs, it was also the first year since 2004 that Torchwood was not in some stage of production at BBC Wales. This meant there was some job competition at the Upper Boat Studios. Some long-term members of staff left the studios completely, while others took effective reductions in rank to remain. Arwel Wyn Jones, for instance, went from being the supervising art director for the previous two series to alternating set decorating duties with Julian Luxton. Still, others remained in Wales, but shifted to Moffat's other Welsh production, Sherlock, or found placement on Merlin, Being Human or other BBC Wales programmes.

Series numbering

The run-up to the broadcast of the series premiere was characterised by confusing and sometimes contradictory indications from BBC sources. According to issue 410 of Doctor Who Magazine, the BBC intended to begin the numbering of seasons yet again to reflect the change of production team. Thus, the 2010 season would ostensibly be marketed as "Series 1". A December 2009 announcement by the BBC regarding the show filming in Croatia also referred to the upcoming season as "Series 1." This seemed to be supported by photographs of location filming, which clearly showed clappers labelled "Series 1". This suggested that, at least internally, the production team believed it was, indeed, a "first" series.

However, in early 2010, Steven Moffat indicated in issue 418 of Doctor Who Magazine that this season would be referred to as Season 31. In his column in issue 417, Moffat had addressed the confusion humorously, suggesting the season be called "Series Fnarg". "It's a whole new number," he wrote. "I haven't decided yet, but I think it's even."

Muddying the waters even further, BBC Video announced on 3 March 2010 that the first DVD release of episodes from the series, scheduled for issue in the UK in June 2010, would be titled Series Five, Volume 1.

As of late June 2010, there were conflicting sources which each marketed the series differently. BBC iPlayer listed it as series 5, as did the DVD releases but on the Doctor Who website, they added a gallery called series 1 wallpapers. Even in the weeks immediately following series broadcast there was no definite information on the "official" numbering system for this series.

However, from around the time of the full series DVD and Blu-ray box set, the name of this series firmly resolved into "series 5". The numbering of later series also firmly confirmed that this was indeed "series 5".

New TARDIS team

During his acceptance speech for the award for Best Drama Performance at the National Television Awards on 29th October 2008, David Tennant announced that he would not return for the 5th series. As the Tenth Doctor's companion, Donna Noble, had been ostensibly written out by the time, Tennant's announcement set up the possibility that series 5 would begin with a completely new set of starring actors. Aside from the special case of Rose, the only reasonably analogous situation in the history of Doctor Who was the start of Jon Pertwee's first season.

On 3rd January 2009, during a special episode of Doctor Who Confidential entitled The Eleventh Doctor, the BBC announced that Matt Smith would be playing the Eleventh Doctor. Smith succeeded Tennant in the last scene of The End of Time and Smith's Doctor was seen crashing towards the Earth in a flaming, badly damaged TARDIS. That scene also confirmed that the Doctor would almost certainly sever connections with previous companions, making way for the introduction of new co-star Karen Gillan, who would play the character of Amy Pond.

New icons

In addition to the cast and crew changes, many of the other continuing elements of the show also underwent major redesigns at the start of the series. Most conspicuous was the 6 October 2009 unveiling of a new series logo — the first significant departure from the one that debuted on Rose. Likewise, the TARDIS itself got a noticeable exterior and radical interior make-over. British tabloid media reported the switch was due to the show's switch to high-definition production, although periodic revisions to the TARDIS are nothing new to the series. Changes both major and minor have occurred numerous times since 1963. Along with the TARDIS change came a substantially redesigned sonic screwdriver, which was expected to remain the Doctor's all-purpose tool as it has been since the series returned in 2005.

The logo for Series 5 as it was originally unveiled in late 2009 and as it is used on merchandise

A new Doctor Who theme arrangement was introduced, replacing the version introduced for the 2007 Christmas special. Discounting closing-credit variations and versions devised for non-series events, this was Murray Gold's third major arrangement of the Ron Grainer/Delia Derbyshire theme. Gold had now arranged more versions of the theme for TV than any other composer. Although some reviews referred to it as a new theme, it was still recognisably the same piece of music dating from 1963.

Television stories

Regular season

Episode Number	Title	Writer	Director	Notes
1	The Eleventh Hour	Steven Moffat	Adam Smith	First appearance of Amy Pond and Rory Williams. First appearance of the cracks in time. Destruction of the blue diode sonic screwdriver. First appearance of the green diode sonic screwdriver.
2	The Beast Below		Andrew Gunn	First appearance of Liz Ten and Winston Churchill.
3	Victory of the Daleks	Mark Gatiss	Andrew Gunn	First appearance of the New Dalek Paradigm.
4 & 5	The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone	Steven Moffat	Adam Smith	Return of River Song and the Weeping Angels. First appearance of the Church.
6	The Vampires of Venice	Toby Whithouse	Jonny Campbell	Rory joins the TARDIS crew. First mention of the Silence.
7	Amy's Choice	Simon Nye	Catherine Morshead
8 & 9	The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood	Chris Chibnall	Ashley Way	Reintroduction of the Silurians. Rory dies for the first time. The Doctor discovers his TARDIS is fated to explode.
10	Vincent and the Doctor	Richard Curtis	Jonny Campbell
11	The Lodger	Gareth Roberts	Catherine Morshead	First appearance of Craig Owens and Sophie.
12 & 13	The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang	Steven Moffat	Toby Haynes	First appearance of Dorium Maldovar. Return of Rory. Resolution of the "cracks in time" arc. Amy and Rory are wed.
N/A	A Christmas Carol	Steven Moffat	Toby Haynes	Companion-lite episode. Debut of the Eleventh Doctor's Shetland tweed ensemble.

DVD box set mini-episodes

Episode Number	Title	Writer	Director	Notes
1	Meanwhile in the TARDIS: Part 1	Steven Moffat	Richard Senior	Set between The Eleventh Hour and The Beast Below
2	Meanwhile in the TARDIS: Part 2	Steven Moffat	Richard Senior	Set between Flesh and Stone and The Vampires of Venice

Cast

• The Doctor - Matt Smith
• Amy Pond - Karen Gillan, Caitlin Blackwood
• Rory Williams - Arthur Darvill

Recurring

• Atraxi - David de Keyser
• Liz 10 - Sophie Okonedo
• Winston Churchill - Ian McNeice
• Edwin Bracewell - Bill Paterson
• Daleks - operated by Nicholas Pegg, Barnaby Edwards and voiced by Nicholas Briggs
• River Song - Alex Kingston
• Malohkeh - Richard Hope
• Vincent van Gogh - Tony Curran
• Craig Owens - James Corden
• Sophie - Daisy Haggard
• Cyber-Leader - Ruari Mears
• Judoon - Paul Kasey
• Dorium - Simon Fisher-Becker

Guest

• Prisoner Zero - Marcello Magni, Olivia Colman, Eden Monteath, Merin Monteath, Matt Smith, Caitlin Blackwood and additionally voiced by William Wilde
• Octavian - Iain Glen
• Angel Bob - David Atkins
• Rosanna Calvierri - Helen McCrory
• Dream Lord - Toby Jones
• Alaya/Restac - Neve McIntosh
• Ambrose Northover - Nia Roberts
• Commander Stark - Christopher Ryan

Adaptations and merchandising

Home media

DVD

All episodes of Series 5 were released in 2010.

name	Number and duration of episodes	R2 release date	R4 release date	R1 release date
Doctor Who: Series 5, Volume 1 The Eleventh Hour The Beast Below Victory of the Daleks	1 x 65 min. 2 × 45 min.	7 June 2010	1 July 2010
Doctor Who: Series 5, Volume 2 The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone The Vampires of Venice	2 × 45 min. 1 x 50 min.	5 July 2010	5 August 2010
Doctor Who: Series 5, Volume 3 Amy's Choice The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood	3 × 45 min.	2 August 2010	2 September 2010
Doctor Who: Series 5, Volume 4 Vincent and the Doctor The Lodger The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang	2 x 45 min. 1 × 50 min. 1 x 55 min.	6 September 2010	7 October 2010
Doctor Who: The Complete Fifth Series The Eleventh Hour Meanwhile in the TARDIS: Scene 1 The Beast Below Victory of the Daleks The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone Meanwhile in the TARDIS: Scene 2 The Vampires of Venice Amy's Choice The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood Vincent and the Doctor The Lodger The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang	8 x 45 min. 3 x 50 min. 1 x 55 min. 1 x 65 min. 1 x 3 min. 1 x 4 min.	8 November 2010	2 December 2010	9 November 2010

Soundtrack

According to Who Online, the soundtrack for series 5 was released on 8th November, 2010.

Stories set during this season

Novels

• Apollo 23
• Night of the Humans
• The Forgotten Army
• Nuclear Time
• The King's Dragon
• The Glamour Chase
• The Coming of the Terraphiles

Audiobooks

• The Ring of Steel
• The Runaway Train
• The Jade Pyramid
• The Hounds of Artemis

External links

• http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/cult/s7/doctorwho/news/a181313/curtis-reveals-who-episode-details.html
• http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/cult/s7/doctorwho/news/a188754/curtis-reveals-who-van-gogh-casting.html
• http://www.bbcamerica.com/content/23/anglophenia.jsp?bc_id=1592