Friday, 10 January 2014

Uninterrupted Series Nine and other news musings

Steven Moffat would like everyone to know that Series Nine is going to air in an uninterrupted run (he already confirmed the same about Series Eight back in December). So the whole whole "A Good Man Goes to War" summer break stunt won't be repeated. Probably just as well - it does seem in retrospect that that was a stopgap measure to help stretch out a very limited quantity of Who.

The Metro and the Daily Mirror have essentially the same version of this story as the one at Digital Spy, who have the earliest time stamp, so that's probably where they got it. Unless both the Metro and the Mirror have taken out subscriptions to Doctor Who Magazine as a source of cutting-edge news...nah, it couldn't be true. Although Tom Spilsbury's excited about the Mirror reporting on Peter Capaldi's new interview in DWM. And the date stamp on the news article about that interview was midnight 9 January, which sounds awfully like a press release prepped in advance, actually (either that or the article timestamp was backdated, but as the magazine only came out the 9th it sounds like the Mirror may have been given an advance copy for publicity purposes. Hum. The show's come a long way since 2005, hasn't it?)

Oh, the content of the Capaldi interview? “I was five when the show started. I don’t remember Doctor Who not being part of my life, and it became a part of growing up, along with The Beatles, National Health spectacles, and fog. And it runs deep. It’s in my DNA.”

Then some comments about how awkward he felt about the Zoe Ball special last year until it actually happened, how much he's enjoying rewatches of the show, and a quite solid defense of pre-CGI special effects. To wit,  “People look at them now and, understandably, mock the bargain-basement monsters, and the accidents and collisions that came from having virtually no time in the studio to shoot fantastically ambitious stories. But those old shows were only made to be watched once, on a flickering monochrome telly that smelled of valves and furniture polish."

“In that context, they succeeded immeasurably. They were triumphs of imagination.

“It may surprise you now, but something like The Web Planet [an episode from 1965] lived powerfully and expansively in my head for decades… until the DVDs came along and spoiled the party. But I’m glad to say that the Menoptra eventually flitted back into my dreams, where they belong.”

Calling "The Web Planet" an episode indeed. Those aren't our brackets.

(Obviously the ideal way to end this post would be with a clip from the infamous Spanish dub of "The Web Planet", but since that's mysteriously missing from the Internet, we'll have to settle for a fanvid instead. Be warned that the actual story is much less exciting than this appears, although episode one is gorgeously atmospheric.)

3 comments:

jackmackenna said...

>>it does seem in retrospect that that was a stopgap measure to help stretch out a very limited quantity of Who.

we got the same amount, if not more, with all the extra specials. god damn.

they have been trying to move the show to the autumn, they've managed it.

Guywhothinksstuff said...

...no we haven't. We've only had one full season in the two and a half years since season 6 finished.

MadeInScotland said...

The first episode of the web planet (13 February 1965) was indeed called the web planet!