Jay’s Doctor Who Update
Submitted by: Jay Hinkelman (SoSF Doctor Who Contributor)
Outpost Gallifrey has heard from their contacts that Series Two of “Doctor Who” will debut on the SciFi Channel with the two-hour block on September 29, 2006 along with Series One repeats earlier in the day. The third season of “Battlestar Galactica” (BSG) will debut the following week with its own two-hour episode.
“Doctor Who” and BSG will air at 9PM ET/PT and 10PM ET/PT, respectively, with another series airing at 8PM ET/PT throughout October and November, with a short break for the Christmas holidays.
Their same source also believes that “The Christmas Invasion” episode [the special hour-long Christmas episode of “Doctor Who”, detailing the events immediately following the Doctor’s regeneration] is being held back in this first block, and will instead be aired as a holiday special in December 2006.
We hope to have more details for you soon.
AUGUST 10, 2006: UPDATE:
Doctor Who news, straight from the BBC this time: This year’s Christmas special, “The Runaway Bride,” is “in the can,” according to the BBC’s Doctor Who website, and filming on Season Three commences this week with Freema Agyeman as the Doctor’s new companion, medical student Martha Jones.
Question: Will missing the Christmas special affect my Doctor Who experience? If the Christmas special is shown in December, instead of September, I mean.
Yeah, it kinda will. The Christmas Invasion really gets into the story of the new Doctor (as it should), and then the second series builds off of that. It’d be very disjointing for people to go straight into the second series without seeing CI, and I can’t imagine why SciFi would do it.
So, something, Doctor Who, then Battlestar? Are the Stargates ending before then?
The Stargates will be going into their midseason hiatus by September.
I don’t think it will ruin Series 2 too badly if you don’t see the Christmas special first, but I think it would ruin the Christmas special. That being said, it pisses me off to see shows like this out of order. That’s why I’m glad when shows that were shown out of order are corrected on the DVD release, ala “Firefly”.
The good news is that, if the UK DVD releases are any indication, “The Christmas Invasion” will be included in the boxed set. The bad news is that could mean delaying the sale of the boxed set in the USA until after “TCI” is shown on SciFi — in other words, possibly after Christmas.
Will not seeing “TCI” affect your viewing of the whole season? Not in the sense that you’ll be missing a lot of major plot points or anything, but the emotional arc of Rose’s dealing with the Doctor’s regeneration will be kinda scuttled.
Unfortunately one thing that will *never* be available on (legal) DVDs is the special 5-minute episode that BBC Wales made for the BBC’s “Children in Need” charity drive last year, which took place immediately following the regeneration and led into the events of “TCI.” Too bad, really, it’s a nice little scene, and it adds even more depth to what Rose is going through.
Do you see why I hate Sci-Fi(less) network? Do you see why the suits are just frikkin’ POISON to any episodic genre entertainment?
It’s like they are the highschool jocks who couldn’t make it in professional sports, so they got hired in their father-in-law’s network, and now are exercizing their decades-old hatred on we geeks because they’re frustrated couch-potatoes on the weekends.
THAT’S right, I said it!!!
I don’t agree with all of Skiffy’s programming decisions, either (like cutting bits out of Doctor Who episodes to cram more commercials in — yes, they’ve been doing it all along), but I do want to clear up that the non-release of last year’s “Children in Need” mini-ep has nothing to do with SciFi or NBC/Universal, and everything to do with the mandates of the charity telethon itself.
Now, there was a Doctor Who parody story from a few years back, done for Comic Relief UK’s “Red Nose Day,” called “The Curse of Fatal Death.” It starred Rowan Atkinson as the Doctor, Julia Sawalha as his companion, and Jonathan Pryce as the Master, and featured appearances by Richard E. Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant, Joanna Lumley, and the Daleks. It’s available on VHS if you dig around a bit.
Hmm… this BBC site seems to imply that the Christmas Invasion will air first!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/news/cult/news/drwho/2006/08/10/35561.shtml
Digged!
http://digg.com/television/Season_2_of_Doctor_Who_to_debut_on_SciFI_Channel_on_September_29
For the sake of continuity, you have to have the CI air first.
Oh wait…this is SciFi….
Well, Sci-Fi Wire and the BBC are now reporting that the “Christmas Invasion” episode WILL be shown as part of the 2-hour 2nd season premiere on the Sci-Fi Channel.
Yup! BBC’s Doctor Who website is confirming it: “The Christmas Invasion” will start off the season! Gotta say, I’m very happy about that. TCI is fun fun fun. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/news/cult/news/drwho/2006/08/10/35561.shtml)
The lack of a Chirstmas Invasion was speculation based on the preliminary listings for SciFi showing two one hour episodes being broadcast. Since The Christmas Invasion runs a full hour, SciFi would have to trim about 15 minutes to make it fit. Current speculation is that is what is likely happening. Other channels trim hour dramas that much (A&E with MI5 and BBC America with Life on Mars). The other option would be to run TCI in full with commercials taking up a 90 minute slot followed by either a half hour documentary or New Earth (making it a 2.5 hour block of new stuff). SciFi hasn’t yet announced what they will be doing.
Lee Whiteside
SFTV.org Webmaster
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