No it doesn't show commercials, but it makes some programmes to potentially be sold abroad, where broadcasting is almost universally commercial, so it makes shows more saleable by making them to a length that will fill a hour slot when commercials are added. Whether the BBC should be taking the potential international market into account in this way is open to debate, but it's certainly nothing new.

A 25 minute domestic slot, which would become 30 minutes with commercials added. There were a few episodes made that were barely 20 minutes long!

The thing about the old episodes being 4x25 minutes long (or 6 or 8 parters) were that they were a lot slower paced and had a lot of padding in them (some episodes anyway). The newer episodes are faster paced, which is slightly better, but it the pace can sometimes be a bit too quick.

The BBC are usually good at giving flexibility around the time, so if the creators think they need more time they'll ask.

Also what's the in joke of 'The Big Bang' I never heard about it

Its the double meaning of the title. The Big Bang that rebooted the universe and another kind of Big Bang that created River Song.

I'm not sure anyone got it except Moffat. I sure didn't until he pointed it out.

Were the old 25 minute format eps this length to accommodate international audiences?

On the topic of episode lengths, I do genuinely think you can tell a full story in 45 minutes. But some stories absolutely demand a bit more attention, that little bit more exposition, or that little bit longer for a satisfying conclusion.

Not every story needs to be a 2+ hours job like The End of Time was (heck, TEOT didn't need it!) but the extra 5 or 10 minutes here and there, maybe rounding off at an hour can be hugely beneficial. It can make the difference between a good disposable episode, and a fantastic unforgettable one.

Not blaming Moffat as it likely isn't his decision, but they seem to refuse to budge these days in terms of episode length. Series 6 saw its mid-series finale extended by an extra 5 minutes, despite the story having some massive lulls. The actual finale saw no such extension but was crying out for one.
Every non-Xmas episode of Series 7 except Asylum of the Daleks and A Town Called Mercy could have used a little bit of extra time. And that's an opinion reinforced by the fact that with an endless slur of one-parters, there's no relief in having to constantly introduce new characters. Pacing is currently my biggest issue with the show.

But again, using GoT as an example (purely because it is showing atm, but there are others) US broadcasters do make shows that are an hour long before commercials.

but it wouldn't cos it was made to be shown on the BBC, without commercials. What the BBC might have done is make it 25 minutes long to allow a minute or two of continuity and then for the news (or next programme to start)


I doubt it, in the late 60's and early 70's the BBC seemed to concentrate on producing TV for the UK, it left all that 'business' nonsense to people like Lew Grade.

I don't know of this has been mentioned yet but according to this thread title;

Doctor is now only 5 letters and only 1 'O'. Not good.

GoT is a HBO show and HBO don't have Commercials hence why they can make shows of over 50 mins compared to the Network shows which come in at about 42 mins.

That's the BBC cutting back on the programme again.

It was made to fit a 25 min timeslot.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/doctorwho/6405.shtml

All very well and good but where would you get the budget to make the episodes longer? Presumably you would have to sacrifice an episode or two to pay for it and as we only seem to get getting 13 episodes every two years at the moment I'd rather not loose anymore

Also I thought Doctor Who was a co-production with BBC America these days? So not just funded by us license fee payers anymore.

nope. BBCA made a small contribution to costs for series 6 (episodes filmed in america) but other than that it's just what they pay for the rights to show it.

Ah OK. I stand corrected then.

BBC Entertainment Poland shows this series of Doctor Who one day later at 18:00 (5pm UK time), with repeats during the week. Each episode fits into a one-hour time slot, and is cut twice for advertisement breaks of 5-6 minutes. Adding the length of the three segments of last week's episode together, I get 44:46 (including credits).

My goodness. I didnt expect to unleash all that reaction, but Im grateful for all the information and even indignation because I found more entertaining and meaningful narrative here than I did in the Who episode tonight. You should be writing the episodes instead of the professional writers. Maybe timing isnt the problem after all.

The thing is that even if the episode lengths were changed you would still get some episodes that feel rushed or others that feel too padded. It's about writing to accommodate the time limit not changing the timings to suit the writing.