How does everyone think Season 9 will be Aired will be see a full season returning at Easter or would you like to see 6/7 episodes from late April to June then to return in September or October or can you wait the 8 months for another August return?

Any thoughts?

All depends on where Moffat's schedule is with Sherlock, I suppose. This year luckily didn't suffer which I find especially important when establishing a new Doctor. Next year I have a feeling we'll get another split as I'm pretty sure Sherlock is returning for a Christmas special in 2015, followed by a 'series' in 2016.

The same as Series 8.

I don't think it should be after "Strictly Come Dancing". I'd like to see it in autumn but on Sunday evenings at 7pm

I imagine it'll return in much the same format, possibly with more two partners.

i thought the gap was too long this year always liked the Easter returns wouldn't even my 11 episodes in easter then a special in October or September

Well that's not going to happen unless you mean Easter 2016.


I believe Moffat has said that Series 9 won't be a split series so it's seems likely it will air about the same time as Series 8.

We could get a 10th Anniversary of 'NuWho' special for Easter though.

I thought for a while we'd get 13 eps in Series 8, followed by the Xmas special taking Moffat up to a total of 58 eps, and then he'd bow out equaling Davies' 60 episodes with a two-parter in late March and Easter weekend, acknowledging the 10th anniversary of the new series and finally bringing back Gallifrey ...... as it stands I think it's anyone's guess ...

... I still want to see Toby Whithouse take over at some point though

I have a feeling we're looking at a 2-series arc at the very least, as there are suggestions the story still isn't over with Missy after Death in Heaven. People are claiming some has been kept back for the future. Moffat has also mentioned he'd written a "brilliant" cliffhanger that "we won't see coming" for the end of Series 9.

So at the present time I think we'll have one more Moffat series, possibly 13 episodes, though if they take the "longer episode 1 and 12" route again we'll most likely have another 12 episode run. After that, Moffat will probably hand over the show to his successor and then it's anyone's guess.

I doubt we'll see a return to the split series format.

I would imagine series 9 will be the same slot as series 8 and will be a full run as before.

As for the 10th anniversary, it's unlikely there'll be a 60 minute Easter Special, unless they've been doing some secret filming over the past few weeks. Also, coming so soon on the heels of the 50th Anniversary, I think it'll be rather confusing to the casual viewer.

However I think it's highly likely we will have at least one returning character from the first year of the show, with my money being on John Barrowman. Moffat had wanted to include Captain Jack in A Good Man Goes To War, but due to filming committments Barrowman wasn't available. However Barrowman has always expressed his desire to return to the character of Captain Jack, so I wouldn't be surprised if we saw him appear in a two-parter.

I'd love to see the 9th Doctor again, but given Eccleston is one of the busier actors around, I doubt he'll be available, even if he wanted to, which is the other sticking point.

Saturday night is the prime time when channels roll out their best shows. I think it's great that it's now after strictly rather than before as to me that means they are treating strictly as the lead in to the main event of doctor who, rather than before when it used to be the other way around, meaning if anything, they have more confidence than ever in the show.

As for taking it from a prestigious Saturday slot and moving it to Sunday, that would be akin to showing they had lost confidence in the show and it wasn't good enough for Saturday night any more

If DW is back in the Autumn next year then because of Rugby World Cup on ITV and potentially massive audiences for home nation games, I wonder if the BBC will launch SCD and DW later in the Autumn to avoid low viewing figures? Perhaps an end of October launch for SCD on the same day as DW.

I'd like that too, but I assume he'll still be tied up in commitments to Arrow.

I heard that he'd pre arranged to get time off from Arrow if he'd been asked to appear in the 50th, which suggests he's still pretty keen and would do everything in his power to make it happen if he could.

It actually makes me like him more as an actor. So many actors get big from one show but then go on to other things and are dismissive or uninterested in talking about the one that made them, so it's nice that Barrowman still has such enthusiasm when talking about doctor who and torchwood, and still seems keen to appear in who if he can.

A good point. However, a late October start would entail a break over Christmas for both shows, though, wouldn't it? Seems unlikely.

During the group stage, Saturday late afternoon matches are 16:45 (finished by 18:30ish), and evening matches are at 20:00. The first 8pm kick off (19th September) is France v Italy. In subsequent weeks the 8pm kick offs are England games (which in the first week is England v Wales). The 16:45 kick offs vary a bit, but include some high profile matches eg South Africa v Scotland.

October 17th is 16:00 and 20:00 for the quarter-finals; 24th it is 16:00 for the semi-final and 31st it is 16:00 for the final.

The result of this is that there is a 18:30ish-20:00 slot that a show could fit into during September and early October, which becomes 17:45ish-20:00 on the 17th October, after which evenings are clear.

I can imagine the BBC will want Strictly to take the 18:30-20:00 slot (in fact the matches have been scheduled around this I think), which is pretty much where it is now anyway I think.

This leaves the question of where to put DW. The options are:
* Return to an April-June schedule, although given that filming hasn't started this seems unlikely
* Start the season at a similar time to this year but take a break after 12th September, returning 24th October.
* Air it against the Rugby. If they do this I'd guess that they'd show it earleir to avoid the clash with the 8pm kick offs. Certainly I don't see it going up against England v Wales
* Run a reduced length series either before or after the RWC
* Start the series after the RWC and run into January

I suspect that the most likely outcome is a mid-season hiatus for the RWC. It is possible that we lose an episode or two from the run as part of this, or have another Christmas Day/New Year's Day pairing perhaps...?

I assume it'll be the same format to Series 8 - 12 episodes between late August to mid November, then a Christmas special.

I'm not convinced that the Rugby Union World Cup and Doctor Who are appealing to the same audiences (although that said, I happen to like rugby and will be watching the world cup).

Series 2 of Doctor Who ran from 15th April to 8th July 2006. This clashed with the Football World Cup in Germany during June and July. England's first match against Paraguay was on Saturday 10th June and England's quarter-final against Portugal was on the Saturday 5th July.

I don't recall the actual timings of the matches, and I appreciate that many of the matches were on the BBC, not ITV. But I'm sure there would have been some clashes. And football is much more popular than rugby union. Yet Doctor Who's ratings seemed to hold up pretty well.

I think it would be more damaging to the series to move it again, or split the series. Best to stick to the new uninterrupted run of 12/13 autumn episodes. If the ratings have demonstrated anything, it's that many people will catch up over the course of the following week.

Considering that at the moment around 2m people watch Doctor Who on catchup each week, I don't see that going up against rugby will be an issue at all: watch rugby live and watch Doctor Who on i-player or on sky+ (or the equivalent).

I would love a series of six 2 parters with cliffhangers at the end of the first episodes, & perhaps the last 3 episodes of the series to be a 3 parter. Im not a lover of the standalone episodes as the stories & plot are way too rushed & not explained clearly IMO.

Series 9 will be filmed in January.

I really enjoy Capaldi.

Not relevant to the discussion, but I wanted to bring it up again.

I'd quite like this format. Probably not happen but would be an interesting change.

Hopefully soon as we had to wait ages for Series 8.