Would A Good Man Goes to War / Let's Kill Hitler still have happened? Amy & Rory spent months looking for River, so how would that have been incorporated if the episodes only aired a week apart?

And with Series 7, how do you think Clara would have been introduced if it wasn't for the split? How would Amy/Rory have ended?

With series 7 they would have had what became the Christmas episode for 2012 as part of the series with references to Christmas removed.
The actual series 7 final would have become a special that most likely would have been delayed until just before the 50th special.

The series 6 jump from one half to the other would have been meah, ok there was toons of off screen time between the two episodes just like if you watch the boxsets.

The biggest different would have been in when each series was broadcast with series 6 being in spring 2011 completely and series 7 being broadcast ether in spring 2012 or Autumn 2012, meaning that 2013 would either have had no full series and just specials or had a full series and specials or the series 7 final + the 50th special would have become a series 8 final!

I think with series 6, A Good Man Goes to War/Lets Kill Hitler would have been exactly the same. You can see earlier in that series with The impossible astronaut/day of the moon that the second part has moved on months to where the first part ended, so it obviously dosen't matter to Moffat about whether months has passed to the audience as to whether months or years could have passed for the characters, and there have been many episodes where they are classed as a 2 parter but the focus shifts, so I think the lack of a gap would not have affected these two stories at all.

With Clara in series 7, I would think the actual introduction episode of the real Clara (The bells of st John) would have been the same, but without the Christmas special to show a second appearance of a Clara before he met the real one, they would probably have had to change one of the earlier stories to write in the second appearance of a Clara before he met the real one. They may have even done the snowmen episode in the same place in the series with a victorian Clara and the great intelligence but because it wouldnt be airing at christmas it would have had no christmas tones and the snowmen would have been something else, like possibly shape shifting water or gas monsters, something along those lines.

With regards to Amy/Rory there is no rule that says companions cant' leave half way through a series so I don't see how the split or possibility of a lack of one is relevant in that case.


So yeah, in my opinion, although the split in those instances was annoying for viewers, but gave the bbc double the opportunity to advertise and market the series during those years, I don't really think it would have had too much effect on what episodes/arcs we got had the split not happened.

Where the Series 6 divide is concerned I think that it would have been unaltered. The story still works just as effectively as a cliffhanger spanning weeks as it did months. Why? Because Lets Kill Hitler barely makes a reference to A Good Man Goes To War before it.
I think the only issue raised by this (and an issue Series 6 is still plagued with to some small extent) is that its format around the middle makes it far too serialised, and dependent on the viewer to tune in each and every week to keep up - something most shows might demand near the beginning or end of a series, but seldom in the middle as it's just impractical. We had The Rebel Flesh and The Almost People as a two-parter as it was, with the latter story leading directly into A Good Man Goes To War, and then that story in turn leading directly into Let's Kill Hitler. In the loosest sense, the story acts as if it is a four-parter. It is certainly a different format for the show to try out, but one that I felt would have been more effective/pronounced if it had actually been four seperate stories - in other words, without the mid-series gap I feel the argument is even stronger for The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People to be a one-part story.
If it were me responsible for it then Series 6 would subsequently have looked something like this without its gap...

- The Impossible Astronaut (1/2)
- Day of the Moon (2/2)
- The Curse of the Black Spot
- The Doctor's Wife
- The Rebel Flesh
- A Good Man Goes To War
- Let's Kill Hitler
- Night Terrors
- The Girl Who Waited
- The God Complex
- Closing Time
- The Oldest Question (1/2)
- The Wedding of River Song (2/2)

The stories around the middle form a loose three-parter, all each with their own self-contained story. The finale gets the chance to breathe much more as a two-part story, much more dramatic, and perhaps (at a stretch) a more convincing reveal of how The Doctor escapes his fate at Lake Silencio.

___

As for Series 7, I feel that some minor changes aside they could have gotten away with keeping things as they were without the mid-series gap. Of course the biggest change would have been the probable loss of that Christmas special wedged right in the middle (unless the series maintained a minor split over Christmas, resuming in early January. With The Snowmen, I presume it could have more-or-less gone on as it had. The exit of the Ponds could likely have been more of a surprise, as they wouldn't have had to pump up the publicity of the show's return for 7B as they did.
Without The Snowmen, I'm guessing they would have had to work in Clara's splinters into other 7A stories... she could have maybe have been a barmaid in A Town Called Mercy, maybe someone who just casually points The Doctor in the right direction in The Angels Take Manhattan.

The Snowman episode is important though so I maintain that it needed to be a 6th episode without any references to the Christmas in, then delay the series final as was to just before the 50th. I guess they would have needed a reworking of the episodes concluding series 7 to give it a different final with Clara's mystery being solved later.

I'm sure I read Steven Moffett say that Clara was intended to be a Victorian governess, but then he killed her off in The Snowman and present-day Clara was born in The Bells Of Saint John's. I would have thought if series 7 had ran in one run and Clara had arrive in episode 6, then the Victorian Clara wouldn't have died and her story would have been VERY different.

Yes, you're right. Victorian Clara was originally going to be THE Clara, but I guess the storyline would've been juicier if Victorian Clara turned out to be an Echo Clara.

I am making a pledge to watch every episode of the next series at least TWICE per week because watching the Friday night reruns on BBC3 or re-watching episodes I still have on SkyPlus, such as Dark Water, I'm seeing Clara's relationship with Capaldi's Doctor differently from how I saw it last year. One viewing only and a lot of stuff goes over my head.

Then I thought it was a strained relationship because of:

Capaldi's cantankerous temperament, especially in Deep Breathe.
Clara's hesitant response to the Doctor's "Am I a good man?" question.
The major falling-out at the end of Kill The Moon.


Now, I see that the two of them have a lot of affection and respect for each other, They're about as loved up as its possible for a man and woman to be in a platonic relationship.

I think Clara's relationship with Capaldi-Doctor is much stronger than her relationship was with Smith-Doctor and that's because Steven Moffett finally worked out what to do with Clara in the last series. Her double-life with the Doctor and Danny was a great story-arc for her. I can see why Moffett wanted Jenna to stay for another series.

I'm happy that Moffett opted for a present-day Clara rather than a Victorian one and I'm looking forward to seeing how the Clara-Capaldi relationship develops next series, although I do worry that Clara is going to die a hero's death. ("My name is Clara Oswald and I was born to save the Doctor.")

NOOOOOO!!!!! Not My Clara.

On the contrary I feel they could easily have worked in the elements of The Snowmen into the rest of Series 7 - had it come to it of course. You could easily have had another Clara appear in Series 7A without a problem (a barmaid in A Town Called Mercy would have worked, a member of UNIT in The Power of Three etc.), The Great Intelligence was still introduced in The Bells of Saint John so that appearance would just have needed to have been fleshed out a bit more ahead of its appearance in the finale, and the Paternoster Gang could still have returned later on in The Crimson Horror as the only think that needed explaining was Strax being brought back to life after his death in Series 6, which was a throwaway line anyway, mostly explored in a minisode.

I don't think these thing would have been preferrable, and as Christmas specials go The Snowmen is okay. But if Series 7 had all aired in 2012 or if it had all aired in 2013, and there wasn't room for it, then I suspect that its elements could easily have been worked into the other episodes of the series, rather than having to sacrifice an episode of the series to accommodate The Snowmen.

I think shoving Clara into every episode could have worked either very well, or not as well. I'm not sure how I would've reacted if she was in every episode, because although it could be interesting, on some level it could be more "this is too much, why is she here again?"

I don't think "The Snowmen" would've existed at all if Series 7 was conjoined, unless its elements were already planned out before the split was announced. Either that, or the special was created after the team were informed of the split, with a few changes made to TATM and TBOSJ.

I'm pretty certain if season 7 wasn't split they wouldn't have written Amy and Rory back in for the start of the season, and we'd have had the new companion at the start of the season.

I think it would've been quite fun...maybe fuelling Clara's mystery more by keeping it constantly on the sidelines, rather than addressed once or twice and then thrown at us in the second half of Series 7.

Of course we'd have has Oswin either way in Asylum of the Daleks, and then I'd have had Jenna literally appear in the background of one of those Indian Space Agency scenes in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship - ultimately not part of the story, but just there and involved - a small treat for attentive fans.
She could have then been a barmaid in A Town Called Mercy, not instantly recognisable in her Western get-up, and an American accent making her completely unfamiliar to the Doctor. At this point the fans really cotton on to her repeated appearances, and really begin looking out for her I suspect.
I'd then have had another minor scene involving her in The Power of Three, and there were plenty of moments where that could have happened. I'd maybe have had her as a +1 of one of the guests as Amy and Rory's party...maybe even press the issue a little by having Rory briefly think he knows her voice or something, only for him not to think about it furter.
I'd then have given her another role in The Angels Take Manhattan, again speaking to The Doctor. Of course he's only seen her the once before, and isn't expecting to see the same woman again, plus also slightly disguised by the time-appropriate attire.

I think it could have been a lot of fun in the background to actually see her cropping up for a while, and it would have kept Series 7 more interesting with all those little cameos in mind, plus helping the series feel more like a cohesive whole rather than fragmented, and also still giving the Ponds the main focus whilst they were still around too

With Series 6... I can't see it being all that different. As mentioned above, the Impossible Astronaut two parter had two months in between, so there's no reason why the AGMGTW/LKH two parter couldn't do the same. Series 6 could have been exactly the same if it wasn't split.

As for Series 7, another question gets me: What if it wasn't split, and was broadcast in the original spring-summer timeslot in 2012? I would imagine the story arc would have to be somewhat different, as it would not lead into the 50th, which would (presumably) take place after Series 8.

Yes I agree about series 7 if it had been on in spring 2012 not leading to the 50th.
I did try and explore it when the thread originally opened, they could have held Clara's arc over to next year and still had the snowman episode redone so it wasn't a Christmas episode.
Or no snowman episode and a different series final with Clara's arc not fully revealed till 2013?

Or just to complicate things what if series 6 had been split but not series 7?
That would have put series 7 fully in Autumn 2012 not spring 2012.
This would have been interesting because Moffat I expect would have added extra episodes with the Ponds to series 7 with the hints of Clara like in Asylum, still had Angels for the Pond's exit, still had the snowman episode for Christmas 2012, but keept the second half of series 7 as we actually got added 4 episodes and the 50th special and called it series 8!
So Series 8 would have been a big lead up to the 50th, with Clara's arc finally getting solved in the penultimate episode which would have been Name of, with Day of ending it!

The BBC would have had to start the series in September 2013 so that would have worked and they would have been well pressured by fans to include both 2012's and 2013's Christmas episodes on the series 8 boxset, which would have actually been the 50th anniversary box set!

When Capaldi started, which would have been 2014 as it was anyway, he would have kicked off with would would then have been series 9, which would have just been the same as the series 8 we actually got last year.

So with series 7 becoming two full series' we would have had a whole extra series by now! This year would have been series 10! In time for the tenth anniversary of New Who starting!

I doubt there'd have been much difference despite the lack of a long gap with series 6. We'd have probably still got A Good Man Goes To War and Let's Kill Hitler. Let's not forget the character of the Doctor has had many off-screen adventures but we don't see long gaps between every episode of every series to accommodate that idea.

As for series 7, I reckon it would have aired in the autumn instead, with Day of the Doctor becoming the series finale. The Christmas special would have probably remained the same but elements of Name of the Doctor would have probably been merged into Day of the Doctor instead. With no Name of the Doctor, I could imagine John Hurt's cameo taking place at the end of Nightmare In Silver. Apart from that, I doubt series 7 would have been much different. We'd have probably still seen three Claras in total.

2012 would have probably been a year of specials or something.

Interesting speculation.

I think Let's Kill Hitler could've been quite different sans split. The way it was written felt geared towards the notion of a lot of time between episodes (both in-universe and for us watching) and, whilst true Moff's done long gaps before - Day of the Moon is set 3 months later - I doubt he'd have done a similar thing just a few episodes/stories later. I think LKH might've focused a little more on the Doctor's search for Melody.

I honestly don't think the content of either would have been significantly different.

In that parallel 'no split for season 6 or 7' universe, the show stayed part of the BBC's Spring schedule (and didn't move to the autumn) and we had an anniversary season in 2013 rather than a one-off special.

Still rubbish, I dont particularly want to be reminded of either series ever again.

Watch are currently repeating series 7 on Sundays at 6pm. Tonight it was A Town Called Mercy. Seeing a bit of it makes me think......

Maybe if they hadn't split series 7 it wouldn't have been so rubbish.

First it looks, in the first 5 episodes, as if Moffett has got bored with Amy and Rory, has ran out of things to do with them and can't wait to get rid of them.

Then in the second half (or eight-thirteenth) of the series, all he seems to have for Clara is turning her into The Impossible Girl. He overplayed the "Clara is an ordinary girl" angle in her first 7 episodes which makes her seem like a bit of a spare part. It was subsequently very difficult for me to warm to her, despite her being a babe.

Maybe if they hadn't split series 7, Moffett would have worked out a decent story arc for the whole run.

Happily, Moffett worked out Clara in series 8 which is why I'm so happy she'll be back in series 9.

We kind of had an anniversary season in 2013 in our universe. 7B was littered with nods to the past. Mentions of Tegan and Susan; Ice Warriors; the Great Intelligence; glimpses of classic Doctors; the face back in the titles; HADS mention; a story inspired by The Invasion of Time; a more classic-esque costume for the Doc; arguable oblique references to Omega; the Eye of Harmony; voices of various companions and Doctors heard; plus stuff like Night of the Doctor.


Pretty much with you there

There are one or two gems but that's it. Overall, two pretty bad series.

I'm going to have record and re-watch series 7b when it shows up Watch in a few weeks time. See if I can spot all the references to the programme's past as well as all the facts about Clara that have turned up in her entry on The Tardis Data Core

http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Clara_Oswald

Did you know that Clara was born on 23rd November 1986? Just some random date that Moffett plucked out off the top of his head.

Incidentally, look at the entry for "Grandparents": Clara's Gran. Come on Moffett! This is respected actress Sheila Reid of Benidorm fame. At least give the poor woman a first name.

edit: Maybe I'll prefer series 7b now that I've developed a soft spot for Clara. Or maybe not!