How did the stories suffer? The stories of McCoy's tenure were not noticeably worse than any that came before the suspension, and many showed a sharp improvement. I would argue that the quality of the stories, the writing and the production was markedly stronger by the end of Survival than it had been for many years.

The Colin era and Mccoy's first season. Even though Colin had great stories the BBC didn't give a toss about the show, which lead to the show getting cancelled, due to most stopped watching by the final couple seasons of Mccoy's tenure.

In this day and age a fixed time schedule on a Saturday night is all but impossible. Due to both ITV and BBC having an elimination based entertainment show which fluctuates in length, all the shows around it have to move around. In my opinion, the only way Doctor Who is going to find a slot where it can stay on at the same time every week for the duration of its run AND keep up excellent ratings is to move it from Saturday nights to Sunday nights.

A move to Saturdays in January - March 2017 would enable the show to have a fixed timeslot now that the elimination based entertainment show The Voice has been lost to ITV. Who could easily have a regular slot, say 7pm... That would solve a quite a few problems.

Yep! pretty much and all that farce with Michael Grade & Liza Goddard that went on pretty much why I dispise her. Colin was a good Doctor and I enjoyed his run even though he got ripped off by having his second series cancelled or as they say on haitus then some feeble excuse about you ve had your 3 years.

The fans got cheated on that. Nightmare Fair sounded a cracking story and the others too and I dont really see what was so wrong with Dragonfire being Colin's swansong as he wanted to do that series and then leave at the end of the series. Decisions like this shouldnt really be left up the controller there should be a voting system.

If they did that I would hope to see the first episode on the 1st January and then the second on the next Saturday ect.
Hopefully it could find a permanent base like that.
The Christmas Special would then be a prequel again in such a way it might as well be the first of 13 episodes!

That really would be an issue regarding regeneration though, as they would end up having to give it a standalone release again, even though it would still seem like the start of the following series!

I don't think it'll air January 2017. More like March/April 2017 like Series 1-6A/7B did.

Never really understand the idea that an episode or two of a previous doctor can't be released on the next box set. It's not like we suddenly can't remember those episodes directly beforehand just because the doctor's face has changed.

I agree, but that would mean a duplicate for "The End of Time" as it got a boxset release in the 2008-2010 specials.
"The Time of the Doctor" could work as the only actual boxset it was on was the 50th anniversary limited edition, so the only thing that people would have to have extra would be "Day of the Doctor" for that year.

Although we now come up against an issue where "Last Christmas" should have been on the series 8 boxset not on the series 9 boxset, as it was an epilogue to series 8 not a prologue to series 9, but never mind.
Whats done is done now and we cant change it.

I hope not! I dont fancy waiting 15 months with only the 1 Christmas episode to show for it! If they are doing that we fans deserve some specials this year! Like 2009.

I think it's more an issue of branding, with changes to logos, set design, title sequences, theme music and other aspects of production. It would look jarring to have The End of Time at the start of the Series 5 set or The Time of the Doctor at the start of Series 8.

They would need to be written and planned already. To suddenly commission something for 2016 broadcast would be a terrible rush job at this late stage.

I'd get used to the idea. It's extremely unlikely that any new episodes will be shown in 2016 apart from the usual Christmas episode. And, for heavens sake, nobody "deserves" any Doctor Who...

How do you know they arent? They may be keeping things under-wraps.

OK so deserved is the wrong word, but still the BBC isnt treating us fans well by denying us anything till Christmas this year, then the prospect of waiting till March next for anything else.

Wait will there be no Series 10 this year? I thought there would be

It doesn't look like there will be. Moffat's busy with Sherlock, so there's not much time
to get around to DW, even if they do start filming in May.

They got away with it with series 7. part 1 and part 2, in production, titles, cast etc are pretty much two seperate mini series where they changed the titles and even the TARDIS interior (if I recall correctly) between the two, yet it's all on one box set.

I think that's exactly what will happen.

If it does then a pack of Doctor Who traditionalists will moan about it not being in the Autumn like in their childhood in 1976. Back then there were only 3 TV channels in the UK. Now there are hundreds and the two biggest shows on Saturday night are Strictly and X Factor. Next to them Doctor Who is swamped over and target audiences will most likely record Doctor Who rather than watch it live. In the Spring Doctor Who may not have to compete for viewers so much.

But that's my opinion.

Also Doctor Who no longer works in an Autumn time slot, which Series 9 definitely did prove.

It sounds horrendous, but in the current schedule there was a 9 month gap between Last Christmas and S9, and 10 months gap between S8 and S9, so in reality not that much longer.

Class, that spinoff show is partially a means of filling the gap I guess.

The move to the autumn was terribly misjudged from the outset - a real "if ain't broke don't fix it" scenario where (sadly) no one stopped to say "Hang on, the show seems to be doing terribly well in the spring, so why move it?"

My personal view is the move was simply part of the smoke-and-mirrors the BBC used to cover up the loss of an entire season in 2012/13. But whatever the reason, it hasn't worked.

Dont see why we cant have a jan - march slot

I don't see it quite that cynically. Of course they *were* using smoke and mirrors to cover up the loss of an entire season betweeen 2012 and 2013. But I don't think the scheduling of series 8 had anything to do with PR smoke and mirrors.

If you think about it, the more natural thing for them to do would have been get on and make sure there was an Easter start to series 8 as a way of getting people to stop talking about why there's so little Doctor Who on. As it was they made things worse for themselves. "You've dropped an entire season somewhere AND you're making us wait longer for the next one? *shakes fist*"

I simply think that something went wrong with the planned production schedule for series 8. We know that Caro Skinner had boasted about a very long production run and Moffat had hinted series 8 would be hot on the heels of the Anniversary special. But it didn't happen.

We don't know exactly why. Of course we know Caro Skinner abruptly departed in distinctly peculiar circumstances. We know they had a big anniversary special to get done and we know they had the added difficulty of casting a new Doctor and making that new series with the new Doctor. Whilst needing to have the old Doctor's regeneration story be in the Christmas special.

I just think that having found themselves in all sorts of bother in 2011 (leading to the loss of a series and the subsequent PR cover up nonsense) they then found themselves again with a completely different problem getting back on track again.

The result was series 8 forcibly in Autumn because they found themselves unable to make series 8 during 2013. The Anniversary, the loss of Skinner and the departure of Matt Smith probably all played a part in that.

I bet at one point in late 2012/early 2013 the production team just said "Sod it. Forget about series 8 - we'll just have to ask the BBC if we can shunt it out to Autumn."

Its all been a mess really, since Moffat became boss, behind the scenes and the show itself.

There's been some good stuff but a lot of dross or right offs because ultimately the story doesn't add up. All of Moffat arcs are convoluted rubbish, series 6 started well but because the whole story falls apart those first two episodes become meaningless as they are spoilt by what they are connected too, that's the problem of doing arcs like this, if the later parts crash and burn it takes the good parts with it... because its part of a whole, and if the whole fails then it all falls down.

Heaven Sent this year was spoilt by being connected to other stuff that didn't make sense or stuff that was just poor. The confession dial ultimately made no sense, spoiling HS by being what makes the story happen, and the poor story with Clara and the Time Lords spoil the Doctors reasoning. If it had been a standalone self explained story then it could have been fantastic, but instead its dragged down as its apart of the failure of the series 9 arc.

I wish they would do away with arcs, I think the original run has the better approach of doing self contained random stories, which makes complete sense with the show as travelling in the Tardis all over time and space would be random and disconnected as your going places that should have nothing to do with each other. DW simply doesn't suit arcs, and putting them into DW is always convoluted (I think only bad wolf and saxon came off naturally) but I think the makers think they have to do an arc as that's what TV does... wish they just had the guts to go against that sheep thinking and pave a path that suits DW not other TV shows.

I say this as someone who started with the revived series so this isn't a nostalgia thing, I believe story/plot arcs just don't suit DW, character arc yes but the stories/adventures should be random IMO.

Thankfully Jenna Coleman turned up in a proper role in the first episode to kind of bridge the two halves. I do think that they've been a bit cack-handed with a couple of these transitions... the Series 5 one and the Series 7b one involved too much immediate change, especially the former. It's why I'm strongly hoping Capaldi will stay on after Moffat goes, well that and I think he's terrific!

I have to admit I'm a bit surprised now that they've not said anything at all regarding Series 10. People were getting a bit antsy about it in the middle of Series 9, but it made sense to not jump the gun and get talking about what you're doing next rather than focusing your efforts on the now, as they did. Again I didn't expect to hear anything before the Christmas special, nor did I expect an announcement attached to the end of the special itself. But with nearly a fortnight since then I'll admit that I thought they would have given a frame of reference by now. Unless of course they still don't know themselves - I know the Beeb doesn't share its broadcasting plans way in advance, but a rough idea wouldn't go amiss some time soon.

And I do think these gaps are really starting to take their toll as well. Minimal production in the 50th year was a bit of a farce, but one that only the fans really seemed bothered with. But quite a lot of people I know who used to watch Doctor Who got back into it again with Series 9 (it seems to have generally been one of Moffat's better received series - even if that opinion isn't universal) and I feel immense gaps only serve to distance them from it again to a place where they'll, at best, watch it if it's on. Which is a step backwards from the "must see" attitude they were having this year when it fired on all fronts - Davros, then Maisie-mania, then Clara's death, then Capaldi's one hander, then Gallifrey, then River. It was a surge of big headlines that kept the show relevant for a while again. Perhaps absence makes the heart grow fonder for some, but for many they'll just be over it again by the time it's back - especially with the same lead actor and writer not suggesting a break in the status quo no matter how it's dressed.

Put more simply, I'm just surprised they haven't said anything more. It took me longer than most I think, but I'm at that 'surprised' stage.