Who Celebrated The Year Better?
Here in good old Blighty I think we all felt a little disappointment by the lack of celebration this year. I think there was always going to be the assumption that we'd get series 8 as well, or at least a multiple number of specials (sort of like in Tennant's last year). I know I'm not the only one if feeling like I'm forever waiting for new Doctor Who. I mean, just five episodes and a Christmas special last year? With the show as big as it is on both sides of the Atlantic? I think that's why everyone thought there would be more to watch this year surely that's where the majority of the 2012 budget went? I don't know, perhaps we'll see all that money put to good use on the 23rd November. The disappointing thing was that there wasn't much else on Doctor Who related in all those months in which we were waiting for new stories. It doesn't help that Moffat made a comment about the show dominating our screens in 2013. What? Where? Did I miss something? It might have been nice, for example, for our BBC 4 to donate a weekly slot to broadcasting a classic episode. Perhaps a great story from each Doctor. 'The Aztecs'. 'The Tomb Of The Cybermen'. 'Inferno'. 'The Seeds Of Doom'. 'The Caves Of Andronzani'. 'Revelation of The Daleks'. 'The Curse Of Fenric'. 'The TV Movie'. Admittedly we got some of that in the last few weekends of the channel Watch but because of a complete lack of advertising I wasn't aware of any of it until I noticed that the Fifth Doctor's 'Earthshock' was showing. (I've decided to give the Sixth Doctor another go and recorded 'Vengeance on Varos', which I haven't seen yet). Still in good old British tradition, we had the proms (see above). And it was a bloody good one too! What was more frustrating was that each Doctor's story was preceded by a Doctor revisited documentary. If you dare trudge through the IMDB message boards you'll see that the US got in on the act back in January, devoting each month to a classic Doctor documentary and story, and the same documentaries now broadcasting over here on Watch. Month 1 for the First Doctor, month 2 for the Second Doctor. 11 months for 11 Doctors. Simple really. It certainly seemed like they were more on the ball in terms of celebrating the 50th anniversary than us Brits. Okay, we had the BFI celebrations, but those tickets are always limited. What about the bigger television broadcasts for the rest of us? Oh, and then there's the controversy over the Comic-Con trailer for the 50th that no one got over here. That seemed to anger a lot of people, though frankly that's what that event is all about. Not just Doctor Who, but sneak previews and events for every major cult TV show and film. Things are gearing up now. Apparently we're going to get some of the celebrations on TV and radio as we head into November. But it really is just one month, not the year-long party that Moffat alluded to.