Slashdot Mirror
BBC Apologizes To Who Star
An anonymous reader writes "SciFi Wire is reporting that 'The BBC, which earlier reported that Doctor Who star Christopher Eccleston was leaving the show after the first season, issued an unusual apology to the actor for mischaracterizing his reasons for departing...the network broke an agreement with Eccleston not to reveal that he had planned to film just one season of the hit show all along.'" We covered the announcement of his resignation late last month.
or does anyone else find it odd that he only planned on being in one season...
"The BBC regrets not speaking to Christopher before it responded to the press questions on Wednesday 30 March," the BBC's head of drama and commissioning, Jane Tranter, said in a statement. "The BBC further regrets that it falsely attributed a statement to Christopher and apologizes to him."
Good apology for the BBC. Now, I'd reckon that this is out of fear of a libel case being filed against the BBC. Eccleson should be rightly miffed that the BBC would slag his good name, which of course lead to great consternation and comment on Slashdot.
I guess he just pissed off the BBC management and they gave the green light on a report that just happened to jump the gun.
"There's no success like failure, and failure's no success at all."
- Bob Dylan
Doctor Who!
Doctor who?
Doctor who!
Doctor Who?
Not the pronoun, but rather a doctor with the unlikely name of "Who"
The BBC seems to apologize a lot for their reporting, do a quick search and you will find many examples. Here is a few:
0 000/newsid_4222300/4222353.stm 0 000/newsid_4273300/4273385.stm 0 000/newsid_4032600/4032665.stm a dio/1544897.stm s tm s html i n545215.shtml h tml
http://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ifs/hi/newsid_422
http://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ifs/hi/newsid_427
http://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ifs/hi/newsid_403
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_r
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/1050290.
http://www.vermontguardian.com/dailies/0904/0322.
http://cbsnews.cbs.com/stories/2003/03/21/iraq/ma
http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/12/03/news/beeb.
http://www.rediff.com/news/2004/jan/28bbc.htm
Some are serious, some are ridiculous. But in the end, apologies result from improper reporting, much different than a simple correction.
There is a wikipedia article on Dr. Who:
Doctor Who - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
You hope to get +5 for saying (on Slashdot!) that a story about Dr. Who isn't news? Good luck to you sir.
Very subtle joke for the attentive.
Stories only going for one hour, Doctors leaving after only one season, what's next? The tardis only having 50 rooms?
I just re-watched Rose (oh thank you bittorrent for given me the chance to watch these even though being out of the uk), and realized that the doctor could very well have recognized Rose from previous interaction with her. So if Eccleston guest stars and Piper is still on the program, it wouldn't necessarily violate continuity. I personally have very little problem with Eccleston's decision. I think that he's done so far a marvelous job in re-igniting the Who franchise. I think his reading of the doctor is marvelous and hope they find someone else who interpret the character so excellently. What about the doctor being his own companion for several episodes, if Eccleston returns for a guest spot? That would be interesting. I always thought "the * doctors episodes" were among the most compelling as a child.
They should apologise to the fans for wasting a regeneration
When will a station finally pick the show up in the United States??? It's showing in Australia, the UK, Canada, and Italy to record ratings. Someone needs to wake up the execs that be and get this show on the air before we look like complete morons.
Networks can be incredibly forgiving of actors if they really want them - the one-season limit of Christopher Eccleston seems to fall under that rule. Hell, The producers of Witchblade kept Yancy Butler when filming Witchblade, even though she had a substance abuse problem. They went so far as bringing her mom on set to keep her sober and filming shots where she wobbled after throwing a punch again.
Whereas if a crew member showed up once just a bit inebriated, they'd probably have been sacked. Cogs in the wheel, I suppose.
What are they going to do for next season, though? Ignore the elephant on the sofa, and change characters? Do an episode where Dr. Who wakes up in a different body due to some bizarre transformation gun he gets hit with? Deal with it Ed Wood style and have him killed off-screen?
"I am the Doctor."
..."
..."
"Oh great, 'cause I have this really nasty rash on my back
"Not that kind of doctor. THE Doctor."
"The Doctor what?"
"That's near enough
It's a shame he is leaving after one season. As I grew up I never had any intrest in Dr. Who, it always seemed to drag on and be boring when I watched it (so did episode 3 of the new series to a point though..). But the new Dr. Who intrests me, the humour is very... classic so to speak. Rather then the "heres a few black people or a daughter living with her player father" crap we see every week in and out, Dr. Who is infact funny when it's ment to be. You don't sit there going "hey go on make a joke!" but when you do get a joke it's most the time at least slightly amusing. I'll probably follow the full series through and see how much I like/dislike the new Dr. as to what I do next season, but right now Christopher is carrying the series.
Billie Piper is "okay" but her tone just ruins it for me, she sounds like she needs to be pregnant and have several kids just to get a free house and some extra (free) money from the government. Now theres no problem with sounding like that in modern stuff, but when you're traveling time and no one notices you've got a weird voice somethings up... ep 3 did... minorly cover this issue, but again very minorly..
Where it really stands out is how Christopher plays the Doctor. He bounces and bounds and generally seems to rather enjoy traveling time, saving the Earth and quite frankly having a bit of a giggle while he's at it. I've not seen him in anything else and don't really desire to, but as the doctor he's perfect.
Hopefully the BBC can get him to do a few more seasons. Everyone saying "he's using it as a stepping stone", the other way could be he's trying to revive Dr. who so it will open up sci fi again beyond "star gate and enterprise" on channel 4 every bloody weekend. While he may "waste" a regeneration he's still managed to win over thousands of fans new and old, maybe even some hated enemies of the show.
So like him or not, or his actions. He deserves all the respect he gets for being a magnificent actor in his current rule and reviving not only Dr. Who, but decent comedy which isn't a parody or steriotyped.
I like muppets.
Actually, I have a theory that they are hinting to a huge temporal war that ended up in the death of the timelords except for the Doctor (and perhaps what the celestine conciousness was blaming the doctor for when he gets made at him in the premier). It's a pity that Enterprise has kind of poisoned that concept, but it seems pretty different, considered the tragic outcome has already occurred. I hope I'm right. A subtle interlocking arch tying together the seasons of Who is exactly what is needed to keep this on the air for another 26 years.
"Does anyone care about this? This is not news."
A major news site apologizing for being wrong doesn't surprise you?
"Derp de derp."
The Press should take the available facts and report. So yes, if the news outlet reports from available facts, they will have a difficult time finding reason to apologize.
On the other hand, if you tend to take a stance and build your case with items that make your case, it will eventually cause you trouble.
This isn't something found in one particular media outlet, all media outlets have to be on guard and keep this from occuring. Just seems that some media outlets have had particular trouble with the problem in the recent past.
Brandon Petersen
At this point your asking yourself why am I getting off target. The thing is the the actors playing Ophra have now numbered over 8 and that's threatening the number of people who have played the Doctor. The BBC is trying disparately to regain the title of most actors playing one role in an ongoing series.
They need to add three more doctors to keep up.
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
"Really. Who the hell cares?"
Obviously you and a dude with a mod-point don't. Whoop-de-fuck.
"Derp de derp."
They would make taking a turn as the Doctor into something all well-known actors would aspire to, just like the guest spot on the Muppet Show used to be.
This would set off raging discussions online about who the next Doctor will be, who the next Doctor should be, who the best Doctor was, etc.
Built-in buzz. C'mon BBC get with it.
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
Yes, the hit show.
. sh tml
The hit show that recently beat out the Royal Wedding in UK ratings (8.3 million viewers vs. 6.2 million):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/news/drwh.../10/18419
Gee - I though Dr. Who was all washed up after he turned into a woman and ran off with the Master in the Curse of the Fatal Death?
*Seriously, if you are, were or ever will be a Dr. Who fan you must see this!
Sometimes my arms bend back.
For partaking in armed rebellion!
Well, people do like to see their heroes battling the passage of time, the juxtaposition of the modern with the historic and traditional, and setting right great wrongs that have occurred in the past, along with...oh come on, you can finish this joke yourselves...
Odds are, the conversation went:
Dear Chris,
Please, please, please star in our new show. We think you are the right man for the job, and we are really committed to making this new show work.
Cheers
Dear BBC,
Okay, but only for one season. I would like to spend the rest of my career taking on new roles in film and on television, rather than being the guest of honor at Sci-Fi conventions for the rest of my life.
Yours, etc.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
He was good as the doctor in the 1996 movie. The story just sucked.
GJC
Gregory Casamento
## Chief Maintainer for GNUstep
You know it makes sense!
...is that the new series of Dr Who is a return to proper Saturday night family entertainment. You know when the whole family sit and watch something together. (My six year old sits on my lap and peeks over my arm at the scary bits - makes me all nostalgic).
Oh and actually on the main story - Christopher Ecclestone is well known in the UK, and *he* asked the head writer for the part. That he didn't run to two series is a pity but since it took 8 months and the second series wasn't actually confirmed until after the first episode went out understandable. He is committed to a Christmas special so that's when to expect the next regeneration.
Anyway, it's back, they'll have trouble getting rid of it a second time and the new Chairman of the Governors has been strangely quiet;-)
Boring Old Fart (40, married, 3 kids...er no...make that 49, married, 3 grown up kids...it's been a long time)
Well, quite. Sure I watched the first episode of the new series, the other week. Since then, I saw a handful of news articles touting it as a `great success' based on audience/viewer figures - all based on *JUST ONE SHOW*. So the past couple of weeks, I've missed it entirely, partly because I want to expose their "statistics", and partly because I'm not such a Dr Who fan anyway... Funny, I've not heard anything about repeat-viewing stats since..
~Tim
--
Rushing on down to the circle of the turn
The only problem will be when they have the twelfth regeneration and reach the limit - although exceeding that limit has already been done by the arch nemisis.
Look, I don't even pretend to have writing skills popular enough to merit working on a TV series, but this is science fiction: Nothing is out of bounds.
Even I can come up with a number of plot twists or elements which would allow for "extra" lives, so to speak:
The Doctor & Rose visit an ancient alien who seems kind enough, but turns out to be draining the life-force out of all manner of beings. After meeting the Doctor, the alien starts draining his life-force. After the menace is defeated cleverly, the Doctor gets his life-force back, but as a bonus, all the other life-forces which were previously stolen go to him.
-or-
The mysterious events of the Time War are revealed, and the Doctor may have been the cause of it all. But is he really the Doctor, or did he just go mad after accidentally destroying his race across the entire span of history? Enter the real "Doctor," and the Gallifreyans are saved.
-or-
Side effect of surviving the Time War.
-or-
Extra Lives for unexplained reason. Starts to make the Doctor question his own nature.
-or-
Half-Human hybrid has unexpected bonus.
Criminy, the list goes on and on. Doctor Who has repeatedly and chronically presented situations which seemed hopeless in the last half of an episode, then shown them to be completely harmless in the first 30 seconds of the next episode. "How will the Doctor escape the Dalek bearing down on him? Tune in next week... to find out that Daleks are blind as bleedin' bats. Or that it wasn't there. Or that it's a friendly Dalek, part of the Dalek Resistance. Or that the Doctor wasn't actually standing where we thought he was. Or..."
You get the idea. No problem is out of bounds for a good writer, and very few problems are out of bounds for a mediocre one, even.
Happiness is relative, Based upon the way we live.
first ep was 10m, second weas 7.3 (great weather that weekend, remember?) and ep 3 came in at 8.3m which was higher than the wedding of his royal frogness and the rotweiller princess.
By contrast, Farscape, even at it's tops in the USA was doing only 3m.
Most show developers would sell their soul for those kind of ratings, so yea, it's a hit.
flames > dev/null
There's a reasonable chance Tennant will stick around. He's on record saying that he's a massive Who fan and has been since childhood, that Who was a major motivator in his becoming an actor, that he's wanted the part since he was five years old (all this well before the new Series was announced in 2003). He's also taken part in several of Big Finish Productions' Doctor Who audio stories, as well as their Dalek Empire series, for money that's massively below what he could earn elsewhere, which is another positive sign.