(Thanks to Tardis and Torchwood Treasures for the great pic
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Executive producer Russell T Davies has spoken exclusively to SFX about the future of Doctor Who. Series Four starts in a few weeks, with a Christmas special later this year, four specials in 2009 and a full fifth series in 2010. There’s no official comment on the show’s future after that, but Russell T Davies has revealed that the established pattern will help to ensure that Doctor Who is around for many years to come.
“Doctor Who is now one of the BBC’s biggest flagship shows,” he said. “And this sort of pattern will guarantee it being on air for twenty years.
It’s no good looking at that American pattern of making seven years if you’re lucky – that’s just not going to work. Who wants it to die after seven years? It’s much bigger than that.
“It needs looking after, in the sense that it needs pauses, it needs its legend revamping every so often. If you build these pauses in now and say this will always happen, that’s part of the plan now – it’s literally a twenty year plan, which can’t be guaranteed, because different people will be in charge in years to come – but if you present them with something rock solid, that is working, and has a unique transmission pattern that shouldn’t be interfered with, then it will stay.”
You can read the full interview in the next issue of SFX Magazine, out Wednesday 12th March. Russell talks about such topics as the casting of Catherine Tate and the truth behind the return of Billie Piper. There’s also an exclusive preview of Series Four.
~ Tardis Base