The Doctor Who rumor mill has been busy these last couple of weeks. Did Chibnall get fired? Is Jodie leaving? Did Bradley Walsh really “storm off the set, and hasn’t been seen since”?
Our fandom is known for being full of gloom-and-doom—pretty much always. New showrunner? He’ll run it into the ground. New Doctor? Viewers will stay away in droves, and the show will tank. New broadcast schedule? No one watches telly at that time; the show’s done for. It doesn’t matter which showrunner, which lead actor, or which day of the week the show airs—someone’s going to declare that the end is nigh.
The problem with the fandom rumor mill is, one never knows whom to believe. History has shown that official word coming out from the BBC or the production team could either be roughly accurate (that is, accurate in the big details, but with the sharp edges filed off for public consumption), and at other times is utterly insufficient. And in the latter case, certain fans who are, shall we say, friendly with the production team but not directly involved in production can provide a more detailed version of the situation—well after the fact.
For a relatively new fan like me (where “relatively” means “since the series relaunched in 2005″—which still means I’ve been a fan for more than ten years), all the negative rumormongering is disconcerting. It leaves me with a queasy feeling that I don’t know how to deal with.
Up till now, I have been able to brush off the pessimism of the cynical folks who think anything that diverges from their own vision for the show must surely fail. I have to admit, though, that some of the sources of rumor this time around felt to me like they had the potential to be reliable. It put me off balance.
Back in the 1980s, Doctor Who really was out of favor with the BBC. First the show got suspended for a year and half between Colin Baker’s two full seasons, then it got canceled completely before Sylvester McCoy could finish out the storyline he’d signed on for. Given all that, I can understand how any hint of disfavor from The Powers That Be would stress out the fans who lived through that period.
But I don’t have any practice in coping with that level of angst. So when a potentially credible source made noises like the show I love—and a Doctor I love!—might be cut down while still (at least in my opinion) going strong, I kind of flipped out.
I’m happy to say that I reined in my immediate impulse to talk with my friends about what I’d heard and the fears the rumor engendered in me, thus not fueling the fire. It took some serious, deliberate self-control, though. And when the supposed pending “big announcement” never materialized and third-hand comments from “show insiders” claimed the production team was puzzled by the rumors, I was doubly glad I’d kept my mouth shut (and my fingers off the keyboard).
Who knows what the truth of the matter really is? At this point, I don’t really care what started the rumors or how they spread with such believability. I’m just irritated that I got swept up in it. I’m going to give myself a stern talking to, and a reminder to take every Doctor Who rumor with a big enough chunk of salt that the ol’ rumor mill can’t grind it down. I’ll believe that the show’s in trouble when it come through official channels.
I think part of the problem is the great shroud of secrecy being used by the Production Office at the moment. Nature abhors a vacuum and the rumour mill is one of the many things that will step up to fill said vacuum.
But let me get this right, according to the rumour that I read, an early version of the Season 12 show was presented to BBC Top Brass and the feedback from them was “We need Rose”?
Chibnall, not unreasonably if this had been the case, took umbrage and stormed out and Jodie followed. Well it certainly ticks a number of the boxes required to satiate the keyboard warriors’ desires, but sounds exceedingly implausible. Chibnall might be a big writing fish at the moment but he still needs a medium for his product and this kind of approach, had it happened, would be likely to get him a reputation for primadonnahood that would be hard to shake off.
The only thing I disagree with you about is waiting for anything through the official channels if there genuinely was bad news. In 1989 there was never a formal announcement that the show was being stopped. The BBC just never made an announcement of when it would be back and there were some vague comments from Peter Cregeen, something about trying to ensure the best format for the programme to continue through the 1990’s.
The BBC had obviously learnt from the 1985 cancellation crisis that telling people what was happening didn’t always help.
On a slightly related note, I was always concerned reading what Peter Davison said in the 1983 Radio Times 20th Anniversary Special. He said he was glad that the show would go on after him with Colin Baker as he did not want to be known as the last Doctor. When I read that I felt (as a 17 year old angst ridden teenager) that something wasn’t right behind the scenes, so the 1985 cancellation crisis was not totally unexpected for me when it happened a little over 14 months later.
Here’s where The Voice of Experience™ comes in. You make a good point about not waiting for official word. I guess I’ve been spoiled by the modern era!
Looks like I will have to change my handle from Wholahoop to The Voice of Experience™