Series 5 budget cut, 3D trailer cost £1m.

Interesting article on Bleeding Cool, who got it from Private Eye:

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/04/15/the-doctor-who-budget-scandal-of-2010/

Basically, marketing spent £1m on the 3D trailer, and the production team, suffering from budget cuts, aren't happy. Also the new Daleks are in response to licensees demands for new Daleks to sell.

Allegedly, eh Rich?

Lots of mixed up facts there..........

Hey, just reporting what I heard third or fourth hand!

What's the real facts then, chief?

As I'm sure you know, I've been posting about the budget being exceeded virtually since filming began. This has been met with some scepticism here, but maybe the Eye is backing me up! Now amongst the actual reasons for the budget problems are:

a) New TARDIS interior - especially as what we've got was the second go.
b) Reshoots etc.
c) Increased costs due to people not going *the extra mile*.

The new Daleks likely cost a few bob as well, which helps explain the stories about the Cybermen redesign not happening - ie dosh.

AFAIK there has been a small cut in the budget in real terms, but compared to say Series 4 the cost of your 2 leading actors is much lower, so that's more than covered by them.

Long before the series started I was posting that the marketing campaign was going to be huge, and it has. From the cinema adverts to the bus tour and everything else in between and beyond. AFAIK though, this comes out of the BBC's overall marketing budget and doesn't affect the show. And given the remarkable viewing figures for The Eleventh Hour (10 mio not including iplayer or BBC 3) it's done the trick!

So overall I'd say that any issues affecting series 5 budget wise (and that's the reason Gaiman's story was bumped to S6) ultimately come down to the Executive Producers. This whole thing reeks to me of internal disuptede with the 6th floor still going on.

The Co=Ordinator wrote:Long before the series started I was posting that the marketing campaign was going to be huge, and it has. From the cinema adverts to the bus tour and everything else in between and beyond. AFAIK though, this comes out of the BBC's overall marketing budget and doesn't affect the show. And given the remarkable viewing figures for The Eleventh Hour (10 mio not including iplayer or BBC 3) it's done the trick!

Yes, I've read similar about the marketing budget: if they hadn't have spent the money on advertising it, the money still wouldn't have gone to Doctor Who, but to some other programme the marketing department wanted advertising. In the same way that the adverts for Ashes to Ashes last year didn't take any money from that programme's budget. I'd also imagine that not all the advert went on filming it, but also on distribution and print ads as well.

As to the BBC budget cuts, i seem to recall reading they were 1% over the course of three seasons, and I'd imagine much of that would be down to the difference in salary between Tennant and Tate with Smith and Gillan!

So overall I'd say that any issues affecting series 5 budget wise (and that's the reason Gaiman's story was bumped to S6) ultimately come down to the Executive Producers.

To be fair, it's not the first time a late episode has been affected by budgetary shortcomings: Fear Her was a cheap episode bought in at the last hour to replace the Stephen Fry script in season two, and placed next to the already commissioned season cheapy, Love & Monsters.

Similarly, Utopia had a lot of its budget knocked off to accommodate other overspends, and both Boomtown and Midnight were also written with as low a budget in mind as possible.

This whole thing reeks to me of internal dispute with the 6th floor still going on.

Hmm, sounds very interesting... what kind of dispute would this be? Are they between Private Eye and the BBC, or the Dr Who execs and the sixth floor bosses? I'd have thought the sixth floor would have been ecstatic about the Eleventh Hour's ratings, which hopefully would have made them interfere less in the ongoing production.

Lee Carey wrote:Hmm, sounds very interesting... what kind of dispute would this be? Are they between Private Eye and the BBC, or the Dr Who execs and the sixth floor bosses? I'd have thought the sixth floor would have been ecstatic about the Eleventh Hour's ratings, which hopefully would have made them interfere less in the ongoing production.

Lee, these are the problems that started last summer, when filming of episodes 4/5 got out of hand, overran, remounts, costs out of control, actors quitting etc. If you remember the 6th Floor, wary of things going tits up, brought Phil Collinson in to steady the ship.

PC tried to get Graeme Harper to finish off the shoot, but he was tied up with other commitments. The relationship between the 6th Floor and Moffat has been, shall we say, frosty ever since.

Actors quitting? Oooh, never heard that one.

After further consideration, I doubt the trailer really cost £1mil. I hope not anyway - seems a bit of a waste of my licence fee to spend that on promoting a series that everybody is going to watch anyway.

Phil the C coming in to steady the ship - was this done over the head of The Moff?
And, regarding series 6, if the 3 execs and 2 producers had more trouble than when the series had less people making it, might there be a personnel change? Not The Moff, but some of the others?

Rich Flair wrote:Phil the C coming in to steady the ship - was this done over the head of The Moff?

Yes.

And, regarding series 6, if the 3 execs and 2 producers had more trouble than when the series had less people making it, might there be a personnel change? Not The Moff, but some of the others?

IIRC Wenger & Willis have been confirmed. Can't remember seeing that about Moffat, only that he's writing the Christmas Special.

This is why I love OW, intelligent discussion backed up by facts (to the best of our knowledge). On any other forum we'd have had 5 'Moffat must go' posts by now.

What's this about Phil C being brought in? Wasn't aware of this.

You'e clearly failing to keep up with things Johnstone. 'A' Levels are no excuse!

Johnstone McGuckian wrote:This is why I love OW, intelligent discussion backed up by facts (to the best of our knowledge). On any other forum we'd have had 5 'Moffat must go' posts by now.

What's this about Phil C being brought in? Wasn't aware of this.

well if he drinks enough beer, I'd think he'd have to go.

The Co=Ordinator wrote:You'e clearly failing to keep up with things Johnstone. 'A' Levels are no excuse!

I know! Details??

Phil C was brought in at the end of July as filming of the Weeping Angels 2 parter (Block 1) went off the rails. The shoot was well behind schedule due to incorrect lighting, excessive fussiness, bad planning & 101 other things. At least one actor had pulled out on the instruction of his agent. It was a nightmare.

The 6th Floor instructed Collinson to leave Manchester & return to Cardiff to try & sort out the mess. He stuck around for a few weeks, supervising remounts and trying to get things back on track.

The Co=Ordinator wrote:Phil C was brought in at the end of July as filming of the Weeping Angels 2 parter (Block 1) went off the rails. The shoot was well behind schedule due to incorrect lighting, excessive fussiness, bad planning & 101 other things. At least one actor had pulled out on the instruction of his agent. It was a nightmare.

The 6th Floor instructed Collinson to leave Manchester & return to Cardiff to try & sort out the mess. He stuck around for a few weeks, supervising remounts and trying to get things back on track.

Oh right. I knew that filming wasn't going fantastically but wasn't aware that they brought Phil back.

The Co=Ordinator wrote:
IIRC Wenger & Willis have been confirmed. Can't remember seeing that about Moffat, only that he's writing the Christmas Special.

DWM confirms that Moffat is staying on as head writer for at least series 6.