It's a bit frustrating that we have so little to look forward to at the moment - at least for those of us who concentrate on televised Doctor Who. There's the multi-platform "Time Lord Victorious" thing going on now, which requires you to buy books, comics, audios, and games, plus watch on-line animated Dalek mini-episodes, to get the full experience. Some of these publications don't come out until well into 2021. I'm not sure there are all that many people who will be able to afford that complete experience, what with job losses and reduced wages across the board. Personally, I'm avoiding it as I do limit myself to the programme, though I will probably watch the Dalek animations because they are free, or read a comic strip if it's in a publication I buy anyway, i.e. DWM.
What about the forthcoming Christmas / New Year Special, I hear you ask? We've just had two images released for it, and they must be the most boring images ever intended to elicit excitement for something. One shows the Doctor in prison marking the days spent on the wall, suggesting a long boring period of incarceration. The other is an image of the companions sitting round a kitchen table.
Hardly the stuff to get viewers worked up, unless it's a negative response you're striving for.
One good bit of news is that they have actually started filming Series 13. Nothing official, of course, but some people have gone on Twitter to say they've seen it filming. To have begun filming in October does mean that it is possible to have the next series debut in the winter of 2021, rather than the spring of 2022, meaning yet another gap year. The caveat is that the Virus means that film and TV productions are having to go much slower and can be halted by cast or crew testing positive. There is also the unique Welsh dimension, with stringent local regulations about travel between local authorities (and a potential stricter travel ban on the cards). Does making a TV show constitute essential travel?
Talking of the Virus, I'm assuming we have that to blame for the lack of news about DVD / Blu-ray releases. It's ages since the Season 14 box set was released, and Fury From The Deep has been in the shops for a few weeks now. This looks like being the longest we've ever gone without knowing about planned releases of any classic Doctor Who content.
The odd thing is that the DVD / Blu-ray market hasn't been unduly affected by lockdown anywhere else. We've had a lot of big releases over the last few months, with more planned. It just seems to be the BBC who have completely shut up shop. My guess is that there is very little forward planning on the Blu-ray releases - they put them together as they go along, rather than have a range of extras already lined up for the next two or three box sets. Had they been better organised we might have had two further box sets before the end of this year.
A couple of stories have been mentioned when it comes to animating lost adventures, but nothing confirmed. It was a newspaper reporter who mentioned Evil of the Daleks and The Abominable Snowmen, even if that reporter has tended to be fairly accurate in the past.
Even if they're not going to be released until next year, it would be nice if the BBC could let us know what the next releases are going to be - for both animated stories and for season box-sets. It's always nice to have something to look forward to - and that's something we could all really do with right now.
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