Doctor Who Skipping a Year

The BBC have announced that Doctor Who will be having a Fifth Season, but that it won’t appear until 2010. They’re skipping a year in 2009 — although during that year, there will be three Specials (I’m betting Easter and Christmas for sure, but who knows about the third — Summer, maybe?).

The Specials WILL feature David Tennant as the Doctor. So that’s good news.

On the surface, this looks to be a good thing — basically, it allows for Tennant to do his stint with the Royal Shakespeare Company, while only having to commit to three special episodes in 2009, and would allow him to come back in full in the Fifth Series in 2010.

Although, there has been no confirmation that he will be back in the Fifth. It’s entirely possible that he’ll do the Specials, and we’ll have a new Doctor for 2010. Who knows. I would tend to think that’s not going to be the case, since it appears at first glance that this schedule-juggling is largely for his benefit. If he was going to leave, I think they’d just have him replaced and be done with it, rather than taking a hiatus.

So — looking ahead, we’ve got the Christmas 2007 special (“Voyage of the Damned” is the title I’ve heard), then in Spring we’ll have the 13 episodes of Series Four, then a Christmas 2008 Special, then three specials in 2009 before a true Series Five in 2010.

It’s OK, I’ve lived through a hiatus before (the infamous 18-month gap announced in 1986, and then the period when there was no WHO from 1989-1996 and 1996-2005). Still though — no full season in 2009. Boo.