Sci-Fi Storm

I don’t know if I’m thrilled, worried, or what…show runner Steven Moffat told people at the Media Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival that the next series will be split into two – with a “game-changing cliffhanger” mid-season finale around Easter, with the remainder of the series picking up in the Fall. He then describes them as two separate series: “I kept referring to a mid-season finale. So we are going to make it two series – seven episodes at Easter building to an earth-shattering climax, a cliffhanger we could never normally do because it would be too long before it came back. An enormous game-changing cliffhanger that will change everything.

“The wrong expression would be to say we are splitting it in two. We are making it two separate series.

“What I love about this idea is that when kids see Doctor Who go off the air, they will be noticeably taller when it comes back. It’s an age for children. With an Easter series, an autumn series and a Christmas special, you are never going to be more than few months from the new series of Doctor Who.

“Tart that I am, we will now have two first nights and two finales, twice as many event episodes as we had before.”

Blastr (nee Sci-Fi Wire) has an interesting graphical representation of what has transpired in the history of attempting to get a live-action version of The Hobbit on the big screen – think Family Circus. Points off though for “The Similarion”.