Series 5 (Doctor Who)



Series 5 of Doctor Who, also known as Season 31 for clarity over Season 5, began its run on BBC One on 3rd April 2010, 24 March 2010 — almost 21 months after the last episode of the previous regular series. It was notable for being the debut series for Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith, and for introducing new companion, Karen Gillan's Amy Pond.

From a production standpoint, the series featured the largest number of staff changes since the BBC Wales version debuted in 2005. By far the most publicised was that of Steven Moffat's replacement of Russell T Davies as head writer, but whole departments within the production got new leadership, as well.

New production team


In the spring of 2008, it was announced that Steven Moffat, who has written Hugo Award-winning or nominated scripts for the revived series in each of its first four seasons and whose association with Doctor Who dates back to his writing of the Comic Relief parody The Curse of Fatal Death in the late 1990s, would succeed Russell T Davies as head writer and producer of the series. Davies officially retired from involvement with the series after the 2009 specials and at present has no plans to retain any direct connection to the series now Moffat's tenure has begun. However, Davies has announced that he plans to remain involved with production of Torchwood for the foreseeable future, and hopes to see further crossovers with Doctor Who, indicating he may not completely sever his ties with the parent show. Moffat has stated that no characters from the Russell T Davies era will be returning in Series 5.

Fellow executive producer Julie Gardner also departed at the end of 2009, and was replaced by Piers Wenger. Beth Willis was added as a third executive producer — giving the show three execs for the first time since Mal Young departed at the end of Series 1. The line producer of the series — a position once almost entirely held by Phil Collinson — was split between Tracie Simpson and Peter Bennett, two members of the production staff who had risen to prominence during the 2009 specials. For the first time since 2005, the series also credited a co-producer, Patrick Schweitzer, for episodes 6 and 10, the two episodes filmed in Croatia.

Other senior members of the production staff, such as production designer Ed Thomas and composer Murray Gold remained at their posts. However, several departments also underwent big changes beginning with The Eleventh Hour. Directors of photography Rory Taylor and Ernie Vincze — who between them had fairly evenly split responsibilities since 2005 — left along with Davies and Gardner. They were replaced by a series of individuals, each handling only one or two episodes of the series. Meanwhile, the costume department came under the leadership of Ray Holman, who replaced Louise Page, the longest-serving designer since the Hartnell era costumer Daphne Dare. The change, however, was not just the replacement of one individual with another, as Holman brought in members of his design company to fill junior positions in the costume department.

Series 5 also represented a subtler behind-the-scenes change, especially for the more junior members of the production team. Combined with the general economic downturn that saw an across-the-board cut in jobs, it was also the first year since 2004 that Torchwood was not in some stage of production at BBC Wales. This meant there was some degree of job competition at the Upper Boat Studios. Some long-term members of staff left the studios completely, while others, took an effective reduction in rank to remain. Arwel Wyn Jones, for instance, went from being the supervising art director for the previous two series, to alternating set decorating duties with Julian Luxton. Still others remained in Wales, but shifted to Moffat's other Welsh production, Sherlock or found placement on Merlin, Being Human, or other BBC Wales programmes.

New numbering system?
The run-up to the broadcast of the series premiere was characterized by confusing and sometimes contradictory indications from BBC sources. According to Issue 410 of Doctor Who Magazine, the BBC intended to begin the numbering of seasons over again to reflect the change of production team. Thus, the 2010 season would ostensibly be marketed as "Series 1". A December 2009 announcement by the BBC regarding the show filming in Croatia also referred to the upcoming season as "Series 1." This seemed to be still further confirmed by photographs of location filming, which clearly showed clappers labeled "Series 1". This suggested that, at least internally, the production team believed it was, indeed, a "first" series.

However, in early 2010, Steven Moffat indicated in Issue 418 of Doctor Who Magazine that this season will be referred to as Season 31. In his column in Issue 417, Moffat addressed the confusion in a humourous fashion, suggesting the season be called "Series Fnarg". "It's a whole new number," he wrote.

Muddying the waters even further, BBC Video announced on 3rd March 2010 that the first DVD release of episodes from the series, scheduled for issue in the UK in June 2010, will be titled Series Five, Volume 1.

As of late March 2010, it remained unclear exactly how the series was going to be marketed. BBC iPlayer, however, refers to the series as 'Series 5'.

New TARDIS team
During his acceptance speech for the award for Best Drama Performance at the National Television Awards on 29th October 2008, David Tennant announced that he would not return for the 5th series. As the Tenth Doctor's companion, Donna Noble had been ostensibly written out at the time, Tennant's announcement set up the possibility that series 5 would begin with a completely new set of starring actors. Aside from the special case of Rose, the only reasonably analogous situation in the history of Doctor Who was the start of Jon Pertwee's first season.

On 3rd January 2009, during a special episode of Doctor Who Confidential entitled "The Eleventh Doctor", the BBC announced that Matt Smith would be playing the Eleventh Doctor. Smith succeeded Tennant in the last scene of The End of Time and Smith's Doctor was last seen crashing towards the Earth in a flaming, badly damaged TARDIS. That scene also confirmed that the Doctor would almost certainly sever connections with previous companions, making way for the introduction of new co-star Karen Gillan, who would play the character of Amy Pond.

New icons
In addition to the cast and crew changes, many of the other continuing elements of the show also underwent a major redesign at the start of the series. Most conspicuous was the 6th October 2009 unveiling of a new series logo — the first significant departure from the one that debuted on Rose. Likewise, the TARDIS herself got a noticeable exterior and radical interior make-over. British tabloid media reported the switch was due to the show's switch to high-definition production, although periodic revisions to the TARDIS are nothing new to the series with changes both major and minor occurring numerous times since 1963. Along with the TARDIS change came a substantially redesigned sonic screwdriver, which is expected to remain the Doctor's all-purpose tool as it has been since the series returned in 2005.

A new Doctor Who theme arrangement was introduced, replacing the version introduced for the 2007 Christmas special. Discounting closing-credit variations and versions devised for non-series events, this is Murray Gold's third major arrangement of the Ron Grainer/Delia Derbyshire theme. Gold has now arranged more versions of the theme for TV than any other composer. Although some reviews have referred to it as a new theme, it is still recognizably the same piece of music dating from 1963.

Primary cast

 * The Doctor - Matt Smith
 * Amy Pond - Karen Gillan

Secondary cast

 * Rory Williams - Arthur Darvill
 * River Song - Alex Kingston

Guest cast

 * Craig Owens - James Corden
 * Mrs. Angelo - Annette Crosbie
 * Vincent van Gogh - Tony Curran
 * Dorium - Simon Fisher-Becker
 * Hawthorne - Terrence Hardiman
 * Dream Lord - Toby Jones
 * Rosanna Calvierri - Helen McCrory
 * Alaya/Restac - Neve McIntosh
 * Winston Churchill - Ian McNeice
 * Dr. Black - Bill Nighy
 * Liz 10 - Sophie Okonedo
 * Edwin Bracewell - Bill Paterson
 * Dr. Nasreen Chaudhry - Meera Syal
 * Aunt Sharon - Susan Vidler
 * Dr. Ramsden - Nina Wadia
 * TBA - Melanie Walters

Appeared

 * The Time Field (mentioned as a "Silent Menace that follows the Doctor and Amy through their travels")
 * Prisoner Zero
 * Atraxi
 * Smilers
 * Winders
 * Star Whale
 * Daleks
 * Weeping Angels
 * Treeborgs
 * Saturnynians
 * Dream Lord (Result of Psychic Pollen)
 * Eknodine
 * Silurians
 * Krafayis
 * Number 75B, Aickman Road

Confirmed

 * Cybus Cybermen
 * Sontarans
 * Autons and Nestenes
 * Sycorax
 * Weevils
 * Slitheen
 * Roboforms
 * Hoix
 * Uvodni
 * Blowfish
 * Drahvins
 * Chelonians
 * Zygons
 * Draconians
 * Terileptils

Unconfirmed

 * Original Cybermen
 * Omega

Writers
Aside from Steven Moffat, who is writing six episodes of the season (Episodes 1, 2, 4, 5, 12 and 13): all other writers have been confirmed for Season 31 in DWM 417:
 * Steven Moffat (6 episodes)
 * Mark Gatiss
 * Toby Whithouse
 * Simon Nye
 * Chris Chibnall (2 episodes)
 * Richard Curtis
 * Gareth Roberts

Filming

 * Adam Smith will direct one of the episodes block, Ashley Way will direct Chris Chibnall's two episodes (8 & 9) and Jonny Campbell will direct two (6 & 10).

Other production notes

 * On 17th February 2010, Matt Smith appeared on Blue Peter to choose the winner of a contest that asked viewers to design a TARDIS control console. The winning design is expected to be featured in some way in one of the final Series 5 episodes which filmed in the spring of 2010.
 * The first four series were produced in association with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (accounts differ as to the extent of any financial support the CBC may have given, with the Doctor Who Information Network fanzine Enlightenment describing it more as an acquisition deal). Series 5 is the first full series to be produced since the end of this arrangement. It has not been reported whether any "co-production" arrangement has been established with another entity or whether Doctor Who is now fully BBC-produced.

Story arc
Shortly after the airing of the first episode, Matt Smith discussed the cracks and the mention of silence falling, telling the interviewer that they are a very important key to the series story arc. He also mentioned that the crack may be one of five things that viewers need to look out for throughout the series, the other four things remain unknown.

In The Eleventh Hour, there was one on Amy's wall, and one with a similar shape on the TARDIS television, in which the Doctor looked at it worryingly and quickly turned the screen off. A third crack was seen at the end of The Beast Below on the side of the United Kingdom space ship. The fourth one can be seen at the end of Victory of the Daleks on the wall behind the TARDIS right as it disappears.

The crack plays a major role in Flesh and Stone, appearing inside the Byzantium in the 51st century, larger than ever, and prompting the Doctor to begin investigating it. The crack is connected to a history-ending, Big Bang-scale temporal explosion, on 26.06.2010, probably at Amy's wedding. It's leaking time energy into the universe, which causes people and events to be erased from history, leaving no traces of their existence except in the memories of time travelers. Several events erased from time by the crack include the Cybermen creating the CyberKing in Victorian London, and the Dalek invasion of 2009, both of which occured late in the Russel T. Davies era. It is unknown how the removal of these events has affected the newly created time-line, but it is possible that later Series 5 episodes will explain this. The Doctor was able to close the crack by feeding it an army of Weeping Angels (because they are complicated space-time events), but this was only temporary.

The crack next appeared towards the end of Cold Blood during Rory's death scene. The Doctor managed to reach inside the crack and draw a part of the TARDIS from inside it (DW: Cold Blood).

Their also have been some sort of debate about other possible cracks, such as a corner of a crack in (DW: Amy's Choice)) and lighting impressions in (DW: The Vampires of Venice) although DWA Issue 169 did say 'did you spot that sneaky crack in the sky?' although they may have been mistaken.

In The Lodger, a crack is seen behind Craig Owens' fridge.

Broadcast dates
The BBC was unusually late in confirming the exact broadcast date for the start of the series. The first trailer to indicate a date said simply "Easter 2010", although there were reports of a variant of the trailer (later apparently withdrawn) with the 3rd April 2010 date. Due to this delay, speculation ran rampant with numerous sites such as the Internet Movie Database using speculative and unsourced start dates, some as early as mid-March 2010. It wasn't until 24 March 2010 -- 10 days before broadcast -- that the BBC officially confirmed 3rd April, although Steven Moffat had indicated this during an interview on BBC Breakfast as early as 19 March.

Both BBC America in the US and Space in Canada commenced their broadcasts of Series 5 on 17 April 2010.

Australia's ABC network began airing the series starting on 18th April 2010. This marked the first time all of the major English-language markets for Doctor Who saw the start of a new series within the same month.

In 2009 there were also reports that the BBC might split the season to accommodate its coverage of the FIFA World Cup; as of April 2010 there has been no announcement that such a split is expected. As confirmed episode dates have been shown in DWM 422, a split will not happen.

This series started in New Zealand on the 2nd of May 2010.

Trailers
The first trailer (a series preview) was released on 1st January 2010 It featured several scenes from the upcoming series with several new and old enemies present throughout the trailer.

A 3D trailer promoting the series was released in trailers prior to Alice in Wonderland. . It featured the Doctor and Amy Pond lying on grass, gazing at the stars. Suddenly, the ground opens up and they fall into a blue twisting tunnel whilst within the tunnel they are confronted by Weeping Angels, Daleks, and a Smiler before they return atop the grass. A large snake-like head bursts through the screen at the end of the trailer. The effects and grading of the trailer were completed by The Mill. This head was visible in a later extended trailer, on a body with green, scaly skin. Apparently it has something to do with the Silurians; it may be some type of helmet.

A new trailer was released on the 19th March, the opening shot of which features Amy floating in space, with the Doctor in the TARDIS holding onto her by her ankle. Among other things it featured the Daleks, a Cyberman advancing on Amy, the Doctor on horseback, a dogfight in space between a Dalek Saucer and WWII Spitfires, and the Weeping Angels. The BBC America trailer, released the same day, contains additional footage not seen in any of the UK trailers.

The latest extended UK trailer shows a few extra details, including the Doctor and Amy in what appears to be an underground base, River Song wearing an old-style evening dress and floating out of a spaceship airlock, vampires pursuing the Doctor, Smilers advancing on the Doctor and Amy, a woman getting attacked by what appears to be a Silurian, Amy and the Doctor fighting a serpentine creature, and the Doctor happily giving Amy a double thumbs-up (to her consternation).

Rumours

 * In DWM Issue 397, Steven Moffat wrote the "Production Notes" feature. This consisted mainly of an anecdote about how he became the head writer but he also touched upon his plans for Season 31. In particular he wrote "Piers Wenger and I are hard at work on Season 31. I can tell you nothing of our plans (except, obviously, THEY'RE BACK!)". Some have interpreted "they" to refer to the Time Lords, who had been "killed off" as a race during the Davies era.
 * However, the Time Lords returned and were dealt with in The End of Time, leaving the comment open for interpretation. It can now be said that the comment could have been refering to any of the following: the Daleks, the Weeping Angels, the Silurians, or the Cybermen, all popular enemies of whom return in series 5. No confirmation has been made, however.

Novels

 * Apollo 23
 * Night of the Humans
 * The Forgotten Army
 * The Glamour Chase
 * Nuclear Time
 * The King's Dragon

Audiobooks

 * The Hounds of Artemis
 * The Runaway Train
 * Ring of Steel

DVD release
Weeks prior to the start of broadcast, Amazon.co.uk was already listing Doctor Who Series Five - Volume One as scheduled for release on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK on 7th June 2010. In keeping with previous releases of this nature, three episodes from the season will be included, though unlike previous "vanilla" releases, a featurette, The Monster Diaries, is also to be included.