Yup, pretty good stuff.
Which leaves us with quite a bit to look forward to in the last few, though that was also true of last year right up until the final episode.
Next we have 'Midnight' which is still the wild card; it was an emergency script RTD put in in place of a cancelled story, it is very low budget (shot on a single set) and Donna isn;t really in it, as she was busy filimg 'Turn Left' at the time.
Which means it isn't going to have much connection to other stories (most likely, anyway) and some cheap scripts in earlier series (e.g. Boom Town) have been rubbish, but actually there has been some positive vibe on Midnight being a not bad one-shot story.
After that we have the much awaited 'Turn Left' with all its Doctor-less, Rose-ful, alternate version of events big load of weird stuff. Definitely one to look forward to, could be awesome or rubbish.
And then into the final two parter, no word on the first episode name of that yet, but we have Rose, Donna, Jack, Sarah Jane, Daleks, Davros... geez... and possibly some other elements that have not yet been revealed. Hard to tell if there is much room for more of course, but as Davros is a more-or-less blown secret there has been speculation on a hidden Big Bad in there somewhere.
It also marks the end of RTD's storyline. The coming Christmas episode and next year's specials are his, of course, but this is the end of his final series story arc.
there are plenty of rumours about a certain character returning that isnt Rose,Mickey,Jack or SJ and ive heard what part she plays in everything
i think there is truth in it
despite everything a lot of unconfirmed rumours are becoming fact
though i do hope the pics of Tennant filming the xmas episodes are not as rumoured a decoy
DM would not be my ideal choice for the Doctor
im very exited about Moffats take over after tonights episode
we definatley wont be getting a John Nathan Turner style makeover when RTD hands over the keys to the Tardis and i hope it mirrors the Hinchcliffe era
there is much talk of "behind the sofa" with WHO but i think that come 2010 ill be climbing behind it regularly after tonights episode
i thought the bit with Donnas kids was very creepy
and i thought Tennant was again FANTASTIC tonight
they got their work cut out when he leaves
only a 2 months to go till the classic figures are released and some good dvds on the horizon particularly The Brain Of Morbious and The War Games
good times for a Who fan
FINALLY!!
and REMEMBER dont click if you dont want spoiling and this is a MASSIVE spoiler
http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj275/vintageSW77/YIP.jpg
The final of BGT caused Silence in the Library to get low ratings but the second episode did much better, back past seven million. Also it is clear, as everyone knew anyway, that it gets about a million fewer viewers when on around six compared to around seven.
It's more or less consistent with last series, aside from SiTL's drop. However, if you are worried about its popularity in general, remember the Christmas episode got 13 million viewers, which is... ridiculous.
In any case, forget the raw figures, the point is that Who's audience share for its timeslot tends to be about 40%- i.e. 40% of all people watching television at that time are watching Who. That is a proportion most shows would kill for.
Forest of the Dead, for example, got an average of 7.1. million viewers and a 40% audience share, right in the prime time audience slot for the day. No other show that day got more than 30%- and indeed, the ONE show that got 30% was the Breakfast news programme, which only had 1.5 million viewers so the proportions then are irrelevant.
The next most proportionately popular programmes that day were the Lottery Draw (27.8%) and the football (27.3%), neither of which are proper programmes. For that we have to go down to Casualty, which got 27.2% (with 5.5 million viewers). So aaginst anything reasonly comparable that day, Docotr Who got 13% more of the audience share- huge.
(Of course, Casualty is a BBC show too, and oddly enough it used to show after Doctor Who back in the 80s as well... that's nostalgia for you... what this generally shows is that the BBC has been annihilating rivials for thw weekend market these last few years)
Long story short- Who is still consistently kicking everything's arse in the ratings, with just one blip from that BGT final. And even with that, Who got more viewers than the ajority of programmes in the week.
The only programmes that consistently beat Who in the week at all are Eastenders and Coronation Street; that's soaps for you.
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Just to show the effect Who has on watchers- showing it's not just pulling viewers away from other channels, it is actually encouraging viewers to watch tv at all- here are the main channel viewers from last Saturday evening:
Viewers in millions
18:45
BBC 1: 4.4
BBC 2: 2.5
ITV: 1.1
C4: 1.2
C5: 0.7
19:00- 'Who' starts on BBC 1
BBC 1: 6.4
BBC 2: 1.1
ITV: 2.5
C4: 0.9
C5: 0.9
19:15
BBC 1: 7.2
BBC 2: 1.1
ITV: 2.0
C4 : 1.2
C5: 0.7
19:30
BBC 1: 7.7
BBC 2: 0.6
ITV: 2.7
C4: 1.5
C5: 0.9
19:45- 'Who' finishes
BBC 1: 4.6
BBC 2: 0.2
ITV: 4.0
C4: 1.7
C5: 0.9
As you can see, as soon as who comes in, it nabs viewers out of nowhere, taking twice as many new viewers watching TV for the evening as ITV does; the audience grows throughout the evening, and as soon as it finishes, one and a half million people simply stop watching tv, and an equal amount go onto ITV.
So it really still is BBC's flagship ratings killer for the weekend, for drama, and indeed for all programmes save sports and soaps.
