Moffat hates spoilers too..

Gambler

Doctor Who chief writer Steven Moffat has attacked fans of the show who reveal crucial plot lines ahead of transmission.

"You can imagine how much I hate them," he told BBC Radio 5 live. "It's only fans who do this, or they call themselves fans.

"I wish they could go and be fans of something else."

Wow, them's strong words! Not sure if I wish they would go be fans of something else but I do have to be very careful about what I read before Saturday evening!

Rest of article is here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13353367

Doctor DooM

spoiler

ríomhaire

Ai. Someone showed my Davros' costume in the middle of Season 5. Annoyed the hell out of me. Can't we have surprises?

The Mad Hatter

ríomhaire wrote: »

Ai. Someone showed my Davros' costume in the middle of Season 5. Annoyed the hell out of me. Can't we have surprises?

That's actually exactly why I stopped following Doctor Who news. I'd rather just see the episodes as they come out.

old hippy

I detest the spoiler industry, I really do. Thankfully I don't watch soaps, as all the surprises there are released months beforehand in the tabloids and telly mags.

Back in Peter Davison's day, something like Eathshock was a complete surprise; nobody knew it would feature the return of an old villain and the death of a companion. Much more impact. These days such things are heralded in such a fashion that you'd want to be a hermit to avoid them.

Bah.

ixoy

I loathe spoilers. I don't even watch the previews as I don't want to know anything in advance. It annoys me when people talk about them in an episode thread as happens here.
Moffat is right to hate these people who can ruin the experience.

popebenny16

because of the spoiler industry i actually avoided the internet as best as i could last week including here (even though posters here are on the ball with these things).

anyway, i am following this chap on the twit machine @angry_moffat who has some definitive things to say on spoilers.

apart from that, you should see the view he takes to internet fans in general every month in DWM.

not that DWM can talk, wander over to their messageboard on facebook, and look for a thread entitled "FAO Tom Spillsbury". At least when I was mod here noone came looking for me, nor ringing my place of work to such an extent that the receptionist made a complaint....

Art_Wolf

...wow feel that love!

TheIrishGrover

ixoy wrote: »

I loathe spoilers. I don't even watch the previews as I don't want to know anything in advance. It annoys me when people talk about them in an episode thread as happens here.
Moffat is right to hate these people who can ruin the experience.

Same here. If it's a show I've been enjoying I avoid all spoilers/trailers etc. (I always HATED that thunderbirds-like preview during the start of Battlestar and looked away). I've been looking on youtube etc for a clip this reminded me of. It was the 200th episode of Stargate. O'Niell turns up as a cameo in it and they go something along the lines of:
"General, this is a surprise!"
"Oh please, they#ll show him in the trailer!!!"

And an episode of Buffy where Giles returns. We all knew he was going to turn up sometime but it was kept a secret as to when..... Until the sky trailer showed his one line at the last second of the episode!

popebenny16

Art_Wolf wrote: »

...wow feel that love!

I'm going to find out where you work and ring your office

ixoy

TheIrishGrover wrote: »

And an episode of Buffy where Giles returns. We all knew he was going to turn up sometime but it was kept a secret as to when..... Until the sky trailer showed his one line at the last second of the episode!

They did one better with the Season 5 finale trailer:

showing Buffy's gravestone. MORONS.

pixelburp

In fairness, in this day and age of the average TV set picking up 100s of channels, I think many of them, the BBC included, are scared of losing viewers to their rivals. Back in the day of Earthshock, there was no internet, no camera-phones & only 4/5 other channels to compete with (some of which went off air sometimes thanks to mass strikes across the UK); it was easy to assume you had an audience with which you could dangle carrots & throw in genuine surprises. Dr. WHo adventures ran for 6/7 episodes knowing it could keep people coming back. It was also easier to keep secrets in production as most of old Who was filmed either in studio, or in a quarry

Nowadays I suspect TV execs are terrified of losing the casual viewer, so they "accidentally" leak, or just deliberately put out press releases that reveal plot points. That's not to downplay the effect of mass communication, don't get me wrong. There's no doubt that these days it's next to impossible to keep a secret on an open set.

I still think the BBC are as guilty as any fan with a Nokia though. Case in bloody point: before Season 6 started, the BBC released a series of teaser images showing-off the new run. 11 photos if I recall, and one of them was a picture of (seriously this is VERY spoilery, fare thee warned)

Centurion Rory talking to some Cybermen

. Bloody. Nora. In one JPG the BBC blew a big reveal, and ruined what might have been a nice - or even dramatic - surprise. Also; the "Next Time" trailers are equally guilty of this too: witness the tense moments after episode 1 ended... good lord, did Amy kill that astronaut girl? The drama of it allohwait a minute, the trailer shows it all worked out ok. Ah well.

So it takes two to tango. At least the fans might be spoiling stuff out of misguided enthusiasm and love for their favourite show; eager to share secrets and shocks with the public. The BBC have sometimes gone out of their way to remove any sense of drama and surprise from the series. I know who's worse in my eyes, in that respect.

Apolloyon

[/QUOTE] I still think the BBC are as guilty as any fan with a Nokia though. Case in bloody point: before Season 6 started, the BBC released a series of teaser images showing-off the new run. 11 photos if I recall, and one of them was a picture of (seriously this is VERY spoilery, fare thee warned)

Centurion Rory talking to some Cybermen

. Bloody. Nora. In one JPG the BBC blew a big reveal, and ruined what might have been a nice - or even dramatic - surprise. Also; the "Next Time" trailers are equally guilty of this too: witness the tense moments after episode 1 ended... good lord, did Amy kill that astronaut girl? The drama of it allohwait a minute, the trailer shows it all worked out ok. Ah well.

So it takes two to tango. At least the fans might be spoiling stuff out of misguided enthusiasm and love for their favourite show; eager to share secrets and shocks with the public. The BBC have sometimes gone out of their way to remove any sense of drama and surprise from the series. I know who's worse in my eyes, in that respect.[/QUOTE]

I think in this particular case the BBC made the right decision. Remember that kids also watch this show. It's all very well to stick The Doctor and his companions in tricky situations as a cliffhanger. But for a child, Amy shooting the astronaut girl and not knowing if she survived is going to be nightmare fuel! Letting it slip in the 'next time' that the child survived and that Amy was sorry was the best tactic the BBC could have made in these circumstances.

As for the spoilered photo you talked about. I completely agree. It's good to tease your audience but don't be so blatant about it otherwise you could ruin a perfectly good plot twist. I mean if I were to reveal to you that River Song's true identity is

that of actress Alex Kingston

. And obviously her ultimate plan is to

maintain regular acting gigs so she can afford to raise her family.

Warning! The first spoiler is 100% true!

I think here's a huge difference between getting your audience intrigued and eager for more and telling them outright scene by scene what is going to happen next. The BBC needs to keep doing the former if they want to keep both casual and longterm viewers interested in my opinion.

popebenny16

Best spoiler ever:


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Good old BBC!!