BBC are cancelling Confidential

aidan_walsh

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/news/bulletin_110928_01/Doctor_Who_Confidential_The_Finale

For the past seven years, Doctor Who Confidential has put you at the heart of Doctor Who, providing a unique insight into the stars, the show and the entire production.
This journey reaches a fitting finale on Saturday when Doctor Who Confidential premiers a brand new mini-adventure starring Matt Smith as the Doctor.

Aww.

pixelburp

Wow, budget cuts I'm guessing. Though truthfully - I never actually watched Confidential, as it just seemed like a re-run of the episode I just watched, set to music & interrupted by the occasional talking head from the production team.

I hope at the very least though they keep some form of makings-of extras for future DVDs.

Daemos

Not overly surprised or disappointed to be honest. It was 15-30 minutes too long, had basically the same info with some minor changes, and filled with loads of padding. They spent 5 minutes interviewing the caterer and and spent good portions of the last few episodes talking about the mini-episode mentioned in the article; more time that the actual episode itself will be

Basically they've run out of ideas for it, so if things have to be cut, then cut the thing that's served its purpose

aidan_walsh

I always liked the behind the scenes aspect to it. Sure they did waste some time with some silliness like the catering story, but people got to see how a TV show was made - you don't see a lot of that.

It was also mentioned to me on Twitter that the show had a side benefit of showing scared kids that the monsters that terrified them are really just men in suits or things on computer screens which I never considered but makes a lot of sense.

ríomhaire

Never bothered to watch it TBH.

Mahatma coat

bugger, I really liked Confidential, altho I agree that it could have ben trimmed down to about 20 minutes, I find the technical aspects of the Monster creation fascinating and its insightful to see how they work on such small budgets, like there were only 5 robots in the girl who waited, but it seemed like they were everywhere on screen

Mr.Saturn

It was fun to watch after 'big' episodes, as something of a comedown, be it, Tennant's end, Smith's debut, season finales et al and David Tennant used it himself as a platform to make the excellent 'Do you remember the first time?' documentary, but as mentioned, it's generally been this been big, bloated, contractual obligation of a thing and I'm a wee bit relieved that it's this getting cancelled rather than another cut to the main show. I mean, even the staff are just going to get absorbed into another end of the BBC, everyone wins.

pixelburp

Indeed; if this cancellation means that Who writers can actually start writing scripts again that involve more than 3 characters - or are set somewhere other than a conveniently abandoned ship/facility/museum/council estate - then I'll be the first one to clear out Confidential's desk & call security

Fysh

Neh, for every decent Confidential episode there seemed to be at least 2 or that were pointlessly over-long and self-congratulatory. Episodes like the minotaur one where there's enough meat to the story to allow for some interesting discussion or which have some interesting effects or production techniques involved would tend to generate good Confidential episodes, but overall they should never have been more than a 15 minute segment to begin with.

It may have been possible to do longer Confidential episodes when the series was first being brought back, but once the audience was up to speed and each Confidential was just about the episode of the week, the format became preposterous.

I'm sure they'll have bits and pieces for the DVD releases though.

flazio

That said though, I loved the one that accompanied The Doctor's Wife.

Yahew

I liked the recent one with Cordon.

flazio

flazio wrote: »

That said though, I loved the one that accompanied The Doctor's Wife.

I really like when they were concentrate on the writers myself. Surprised no-one mentioned Gaimon's yet

Sonics2k

That's a shame, always enjoyed watching it honestly.

Mahatma coat

There was no confidential on BBC3 last night

wench

Mahatma coat wrote: »

There was no confidential on BBC3 last night

There was, but not until 8.30

Mahatma coat

ah Bollix, I missed it So, when is it repeated

Niallwithaz

Mahatma coat wrote: »

ah Bollix, I missed it So, when is it repeated

Afaik it was repeated tonight on bbc3 but its too late now.

Yahew

excellent episode.

Sudden Valley

I only usually watched the 10 minutes confidential they played during the week rather than the 30 mins after the episode. Loved the ribbing that used to go on between the main cast members. Something you wouldn't even have in gag reels:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCu2UqlQR1s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbAqaOBK-MU

Daemos

Ironically, that last episode of Confidential was probably the second-best all year. For anyone that didn't see it, as well as the mini-episode it also had a definitive time line for River Song that's worth a look:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcuDf25OuQo

Cormic

I watched a single episode and all it consisted of was Karen and Matt sitting in a tent in a field and complaining about how cold it was. I never bothered watching again.