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    What if Doctor Who Wasn't Axed?
    What if Doctor Who Wasn't Axed?
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    Real World Articles, Doctor Who seasons

    The following article is written from an Out of Universe perspective.

    Season 54 of Doctor Who, also known as Series 2 premiered in January 2020 and was scheduled to air 13 episodes across the entire year, over 6 different serials, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the season aired 8 episodes across the entire over 4 different serials. It featured Ace Bhatti as The Doctor, Jayd Johnson as Chrissie Finch, and in the final serial, Alex Jennings as Bertie Reynolds.

    Overview

    Original Plans

    Season 54 was treated as Series 2, and although it doesn’t actually feature any of the TARDIS team from Series 1, it does pick up, airing wise, just a week after Series 1, and features exactly the same production team, as well as the same look and feel as the previous season.

    Season 54, therefore, was mostly the same, and just another planned 13 episodes, apart from the fact it was a new Doctor, played by Ace Bhatti, and the fact there was a new companion played by Jayd Johnson. Alex Jennings was set to reappear as Bertie, in a recurring capacity, beginning in the season finale, as Alex Jennings didn’t wish to continue playing the role as a regular due to the chaotic nature of the production of Season 53, however, Jennings later decided to go against the idea of him in a recurring position and was credited as a series regular in the finale.

    Hodges viewed Season 54 as the one where the show could really get going, as he said that Series 1 was about gaining the audience’s trust, with familiar elements and returning villains, whereas Series 2 was about getting into the meat of good quality Doctor Who.

    COVID-19's Effect on Season

    Like Season 53, the broadcast format of this season was maintained, with a premiere on January 1st and the finale on December 25th. However, unfortunate unplanned events took effect, as after only 6 full episodes had been shot, with about 50% of the seventh in production, the BBC made the decision to suspend production of Doctor Who due to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, which would later become the worldwide pandemic, throughout 2020 and 2021. It wasn’t until late August that production was resumed again, with Episode Seven being completed, and a new re-written Episode 8 being shot, to act as the season finale.

    During the hiatus in production, Episode 3’s broadcast was pushed back a month to May 2020, with Episode 4 now airing a month, not a week, afterwards, with it’s own individual episode title. This continued for the third serial, The Age of Discovery, with it’s first episode airing in August and it’s second in September. As the year closed, the newly shot final story was broadcast, the first part being in November and the concluding episode on Christmas Day.

    Effects of the ViacomCBS Report

    At the start of the year, ViacomCBS, who had just formed, from Viacom and CBS in December, and now the owners of 50% of the Franchise commissioned a report into it’s future. The main takeaways were that the logo was changed once again, this time to the 1970 logo, to act as a unified brand logo, the Chapter system was overhauled and a new Franchise Executive, Mal Young, was appointed, although Jane Espenson remained on as the Executive Supervisor of Doctor Who’s Television Output. Young as of episode five, would be credited as an "Senior Executive Producer".

    Cast

    Regular

    Recurring

    Guest

    Television Stories

    Main Season

    Serial # Title Writer Director Air Dates
    1 1 The Screams of Terror Adrian Hodges Metin Hüseyin 1 January 2020
    2 5 January 2020
    2 3 Vajahnari's Curse Pete McTighe Mick Jackson 10 May 2020
    4 Countdown 14 June 2020
    3 5 The Age of Discovery Simon Tyrrell Aisling Walsh 9 August 2020
    6 The Fourth Continent 6 September 2020
    4 7 The Last Supper Simon Allen & Adrian Hodges Jamie Magnus Stone 29 November 2020
    8 No Good Deed Adrian Hodges 25 December 2020

    Planned Season

    Serial Title Writer Director Eps. TX Month
    1 The Screams of Terror Adrian Hodges Metin Hüseyin 2 January 2020
    2 Vajahnari's Curse Pete McTighe Mick Jackson 2 April 2020
    3 The Age of Discovery Simon Tyrrell Aisling Walsh 2 June 2020
    4 No Good Deed Simon Allen Jamie Magnus Stone 2 September 2020
    5 Lost and Forgotten Chris Chibnall Lee Haven Jones 2 October 2020
    6 For All Their Wisdom Adrian Hodges Daniel O'Hara 3 December 2020

    Production

    Crew

    To be added.

    Shooting Blocks

    Block Serial Director Producer DOP Editor
    1 2/A Metin Hüseyin Colin Wratten Edward J. Pei Christopher Cooke
    2 2/B Mick Jackson Ivan Strasburg Justine Wright
    3 2/C Aisling Walsh Ella Kelly Lukas Strebel Alex Mackie
    4 2/D Jamie Magnus Stone Catherine Goldschmidt Rebecca Trotman
    5 Gaynor Holmes

    Filming

    To be added.

    Aliens and Enemies

    Viewing Figures

    No. Title Official BARB Figures (7-day) Official BARB Figures (28-day)
    Consolidated (m) Weekly Rank Consolidated (m) Weekly Rank
    1 The Screams of Terror, Part One 7.12 4 7.85 4
    2 The Screams of Terror, Part Two 6.79 9 7.43 5
    3 Vajahnari's Curse 7.27 7 7.91 6
    4 Countdown 5.70 11 6.38 6
    5 The Age of Discovery 5.55 6 6.10 4
    6 The Fourth Continent 5.12 11 5.86 8
    7 The Last Supper 6.59 15 7.31 10
    8 No Good Deed 6.89 5 7.64 3
    Series Average 6.38 7.06

    Physical Media

    To be added.

    Retrieved from "https://wiki.widwwa.co.uk/wiki/Season_54_(Doctor_Who)?oldid=18671"
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