[Blubatt]

Kudos to RTD for managing to keep spoilers from being leaked. I had no idea that the ending would occur as it did (Being vague, because it was spoiled for me, not going to do that to you guys). One must ask: What can broadcasters do to avoid leaks and spoilers, not just of Doctor Who, but other shows as well.

[chinamug]

In reality, this is another RTE problem too - RTE should have been there at the start, ready to get the Irish rights for the show - it should have been airing on Saturday nights on RTE 1 simulcast with BBC 1, considering RTE 1 shows no home produced programming after their Saturday early evening news, just usually movies.

It seems also BBC Studios and Disney are also at fault, as when the deal was signed for the international rights of the show, the Republic of Ireland was overlooked - in fact one media insider told me, they just forgot about Ireland, as they thought BBC iPlayer was available legally in the Republic of Ireland, and then too late when they discovered it wasn't, hence the botched RTE deal rushed into place, and of course RTE being in dire financial straits, I bet they couldn't afford the simulcast deal

Poor showing, but sci fi television in Ireland was never a success apart from Star Trek which the original series and Next Generation pulled in decent ratings for RTE in the day

I'd be the last to defend RTE but it's not an RTE problem. Doctor Who for whatever reasons has never been big in Ireland. There's hasn't been a mention anywhere about the lack of access to the series on streaming services. I'm sure one or two people have been put out by the situation, but if you really want to watch it, it's not hard to access. I'm sure it'll appear on the RTE Player with little publicly just like the Specials last year.

Sci fi in Ireland has been a success in Ireland, RTE showed a fair share of Sci fi over the years, and Stations like Sky One were the go to place for Sci fi fans both in the UK and Ireland since the 90's. The main exception to the rule is Doctor Who which tended to have poor audiences when broadcast on TV3 and TG4.

[Rdd]

While I agree that it hasn’t been as big in Ireland as in other English speaking markets - for whatever reason - it’s simply not true to say this has got no mention. Here, no less than the newspaper of record itself -

www.irishtimes.com ?

Is Doctor Who too whimsically British for Ireland? – The Irish Times
With the Doctor set to embark on his next thrilling trek through time and space,…
  Source: www.irishtimes.com

Also, a bit of an explanation about the tax credit:

www.irishtimes.com 

Is that a harp in the Doctor Who time vortex? Irish screen industry travels far …
Government symbol on Doctor Who credits would have startled my 1980s self but is…
  Source: www.irishtimes.com

The series has its fans here, enough that Doctor Who merchandise, DVDs etc were always sold here through the usual outlets. I think it’s just the case that the BBC has been adequate for first run fans of the series up until now, and Netflix catered for the streaming audience until the BBC unfortunately pulled it off there a few years back - until the RTE Player deal was done it hasn’t been available to legally stream since.

Neither or RTE or TV3/VMTV have ever been big on sci-fi, I think we’ve mentioned somewhere else how RTE’s commissioning guidelines expressly say not to pitch a sci-fi idea (or really anything that doesn’t fit with their favourite category of “crime drama”!). Star Trek always was much bigger, with TNG the last big prime time sci fi on RTE. But TNG finished thirty years ago, they only got a season and a half into DS9 before they pulled it, and while they used to show some genre stuff (including I think Voyager) in late night slots on RTE2 back in the 1990s/early 2000s, I don’t think they’ve touched much other than the X Files revival in the last couple of years. As for TG4, the less said about their 1999 repeat run of Pertwee stories the better, as I think we’ve already mentioned.

[chinamug]

While I agree that it hasn’t been as big in Ireland as in other English speaking markets - for whatever reason - it’s simply not true to say this has got no mention. Here, no less than the newspaper of record itself -

www.irishtimes.com ?

Also, a bit of an explanation about the tax credit:

www.irishtimes.com 

The series has its fans here, enough that Doctor Who merchandise, DVDs etc were always sold here through the usual outlets. I think it’s just the case that the BBC has been adequate for first run fans of the series up until now, and Netflix catered for the streaming audience until the BBC unfortunately pulled it off there a few years back - until the RTE Player deal was done it hasn’t been available to legally stream since.

Neither or RTE or TV3/VMTV have ever been big on sci-fi, I think we’ve mentioned somewhere else how RTE’s commissioning guidelines expressly say not to pitch a sci-fi idea (or really anything that doesn’t fit with their favourite category of “crime drama”!). Star Trek always was much bigger, with TNG the last big prime time sci fi on RTE. But TNG finished thirty years ago, they only got a season and a half into DS9 before they pulled it, and while they used to show some genre stuff (including I think Voyager) in late night slots on RTE2 back in the 1990s/early 2000s, I don’t think they’ve touched much other than the X Files revival in the last couple of years. As for TG4, the less said about their 1999 repeat run of Pertwee stories the better, as I think we’ve already mentioned.

To be fair I was talking about the current series where there seemed to be little or no coverage in the Irish press and certainly no outcry that RTE weren't showing it. Obviously Doctor Who had some fans in Ireland but it really wasn't a show that was discussed in the playgrounds when I was a kid, while Star Trek, Misfits of Science, V, etc were.

RTE was big on Sci fi from the late 70's till the mid 90's with a lot of American Shows shown usually months before the UK stations. However this stopped around 1995 onwards when SKY One seemed to buy a lot of the rights. Today's RTE aren't into Sci fi, but then again they're not into lots of other types of shows.

The Harp turns up all over the place these days, from the Marvel TV shows on Disney to Rick and Morty.

[JMT1985]

You get the feeling the BBC feel most people in the Republic of Ireland are using the VPNs to access BBC iPlayer and watch it, and I think they don't care. I think they are perfectly happy for the Irish fans to watch it this way

[RhysJR]

A rather odd announcment that there will be a brand new episode of the Tales of the TARDIS series airing on BBC Four on Thursday June 20th - 28 hours or so before the series finale. This new episode will see Ncuti Gatwa and Mille Gibson feature.


All previous episodes have had classic companions or Doctors (and Clyde from the Sarah Jane Adventures in lieu of anyone else available from the Third Doctor era) reunited to rewatch a Classic Who episode with a new interaction bookmarking the original episode. There is plenty of theories that the big villain of the series finale (a two parter by the way) could be a classic era character returning, so it is only natural to assume this could be reintroducting this character. There is also a shot from a Disney+ trailer that features Ncuti with a background of the memory TARDIS (the set of Tales of the TARDIS) from before the series began - that no longer looks like a mistake.

www.tvzoneuk.com 

x.com 

Confirmed that the new Tales of the TARDIS episode that will air on Thursday on BBC Four will be a reshowing of the Fourth Doctor adventure Pyramids of Mars. Sensible to reshiw this serial I think in light of Sutekh returning and unknown to the modern audience, so this will allow anyone to see his only other appearance before the next episode.


There is a bit of discussion elsewhere online about bringing a one-off villain from 50 years ago when trying to attract a new audience. Personally, I was fine with this - I think there was enough build-up for the audience to be able to understand how big and evil a threat he is, with an added bonus of a returning character for anyone who knows the show's history. And it was great to have the original voice actor Gabriel Woolf return despite being in his nineties; his last Doctor Who appearance was as The Beast in 2006.

www.bbc.co.uk 

Doctor Who - The Doctor and Ruby journey to the Pyramids Of Mars in an all new T…
Originally airing in 1975, the four part story Pyramids of Mars sees the Fourth …
  Source: www.bbc.co.uk

[JAS84]

Kudos to RTD for managing to keep spoilers from being leaked. I had no idea that the ending would occur as it did (Being vague, because it was spoiled for me, not going to do that to you guys). One must ask: What can broadcasters do to avoid leaks and spoilers, not just of Doctor Who, but other shows as well.

Yeah, I'd seen speculation about Sutekh being back (that's no longer a spoiler now that the Tales of the TARDIS announcement mentioned it), but I certainly didn't know how.

[Gallunach]

In reality, this is another RTE problem too - RTE should have been there at the start, ready to get the Irish rights for the show - it should have been airing on Saturday nights on RTE 1 simulcast with BBC 1, considering RTE 1 shows no home produced programming after their Saturday early evening news, just usually movies.

RTE can't win on that though as in any thread about the licence fee there are always complaints about them showing EastEnders at the same time and comments you can watch it on the BBC

[Rdd]

You get the feeling the BBC feel most people in the Republic of Ireland are using the VPNs to access BBC iPlayer and watch it, and I think they don't care. I think they are perfectly happy for the Irish fans to watch it this way

I really don’t think “most people” are. There is a minority of people who are tech savvy and determined to watch by whatever means and will do so. That’s not the same as saying everyone is at it. Most will be watching on BBC One as they always have.

[Scrotnig]

Confirmed that the new Tales of the TARDIS episode that will air on Thursday on BBC Four will be a reshowing of the Fourth Doctor adventure Pyramids of Mars. Sensible to reshiw this serial I think in light of Sutekh returning and unknown to the modern audience, so this will allow anyone to see his only other appearance before the next episode.


There is a bit of discussion elsewhere online about bringing a one-off villain from 50 years ago when trying to attract a new audience. Personally, I was fine with this - I think there was enough build-up for the audience to be able to understand how big and evil a threat he is, with an added bonus of a returning character for anyone who knows the show's history. And it was great to have the original voice actor Gabriel Woolf return despite being in his nineties; his last Doctor Who appearance was as The Beast in 2006.

www.bbc.co.uk 

I agree. RTD is good at this. You don’t need to even know The Pyramids of Mars exists in order for Saturday’s reveal to work. Indeed even if you do, it’s not relevant beyond a nice bit of nostalgia.

Having Gabriel Woolf back doing the voice is the icing on the cake. Again it’s great to know it’s him, but if you’re a more recent fan of the show, he is just brilliant at that voice. I cannot imagine anyone else doing it so well. I’m so pleased they didn’t just recast the voice part. Again the show has a great record on this sort of thing.

A fantastic and flawless episode!