Norton Strikes Again

“Vampires Of Venice” will have the earliest start time ever for any episode of New Who

Graham Norton seems intent on increasing his credentials as Doctor Who ’s greatest enemy. After gatecrashing “Rose” all those years ago, and then ruining the cliffhanger to “The Time Of Angels” last week, now his Wizard Of Oz show is causing Doctor Who to move back to the earliest start time its had since the show returned in 2005.

“Vampires Of Venice” will now start at 6pm, Blimey, some of us are barely out of bed then on a Saturday. According to The Doctor Who News Page , “The earlier spot appears to be to accommodate a longer edition of Over The Rainbow . It is understood that the production team of the talent show were reluctant to be scheduled against Britain's Got Talen t and wanted Doctor Who to be moved to an earlier slot.”

Annoying or what? Has the BBC stopped caring about Doctor Who , shunting it back into less prestigious time slots? Or maybe, with Over The Rainbow struggling in the ratings, and the fact that nearly two million people are recording Doctor Who every week to watch later (not to mention about a million are watching it on iPlayer) Doctor Who no longer needs to chase overnight ratings. And it is sensible not to schedule two vote/talent shows opposite each other. So we can see why the BBC has done it. Just seems a bit of a shame that the show is now seen as handy scheduling Pollyfilla.

Dave Golder
Freelance Writer

Dave is a TV and film journalist who specializes in the science fiction and fantasy genres. He's written books about film posters and post-apocalypses, alongside writing for SFX Magazine for many years.