Well, the BBC announced a few days ago their plans going forward for Doctor Who.

In short (for those that missed the announcement), we’ll have Season 4 as normal next year, a Christmas Special and the 3 specials in 2009 before Season 5 airs in 2010.

Needless to say, Outpost Gallifrey imploded on the news, as the doomsayers came out in force.

My take is this: there had been increasing speculation that David Tennant was leaving at the end of Season 4. His popularity as an actor is through the roof, and 3 years is considered a “good run” for an actor playing the Doctor. No one would’ve blamed him for wanting to take on new projects before risking seriously being typecast. Then the announcements that David Tennant would be appearing in Hamlet hit the web, and it looked like he was going for sure.

With this announcement, the BBC have squashed those rumours, and we’re guaranteed he’ll still be in the role through to 2009. This is a good thing.

Its no secret that the production schedule for Dr Who is fairly punishing, with 9 months of 15 hour days required by the actors to make the show happen. By taking a gap year (ignoring the specials), it allows everyone (not just Tennant, but the rest of the crew as well, including Russell T Davies, also widely rumoured to be quitting after season 4) to have some time to themselves, and pursue other projects for a year.

For the viewers, granted this means a bit less Who in 2009, but it also means we’re guaranteed new episodes through to 2010. Not to mention I personally think a year off will result in an increase in quality, as we’ll not only have fresher people involved in the production, but also they’ll have had a year to fine-hone any ideas for stories. Plus the time off will build demand amongst the fans, and the specials will all be a big event when they air.

Overall, I think this is good news. Unlike the OG doomsayers, I’m quite excited by this announcement.

(Disclaimer: the majority of posters on OG are all nice, sane people. Sadly the Doomsayers tend to be more vocal)

Can you tell I’ve finally got round to catching up with the tech blogs I usually read?

This is just neat. The latest version of Google Earth has a flight simulator hidden in it. I’ll need to try this when I get home:

Marco’s Blog: Google Earth Flight Simulator

Now this kind of thing is just petty.

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