Friday, July 11, 2008

Saturday Night Sarah-Jane?

One of the most dangerous things about writing a fan-blog like this is the constant stream of emails one receives from various people, claiming to be inside sources. Sometimes it's fairly obvious when they're lying, and aren't real sources. Sometimes it's harder to see the truth. If I'm honest, I only report about 25% of the stuff I get sent - the rest, I'm guessing, is completely untrue.

You have to be careful what you report. You have a responcibilty running something like this. I remember during the early days of Torchwood.tv I got sent a the synopsis for the first eight episodes of Torchwood - almost six months before transmission!! I knew that Jack was immortal. I knew the fate of Suzie Costello. I knew about the Cyberwoman. Everything! (Except that Suzie returned in episode eight - originally that episode, "They Keep Killing Suzie", was a lot different...). Imagine if I'd posted that online, months before transmission? They'd have been chaos... not to mention, BBC Wales would have hated me!

I usually decide to post a story if there's evidence it could be true (which is why yesterday's story regarding a series two SJA guest artist was put online) but sometimes, I'll still hold off - 'cos even I, Mr. Gulliable, can't quite be sure if what I'm reading is to be believed.

Where's all this going? Well, a while back (a few weeks after series one ended its run) I received word that the second series of the SJA wouldn't be returning to its CBBC. Oh no; the BBC had apparently deemed it enough of a success to transfer to primetime Saturday night.

And that was that. I didn't hear anything more on the story for a long while - but thing is, these past few weeks, there's been a few more rumblings that the story is true.

Personally, I doubt it - the programme was commissioned for its CBBC slot. But then again, Torchwood was originally a BBC Three mainstay, before BBC Two (and now BBC One) poached it. And "Invasion of the Bane" wasn't aired as part of CBBC. It broadcast independent. So maybe, just maybe, it's true. But I doubt it.

Still, it'd be rather wonderful wouldn't it if, during Doctor Who's year long break, we got something Who-esque to replace it in the schedules.

This fan can dream!

9 comments:

Nabu San said...

Ooh, heard mumblings of this meself over at Doctor Who FOrum! I think I'll probably die from the sheer AWESOMENESS of having SJA in a prime-time slot.

But CBBC, from what I've heard, are a separate branch of the BBC with their own budget going into SJA. I think with all the money they're investing they'd want the show on the CBBC channel, too.

But no reason why this source can't be true. They'll just have to move the BBC1 weekday slot to Saturday night prime-time instead!

I remember a time when all the majorly major Children's dramas used to come on Saturday evenings. Stig of the Dump, The Phoenix and the Carpet, that random one with Ogres etc. We'll have to wait and see if they do that with SJA, I suppose :)

Gaz said...

I doubt this. A lot.

I mean, what about Robin Hood? That takes up the "Doctor Who time-slot" in the Autumn.

It would be good if true, but I have my doubts.

Nabu San said...

Robin Hood had cross my mind.

And if they're going to get the show out of the way in time for SJA's premiere, they need to start airing episodes in a couple weeks.

Then again, there's no reason why they can't have both SJA and Robin Hood on the same night. :D

Anonymous said...

I suspect a showing at 5pm-ish on a Saturday before Merlin? I think it still needs to keep its CBBC status as a kids show but Saturday night would be great.

Anonymous said...

At first I thought perhaps a premier on CBBC and then have a terrestrial weekend showing - but that could considerably dent the Saturday ratings.

Anyway, never mind that - what was the original synopsis of 'They Keep Killing Suzie', Jack?

Nabu San said...

Yes, that has me intrigued too! How much more different could it have been? :D

Anthony Garnon said...

I believe there was a little who-ha over whether or not Indira Varma would be available to return (originally what became episode 8 was episode 6, and would have been filmed in the same production block as eps 1 and 2).

Therefore, the story was changed so that a face from Jack's past - either a former Torchwood team mate (not Suzie) or another Time Agent (a la Captain John Hart) - would be the dead man, or woman, returning.

Russell T Davies didn't like the angle the episode's original writers took, and took the chance to re-write the whole thing once it was confirmed that Indira was returning.

Now to tease you some more; I believe that episode 4 was originally going to be a Dalek episode - until the plug was pulled at the last minute, but not for the reasons you may have heard...

;)

Nabu San said...

You're a font of juicy info, jack :D

Anonymous said...

Regarding this info, it is actually false. The BBC Press Office confirmed that SJA would be shown as normal on the CBBC on BBC One slot.

Also, Torchwood will probably return to normal on BBC Two and Three following Series Three when the show returns to its normal adult-style format instead of the family-friendly version.