Doctor Who Series 5 on BBC America HD

Canadian viewers are still in search of an HD carrier for DW Series 5. After the CBC declined to pick up Series 4, it was picked up CTV's sister channel Space, which does not have HD.

In my opinion, DW is mainstream enough it should be shown on CTV which is in HD. Hope CTV can find a spot in it's lineup for it -- even if it's latenight or weekends.

Many Americans are also still in search of an HD carrier for Doctor Who S5, since there are still many providers who do not carry BBC America HD!

Come on DirecTV? Make use of that new bird that you launched that we are paying for!

So, is this the first one with the new Doctor?

I like that question.

Dish now has BBCHD

Whoops! Meant to say Dish is now carrying BBCAmericaHD

If the BBC really starts on or around April 3rd, I probably won't wait the 2 weeks. (Sorry, but I am a die-hard fan.) Having said that, I will also probably rewatch them 2 weeks later so I get the full HD experience. (Or TWC's approximation of it.)

I am incredibly excited to see the new series under the control of Steven Moffat.

Ah yes. Same doctor, new look. Although to be fair, wouldn't every Doctor have to act and speak the same since it's technically the same guy? I saw a lot of similarities in Eggleston (prob spelled that wrong) and Tenent's (him too) broad acting style. Maybe that was deliberate...?

Nope. The memories are saved but the body and personality are brand new. The name's the same but almost everything else is different.

If you watch The End of Time, The Doctor explains that the old Doctor really dies when he regenerates - his personality is gone, and the new guy has his own style and personality. Each new Doctor appears to be younger than the last - that's probably due to an effort to connect with the younger generation. You will miss the old Doctor(s) because they will never come back, except in those rare crossover episodes. Of course, we thought once a companion left the show, we never saw them again, either, but RTD kept bringing them back incessantly.

Just watched 'City of Death' with Tom Baker last night. What fun.

Who said anything about not watching it on my main TV?

I just don't understand why a 2 week delay (again I am assuming it will be a 2 week delay, the BBC still hasn't given an official date) is needed. If *I* can get it the day it airs in the UK, surely BBC America should be able to air it on the same day. If they choose not to, then I choose not to wait two weeks.

While this has been the case so far with Doc's 9-11 in the "new" series, this was definitely not always the case in the classic series. In fact, new head honcho Moffat had plans to cast someone older than Matt Smith (mid 30s - mid 40s was the age Moffat thought he wanted), but apparently Smith blew him away at his audition.

BBC America is not a co-producer of Doctor Who, as CBC (in Canada) was for the first few seasons of the new Doctor Who (2005-7), so it has to buy this program from the UK. It does not get BBC content free.

BBC America was a co-producer of Torchwood just like BBC and HBO were co-producers of the Rome series.

You can get the HD versions (in 720p, anyway) without waiting the two weeks, since they will be on BBC-HD in Britain. Not advocating anything one way or another...just noting the existence of the higher resolution files.

Exactly! If they could do the specials the next day, why can't they do season 5 the next day or within a few days? BBCA has to know there are a bunch of die hard losers like myself who can't wait weeks for their favorite show to air. The 2 final specials did record ratings for BBCA, and I would hazard to guess with a 2 week delay the new series won't better those numbers. I would much prefer to watch it in HD on BBCA, but I want to know what happens, so I am not willing to wait that long. Anyway, I'm happy it still has a US home (albeit on an obscure channel that spends most of its time airing bad reality shows), but what would REALLY make me happy is if they'd just release the Blu-Rays right away!

Torchwood: Children of Earth aired two weeks after UK broadcast, not one. Back in early 2009, BBCA actually announced it would air the same night, but by June, they changed their minds so that Torchwood could be part of the grand launch of BBCA HD the week of July 20 (and, as we all saw, no one had access to BBCA HD that first week, so there ended up being no reason for them to postpone it two weeks!).

I consider Doctor Who an "international" show with a worldwide fanbase -- just look at Who message boards/forums, there are people logging on from many countries. With such a prestige worldwide series, and the fact that BBCA aired End of Time just one night after UK broadcast (if Christmas had been on Saturday instead of Friday last year, I'm sure BBCA would have aired End of Time the same night), there is no need to wait two weeks.

Think about the reverse -- there are a number of "high-profile" US shows that air in the UK the same week. I bet lots of UK Lost fans would go online if they had to wait two weeks for a new episode (Lost currently airs Tuesday night in the US and Friday night in the UK -- just three days later).

I think an article about BBCA I read in late December 2009 sums up why we aren't getting Who until two weeks later. The higher-ups at BBCA who were interviewed said that since the final Tennant specials were such an "event," they wanted to get them on in the US ASAP (perhaps to avoid "online" viewing). BBCA probably doesn't consider the start of a "regular season" - especially with a "non-Tennant" in the lead role - an "event," so they think Who fans won't mind a two-week wait. (They're wrong in my case, as I'll be watching the same night as the UK -- wink, wink.)

My biggest beef with the BBC-A airings is that they will likely be edited down to fit in an hour block with commercials. This is just like the Top Gear episodes they show.

At least with Doctor Who, the DVD/Blu-rays are uncut. We can't even buy uncut Top Gear episodes, they are all the edited BBC-A versions.

+10000000000000000000000

Why might folks choose the downloads instead of waiting two weeks?
Aside from impatience, I can think of several reasons...

1. Not wanting to have to look at a bunch of snipes and on-screen cluttter
2. Not having access to BBCA-HD, the downloads can look better than the SD version of BBCA
3. Not subscribing to a pay TV service...or if a subscriber, not taking a package that includes BBCA
4. Concerns about edits made to allow for commercials in US broadcasts (although I don't understand why BBCA can't run "Doctor Who" uncut, considering that it usually runs under 44 minutes in Britain)

I'm sure that others can come up with additional reasons.

Doctor Who is a show with an international fanbase, like Lost. I read a number of Who and Lost forums/message boards, as well as US & UK news websites, that discuss new episodes as soon as they air.

Lost airs on Tuesday nights in the US and Friday nights in the UK (just three days later). If I lived in the UK, I'd have to avoid certain forum threads for three days, but would have time to read and respond before the next new episode aired.

If BBCA had decided to air Doctor Who the same week (which I don't think is an unreasonable expectation, considering the show's large international fanbase -- just like Lost), I'd watch it first on BBCA. However, with a two-week delay, I'll watch online the same night as the UK.

Now, what about a show like Being Human? Season 2 just finished in the UK, but BBCA has decided to wait until "late summer" to air it, even though they could easily air it now on Sunday nights in place of endless Brit Movie repeats. So, because BBCA has decided not to air Being Human in a timely manner even though they could, we should just patiently wait six months??

I guess BBCA considered End of Time a "special event" and aired in one day after UK broadcast so people would watch on BBCA instead of online, but don't consider the new season of Who as important, hence a two-week delay. (If BBCA are legally required to wait one day, why not put Who on Sunday nights one day after UK broadcast?)

The same goes for Top Gear as well. The 'new season' they are constantly advertising is Series 13 that aired in the summer of 2009. There's already been a 7 episode series 14 since then. You'd think BBC-A would have rushed through Series 13 as quickly as possible to get to the HD Series 14 to promote BBC-A HD. This is on top of 10 minutes being chopped out of the episodes along with very inconsistent censorship.

If they would simply run the full episodes, uncut, uncensored, in a timely manner; they would kill the motivation that most people have to pirate (which is a gray area when it comes to Top Gear anyways as the torrent sites seem to almost have the blessing of the Top Gear producers.)

I misspoke before about not being able to buy the uncut episodes, you actually can over the Xbox Live/Zune marketplace (at least I think you can given the fact that they are all listed as 1hr.) The only problem is you have to wait until they air on BBC-A first. At the rate BBC-A is going, you may be able to start buying series 14 sometime after series 15 finishes airing in the UK.