James Lomond is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.
They’ve got Ben Wheatley for the opener?!
If you’ve seen any of Wheatley’s work you’ll know why I was surprised and you’ll know why I was excited. It’s individual, witty and intelligent. It’s sort of the *opposite* of Love & Monsters (no I’m never letting it drop). We were promised something darker, moodier, scarier – perhaps even GRITTY. Much like Bond’s re-imagining with Daniel Craig, there was a departure from the lead man’s overall look (be it blonde or salt-n-pepper hair), there was a new feel and a new beginning with some of the old guard standing by to keep things steady (be it Judy Dench or Jenna Coleman).
Yes, Kasterborites. Doctor Who Series 8 was Who’s Casino Royale… (the gritty one. Not the one with Woody Allen).
And you liked it. It was quite a departure from what had gone before but it’s not the first time we’ve had that. Smith’s debut series ushered a fairy tale-feel and a LOT more blue light. Arguably Tennant’s first run was as dramatic a change at the time having only had Ecclestone’s single run to set the tone.
And you recently voted Doctor Who Series 8 your FAVOURITE debut series since 2006. That is to say just under a third of you voted Series 5, the Eleventh Doctor’s debut run as your favourite, a shade less than that voted for Series 2 with the Tenth Doctor, but the remaining 44% of you all said this was the best of the new Doctor runs.
AND NOW FOR SOME STATS! 
It is the prerogative, nay, vocation of Doctor Who fans to fret over, examine, debate and nurse the show’s viewing figures – willing them the be bigger and healthier and kicking them when they’re down. Like your favourite football team (if you have one, I understand lots of people do), the scores matter…
And the final ratings for Capaldi’s first series are in. These are the average live broadcast figures with time-shift and those recording to watch later added in. They’re not the Live+7 figures which tot up the numbers with iPlayer views giving them and added boost. The reason for this is firstly that those don’t seem to be available yet, and this allows us to compare with Series 5 and Series 2 in a moment. Take a look at the graph below…
(A word of warning – I’ve shortened the vertical axis (starts at 5 million) to focus on the comparison between episodes…)
Now you’d be right if you said it wasn’t fair to compare Series 8’s ratings without iPlayer views with Series 5 and Series 2. Though you’d also be right if you said the opposite so let it go! We’re primarily interested with the response to the Series as it airs – the fact is TV viewing is a wee bit different now to 2006 and there’s ‘nowt’ we can do about that. Apart from get *really * technical – but that’s what the comments section is for…
The first thing to mention is the big audience for Deep Breath that fell away for the second episode. This is to be expected as you’ll see below. The first appearance of a new Doctor is a big deal and the publicity is always louder.
The audience doesn’t know what the episode is like until they see it, so while there will be some ups and downs during the broadcast because of people viewing either switching off or messaging their friends to turn on BBC 1, the viewing figures aren’t about how good it was. Rather they tell us more about the advertising and anticipation
The main thing I want to point out is the overall “U” shape we’ve got going on – this is a show that can hold its own and attract viewers over time. There are loads of different factors involved in shaping this chart – what was being shown in direct competition, how people had responded with word-of-mouth to the previous week, the press previews and national events – the most significant of which is always good weather.
Dig out the TV listings or scrutinise the calendar and you may find an explanation for the zigzag between Mummy and Flatline – you’d have thought that things would start to climb even higher after the Daddy of the episodes had screened (see what I did there? …Yes I’ll get on with it).
How did the new chap compare?
Here’s a comparison of the debut series for David Tennant, Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi in Series 2 (2006), 5 (2011) and 8 (2014) respectively.
First off, some explanation – you may see things differently but the “first episode” wasn’t the debut for all three Doctors here. Tennant made his first full appearance in The Christmas Invasion which aired on Christmas day, months before Series 2 started-proper. So on the chart, Series 2 (green) starts one block earlier than the other two to show off his first appearance while bearing in mind that it had the benefit of being a heavily publicised Christmas episode when EVERYONE is at home and unable to move from the sofa (“couch”).
Also Series 8 was one episode less than 2 and 5 – I’ve chosen to align the first episodes and have the Series 8 finale line up with the penultimate episode of the other series. Sue me.
SO! What do we think? The initial feeling might be a bit of pessimism – did Capaldi’s debut series (Blue) underperform compared to the others? At first glance it may look that way but consider – in the second half, Capaldi’s series easily outdoes Tennant’s and easily keeps up with, perhaps outdoing, Smith’s. Not that any of this is a competition [Ahem].
Then there’s the sudden peak that Tennant’s first series had the 5th episode, lining up with Time Heist. That was 2006’s Rise of the Cybermen. The peak makes sense given that it was the well-publicised return of the show’s second favourite monster after a 17 year absence! Note the sudden drop back down to the general trend with the following week’s Age of Steel. I imagine the 1.5 million that decided not to tune in were listening to Spare Parts instead. (OhyesIdid!)
Another thing to note is that Series 8 seems to be less histrionic than Tennant and Smith’s debut series which seem to go up and down like, um, a bootleg time rotor. Why the smoother and less variable audience for Capaldi? iPlayer again?..
Something else that might be happening is that the longer availability of episodes after broadcast and increased familiarity with iPlayer may mean that we’re seeing a more stable *core* of stay-in viewers of the ‘live’ broadcast while the more frivolous additional audience can and will catch-up later on rather than make sure they tune-in for *event * episodes. Back when iPlayer was less popular, it may be that those who were tempted by headline monsters or press coverage would squeeze in in front of the telly for Tennant and Smith whereas now they just catch up on their laptop in the lunch break.
Even I may have ventured out on a Saturday night date or two when I should have had my bum on the sofa. But when single and gorgeous one has obligations. [It was either “gorgeous” or “desperate” – I forget which].
Final thoughts: In terms of series averages, Capaldi’s debut run beats Tennants by about 0.2 million and comes in at about 0.5 million under Smith’s. And that’s counting only those specific series and not Christmas specials. The show is just as healthy as it ever has been, and plausibly that 0.5 million and more besides are catching up on iPlayer. Certainly the show has a bigger international audience than it ever has done in the NuWho era.
(Though that would be interesting – could we get an estimate of the number of people that watched the missing 60s serials that were sold on, or “cycled” from country to country?)…
What are your thoughts? Observations? Interpretations? Happy with how things are going – what do we think has happened to all the tearful teens that struggled with Smith’s departure… have they adjusted to the Attack Eyebrows or jumped ship to Sinbad or somesuch? Have we inherited a whole new audience that are partial a bit of political satire? Either way – I am one happy fan!
Last thing – we used data from Wikipedia, praise be, for Doctor Who Series 8, Series 5 and Series 2 here. There *are* some discrepancies online depending where you look. A reliable source should you be be curious is BARB – and here’s a wee treat (if you’re as geeky as me): I’m pretty certain this animated infogram about the changing ways of assessing viewer behaviour is voiced by one of my favourite companions…
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