English Entertainment
FX to premiere special episodes of ‘Doctor Who’
MUMBAI: With Christmas right around the corner, many show creators are all set to play Santa – giving viewers a truly X-Mas’y feeling. But nothing tops the Christmas offering that FX has in its Santa bag! A double treat for viewers this Christmas, FX will extend the festive feeling right from Christmas, 25 December 2015 up to 27 December 2015 for a merry-making X-Mas weekend.
On 25 December 2015, the edgy entertainment channel as part of its Christmas will air Christmas special episodes of Doctor Who from its previous seasons namely Last Christmas – part 1 and part 2 , The Time of the Doctor – part 1 and 2, The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe – part 1 and 2 and A Christmas Carol – part 1 and 2. The Christmas special marathon will be on-air all day on Christmas, starting 12 pm right till 8 pm. But the merriment does not end here.
As part of an extended Christmas offering, FX and FX HD will be showcasing the all-new Christmas special episode The Husbands of River Song simulcast on 27 December at 11 pm.
The all-new and exciting episode The Husbands of River Song boasts the return of River Song (played by guest star) Alex Kingston. One of the most loved characters on the show since 2008, Professor River Song was introduced to the series as an experienced future companion of series protagonist the Doctor, an alien Time Lord who travels through time in his Tardis. A time-traveller herself, River was initially a companion, then a romantic interest and eventually became the wife of the Doctor in his eleventh incarnation, portrayed by Matt Smith. Other actresses have subsequently portrayed younger versions of the character since her first appearance in 2008.
It’s Christmas Day in the future and the Tardis is parked on a snowy village street, covered in icicles, awaiting its next adventure. Time traveller River Song meets her husband’s new incarnation, in the form of Peter Capaldi, for the first time this Christmas. But wait, will she even know that the Doctor is the Doctor? And is she married to someone else too?
The episode follows the Doctor’s latest adventure when on Christmas Day 5343, in the remote human colony of Mendorax Dellora, the Doctor is hiding from Christmas carollers and comedy reindeer antlers. But when a crashed spaceship calls upon him for help, the doctor quickly finds himself recruited into River Song’s squad, and hurled into a fast, frantic chase across the galaxy pursued by River’s new husband, his Infinite Majesty King Hydroflax of the Final Cluster. Will any of them make it out alive? And when will River Song work out who the Doctor is? All will be revealed on a star-liner full of galactic super-villains, and a destination the Doctor has been avoiding for a very long time
The 2015 Doctor Who Christmas special is written by the series’ lead writer and executive producer, Steven Moffat. It is executive produced by Brian Minchin, produced by Nikki Wilson and directed by Douglas Mackinnon of both, Doctor Who and Sherlock fame.
“To be honest, I did not know whether River would ever return to the show,” said Kingston of the special. “But here she is, back with the Doctor for the Christmas special. Steven Moffat is on glittering form, giving us an episode filled with humor and surprise guest castings. I met Peter for the first time at Monday’s read through. We had a laugh, and I am now excited and ready to start filming with him and the Doctor Who team.”
“Another Christmas, another special for Doctor Who,” says Moffat, “and what could be more special than the return of Alex Kingston as Professor River Song? The last time the Doctor saw her, she was a ghost. The first time he met her, she died. So how can he be seeing her again? As ever, with the most complicated relationship in the universe, it’s a matter of time…”
UK: The aerial is losing its grip. As broadband becomes the default way Britons watch television, the UK is edging towards a decisive, and divisive, question: should Freeview be switched off by 2034? The issue, highlighted in reporting by The Guardian, has exposed deep fault lines over access, affordability and the future of public service broadcasting.
For nearly 25 years, Freeview has delivered free-to-air television from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 to almost every corner of the country. Even now, it remains the UK’s largest TV platform, used in more than 16m homes and on around 10m main household sets. Yet the same broadcasters that built it are now pressing for its closure within eight years.
Their case rests on a structural shift in viewing. Smart TVs, superfast broadband and the Netflix-led streaming boom have pulled audiences online. Advertising economics have followed. By 2034, the number of homes using Freeview as their main TV set is forecast to fall from a peak of almost 12m in 2012 to fewer than 2m, making digital terrestrial television, or DTT, increasingly costly to sustain.
But critics say the rush to switch off risks abandoning those least able, or least willing, to move online.
“I don’t want to be choosing apps and making new accounts,” says Lynette, 80, from Kent. “It is time-consuming and irritating trying to work out where I want to be, to remember the sequence of clicks, with hieroglyphics instead of words. If I make a mistake I have to start again.”
Lynette is among nearly 100,000 people who have signed a “save Freeview” petition launched by campaign group Silver Voices. She fears the government is about to “take [Freeview] away from me and others who either don’t like, can’t afford, or can’t use online versions”.
Official figures underline the fault lines. A report commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport estimates that by 2035, 1.8m homes will still depend on Freeview. Ofcom’s analysis shows those households are more likely to be disabled, older, living alone, female, and based in the north of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Freeview is owned by the public service broadcasters through Everyone TV, which also operates Freesat and the newer streaming platform Freely. After two years of review, DCMS is expected to set out its position soon, drawing on three options proposed by Ofcom: a costly upgrade of Freeview’s ageing technology; maintaining a bare-bones service with only core PSB channels; or a full switch-off during the 2030s.
The broadcasters have rallied behind the third option. They argue that 2034 is the logical cut-off, when transmission contracts with network operator Arqiva expire. By then, they say, the cost of broadcasting to a dwindling audience will far outweigh the returns from TV advertising.
Ofcom agrees a crunch point is approaching. In July, the regulator warned of a “tipping point” within the next few years, after which it will no longer be commercially viable for broadcasters to carry the costs of DTT.
Others see risks beyond economics. Questions remain over whether internet TV can reliably deliver emergency broadcasts, such as the daily Covid updates, in the way that universally available DTT can. The UK radio industry has also warned that an internet-only future for TV could push up distribution costs and force some radio stations off air if PSBs no longer share Arqiva’s mast network.
“It is a political hot potato,” says Dennis Reed, founder of Silver Voices, who says he has “dissociated” his organisation from the government’s stakeholder forum, which he believes is “heavily biased” towards streaming.
The Future TV Taskforce, representing the PSBs, counters that moving online could “close the digital divide once and for all”. “We want to be able to plan to ensure that no one is left behind,” a spokesperson says, adding that rising DTT costs could otherwise mean cuts to programme budgets.
The numbers show the scale of the challenge. Of the 1.8m Freeview-dependent homes projected for 2035, around 1.1m are expected to have broadband but not use it for TV. The remaining 700,000 are forecast to lack a broadband connection altogether.
Veterans of the analogue switch-off, completed in 2012 after 76 years, recall similar fears of “TV blackout chaos”. Around 6 per cent of households were labelled “digital refuseniks”, yet a targeted help scheme and a national campaign, fronted by a robot called Digit Al voiced by Matt Lucas, delivered a largely smooth transition.
This time, the BBC is less keen to foot the bill. Tim Davie, the outgoing director general, has said the corporation should not fund a comparable support programme for a Freeview switch-off.
Research for Sky by Oliver & Ohlbaum suggests that with early awareness campaigns and digital inclusion measures, only about 330,000 households would ultimately need hands-on help ahead of a 2034 shutdown.
Meanwhile, viewing habits continue to fragment. Audience body Barb says 7 per cent of UK households no longer own a TV set, choosing to watch on other devices. In December, YouTube overtook the BBC’s combined channels in total UK viewing across TVs, smartphones and tablets, albeit measured at a minimum of three minutes.
That shift may accelerate. YouTube has recently blocked Barb and its partner Kantar from accessing viewing session data, limiting transparency just as online platforms consolidate power.
“When the government chose British Satellite Broadcasting as the ‘winner’ in satellite TV it was Rupert Murdoch’s Sky instead that came out on top,” says a senior TV executive quoted by The Guardian. “There already is such an outsider ready to be the winner in the transition to internet TV; it is YouTube.”
Freeview’s future now hangs on a familiar British dilemma: modernise fast and risk exclusion, or protect universality and pay the price. Either way, the aerial’s days as king of the living room look numbered.
