90 MInute 50th?

Steven Moffat has been talking more about the length of the 50th anniversary special in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine. Fans have been speculating on the length, saying anywhere from 90 minutes to the 60 minutes hinted at in a BBC Worldwide poster.

People keep asking how long the Anniversary special is, and it’s a fair question. I don’t actually know, because the answer is, it’s as long as it needs to be. The script is quite long though. I’m looking at it now. Ooh, that’s quite long.

In theory a 45-minute episode of Doctor Who ought to be about 55 pages. But it’s a fast-paced show, you need something to cut, so let’s say 60 pages. And that, let me tell you, is wrong. The script for The Time of Angels was 70 pages long, and it came in short at 40 minutes, even with added material. The script for The Snowmen has almost the same page count as A Scandal in Belgravia (sorry to mention The Other One) but one is an hour and the other is 90 minutes. Thank God, the BBC is kind to us. Our notion of 45 minutes has veered between 39 minutes and 57 (I think, roughly this is from memory).

Basically, the 50th anniversary could be anywhere from 45 to 90 minutes. It all just depends on editing. I'm hoping for as long as possible, and I think most of the other fans are too, but we'll just have to wait and see.