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Television Media Sci-Fi The Internet Entertainment

New Dr. Who Episode Leaked 432

Posted by timothy from the they-call-it-a-leak dept.
Cougem writes "BBC News is reporting on how an episode from the brand new series of the old science fiction TV show, Doctor Who, has been leaked onto the Internet. 'A 45-minute episode, called Rose, has appeared three weeks before the series is expected to begin on BBC One. Rose is the name of the character played by pop singer Billie Piper, who will be the assistant to the Doctor, played by Christopher Eccleston.' With people saying sci-fi appeals more to the technical minded viewer, will this TV show's release onto the Internet damage the ratings considerably for the BBC? Or is it a minor problem for a corporation whose role is just to provide the public with entertainment?" Maybe it will boost ratings, instead; the public buzz about "leaks" is still far ahead of the average viewer's ability to actually find and download.
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New Dr. Who Episode Leaked More

New Dr. Who Episode Leaked

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  • it's on usenet (Score:4, Informative)

    by jo0ls ( 865619 ) on Monday March 07, 2005 @01:45PM (#11867770)
    alt.binaries.drwho

  • It was K-9 (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I always knew that little metal bastard was up to no good.

  • yeah.. right.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by peculiarmethod ( 301094 ) on Monday March 07, 2005 @01:45PM (#11867776) Journal
    can anyone say "Promotional Ploy that Slashdot fell for"?

  • it'll bost ratings (Score:2, Informative)

    by Robocoastie ( 777066 )
    It will boost ratings instead. Sci Fi fans watch shows repeatedly plus they'll get better quality on tv than internet d/load.

    • Re:it'll bost ratings (Score:5, Funny)

      by shawn(at)fsu ( 447153 ) on Monday March 07, 2005 @01:48PM (#11867817) Homepage
      Unless the episode sucks. I mean sucks like a hover upright. Then it might hurt ratings
    • Are you claiming that Sci Fi fans make repeat viewings of shows at a higher than than non-Sci Fi fans? And, if so, how do you know this? Certainly there have been DVD releases of Sci Fi television shows that have sold well but, from my glances at the DVD sections at various outlets, other shows sell just as well on DVD. With all that being said - and let's assume Sci Fi fans do make repeat viewing a habit - why would the broadcast on television be of better quality than the Internet download? Is this going

  • Oh come on! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by smittyoneeach ( 243267 ) * on Monday March 07, 2005 @01:46PM (#11867790) Homepage Journal
    Who believes these 'leaks' anymore?
    Or is 'leak' just a fig leaf to cover over the fact that good advertising may conflict with some of the copyrights and legalese?

    • Re:Oh come on! (Score:2, Insightful)

      by mushupork ( 819735 )
      Agreed! News of the leak just reminded me that the series even exists! Excellent marketing, BBC!
    • Exterminate! ExterMinate!
      </dalek>
    • I seriously doubt the BBC would intentionally leak their program like this. I know this is slashdot, home to the conspiracy theories, but this one doesn't make any sense.
    • No kidding. As someone in advertising, I have to say that IMHO, this is definitely an intentional leak. Let me explain why.

      This show is for geeks, geeks have been gossiping about this show online forever. If it were released online geeks would download it, build lots of buzz, and then when it aired on tv just as many geeks would watch it. Possibly more if the show is good because word would have spread and everybody would want to watch it.

      Oh, and if they get any articles for PR about how it was pirated,

    • Re:Oh come on! (Score:3, Interesting)

      by servognome ( 738846 )
      Who believes these 'leaks' anymore?
      "Leaking" a program is not good advertising, good advertising is hyping something up and not letting anybody peek behind the curtain. For your premiere episode you want to keep people curious.
      The XFL (An American Football League created by a Pro-Wrestling executive) was an example of excellent advertising. The premiere had amazing ratings just because nobody knew what to expect, then the league folded because it sucked.
      A certain % of the interested audience will not li

      • Re:Oh come on! (Score:3, Insightful)

        by FireFury03 ( 653718 )
        "Leaking" a program is not good advertising, good advertising is hyping something up and not letting anybody peek behind the curtain. For your premiere episode you want to keep people curious.

        I'm not convinced - leaking just the first episode shortly before the series is due to begin means that those interested download it and watch it and if it's good they'll help hype it up and produce more publicity for the actual series. If it sucks then noone will watch it after the first episode anyway.
    • fake leaks are good advertising, not real leaks.

      like the fake rumours of some of the lotr movies having been on the net months before release.

      bbc doesn't need to care that much though... it's not like they're losing advertising revenue or whatever.

  • How this happened... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 07, 2005 @01:46PM (#11867792)
    You see what happened was Dr. Who downloaded the episode legally from BBC's open archives in 2052, as a piece of nostalgia from his earlier days, but forgot to unshare it from Kazaa again when he travelled back to 2005. D'oh!

  • Wider audience? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DamienMcKenna ( 181101 ) <damien@mc-kenna. c o m> on Monday March 07, 2005 @01:48PM (#11867805)
    Given that the SciFi channel isn't showing it, it can only help the interest within the USA.
    • I'd have thought BBC America would air it, because that's where most Brit TV fans have tended to go in the past. But logic and TV companies don't always* coincide. (*always, in this case, has been #undefined.)

  • Billie Piper is a hottie. (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    http://www.tunepix.com/graphics/billie_piper.jpg
    http://www.sirena.lf.lv/wallpapers/music/billie_pi per/billie1d.jpg
    http://www.ys3.connectfree.co.uk /images/billie.jpg
  • There was a reasonably large argument over there about actually distributing it, but in the end a full seed was completed.

    And no I have not watched it, yet.

    The argument really did center around - would geeks watch it - or just download it and not support it. If there is no support for the series, then it will not continue being produced.

    Counter arguments included: I will watch and pay for it anyway, I'm such a big fan - almost my opinion.

    and

    It's not scheduled here - I need my fix - usually americans...

  • Har har (Score:5, Informative)

    by rde ( 17364 ) * on Monday March 07, 2005 @01:50PM (#11867826)
    It's shocking, really. They go to all that effort to keep it secret, and dirty bastards go and ruin it all by watching it months ahead of time. The file-sharing creeps.

    Having said that, it's a lot better than I expected. Billie Piper is a much better companion than I though she'd be, and the Doctor is quite credible as, er, a time-travelling alien. No mention of that half-human shite, which is nice.

    It'd be injudicious of me to mention that the file is called Rose1.avi, and is 366757888 bytes long, so I won't.
    • Hmm.. all I found was this:

      MYSTICAL XXX MOVIES ... i17.yimg.com/17/439aa05b/h/cb38b562/Steal1.avi double cumshot http://www.xxcum.net/ xx323/akj012.mpeg Rose http://205.188.137.185/a4a121/rose1.avi http://205.188 ... www.xxxmovieforum.com/mystical/posts/02-03-12/153. shtml - 18k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages

  • Huh? (Score:5, Funny)

    by SpaceBadger ( 556685 ) on Monday March 07, 2005 @01:53PM (#11867865)
    From news.bbc.co.uk: "The BBC was unavailable for comment."

    Investigative journalism is truly dead.

  • People who liked it didn't just watch once anyway (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ianscot ( 591483 ) on Monday March 07, 2005 @01:56PM (#11867904)
    What did they lose, the ad revenue from one airing? In exchange for a big "tease" to whet the appetites of the fanatics?

    People who loved this series were religious, they'd watch the thing over and over anyway. It's not quite on the level of The Simpsons, but expose any given fan to any three minutes of any episode, and it was "Hey, this is the one where... Oh, yeah, SHE was the Doctor's assistant then..."

  • Commence countdown to .torrent link... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Xaroth ( 67516 ) on Monday March 07, 2005 @01:58PM (#11867929) Homepage
    In 5....4....3....2....1....

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday March 07, 2005 @02:02PM (#11867982)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re:Just a FYI (Score:5, Interesting)

      by mbourgon ( 186257 ) on Monday March 07, 2005 @02:12PM (#11868103) Homepage
      so its quite a bit rough with the cgi, credits and theme not even being done.

      Dunno about that... they've already said they're keeping the "classic" theme music, the end credits looked just fine, the CGI is classic "bad-as-in-BBC" bad. And it tells a complete story - it's not like it cuts off at 45 minutes. (Maybe there's extra scenes, after dealing with the conspiracy nut?)

      Overall, A-. The comic bits are a bit too frequent, but it felt like The Doctor.
    • like Dr Who of when I was a kid and where watching the 60's reruns. Its campy and funny and ejoyable and a real family show. I know a lot of people where hoping for it to be remade but its not they are making this to be just like the old shows minus the cardbord and celophane sets.

      The cheesy special effects was part of what made the series so much fun. Extremly obvious fake stuff, seeing all the wires, etc... it's good to know that it's going to be more like a continuation of the series that was put on in

    • they are making this to be just like the old shows minus the cardbord and celophane sets.

      Damn them! Damn them all to Hell! They finally did it! They grew it all up!

  • well (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mattyrobinson69 ( 751521 ) on Monday March 07, 2005 @02:02PM (#11867985)
    i personally think the BBC should provide free downloads (by bittorrent or something) to UK residents who have a tv license.

    They could probably increase revenue if they created a subscription service for non-UK viewers too.

    • They do want this... (Score:5, Informative)

      by lxt ( 724570 ) on Monday March 07, 2005 @02:14PM (#11868133) Journal
      The BBC itself does actually want to try something similar, and you might have seen the articles here about the then director general Greg Dyke discussing a "BBC Archive", and I'm pretty sure the R&D dept. was messing around with Bit Torrent.

      However, the main problem (as with the BBCs "listen again" radio feature, but far more problamatic for TV) is the Writers Guild of Great Britain, which is extremely upset that the BBC plans to offer these shows without paying royalties to the writers. They have yet to bash out an additional payment to allow this...

  • Ellis review (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ajs ( 35943 ) <ajs AT ajs DOT com> on Monday March 07, 2005 @02:03PM (#11867994) Homepage Journal
    Warren Ellis reviewed just this (I'm not going to link to his site, it's already slow), and said that Americans would almost certainly not enjoy it. It's (as far as he's concerned) a return to many things that're right and wrong with Brittish television, but far too Brittish for most of the rest of the world to enjoy, especially us Yanks.

    "Word is that Sci-Fi Channel declined to acquire this new DOCTOR WHO series. And I can see why. It's too damned English." -Ellis

    • Re:Ellis review (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ultramk ( 470198 ) <ultramk@pacbe[ ]net ['ll.' in gap]> on Monday March 07, 2005 @03:00PM (#11868672)
      I guess the problem is, there are quite a few of us Americans prefer the way the Brits do it. I personally prefer British humor, and so does my wife.

      Perhaps it's because we grew up watching the Young Ones, Monty Python, Faulty Towers, Are You Being Served, The Good Life, Blake's 7, To The Manor Born, Yes Minister, and yes, Dr. Who. Not to mention more recent favorites like Coupling, Father Ted, The Office, Ali G, Red Dwarf, etc etc etc.

      When hollywood producers attempt to convert British shows to appeal to American humor, the results are often ghastly. Witness the short-lived US version of Coupling.

      Listen, we know the effects will be silly and involve lousy CGI and cheap fireworks. It's all part of the charm. Who watched Dr. Who for the special effects anyway?

      On the bright side, all of these shows will eventually become available on DVD. There's too much profit in it not to. Thanks, Suncoast.

      m-
      • Oh yeah, the US TV networks are insanely stupid when it comes to remaking British TV. Let me give you an example, the US remake of Faulty Towers starred BETTY WHITE playing the role of Basil.
    • If Yanks don't like British shows, then how come so many people I know like The Office?

      Dropping this show just illustrates how mindless the Sci Fi channel is. They lucked out with Battlestar Galactica.
    • It's too damned English.
      As an Englishman who finds far too much television these days far too damned American, I'd just like to say: Great!!!

  • A link to the torrent (Score:5, Informative)

    by bort27 ( 261557 ) on Monday March 07, 2005 @02:09PM (#11868071)
    http://www.torrentspy.com/search.asp?mode=torrentd etails&id=184585

    bort.

  • what about us bloody yanks? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Yonder Way ( 603108 ) on Monday March 07, 2005 @02:12PM (#11868107)
    We don't get BBC over here and PBS hasn't had favorable deals to air Doctor Who in many years in my market, so there is almost no Doctor Who fix for me. It seems like when MythTV does catch it for me, it's an old William Hartnell episode. Bah.
    • I'm impressed. 99.9% of American Dr Who fans don't know there even was a Doctor before Pertwee. Besides, a lot of the Hartnell stories were gritty and had an edge that was missing with the others.

      BBC America does show some BBC television, so you may be in luck there. Failing that, the BBC is investing heavily in open source high-definition protocols for audio and video over the Internet. I'm taking it that this was not for fun. Given the strong International following of Doctor Who, and given the effort t

  • Ratings? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by nsayer ( 86181 )
    Since when does the Beeb care about ratings? Do ratings have an impact on the collection of the license fees? (well, I suppose if ratings go low enough, then at some point people will stop owning/using their TVs...)

    • Re:Ratings? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by 91degrees ( 207121 )
      The BBC needs to justify its existence to the general public, and the amount they spend on a series to the governers. Ratings do come into this a bit. Even though the BBC is regularly told it shouldn't be chasing ratings, it is a convenient easily measurable figure for the success of a series.

      It is important that it entertains a lot of people. Ideally it should be watched by demographics that are less interested in other shows. The BBC has a responsibility to provide somethign for everyone.

  • Will the Beeb export this... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by DLWormwood ( 154934 ) <(wormwood) (at) (me.com)> on Monday March 07, 2005 @02:21PM (#11868208) Homepage
    ...so that PBS stations here in the States will play? No, that's not a snide joke. I have fond memories of watching Dr. Who while I was in high school on WBGU out of Bowling Green, Ohio. (It came on after Wall $treet Week with Louis Rukeyser.)

    Also, is this series in continuity with the previous series? Or are they going for a tabula rosa to avoid the kinds of problems that plague series like Star Trek? (For example, Enterprise.) I'd hate to see the new series go in a weird direction in 12 years or so when the Doctor regenerates into the Valeyard.

    • Or are they going for a tabula rosa to avoid the kinds of problems that plague series like Star Trek?

      A pink slate? How would that help?

      Maybe you mean tabula rasa.

      Kind of reminds me of a friend's girlfriend... she had a million of them... once complained about her university's "gazpacho tactics." I was all like, "what, are they forcing you to eat a chilled, refreshing vegetable soup?"

      m-

  • Throwback (Score:3, Funny)

    by cpt kangarooski ( 3773 ) on Monday March 07, 2005 @02:26PM (#11868261) Homepage
    So when the hell is the Doctor going to get with the times and replace the police box with a cellphone? Everyone else has one, they're very convenient.
  • for a remake of the UFO tv series, complete with liquid-filled UFOs, purple wigs and pinhole contact lenses.

    Who am I kidding. They'd probably remake it totally different. Well, maybe they'd keep the wigs.

  • The great thing about a DL from the BBC . . . . (Score:4, Informative)

    by Tetsugaku-San ( 717792 ) on Monday March 07, 2005 @02:32PM (#11868327) Homepage
    No adverts to edit out \o/

  • What no torrent? (Score:4, Funny)

    by hairykrishna ( 740240 ) on Monday March 07, 2005 @02:38PM (#11868397)
    Come on guys, you're slacking. Where's the .torrent? You know you want to...

  • well lets see: (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Nik Picker ( 40521 ) on Monday March 07, 2005 @02:44PM (#11868491) Homepage
    im a tax payer ( well i pay the license fee for BBC TV ) so technically ive already paid for the Beeb to produce this. I wonder how it can be convulted to prove that if I download it then im not infringing copywrite !

  • Could help, could hurt depending on... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Blitzenn ( 554788 ) on Monday March 07, 2005 @02:54PM (#11868602) Homepage Journal
    It could help their ratings, or it could hurt. It really depends on the episodes ability to stand on it's own. If it's a good episode and brings some new things to the table, it will get some good word of mouth amongst those who care. If it is a slop-shod episode, that brings nothing new to the table and is a thin attempt to reskin an old episode, then it will get bad word of mouth.

    The risk because of the leak is great. I cannot believe it was intentional due to this; If the episode is good, word of mouth will be good and it will travel through the ranks of Dr. Who fans. It probably won't do a thing to add viewers, because people who don't already watch it, are not going to care, as they never had interest before, and probably won't until it hits the screen. A bad review from the leak, will cause fans to knock the show, and drive anyone who might have watched it to not watch it and hurt viewership.

    In short, leaking is never very good. The damage can be great whereas the potential good that can come from it is extremely small. No one cares about good news, unless it is something that they care about to begin with. Everyone loves to hear bad news. Fact of life. That's why the evening news is nearly 100% bad news.

  • Oh come on (Score:2, Insightful)

    by FranTaylor ( 164577 )
    If people like it, they will watch it. If they don't like it, they won't. Is the whole family gonna huddle in front of the computer to watch it? No, they will wait until it's on TV and watch it there. If someone downloads the show and watches it and likes it, they will watch it again when it's on TV. And they might just drag a few more eyeballs to the TV with them. Content producers need to stop obsessing over the control of their content and pay more attention to the quality of the content. Good st
  • And decided to give him a haircut so eccentric ...

    I wouldn't the actor stepping into those shoes :D

  • Of course the episode leaked... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Gruneun ( 261463 ) on Monday March 07, 2005 @03:19PM (#11868885)
    The plot was full of holes.

    Bah-dum Dum!

  • Starting Saturday 26th (Score:3, Informative)

    by xiox ( 66483 ) on Monday March 07, 2005 @03:22PM (#11868921)
    For those fans in the UK: apparently (after listening to Front Row) the first episode will show on TV on Saturday 26th March. Looking forward to it...

    I'd better go and buy a sofa so I'll have something to hide behind if Davros appears...

  • BBC America, maybe? (Score:3, Informative)

    by tim1724 ( 28482 ) * on Monday March 07, 2005 @04:03PM (#11869480) Homepage Journal

    With any luck, BBC America will decide to show it. While I wouldn't mind having it on PBS, I'd rather have it on BBC America so I don't have to worry about whether or not any of my local stations pick it up. (Although I'm pretty sure KCET would, as they showed it for at least a decade when I was growing up.)

    If anyone else wants to see BBC America show Dr. Who, go fill out this form [bbcamerica.com] on their site and let them know that you want to see it!

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