Matthew Stott
Wednesday 28th April 2010 6:57pm [Edited]
19,296 posts
Quote: chipolata @ April 28 2010, 7:54 PM BST
I think cliff hangers are trickier to sell to the public. If people miss the first part, they'll miss the second part. Then, before you know it, suddenly they've lost the habit of watching the show altogether. Not everybody is as interested in Doctor Who as us (you especially, Stott) and watch it far more casually.
Yeah, in fact I remember RTD saying that very thing about why the stories were mainly stand alones. That's also the reason the two parters have their own names, as opposed to The Empty Child Part 2, as they figured a lot of people would switch off if they hadn't seen part 1.
I think the main reason for the episodes being forty five minutes is a money issue. They can afford to do more episodes if they're forty five mins as opposed to a full hour. I'm pretty sure I read that somewhere.