Doctor Who and another split season

Another week, another press release from the Dr Who office.
This time, as reported by the Guardian, the show next year will start in the autumn.
I kinda predicted this. There's a school of thought that the programme works best in the long winter nights. (My personal feeling is that the weather outside's completely irrelevant - I fell love with the show whilst having a break from playing about in 36 degree heat).
However what the BBC seems to be wanting to do is not air all of next season's episodes in 2012. And instead stagger it around Christmas.
Some folks think this helps make the books balance a little easier (the show ain't cheap after all). The BBC denies this and instead cite narrative reasons.
But whatever the cause, I wonder if this action'll hurt sales abroad. Won't it be more helpful for schedulers to have whole seasons rather than piecemeal ones? (Hence why most UK broadcasters, Sky excepted, wait for an American import to complete its season rather than showing it close to transmission in case they have to have breaks for Labor Day, Christmas etc.)
I guess we'll see what the UK ratings are like this autumn.....

Misc. including a mildly spoilery Doctor Who remark and the Radio 4 pips

Two things slightly odd crossed my radar today.
Firstly was the revelation that Radio 4 generates its pips live. You may wonder what I'm warbling about.
They announce the hour and that the news is coming. (You also hear it on, amongst others radios 1 and 2 but 4 does it without any sort of musical bed.) Here they are in all their glory.
And tonight their pip machine wasn't working. So Eddie Mair, the wonderfully quirky evening broadcaster, did an impromptu piece and yes, these things are generated live.
I'd assumed that nowadays it was a sample played at a precise time. Instead it seems that there's a pip generator and a back-up pip generator that both weren't working.
You would have thought it would be pre-recorded samples triggered at precise times but apparently not.

Next up is Doctor Who.
Mr. Moffat's been talking to the press again and what he's had to say is interesting. It's spoilery in that it rules something out so, well you've been warned,

spoilery talk here

The Daleks aren't coming back in the near future.
Which isn't a bad thing. Whilst I seem to be in the minority in enjoying last year's Victory of the Daleks, I did kind of feel that their stock was cheapened somewhat in Tennant's time by appearing every season.
Yes, the media seems to think that whenever someone leaves the show, they get exterminated by the Daleks. And it's true that the show wouldn't have lasted most likely, had it not been for Terry Nation's genius creations.
But they're best used in small measures. It builds up the threat level.
And it gives the writing staff time to think of fresh takes.
It's been done before. In 1967 the Daleks were written off supposedly for ever in The Evil of The Daleks. They wouldn't reappear until 1972's time-slip classic Day of The Daleks.
Yeah, I'm with Steven Moffat on this one. (And, yes, I don't think this is misdirection before a shock reappearance by them in Saturday's mid-season closer. They wouldn't be so crass.)