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"I knew this would happen because it leaked online" — Is Doctor Who Planting Leaks in Its Own Show to Mess With Fans?

www.ign.com

Is Doctor Who Planting Leaks in Its Own Show to Mess With Fans? - IGN

This is actually hilarious. Some reality defying mental acrobatics on current Doctor Who are picked up from fan forums and passed on by IGN:

Doctor Who's latest episode just called out its own leaks, despite being film two years ago. Is showrunner Russell T Davies seeding spoilers to mess with fans, or is this all part of a grand plan?

3 comments

  • Is this part of someones grand plan or is it part of a grand plan? I don't think these are two separate questions.

    • I think the "grand plan" is somebody's attempt at making causation after the fact in things that are at best correlations 🙂 Is that somebody in charge of the show? Nope!

      More likely they're on an online echo chamber whipping up a collective delusion that the showrunner has the time and acumen to orchestrate a big ARG in which they, the hardcore fans, are the heroes...

      I know this community isn't big on speculation, but I find it really interesting to observe others' wildly out of proportion speculations 😄

  • I have a friend who tracks the leaks and rumours pretty regularly. It's madness.

    First: Maybe it’s all just a coincidence. The leaks were unintentional, and that standout line in "Lux" is simply one of those absurd, once-in-a-blue-moon alignments of fiction and reality.

    It's funny that this "possibility" hinges on the notions that leaks and rumours are some kind of new phenomenon that RTD wouldn't already have been intimately familiar with, and aren't completely predictable.

    Second: Somehow, Russell T Davies had a prophet-like vision, saw it all coming two years in advance, and wrote it in.

    This one gets my vote. It's got to be supernatural.

    Third: What if the leaks aren’t accidental at all? There were a couple from the opening episode that were accurate, and now some in the follow-up. Perhaps they were planted deliberately, but only small, mostly harmless titbits, and are meant to prime the fandom discussions without giving too much away. The rest? A bluff, just noise to muddy the waters.

    This one is actually plausible. RTD knows how to play the game. I don't think I'd go so far as to suggest he's planting "leaks," but he's never been above stoking speculation.

    fourth...what if every single leak was planted as part of a larger meta-marketing campaign, with the story eventually folding that chaos into itself?

    Okay...I don't really think so, but with the final episodes being called "Wish World" and "The Reality War", I wouldn't be at all surprised if there's some more meta-commentary along the way. As I mentioned in the discussion thread, I do feel like the trio of fans will return.