Oops: Doctor Who DVD Released Early, BBC Offers Fans A Bribe To Prevent Spoilers

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Is this a first? The BBC has offered Doctor Who fans a serious bribe if they keep from spoiling the Season 7 finale. How could they spoil it? Someone released the DVDs too early. Oops. 

“The Name of the Doctor” is the title of the Season 7 Doctor Who finale, and whether or not they’ll actually reveal his name remains to be seen but something worthwhile is going to be revealed and Steven Moffat would love it if we could keep our mouths shut.

Without actually getting into the spoilers here, BBC Worldwide said a few fans recieved their pre-orders of the second half of Season 7 already.

“A small number of US Doctor Who fans have received their series seven part two DVD three weeks early,” BBC Worldwide said in a statement. “We are asking fans who may have the discs not to divulge plot details so that fellow fans who have yet to see the episodes do not have their viewing pleasure ruined.”

While it’s all well and good to ask, this is the internet and people love to be the first to reveal something so the BBC has sweetened the deal. From the BBC America tumblr:

If everyone keeps the secrets safe until next Saturday we will release a special new clip featuring material of the Tenth AND Eleventh Doctor!

The same sentiment was also sent out via the Doctor Who twitter account so we’d imagine this goes for the UK viewing as well. Though part of me thinks they were planning to tease the 50th anniversary episode anway.

BBC Worldwide says they are investigating how this happened but it’s not the first time for a British series to be released for home viewing before it airs on regular television. There were at least three episodes left of Downton Abbey Season 3  in the US when I realized I could purchase the blu-ray on Amazon. But I’m sure that was a case of it having already been months after the UK airing rather than a slip-up.

Anyway, word to the wise, surf the internet warily this week.

(via BBC News)

Previously in Doctor Who

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Jill Pantozzi
Jill Pantozzi is a pop-culture journalist and host who writes about all things nerdy and beyond! She’s Editor in Chief of the geek girl culture site The Mary Sue (Abrams Media Network), and hosts her own blog “Has Boobs, Reads Comics” (TheNerdyBird.com). She co-hosts the Crazy Sexy Geeks podcast along with superhero historian Alan Kistler, contributed to a book of essays titled “Chicks Read Comics,” (Mad Norwegian Press) and had her first comic book story in the IDW anthology, “Womanthology.” In 2012, she was featured on National Geographic’s "Comic Store Heroes," a documentary on the lives of comic book fans and the following year she was one of many Batman fans profiled in the documentary, "Legends of the Knight."