The BBC has announced that they will be making a minor edit to this week’s episode of ‘Doctor Who’. The edits are being made out of respect for the victims of the terrorist attack that took place in Manchester earlier this week.
Titled ‘The Pyramid at the End of the World’, this week’s episode originally included a passing reference to terrorism as what the Radio Times describes as “part of a more general discussion of threats to Earth.” The Radio Times simply described the edit as “a matter of sensitivity. The episode is otherwise unaltered and will air as scheduled on the evening of Saturday, May 27, 2017.”
As you might imagine, this is not the first time in the fifty-plus year history that such an issue has arisen. In fact, the decision echoes a similar move made by the BBC in 2014. At the time, a minor cut was made to a scene involving a beheading in the episode ‘Robot of Sherwood’. This came in the wake of the beheadings of a pair of American journalists at the hands of Islamic State militants. In the case of ‘Robot of Sherwood’, the edit was indeed minor enough that you wouldn’t even notice it if you didn’t know it had been made. Based on statements from the BBC, it seems the situation with ‘The Pyramid at the End of the World’ will be similarly seamless, particularly if all they have to do is snip out a line of dialogue.
The tenth season of ‘Doctor Who’ is currently underway, with new episodes airing on Saturday evenings. This season will see showrunner Steven Moffat and current star Peter Capaldi bid their farewells. In addition to Capaldi, the season features Pearl Mackie, Matt Lucas, and Michelle Gomez.
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