I agree — "cinematic" is the word I would use as well. I particularly like the way the camera interacts in a subtle way with the "scenery." For example, in the Capaldi version, the camera wavers just a bit as it passes through the lettering on the show logo.I actually prefer the NeonVisual one for Capaldi,....I like the zoom through the eye
The colours, the debris etc is more cinematic\
You're in luck even if that "spoiler" isn't true. Not that this is spoilery either, but on the safe side...
The recurring male character is speculated to be a companion, and Moffat's already alluded to there being no romantic anything between 12 and Clara. I think that dynamic could use a break as well, but as long as it doesn't skew towards Martha levels we should be okay.
It's kind of amusing that some reports are referring to Clara as a long serving companion. She's third longest in the reboot, and there're surely plenty of companions that lasted more than 18 months in the classic series. Someone likely knows better than me, but I wouldn't have put her on the "long serving" side of the bell curve.
Rehearsal schedules, hours on set, location shooting as opposed to studio shooting... I mean, that alone could be fairly taxing, since it's not like all they do is shoot in quarries anymore.
I don't know, honestly. But what I hear is that the schedule is apparently quite demanding and not what a lot of actors these days seem to be interested in doing indefinitely, which leads to the more rapid turnover of cast that we see nowadays -- Doctors included.
To add to that, more and more TV actors are doing movies during their off season time which means they're working nearly year round now as opposed to getting months off during the off season. And if they're not doing movies they're hitting the stage as any number of actors have gotten their start by doing stage work and, in some cases, still love it and grab any chance they get to do stage work. Lastly, it's entirely possible that modern TV episodes take longer and are more complicate to shoot, especially for sci-fi show like Doctor Who with a lot of green screen work and elaborate stunts.
Exactly. It's one thing when you're shooting what's basically a televised stage play. It's quite another when you're doing movie-level production with a ton of effects, location shoots, etc. It could (conceivably, at least) take a LOT longer to shoot a sequence for modern Doctor Who than it did back in the days of wobbly sets and stunt guys in rubber suits. Plus, I think the BBC used to have a tighter shooting schedule, which meant that the time you had to actually shoot was more restricted. You might end up shooting at 1am just to get a sequence in a section of London that's too busily traveled at other times to close off.
Basically, it can be more grueling for an actor to do modern TV than it was in the past.
Now, mind you, I'm not suggesting that the old stuff was easy, nor that modern actors aren't entitled to move on when they please. All I'm saying is that the new show is shot and produced very differently from the old, so it's tough to draw comparisons. But by sheer calendar time, yeah, the old-school companions lasted a lot longer.