Steven Moffat has been chatting exclusively to the latest edition of Doctor Who Magazine – issue 515, out now – about his time as showrunner on Doctor Who.
When asked about the possibility of killing off companion Bill in the recent Series 10 finale, Steven stated that it would have been “wrong” for Doctor Who; he states:
“It’s wrong! I’m not even that crazy about it when they did it with Adric [in 1982’s Earthshock]. I don’t think that’s the story. I’m sorry, it’s a children’s programme.
And explicitly, the companions are like Doctor Who’s children. Or his grandchildren. They’re in his care, and lovely old Doctor Who is opening the TARDIS doors and saying, ‘I will always look after you.’ Get it right – that’s the story.
It’s not the mean-spirited kind of story where you’ve proved the ‘grittiness’ of real life. It’s not real life – it’s Doctor Who.”
Steven adds:
“Well, obviously, there is a lot of death and screaming people, for an optimistic show. But there’s a joyousness at its heart.
And although you get into trouble for saying this, at its heart it is a children’s programme. It has a very special relationship with them, and you can’t spoil their story like that. I would never have done it.”
Bill Potts was subjected to Cyber conversion in World Enough And Time after a blast left her almost dead. The character will return for the Christmas Special, Twice Upon A Time. Steven comments on any possible future return for Bill:
“I actually tried to find ways to give everybody closure, but simultaneously park them somewhere. You want something that feels like an end. That’s right and proper.
Love triumphs over all. As it always must, whatever any fool says.
But there’s enough in there that if anyone wanted to pick her up again and use her again, then it can be done.”
You can read the full in-depth interview with Steven in Doctor Who Magazine 515
David Bradley: there’s “a lot of conflict” between the two Doctors in the Christmas special
The First and Twelfth Doctors may have to work together in the Doctor Who Christmas special but they’re also going to find themselves clashing – over the original Time Lord’s outdated views about women.
“What we did emphasise [about the First Doctor] was the old fashioned nature and how he is from the 60s,” revealed David Bradley, who plays the part opposite Peter Capaldi’s more enlightened incarnation.
“He goes into the Twelfth Doctor’s Tardis and says ‘it’s a bit dusty around here, it’s in an awful state isn’t it? Where’s Polly? Shouldn’t she give it a spring clean?’ And then Peter’s saying ‘you can’t say that’.
“[The First Doctor] brings all his 60s sensibilities, what’s lovingly called casual chauvinism,” said Bradley, speaking at the London Film and Comic Con. “He’s just talking [as if] the [companions] are there just to help out, and do the dusting and do all the domestic chores – his attitudes to a lot of things come right from the 60s, so there’s a lot of conflict between Hartnell’s Doctor and Peter’s Doctor about how things have changed in the last 50 years… we had quite a bit of fun with that.”
We can only hope that the First Doctor is around long enough to see who the Twelfth regenerates into…
David Bradley was speaking at the London Film & Comic Con
Is Shada, the missing Fourth Doctor adventure, about to be re-made by the BBC?
It’s no great secret that many great Doctor Who stories – most of them from the 1960s – are missing from the BBC archives.
But while experts and collectors continue their search for lost episodes, there’s one story that seems destined always to elude them – because it was never finished.
Shada – Douglas Adams’ Fourth Doctor story that would have seen Tom Baker and Lalla Ward tackle alien invasion in the heart of Cambridge – was famously cancelled in 1979 after industrial action, unfinished and unscreened.
Still, the BBC aren’t going to let an abandoned script get in their way – and a series of Tweets from Doctor Who actor Daniel Hill (also seen in Only Fools And Horses) seems to confirm that Shada may be on its way to us again.
Possibly, yes. Power Of The Daleks – the first story for Second Doctor Patrick Troughton – celebrated its fiftieth anniversary last year, and BBC Worldwide marked the occasion with a specially commissioned animated version, released last November.
Ever since, rumours and speculation have been rife over what missing story could be next – until recently, when original cast member Daniel Hill Tweeted his involvement in the story at the end of June.
@bbcdoctorwho fantastic time recording for SHADA 2017
When questioned further, Hill confirmed that this was indeed a new version, and that it would supposedly be ‘ready in November’ – and according to a report in Starburst magazine, his Spotlight actor’s profile confirms his involvement.
What was Shada and why have I never seen it?
Shada – the last Doctor Who story written by outgoing script editor Douglas Adams – was due to be aired in 1980.
Location filming in and around Cambridge was completed as planned, making up about half the story. Unfortunately a series of strikes at the BBC meant the studio sessions were never recorded, leaving vast chunks of the narrative missing.
When Doctor Who returned for its 18th season later in 1980, Shada was nowhere to be seen – although some footage was used in 1983’s The Five Doctors, and clips occasionally pop up on the internet.
So what’s it about?
The story concerns the Doctor and Romana’s visit to an old friend, Professor Chronotis, who’s hidden his TARDIS in the heart of Cambridge, in one of the colleges.
While there, they discover that a dangerous criminal, Skagra, is plotting to construct a universal knowledge bank – a hive mind that will enable him to take over the universe.
Skagra needs the Professor to complete his dastardly scheme – although he’s reckoned without the Doctor and Romana, as well as the two students who find themselves in the thick of the action.
Well, not exactly. There have been various attempts to resurrect Shada over the years, some more successful than others.
In 1992 Shada was released on video (and later DVD) in an incomplete form, with Tom Baker providing bridging narration in the unfilmed scenes. It makes for a disjointed viewing experience – on the plus side there’s some lovely location work and some nice scenes of the Doctor and Romana punting down the River Cam.
Some years later, Big Finish – who produce the Doctor Who audio dramas – released an entirely different version in which the story was retconned to feature Eighth Doctor Paul McGann. Later still, Doctor Who superfan Ian Levine funded his own animated version, with the intention of filling in the missing bits.
Also worth seeking out is the updated novelisation by veteran Doctor Who writer Gareth Roberts – who took Douglas Adams’ story and fleshed it out considerably.
What about this new version, then?
What we don’t yet know is exactly what form the re-release will take – whether it will be an animated version, like Power Of The Daleks, or something else entirely.
Some ‘lost’ stories are reconstructed with the aid of production photos and the original audio recordings that the BBC still hold.
In the case of Shada, this is of course impossible, as the sessions were never filmed. But it’s as yet unknown whether this will be a full, animated remake or a partial reconstruction of missing footage.
One thing is clear – it looks like Shada will be coming back to us at some point soon, and hopefully in time for Christmas.
Watch this space for more news.
Steven Moffat wasn’t expecting to do the Doctor Who Christmas special
Steven Moffat hadn’t originally intended to do the tenth series of Doctor Who, that finished last month with The Doctor Falls. Instead, he was expecting that job to go to Chris Chibnall, but Chibnall’s commitment to Broadchurch for ITV meant a delay in him taking over Doctor Who. Moffat, therefore, steered the tenth series of the show.
He’s also penned his last Doctor Who script, in this case for the Christmas special, Twice Upon A Time. And in a new interview with Doctor Who Magazine, he’s now revealed too that he wasn’t expecting to do the Christmas special either!
“I hadn’t originally intended to do Christmas as well”, he admitted. Told you.
“I was just going to do this series. But then I learned that Chris wasn’t going to do Christmas. Quite rightly, he didn’t want to start with a one-off Christmas episode. So I realised that if I didn’t do it, then there wasn’t going to be a Christmas episode at all. And Doctor Who would lose that slot”.
Hence, Moffat got to work. But he’s also adamant in the interview that that’s it. “This time it really is the end”, he added.
Fans can take a nostalgic journey through time with vintage tales first seen in Doctor Who Annuals from the 1960s through to the 1980s as they receive the audio treatment for the very first time.
THE DOCTOR WHO AUDIO ANNUAL features classic adventures, from the first six incarnations of everyone’s favourite Time Lord, read by stars of the show: Peter Purves(who played companion Steven), Anneke Wills (Polly), Geoffrey Beevers (The Master), Matthew Waterhouse (Adric) and Nicola Bryant (Peri).
For two decades, from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s, every fan of the Doctor hoped to find The Doctor Who Annual in their Christmas stocking. Larger than life and twice as colourful, the stories within were exuberant — and often charmingly naive — in their take on ‘the children’s own programme which adults adore’.
Check out the details and the amazing cover art below.
DOCTOR WHO AUDIO ANNUAL
In The Sons of Grekk, the First Doctor is held prisoner in a brutal, otherworldly society. The King of Golden Death finds that the Second Doctor, Polly and Ben have materialised inside an Ancient Egyptian pyramid. The Third Doctor, Jo and the Brigadier confront a familiar adversary in Dark Intruders, whilst in Conundrum the Fourth Doctor, Adric and K9 experience warped physics in the corridors of the TARDIS. FacingThe Penalty, a delirious Fifth Doctor finds old friends and adversaries ganging up on him, and the Sixth Doctor and Peri plunge into a dangerous period of British history in The Real Hereward.
Also included are two vintage essays on the character of our favourite Time Lord: Who is Doctor Who? from 1966 and The Phoenix in the TARDIS from 1968.
The Doctor Who Audio Annual is available from Dec 7, 2017 – pre-order here.
This is your chance to show off your incredible Doctor Who costumes at our biggest Cosplay Event YET at the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff.
Dust off your bow tie, unravel your Fourth Doctor’s scarf and head down to the Doctor Who Experience on Saturday 5th August, 2017 as we celebrate the best in Doctor Who cosplay.
Need inspiration? Check out the video below as Doctor Who: The Fan Show host Christel Dee plus, friend of the show and cosplayer, Dominic G Martin, recreate Bill’s iconic costume.
Krissi Bohn and Arthur Bostrom with producer Charlotte Riches.
The Gallifreyan Newsroom is very proud to host the very first preview of a new BBC Radio 4 comedy drama.
Grand Designs of the Third Kind is a comedy drama from the pen of actor and comedian Toby Hadoke. “It concerns Hal, a wheelchair user, who has relocated in order to refocus his life after an accident. The house he is having done up is a very old observatory – but the project manager is a very strange fellow indeed, which leads Hal to think something peculiar is going on”…
Grand Designs of the Third Kind, like Hadoke’s last play (which was nominated for an illustrious BBC Audio Drama Award) is produced and directed by Charlotte Riches. It stars Jonjo O’Neill (McGillop in the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary episode The Day of the Doctor), Arthur Bostrom (Officer Crabtree from Allo Allo), Krissi Bohn (Jenna from Coronation Street) and Danielle Henry (Mandy Marquez from Doctors).
Ed: Grand Designs of the Third Kind will be transmitted on BBC Radio 4, September 4th, 2017, in the afternoon, check Radio Times for the exact time! We wish Toby every success in this latest venture!
Steven Moffat has revealed who will be directing Jodie Whittaker’s first scene as the new Doctor Who.
In his Doctor Who Magazine column, Moffat reflects on the shooting of Peter Capaldi’s final outing as the Doctor, this year’s Christmas special ‘Twice Upon A Time’, and hinted that Rachel Talalay will be directing Whittaker’s debut as the 13th Doctor.
“[Rachel’s] come back to see number 12 off into the shades but I very much hope she’ll be directing more Doctor Whos in the future. She keeps hinting that she won’t, though,” he explained, going on to recall a conversation with her.
“You’re already directing the new one – you’re doing the regeneration!,” Moffat revealed.
We already knew Talalay, who was responsible for the masterful series 10 finale ‘The Doctor Falls’, was directing this year’s Christmas special.
However, the actual regeneration scene was filmed separately to the rest of the episode, meaning that she might not have taken charge of Whittaker’s first scene as the Doctor, although this suggests that she returned to film it.
When Talalay made her Doctor Who debut with series eight double-bill finale ‘Dark Water’/’Death In Heaven’, she became the first female director in the show’s history to direct a finale.
So we reckon she’s a perfect choice to direct the first scene for the first-ever female to play the Doctor.
Moffat’s full column appears in Doctor Who Magazine issue 515 which is on sale from today (July 27).
IT’S THE END OF AN ERA AS WE LOOK BACK ON THE STEVEN MOFFAT YEARS IN ISSUE 515 OF DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE!
With his last episode due to air at Christmas, we asked Doctor Who‘s head writer and showrunner Steven Moffat if he ever thought, back in 2004, when he wrote The Empty Child, that he’d still be writing for the series in 2017?
“No, God, no!” he exclaims. “God, no! I also didn’t think I’d do the showrunning job for more than three years, and I’m here after six series. Yes, I’ve been writing Doctor Who stories since 2004. That’s a hell of a long time. When I wrote The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, I wondered if I’d ever write another Doctor Who story. I was very keen to, I really wanted to. I remember asking, ‘Would you have me back next year…?’”
So what’s next for Steven after he finishes with the Doctor? He’s staying tight-lipped.
“I’m looking forward to the idea of not having to automatically say no to everything else! Whether that’s writing jobs, or weekends away. I can write different things. I’m looking forward to that, hugely. But I am so glad it happened. I’d have been miserable if I’d never got to write Doctor Who! It’s been amazing. Of course it’s been amazing.”
ALSO INSIDE THIS ISSUE…
PRODUCTION NOTES Steven Moffat writes his final column for DWM, and his last-ever Doctor Who words!
THE TOP 20! A look back at 20 amazing things about the Steven Moffat era of Doctor Who – plus tributes from Russell T Davies, Chris Chibnall, Mark Gatiss and many others…
THE EMPIRE OF MARK GATISS The concluding part of our all-encompassing interview with actor/writer Mark Gatiss!
THE PARLIAMENT OF FEAR
There’s a brand-new adventure for the Doctor and Bill Potts in Part 1 of a new comic strip story, written by Scott Gray, with art by Staz Johnson.
RISE AND FALL
Reviews of the 2017 series, and the season finale World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls.
TURNED UP TO ELEVEN The Fact of Fiction examines the Eleventh Doctor’s début adventure, 2010’s The Eleventh Hour!
REVIEWS
The latest DVD and audio releases are put under the microscope.
COMING SOON Previews of all the latest Doctor Who CD and book releases.
PLUS! All the latest official news, the Watcher’s column, prize-winning competitions, the DWM crossword, the 2017 Season Survey – and much, much more!
Doctor Who Magazine 515 is on sale from Thursday 27 July, price £5.99.
X-MEN STAR NICHOLAS HOULT MISSED OUT ON DOCTOR WHO ROLE
Actor/writer Mark Gatiss has been chatting exclusively to Doctor Who Magazine about his Doctor Who career, including the numerous stories he has written and starred in.
DWM 515, out tomorrow, spoke to Mark about his 2006 episode, The Idiot’s Lantern, starring David Tennant as The Tenth Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose Tyler; he said:
“It was amazing to have David, because he was my friend and he was the Doctor.”
Gatiss told DWM that, originally, a different actor was chosen for the role of Tommy, the writer remarked:
“I also remember Nicholas Hoult was going to play that part, but we couldn’t get the licence to work because he was too young! But Rory Jennings who played Tommy was wonderful, and he was actually a lot older than he looked.”
Hoult shot to fame starring alongside Hugh Grant in the 2002 film, About A Boy, and went to further acclaim in TV shows such as C4’s Skins and BBC’s Wallander, and as Hank McCoy (aka Beast) in the movies X-Men: First Class, X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse. The BAFTA-nominated actor also starred prominently in the OSCAR-winning Mad Max: Fury Road.
Gatiss also recalls the character of Tommy (pictured above with the Tenth Doctor and Rose) was gay in the initial scripts:
“Oh, I do remember something very, very, very vividly: in the early drafts the boy Tommy is gay and he has a crush on the Doctor. Rose thinks he’s interested in her, then goes ‘Oh!’ and realises Tommy’s been talking about the Doctor all along.
And the Doctor has to have a quiet word with him. When they get back in the TARDIS, Rose says something like, ‘It’s quite sweet isn’t it – obviously you wouldn’t be interested’. And the Doctor plays Don’t Fence Me In by Cole Porter, like James Bond saying, ‘What makes you think it’s my first time?’ [A reference to a scene in 2012’s Skyfall.]
I thought it’d be nice to have the Doctor telling Rose not to make any assumptions about him.”
Finally, another revelation from the DWM interview tells us that when Mark began to write The Idiot’s Lantern it was, in fact, for Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor:
“I wrote the first draft for Chris ]and Billie [Piper, who played Rose], so somewhere there’s a Ninth Doctor version.”
Doctor Who Magazine 515 is available from July 27, 2017
