“I didn’t enjoy my third year as much”, says Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat on the topic of series 7…

Doctor Who Magazine has found showrunner Steven Moffat in a reflective mood of late. Yesterday we shared the story that Moffat thinks he “fumbled” the series 9 opener, and now we’ve got another nugget of The Moff’s self-criticism to share.

DWM asked Mr Moffat about series 7, which you’ll remember as the one with a “movie of the week” theme, a big gap in the middle and the companion handover between the Ponds and Clara Oswald.

“I didn’t enjoy my third year as much. It was a bit miserable,” a very candid Moff revealed. “The workload was just insane. I wasn’t coping as well. No-one else’s fault, all mine. The 50th was looming, and I didn’t know if we could make it work. It was a tough, tough time. My darkest hour on Who was that.”

Moffat continued: “Matt [Smith], who was a friend and ally, was leaving – I couldn’t get him to stay. It felt like everything was blowing up around me. I was staggering into the 50th, with no Doctors contracted to appear in it, battered with endless hate mail about how I hadn’t got William Hartnell back and Sherlock Series Three at the same time.”
“I was pretty miserable by the end of it, and I coudn’t bear to let that be the end”, he added, explaining why he stayed on after this tough series when the option to walk away was very much on the table.