his timey-wimey is up
Doctor Who: Steven Moffat Will Step Down as Showrunner After Season 10
It's official! Steven Moffat will step down as acting showrunner for Doctor Who after Season 10, which will air in 2017, the BBC announced Friday. Moffat will hand over the TARDIS keys to Chris Chibnall, the creator of ITV's Broadchurch who was also a writer and producer on the Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood, and who has penned a handful of Who scripts since 2007. Chibnall's Doctor Who credits include the episodes "42," "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship," and "Power of Three." He will make his debut as showrunner in Season 11, currently scheduled for 2018.
According to the BBC, the decision to hold Moffat's final season until 2017 was made so that the show wouldn't be overshadowed by much bigger global events in 2016, like the upcoming summer Olympics. Season 10, the sixth with Moffat at the helm, is currently looking at a spring 2017 debut, but rest assured, Whovians, there will be a Doctor Who Christmas special in 2016. At this time, however, it's unclear whether or not the special will feature the Doctor's new companion, who has yet to be cast. Actress Jenna Coleman, who joined the series as Clara Oswald in Season 7 during the Matt Smith era, departed this past fall after racking up enough episodes to make her the longest-running companion of New Who.
Moffat is responsible for writing several of the most popular episodes of the modern era, including "Blink," which introduced the terrifying Weeping Angels, "The Girl in the Fireplace," and the two-parter "Silence in the Library" and "Forest of the Dead," which introduced time-traveler River Song, played by Alex Kingston. He also oversaw the series' 50th anniversary special in 2013, which saw David Tennant's Tenth Doctor and Smith's Eleventh unite in a feature-length episode.
Rumors that Moffat was leaving the series have been floating around the internet for a while now. Confirmation that his time in the TARDIS will soon be coming to an end will probably please those fans who've been disappointed in the series' direction—namely, the switch to more complicated overarching season-long mysteries that rarely panned out—since Moffat took over as showrunner from Russell T. Davies in Season 5. Rumors that Peter Capaldi's time as the Doctor will also soon be coming to and end have yet to be confirmed.
Are you bummed about Moffat's impending departure? Are you excited for relatively fresh blood?
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(I realize, of course, the biggest barrier there is the ever-expanding career of both Cumberbatch and Freeman, but at least Moffat will be able to be sure that it's perfect when they are available.)
Haters be damned.
"The Eleventh Hour"
"The Time Of Angels/Flesh And Stone"
"The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang"
"A Good Man Goes To War"
"The Snowmen"
"The Day Of The Doctor"
"Listen"
"Heaven Sent"
These are undeniably great episodes. Hell, I would add "A Christmas Carol", "Dark Water/Death In Heaven", "Last Christmas" and "Hell Bent" to my personal favorites list.
I won't deny that series 6 had a disappointing deus ex machina resolution, or that series 7 was a total mess with almost no character-driven focus, but series 8 resolved nearly all of the problems 7 had and series 9 was damn near perfection. Everybody seems to forget that, when it came to characters and emotion, sure it was pretty hard to top RTD, But Davies' actual plots were usually laughably bad when he wrote an episode. Really, the only exception to that rule was "Midnight" and "Left Turn". You so-called "fans" need to take off the Rose-tinted (pun definitely intended. She was only a great companion during series 1. After that, she became a lovelorn, whiny bore) nostalgia glasses and actually pay attention to how the high-concept storytelling has steadily been matched by great character focus in recent years. You know why hardly anyone is excited for Chibnall? Because the past 5 series under Moffat's tenure has given Chibnall a lot to live up to. It's just a shame not many of you can admit it
Moffat was okay as a show runner, but I'm not too sure about the new guy. I'm not a fan of his Who stories.
As opposed to Daleks, Cybermen, or Daleks and Cybermen invasions that happened every single year and were resolved by last-minute magical handwaving every single time.
I'd hate to work in this job where the more ambitious (and the further away from fart jokes) you get in your storytelling, the louder the whining bleating of the sheep gets. Talk about dumbing down.
His work under RTD was fantastic. His work as head writer? Terrible. I actually cringed when I saw his name on the writing credits for an episode. I knew it was going to be riddled with plot holes and likely ignore all continuity that he had previously established. I actually almost gave up on the show completely during his first season as show runner and it was only my friends that had me slog through that mess. Good riddance Moffatt. Maybe now we can finally get some internal consistency again.
Some time ago I was thinking that it'd be great if they could get Toby Whithouse or maybe that guy who created Misfits. But this is a good choice as well. Let's just hope he's able to keep it running smoothly and that it's tightly plotted Sci-Fi goodness.
The hiatus before Moffat's last series seems curious. Maybe it will give Chibnall more time to learn the showrunner role. Maybe it will also improve the chances that Moffat's tenure will end with the program on an upward trajectory.
Even though it may seem too early to say this, I wish Chibnall all the best, and look forward to both a quite different and quite familiar Doctor Who in 2018. And of course for Moffat to enjoy and succeed in all his other endeavors.
They were! Insofar as one word repeated in a few episodes can be considered an "overarching storyline", of course.
Doctor Who, to me, will always be, number 9.
Eccleston was the Doctor.
While you have to give kudos to Davies and others in the background, Christopher Eccleston's performance along with Billie Piper's Rose Tyler, they made Doctor Who a huge hit.
Not to put down Tennant and Smith, or even Capaldi, who are really good on their own, but Eccleston's Doctor was awesome.
I kinda wished there was a loop hole to bring him back.
Bottom line, it's a civilized world, so we can agree to disagree.
Eccleston was one of the very responsible parties to bring back Doctor Who to its fame with the modern world.
We cannot take that away from him.
I wished he would have made it to the 50th, but, it is what it is. Sure be mad at him leaving or holding a grudge with the show, but for many of us, he was the best.
Tennant was prob the best and Matt Smith isnt far behind. Capaldi is ok....a little annoying with some things but still good.
Amy and Rory I think were the best ones so far. But thats only Amy 85% of the time.
Clara is good when she is not trying to be funny, amusing or miss know it all. When she is more serious and emotional I think she is much better. But overall she is painful.
When Davis stood down Moffat had established himself as the clear heir apparent and (imo) Moffat's tenure (pre-Clara) was probably the best period the show's ever had, the only thing that comes close would be the Troughton era.
But no writing underlings have really stood out during Moffat's era - and maybe that's because Moffat is too much of a showman - I'd suggest Gatiss would be an option due to seniority but perhaps he doesn't want the responsibility, and actually nearly all of his episodes have been terrible for a long time.
So we have Chibnall instead. I think we can all agree that his episodes haven't exactly been spectacular. Most of them have had a lot of potential but have fallen apart - the guy seems strong on characters and ideas, not so much on coherent plots and endings. This is a problem if you're the showrunner, you need to be able to develop plot-centric episodes and longer arcs and you have to have a good mind for high-concept science fiction.
He might be a pleasant surprise but I think it's more likely that we'll see a big decline in the show's quality. This might be the end of the "golden period" (relatively speaking). And presumably Capaldi will leave with Moffat.
I thought the Russel Davies era was very good. Not perfect or anything, but it's when I started watching Who, and fell in love with it. I enjoyed 9 and 10, and Rose, Martha and Donna.
The Moffet era to me has been very uneven. It's had some fantastic seasons - 5 and 6 were outstanding. I love 11 and Amy (and Rory and River) and loved the complicated, sometimes ridiculous plots. Vincent and the Doctor still makes me cry, as does Amy departure in The Angels Take Manhattan. But then, the show took a great big firey dump! I've only VERY recently warmed up to 12 (he's a hard guy to like), and I can't stand Clara. I feel like I really don't know her, even after being the longest running new Who companion. I was SO happy when she "died." And because I now finally like 12 okay, I am looking forward to new eps.
I enjoyed the first season of Broadchurch and enjoyed Torchwood (for the most part), so I'll reserve judgement about Chibnall for now.
Not fond of the new guy's scripts so far ...
I really wish they brought it someone with better track reckord
I dont think that his normal episodes (when he's writing most of them) are worse than russel's were
I do hope he will pop up now and again
It was supposed to be an arrow but I see the site has not been able to correct the character input thing!
So again:
FINALLY!
He is a solid writer, but he is a terrible show runner!
There was nervousness back then. Davies had manned the ship since day one of the franchises resurrection. To go along with a new show runner we were also getting a new Doctor in Matt Smith taking over for a very popular predecessor in David Tennant. While many might not share in my opinion, I felt that Moffat and Smith really hit it out of the park, particularly in the fifth season. Smith quickly won over fans, becoming my personal favorite, and a lot of that had to do with Moffat.
Sure Moffat has had some missteps with some episodes and story choices not hitting the mark but the same can be said for Davies. Like Davies he feels like he has said all he can say with the show so it is time for someone fresh.
I'll admit though that I am a bit nervous since the new guys episodes are not my favorites and are certainly not up to the levels of Moffat's work during Davies' era. Hopefully he will have a clear vision of what he wants to do with what will more than likely be a new Doctor.
Now if the new companion introduced by Moffat remains for the changeover that will be interesting. With Moffat and Smith we got a new companion in Amy so everything was new. If this companion stays and Capaldi and Moffat leave then whoever the companion is will either have to adjust to the new show runner and Doctor or aspects of the Moffat era will continue on for some time.
I've warmed up to Capaldi, but no as fast as with Matt, and he's still my favorite ( although that probably has to do with the fact that he was my first one, which makes him THE Doctor in my eyes ... )
ten is my favourite since I saw him before I even knew what doctor who was (i saw 9 too but I didnt understand the show at all back then and thought he was a minor character and that 'the doctor' was some evil dude controlling the dalek in the episode 'dalek')
I sort of wish they'd just end this version of the series at ten seasons and then bring it back in another five or so years with a completely new cast and crew.
... When he wasn't its showrunner.
There. Fix it for you.
A whole lot of the episodes you've mentioned here were straight up horrible.
"The Time Of Angels" and "Flesh And Stone" are such memorable episodes... that I barely remember them (actually, I had to wiki them). But hey, they might actually be decent episodes... but "The Snowmen"? "Heaven Sent"!? Are you mad???
lol. Well, there's truly no accounting for taste, and yours seems to be quite terrible. But hey, if you really enjoyed any of those messes... more power to you, mate.
The reasons for why the doctor couldn't go back and get them were ridiculous and an 8 year old could have figured out the way to do it. The episode had plot holes you could drive a tank through. For me that was Moffatt as show runner. He'd get an idea he thought was neat and use it regardless of whether it made sense or fit with anything.
"Don't you think he looks tired?"
Oh and BOOOO sport!!!
Sure, "Broadchurch" has a fantastic long-term arc and great drama/mystery/tension. It also stands as one of the best things Chibnall's been involved in. These are all pros in his favor. However, one of the main reasons it stands as such an achievement is its complete lack of sci-fi/fantasy. Chibnall is great with character drama, but every script he's written for sci-fi/fantasy series has been incredibly lackluster. Just look at his "NuWho" output:
"42" - entertaining on a first watch. Subsequent viewings demonstrate choppy pacing, questionable motives of all the characters (not in a good way) and a story that could have been told in half the runtime of the episode.
"The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood" - One of the rare low points of Series 5. Without the increased production budget, this 2-part story would have been laughably bad. Horrible character motivation runs rampant in this story and the only things I really remember from it are how much I wanted the Silurians to kill that idiot mom (your son is a hostage and you decide to kill a Silurian because you want him back. Nice logic, moron.) and Rory's disappearance from the timeline (which feels so Moffat in execution, I'm almost sure it wasn't Chibnall's idea). The rest is completely forgettable and boring.
"Dinosaurs On A Spaceship" - This one feels like he was trying WAY too hard to be as wild and inventive as Moffat. As a result, we get like 4 stories (that all would have made great individual episodes) taped haphazardly together with no satisfying payoff on any of them. The term "tonal whiplash" was invented for the jarring experience of episodes like this. It was fun, but more like guilty-pleasure-fun instead of "Wow! So glad I watched this!"-fun.
"The Power Of Three" - The episode that forgot to include an ending. Or at least one that made any kind of sense. The first 20 or so minutes are a fascinating character study but then all the realism is tossed out the window and we get things like Square-mouthed aliens that are never explained and a deus ex screwdriver final act.
Torchwood, Life on Mars and Camelot were all hit-or-miss shows that he ran. All 3 were on point whenever they focused on main character drama but stumbled and fell when it came to high-concept storytelling.
The Man just doesn't get sci-fi or fantasy. He may like them, but recant write them with anything resembling consistency.
I will still give 2018's Series 11 a chance, but I have a feeling 2017's Series 10 will be the last time I truly enjoy a season of Doctor Who for quite some time.
Moffat may not be perfect at the long-term story arc, but every one of his individual episodes have boldly ran with their high-concept tales with confidence and been thoroughly entertaining (only exception being "The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe" which, oddly enough, felt like something Chibnall would have written). I will miss Steven Moffat's undeniable influence on what has become my favorite sci-fantasy series of all time. Here's hoping Series 10 goes out with a bang in 2017
I think I liked The Power of Three, but didn't care for Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, and don't remember 42 much.
Hopefully this won't change actors for the Doctor, I'd still like to see Capaldi unshackled from the weight of Clara take on this character for a while.
dinosaurs on a spaceship was just odd
and I didnt really like the power of three (not that I didnt dislike it either... I liked it because it was one of the last pond episodes, but not because of its plot)