Steven Moffat - writer of episodes nine & ten
Discovering he had been chosen as one of the writers on the new series
of Doctor Who helped to seal a perfect day for Steven Moffat,
writer of Coupling.
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"I heard I'd got the job on the way to the Comedy Awards, where we
won for my 91Èȱ¬ TWO series Coupling, and I got to meet (former Doctor
Who) Peter Davison," he recalls.
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Like the other writers working on the Doctor's return, Steven is a
big Doctor Who fan. "I remember me and (fellow Doctor Who writer) Mark
Gatiss drunkenly pitching the return of the show to the 91Èȱ¬'s
Head of Comedy at a party once and him saying 'It sounds very interesting,
but I'm comedy'.
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"Getting involved in the new series was absolutely thrilling, but I
guess I took a deep breath before I started writing my episodes."
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Steven scripted one of three two-parters in the new run, a sinister
tale set in London during the Blitz, where a mysterious presence is
mutating humans into something not of this world.
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Best known for his comedy work, he says: "Comedy is just another sort
of drama really, and there's always been comedy in Doctor Who to offset
its scariness.
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"To my mind, Doctor Who should be predominantly scary, but you can't
make it too terrifying if you're aiming it at a family audience.
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"I've always seen it as a kind of badly-behaved children's show. It
scared and thrilled me as a kid and will hopefully do the same to a
new generation of viewers this time round."
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Steven says he put being a long-time fan of the show aside while writing
his scripts.
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"I actually pre-date Doctor Who, and I remember being very confused
as a boy when Patrick Troughton took over from William Hartnell, the
first Doctor," he recalls.
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"I started being a never-miss-an episode fan when Jon Pertwee was the
Doctor.
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"But I tried to switch off from being a fan when I was writing because
it was hard work. Where being a fan has come into it is stuff like being
on the set of the TARDIS, and seeing clips from the episodes by the
other writers.
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"I came into the show expecting that it would be done well, because
that was the intent, and it really has been mounted at a very high level."
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