PART THREE
How did the Spoonheads compare, in terms of scare factor, with villains like The Silence and the Weeping Angels?
MOFFAT: Well, that’s not really for me to say. I don’t know. I never know which ones are going to be the big scares. But, “The Bells of Saint John” is an action roller coaster, whereas the Weeping Angels story and The Silence story were more consciously designed to be more scary adventures. But, it’s really not up to me. It’s up to the kids to say which ones give them nightmares. I’ll not pre-judge it. I think they’re quite creepy, and I think it’s a rollicking adventure ride. I think it’s a cracker of an episode. But, it’s best to wait and see what the audience thinks.
What was your impetus for wanting to bring the Ice Warriors back, and what were some of the challenges in re-imagining that old foe?
MOFFAT: The impetus really came from Mark Gatiss. I wasn’t that keen, initially, on the idea of bringing the Ice Warriors back. They’d never been any special favorite of mine, in the old series. I thought they were good, but I never quite got into them. But, Mark Gatiss get nagging me and Caroline [Skinner] about bringing them back, and then he came up with an idea, which I won’t tell you – I’m going to leave that as a surprise in “Cold War” – but he really made them come to life for me. It was brilliant. At that point, I really got into it, but that was due to Mark’s creativity and not mine. There were a number of challenges that I can’t talk about, but one I will talk about is that they are far less familiar to the general audience than the Daleks or the Cybermen, or any of those things, where you feel that you have to bring the changes a bit with the look of them because they’re very familiar. With the Ice Warriors, we wanted to create a really good, super-duper version of the one that’s already there, rather than changing or revising it. So, the challenge was making the one that they designed for the fuzzy old televisions work for these other, less forgiving HD cameras of today.
As a writer and a producer, what were your biggest challenges and surprises in these eight episodes coming up?
MOFFAT: Every episode is a challenge, and what’s challenging in most episodes is the monster. You’re always a heartbeat from the monster looking ridiculous. You really have to work so hard to make them not look like ridiculous when they turn up on the set. Doctor Who is the most exhaustingly planned show on earth. We have so little time to make one, so everything is planned to the last detail. It’s relatively rare for something to surprise you because you’ve tried to factor in every single thing that could go wrong. I was very pleasantly surprised with how effectively and realistically we were able to create a submarine for the episode “Cold War.” I think they did a stunning job on that, in just really, really convincing you that you’re on board a sub. At every level, that was a bit of a design triumph.
A big conflict of your era is the Doctor needing to not be alone because he’s not himself when he’s not with a companion. Why doesn’t he just always get a companion? Why does he resist that?
MOFFAT: Well, if you were told that the way to heal yourself, make yourself a better person and to function better was to permanently endanger another human being, you might be hesitant, too. He is aware that he causes damage to those people, or can cause damage, and he keeps them in terrible danger. He’s also aware that a relationship or friendship for him, like it or not, is postponed bereavement, and it’s not even postponed that long. He will outlive them. They will die and he will be roughly the same age. So, those two factors make him very, very hesitant about taking someone on board. There’s also the fact that he’s the Doctor. Can you imagine trying to tell the Doctor something, trying to put him right, trying to explain something to him and have him believe you? He, generally speaking, does know better than you, but he always thinks he does. How like a man! He’d be a hard man to advise.
How did Neil Cross come to be a part of this season, and what has he brought to the show?
MOFFAT: Neil Cross is a writer that I knew of, but had never met. He’s done Luther and written some books. He’s a terrific writer. I’ve also read a script he’d written a few years ago. We never quite got it together when Caroline Skinner came onto the show. Neil Cross is an old friend of hers and she said, “I’m going to chase him and see if we can’t work the schedules out.” He’s a huge Doctor Who fan, but he did not have the time to write an episode. This time, he leapt at the chance to shove everything out of the way and do it. What I’m looking for, all the time – and this sounds terribly snobbish and awful – are showrunner-level writers who’d give their right arm to write a Doctor Who story, and it’s surprising how often we get that and how many of our writing team, if I can call them that, are showrunners themselves. It was a gift to us. Neil took to it like a duck to water, so it was brilliant.
One of the big components of Doctor Who, early on, were the purely historical adventures, with no extraterrestrial monster or villain, and the bad guy was someone who did exist. Do you think a purely historical adventure would be possible now?
MOFFAT: I don’t think it’s impossible, but I’m going to put my cards on the table and say that I didn’t think those historical adventures were very good. I didn’t like them. I thought they were dull. Insofar as I remember them as a kid, I couldn’t wait for them to be over, so we could get back to proper sci-fi. I’m just being honest. They weren’t my favorite. That doesn’t mean that we won’t come up with a story that is historical. But, I think they were discarded for a reason. Even before they were discarded, they were always regarded as the lesser element of the show. If you’ve got this glittering man in this extraordinary space-time machine, just having him visit the past isn’t enough. I don’t think it is. There has to be something as extraordinary as he is, otherwise it’s like Sherlock Holmes investigating crimes. It’s just not enough for our hero.
What do you think it is that makes Doctor Who so universal?
MOFFAT: Accessibility, in a way. You can start watching Doctor Who, at any point in its history. You don’t have to catch up with the rest of it. It’s a very simple myth. It’s a man that can travel anywhere in time and space in a box that’s bigger on the inside. That’s as much format as we have. You can join it at any time and absolutely get ahold of it. Dare I say it, I think it’s just one of the greatest pieces of entertainment that’s ever been. That’s why we latch onto it. It’s terrific! It’s simple to understand what it’s about, and it’s hugely entertaining. And every so often, it completely reinvents itself to feel like a whole new era. It always feels at home in the present day because it always adapts itself. We are, after all, on our 11th leading man.
Since you grew up loving Doctor Who, like so many people did, what’s it like to go from watching it to making it?
MOFFAT: It happened so long ago now. I’ve been involved with this for quite a long time – nearly 10 years – that I’m starting to forget. It’s very exciting! It’s massively demanding, not that I had any doubt about that. Doctor Who has always been there, and will always be there. The fans remain intact. You stay excited by Doctor Who and the idea of Doctor Who. It always remains thrilling. You couldn’t function on the show, unless that were true. It’s a terrible thing to say, but I’ve been on the other side of the curtain for quite awhile now and I forget that this used to be a show that I wasn’t involved in. One day, when I’m not involved with it again, it will all come rushing back, but right now, it feels as though I’ve always worked on it. It retains its shine. That’s the main thing.
Did the upcoming 50th anniversary affect how you planned the arc of this season, at all?
MOFFAT: Not really. You always want to make it special and huge and big. One of the things that I’m concerned about this year is that the show must be seen to be going forward. It’s all about the next 50 years, not about the last 50 years. If you start thinking it’s all about nostalgia then you’re finished. It’s about moving forward. The Doctor is moving forward, as he always does. He wants to solve the mystery of Clara. He’s not thinking about all his previous incarnations and all his previous adventures. He’s thinking about the future. That, for me, is important. The show must never feel old. It must always feel brand new, and a 50th anniversary can play against that.
How much pressure do you feel to deliver on the 50th anniversary, and is there any way it can possibly live up to the hype and excitement?
MOFFAT: I don’t know. Right now, I’m going to stick to talking about Saturday and this series. We’ll deliver a good show. But, more on that later. Right now, I want to concentrate on what we’re going to do on Saturday, which is a whole eight episodes before we even have to worry about that. But, we’ll deliver. I’m pretty confident.
Spoiler:
How did the Spoonheads compare, in terms of scare factor, with villains like The Silence and the Weeping Angels?
MOFFAT: Well, that’s not really for me to say. I don’t know. I never know which ones are going to be the big scares. But, “The Bells of Saint John” is an action roller coaster, whereas the Weeping Angels story and The Silence story were more consciously designed to be more scary adventures. But, it’s really not up to me. It’s up to the kids to say which ones give them nightmares. I’ll not pre-judge it. I think they’re quite creepy, and I think it’s a rollicking adventure ride. I think it’s a cracker of an episode. But, it’s best to wait and see what the audience thinks.
What was your impetus for wanting to bring the Ice Warriors back, and what were some of the challenges in re-imagining that old foe?
MOFFAT: The impetus really came from Mark Gatiss. I wasn’t that keen, initially, on the idea of bringing the Ice Warriors back. They’d never been any special favorite of mine, in the old series. I thought they were good, but I never quite got into them. But, Mark Gatiss get nagging me and Caroline [Skinner] about bringing them back, and then he came up with an idea, which I won’t tell you – I’m going to leave that as a surprise in “Cold War” – but he really made them come to life for me. It was brilliant. At that point, I really got into it, but that was due to Mark’s creativity and not mine. There were a number of challenges that I can’t talk about, but one I will talk about is that they are far less familiar to the general audience than the Daleks or the Cybermen, or any of those things, where you feel that you have to bring the changes a bit with the look of them because they’re very familiar. With the Ice Warriors, we wanted to create a really good, super-duper version of the one that’s already there, rather than changing or revising it. So, the challenge was making the one that they designed for the fuzzy old televisions work for these other, less forgiving HD cameras of today.
As a writer and a producer, what were your biggest challenges and surprises in these eight episodes coming up?
MOFFAT: Every episode is a challenge, and what’s challenging in most episodes is the monster. You’re always a heartbeat from the monster looking ridiculous. You really have to work so hard to make them not look like ridiculous when they turn up on the set. Doctor Who is the most exhaustingly planned show on earth. We have so little time to make one, so everything is planned to the last detail. It’s relatively rare for something to surprise you because you’ve tried to factor in every single thing that could go wrong. I was very pleasantly surprised with how effectively and realistically we were able to create a submarine for the episode “Cold War.” I think they did a stunning job on that, in just really, really convincing you that you’re on board a sub. At every level, that was a bit of a design triumph.
A big conflict of your era is the Doctor needing to not be alone because he’s not himself when he’s not with a companion. Why doesn’t he just always get a companion? Why does he resist that?
MOFFAT: Well, if you were told that the way to heal yourself, make yourself a better person and to function better was to permanently endanger another human being, you might be hesitant, too. He is aware that he causes damage to those people, or can cause damage, and he keeps them in terrible danger. He’s also aware that a relationship or friendship for him, like it or not, is postponed bereavement, and it’s not even postponed that long. He will outlive them. They will die and he will be roughly the same age. So, those two factors make him very, very hesitant about taking someone on board. There’s also the fact that he’s the Doctor. Can you imagine trying to tell the Doctor something, trying to put him right, trying to explain something to him and have him believe you? He, generally speaking, does know better than you, but he always thinks he does. How like a man! He’d be a hard man to advise.
How did Neil Cross come to be a part of this season, and what has he brought to the show?
MOFFAT: Neil Cross is a writer that I knew of, but had never met. He’s done Luther and written some books. He’s a terrific writer. I’ve also read a script he’d written a few years ago. We never quite got it together when Caroline Skinner came onto the show. Neil Cross is an old friend of hers and she said, “I’m going to chase him and see if we can’t work the schedules out.” He’s a huge Doctor Who fan, but he did not have the time to write an episode. This time, he leapt at the chance to shove everything out of the way and do it. What I’m looking for, all the time – and this sounds terribly snobbish and awful – are showrunner-level writers who’d give their right arm to write a Doctor Who story, and it’s surprising how often we get that and how many of our writing team, if I can call them that, are showrunners themselves. It was a gift to us. Neil took to it like a duck to water, so it was brilliant.
One of the big components of Doctor Who, early on, were the purely historical adventures, with no extraterrestrial monster or villain, and the bad guy was someone who did exist. Do you think a purely historical adventure would be possible now?
MOFFAT: I don’t think it’s impossible, but I’m going to put my cards on the table and say that I didn’t think those historical adventures were very good. I didn’t like them. I thought they were dull. Insofar as I remember them as a kid, I couldn’t wait for them to be over, so we could get back to proper sci-fi. I’m just being honest. They weren’t my favorite. That doesn’t mean that we won’t come up with a story that is historical. But, I think they were discarded for a reason. Even before they were discarded, they were always regarded as the lesser element of the show. If you’ve got this glittering man in this extraordinary space-time machine, just having him visit the past isn’t enough. I don’t think it is. There has to be something as extraordinary as he is, otherwise it’s like Sherlock Holmes investigating crimes. It’s just not enough for our hero.
What do you think it is that makes Doctor Who so universal?
MOFFAT: Accessibility, in a way. You can start watching Doctor Who, at any point in its history. You don’t have to catch up with the rest of it. It’s a very simple myth. It’s a man that can travel anywhere in time and space in a box that’s bigger on the inside. That’s as much format as we have. You can join it at any time and absolutely get ahold of it. Dare I say it, I think it’s just one of the greatest pieces of entertainment that’s ever been. That’s why we latch onto it. It’s terrific! It’s simple to understand what it’s about, and it’s hugely entertaining. And every so often, it completely reinvents itself to feel like a whole new era. It always feels at home in the present day because it always adapts itself. We are, after all, on our 11th leading man.
Since you grew up loving Doctor Who, like so many people did, what’s it like to go from watching it to making it?
MOFFAT: It happened so long ago now. I’ve been involved with this for quite a long time – nearly 10 years – that I’m starting to forget. It’s very exciting! It’s massively demanding, not that I had any doubt about that. Doctor Who has always been there, and will always be there. The fans remain intact. You stay excited by Doctor Who and the idea of Doctor Who. It always remains thrilling. You couldn’t function on the show, unless that were true. It’s a terrible thing to say, but I’ve been on the other side of the curtain for quite awhile now and I forget that this used to be a show that I wasn’t involved in. One day, when I’m not involved with it again, it will all come rushing back, but right now, it feels as though I’ve always worked on it. It retains its shine. That’s the main thing.
Did the upcoming 50th anniversary affect how you planned the arc of this season, at all?
MOFFAT: Not really. You always want to make it special and huge and big. One of the things that I’m concerned about this year is that the show must be seen to be going forward. It’s all about the next 50 years, not about the last 50 years. If you start thinking it’s all about nostalgia then you’re finished. It’s about moving forward. The Doctor is moving forward, as he always does. He wants to solve the mystery of Clara. He’s not thinking about all his previous incarnations and all his previous adventures. He’s thinking about the future. That, for me, is important. The show must never feel old. It must always feel brand new, and a 50th anniversary can play against that.
How much pressure do you feel to deliver on the 50th anniversary, and is there any way it can possibly live up to the hype and excitement?
MOFFAT: I don’t know. Right now, I’m going to stick to talking about Saturday and this series. We’ll deliver a good show. But, more on that later. Right now, I want to concentrate on what we’re going to do on Saturday, which is a whole eight episodes before we even have to worry about that. But, we’ll deliver. I’m pretty confident.
Comment