Some Hints about Moffat as Producer of Doctor Who...

[wshaffer]

So, back in 1999, in the depth of the Bewilderness Years, when Big Finish was a scrappy young company about to release its first Doctor Who audios, and most people thought there was not an Ice Warrior's chance in Hell of the show returning to TV, Doctor Who Magazine got together Russell T. Davies, Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss, Paul Cornell, Gareth Roberts, and Lance Parkin, and asked them what they would do with a revived Doctor Who on television.

Back when it was announced that Russell T. Davies would be the producer of the new Doctor Who, this article made the rounds on the internet and was scoured for clues as to what the new show would be like. I honestly don't remember how accurate the predictions were - I'm pretty sure there were a few things that RTD changed his mind about between 1999 and 2005. But, anyway, now that we all know that Steven Moffat is taking over as producer, I've been meaning to dig up the article and have a look at what he had to say back then. Fortunately, the folks over at Behind the Sofa have done the work for me.

The general impression is that Moffat and Davies agree on a lot of things. Which is fine. I don't want radical changes to the show - I just think that over time, Davies's particular quirks and excesses have become more and more visible, and I think it would be refreshing to have to deal with someone else's quirks and excesses for a while.

Something that I thought was interesting was Moffat's insistence that Doctor Who is a children's show. Period. Full stop. This is an idea that I think is always going to be slightly weird to most American fans, because although many of us started watching the show as kids, it was never presented to us in the US as children's television. However, it's clear that in Moffat's mind, writing for kids doesn't mean dumbing down the story. Based on the evidence of the episodes he's written so far, I'd say it mostly involves having a damn good iconic monster to scare the crap out of everyone.

Something that I found very heartening was Moffat's opinion that the Doctor should be older:

He should be forty-plus and weird looking – the kind of wacky grandfather that kids know on sight to be secretly one of them. I thought Rowan (Atkinson) was perfect, if a little on the young side, because kids have always loved him…

Not sure about the Rowan Atkinson bit (just because I don't want to look at the Doctor and think of Mr. Bean), nor do I think that the Doctor should always be played by an older actor, but I do think that whoever follows David Tennant in the role probably does need to be a bit older. (I don't know why, but I'm terribly afraid that Doctor #11 will be cast too much in the mould that Tennant has established for the part. This is silly, because the show has never, ever succumbed to the trap of making successive Doctors too similar to each other. But, you know, I'm a Doctor Who fan. I've got to fret about something.)

As an aside, my personal nomination for the 11th Doctor, when it comes time to cast Tennant's replacement? Paterson Joseph, most likely known to American fans as the Marquis de Carabas in the TV version of Neverwhere. Yeah, I know, he already had a part as another character in "Bad Wolf"/"Parting of the Ways", but that's no obstacle. Alas, the general consensus on the WisCon panel on Martha Jones was that a black Doctor has about an Ice Warrior's chance in Hell of happening.

But then again, that's how we all felt about the show itself in 1999, so I'm not giving up hope yet.

Comments

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Agreed with you on Paterson Joseph that he'd make a good 11. His "Marquis de Carabas" practically was a screen-test for the Doctor. Eccentric, erudite, not necessarily likeable at first sight, and even regenerates, sort-of.

Maxil Syndrome actually works in his favour, and so does the fact that he's a good-quality BBC actor, who's played a variety of roles, and looks a little bit foxy.

I fear we're more likely to get a Doctor who's nonwhite than a white-haired one at this juncture. Heaven forfend that a Time Lord into his second millennium should look his age (Dobby-Doctor most definitely excluded).

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

I also take encouragement from the fact that Joseph has worked with Moffat before, on Jekyll. If we extrapolate from the entirely non-statistically valid sample of the two new series Doctors, number 11 will be a well-respected but not superstar British actor who has worked with the producer on a previous project.

I'm afraid you're probably right that we won't get a Doctor who appears genuinely "old". Which probably rules out Bill Nighy, alas.

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

Ooh. Alas indeed.

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

I must admit, I never particularly understood the clamor in some quarters of fandom to cast Bill Nighy as the Doctor until I started watching State of Play a couple of weeks ago. Bill Nighy plays a crusty, eccentric, ferociously intelligent newspaper editor. He's so Doctorish that by the end of the second episode, I was imagining that he was nipping off in the TARDIS whenever he was offscreen.

Also, he totally pwns John Simm in the first 20 seconds of their first scene together. Clearly it was meant to be.