Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat has quit and will be replaced by Broadchurch creator Chris Chibnall reports Radio Times.
Other than the 2016 Doctor Who Christmas special, Moffat’s final season of episodes has been deferred by the BBC til 2017.
Explaining the decision to hold Moffat’s last series until next year, BBC1 controller Charlotte Moore said: “I have decided to schedule Steven’s big finale series in Spring 2017 to bring the nation together for what will be a huge event on the channel. 2016 is spoilt with national moments including the Euros and Olympics and I want to hold something big back for 2017 – I promise it will be worth the wait!”
…Moffat said of his decision to quit: “Feels odd to be talking about leaving when I’m just starting work on the scripts for season 10, but the fact is my timey-wimey is running out. While Chris is doing his last run of Broadchurch, I’ll be finishing up on the best job in the universe and keeping the TARDIS warm for him. It took a lot of gin and tonic to talk him into this, but I am beyond delighted that one of the true stars of British Television drama will be taking the Time Lord even further into the future. At the start of season 11, Chris Chibnall will become the new showrunner of Doctor Who. And I will be thrown in a skip.”
A brand new companion is expected to come on board in Moffat’s final season.
A Doctor Who fan since the age of four, Chibnall’s resume includes the award-winning series Broadchurch (with David Tennant), and credits for The Great Train Robbery, United, Law & Order: UK, Life on Mars and Torchwood.
There’s video of Chris Chibnall critiquing Doctor Who in 1986 on BBC feedback show Open Air, as a representative of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society. He told the show’s writers at the time he’d been disappointed with the 14-part Trial of a Time Lord
He added, “It was also very clichéd, it was very routine running up and down corridors and silly monsters.”
Chibnall is also in this behind-the-scenes video discussing the 2012 Doctor Who episode he scripted, “The Power of Three.”
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Moffatt wrote three of the greatest hours of television I’ve ever seen, but as a showrunner he let Who slide into dullness and involution after his first season. (I liked his first season. Others did not.) After Karen Gillan left, poor Matt Smith had to keep the show going all by himself with antics. I’m glad there will be a change. I’m sorry we’re two real years out from seeing it.
Well that gives me plenty of time to catch up on last season’s episodes.
I do think Moffat tended to rely too much on multi-episode events instead of creating solid single-episode stories. (I have the same issue with certain publishers of comics, but that’s another tale 😉 )
Perhaps both could take a cue or two from Rod Serling…
What Jim said.
(I could tell you how it works out from here in 7245, but Spoilers Sweetie.)
What Jim said. I’m ready for a change.
I thought he looked tired.
@Ultragotha: Well-played!
I actually thought Moffatt did an okay job. He had budget cuts and scheduling shenanigans outside his control to deal with and stll produced, IMO, some the best Who of the current era.
That being said, it is time for him to move on and give a someone else a shot. If only that person wasn’t Chibnall, who’s storys have been mostly “Meh” excepting the two part story about the Silurians.
Sigh. Well, Chibnall wrote most of my least favourite Torchwood episodes when he was in charge over there, but his run on Doctor Who has included a few that were better than mediocre. Not promising to me.
Then again, Moffat wrote some brilliant episodes, Some of the best of the series, but was awful as the man in charge. So I suppose solo brilliant episodes indicates nothing.
AS long as he doesn’t continue the trend of the Doctor cheating each and every single important death ever. The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances ‘ happy ending and death-cheating was awesome because at that time it had begun to seem like every victory was pyrrhic, not because it’s the only way a story should be.
(And come up with some companions other than waifish 21st century British women?)
I see that the “Chibnall must go” threads are up and running elsewhere. Thankfully most of them tongue in cheek. He has done some good work on Broadchurch and Law and Order after leaving Torchwood. I think it’s a good choice.
@Lenora Rose:
This sums it up perfectly for me as well. Moffat wrote great episodes, but his showrunning had some serious issues. Even setting aside some of the (in my opinion valid) criticisms about how he depicts women, his season-long story-telling let much to be desired. I began to dread the repeated overly forced foreshadowing and individual episodes that seemed to exist only to lead up to a cryptic punchline at the end.
I still enjoyed much of it, but after a while, it got… I don’t know… tedious, I suppose. Still haven’t finished the last season or watched the Christmas special yet. Which is a big change from when we would cancel plans so that we could watch episodes as they aired or use “browser enhancements” to watch stuff off the BBC website if it meant seeing it before it aired in the US.
Some new life would be good.
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