Moffat Looks Ahead

Steven Moffat, who is set to take over the job of executive producer of the BBC's Doctor Who from current show runner Russell T. Davies, told SCI FI Wire that he is currently planning the fifth season of the new incarnation, due to air in 2010 following a series of five specials next year.
"It's all happening in this head," Moffat said in an interview at Comic-Con International in San Diego on July 23. "I know where I want it to start. I don't mean to make it sound very grand. It's very simple, just where I want it to be when it takes off. So [Russell's] arranged for that."
Moffat, who has written some of the most popular episodes of the new series so far, said that his new role as executive producer will require him to approach writing from an entirely different perspective.
"There are a bunch of things I've always wanted to see in Doctor Who, yes, but now it's slightly different--it's very different in my new position," Moffat said. "Obviously, I only turned up once a year, and practically my brief was to write, in effect, the Moffat episode--the one that's very different, the one that's a bit timey-wimey or a bit scary. And that's all they were expecting. And they would just tell me, 'Go, and do your thing.' So I would do my Moffat-y thing--whatever the f--k that is--in a very, very pronounced way. But you couldn't have a whole series like that. If you started a series with 'Silence of the Library' or 'Blink,' people would turn off. You can't have that as the first episode. It's just too grim. So it's different contemplating it from this position, very, very different."
The series will also continue to embrace a wide range of tones and genres, Moffat said. Rather than adapting the show to his particular writing style, he looks forward to experimenting with different voices to maintain the show's variety.
"That's not what the show's about," Moffat said. "Kids aren't rushing to their television sets to see how much of the Moffat voice will get through. All you can do is make exciting television episodes and experiment with different voices. I've quite deliberately and purposefully--it's not been an accident--had a very consistent voice in Doctor Who, because that enables Russell to manage me. He knows what he's going to get. He knew it was going to be dark before [he] got it, because that's what he said it was. 'You'll be doing a dark one.' Whereas Russell in Doctor Who will write everything from 'Partners in Crime' to 'Midnight,' and those two have nothing in common as far as voice is concerned. It's two totally different takes on the same show. And that's quite exciting for me, too, because I get to write episodes that I wouldn't normally write, that wouldn't be expected of me."
Moffat hopes that the long wait between seasons, punctuated by the specials, will make the audience more excited for its return. "Part of the reason behind the gap year was thinking, 'Starve them for a year. Make them want it back. Return it to event status.'"