'Doctor Who' Ex-Showrunner Steven Moffat Breaks Silence Since Departure

Doctor Who: Joy to the World writer Steven Moffat candid about troubles writing for the series.

“As a child, I always wondered about “the other door” in a hotel room, the one that wouldn’t open. I was obsessed with Narnia, and of course obsessed with Doctor Who, so I believed in the power of doorways to take you somewhere extraordinary. I would always test any locked door I couldn’t account for, in the hope that it would lead me to the TARDIS or Narnia – or as it turns out now, the Time Hotel. There is often that strange locked door in a hotel room, and I’ve always wanted to write about it. I’m surprised it took me this long.”

“Truthfully, I haven’t been away that long. During my gap, I did a couple of Doctor Who related projects so I fell back into it fairly naturally and fairly easily. If anything, it was probably easier writing it now than it was towards the end of my showrunning days, because I was so tired by then. The schedule on my last year was agonising, because I was coming to the end of Doctor Who and Sherlock at the same time. I did fourteen new Doctor Who episodes and three new Sherlock films, and the scripts were all on my desk in the same year. I’ve written such a lot of Doctor Who that I can always find the on switch for that part of my brain.”

“When I wrote The Eleventh Hour”, Moffat continued, “Matt hadn’t been cast yet so I just wrote the Doctor as I normally wrote him. Then when Matt was cast, everybody complimented me on the “brilliant rewrites” I had done for the episode, but the truth was I hadn’t altered a word – they were just imagining Matt doing it and that made it seem different. The biggest difference you actually make in the approach to the Doctor is that you cast someone else. It alters, but in ways I try not to think about too much.”

Watch the trailer for Doctor Who: Joy to the World below:

The episode introduces Joy, starring Nicola Coughlan (Bridgerton, Derry Girls), who checks into a London hotel in 2024, only to discover that her quiet stay is anything but ordinary. When Joy opens a secret doorway to the Time Hotel, she discovers danger, dinosaurs and the Doctor. But a deadly plan is unfolding across the Earth, just in time for Christmas. Where has the Doctor been? What is going on in Joy’s hotel room? An old enemy of the Doctor’s is lurking in the wings and all of human history hangs in the balance. Can the Doctor save Christmas, everywhere, all at once?

Doctor Who: Joy to the World will air Wednesday 25th December at 5:10pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.