Stephen Moffat is Leaving Doctor Who

(This is not the weekly blog post, as it discusses a subject which many readers may not be invested in.)

Mild Doctor Who spoilers ahead; knowledge of up to season nine is recommended, though no key plot points are spoiled, merely referenced. Season 8’s “Kill the Moon” and “In the Forest of the Night” have their finales discussed briefly.

So this news is a little old now, but it’s taken a while to simmer at the back of my mind whilst the front pretends it has more important things to do. Showrunner Stephen Moffat will be stepping down from Doctor Who at the end of Season 10, after six seasons of leading the show and having written some episodes prior, under Russel T Davies’ running.

I don’t know how to feel about Moffat. On the one hand, he created the Weeping Angels, arguably the best villain introduced in New Who. On the other hand, he ran them into the ground, taking them outside of their niche narrative and inserting them as smaller roles with each passing appearance. He created the Eleventh Doctor, my favourite of them all, trumping even Tenant. But he also created season eight, and whilst the head writer is not to blame for an entire season’s collaboration of multiple writers, he must surely take some of the blame for London turning into a forest and the moon being a goddamn egg.

Here’s one thing I do know, though: Hearing people cheer for your departure from the role of showrunner must be crushing. The constant complaints and utter hatred launched his way for some sketchy writing and questionable plot lines is over the top, and the sheer fact that he deleted his Twitter account (to escape, I’m assuming, from said hatred) just makes me feel ashamed. Am I happy he’s stepping down? Yes. It’ll be nice to step away from shaky plot lines being explained with a mere “wibbly wobbly” and a laugh. It’ll be nice to see what Chris Chibnall brings to the table. But give credit where it’s due. Doctor Who has always had some dodgy writing. It’s not meant to be hardcore, steeped-in-fact Sci-Fi. And Stephen Moffat has done some brilliant episodes, and not just far in the past; did anyone else catch Heaven Sent? Because that was a narrative masterpiece. (Shame about Hell Bent.)

My main issue with Doctor Who is not its writers or lead writer, but its structure as a seasonal narrative. Monster of the week worked for the first few seasons, because the overarching plot was smaller, subtler, and lead up to a finale which left no loose ends. But I think Moffat’s writing was different. It was geared towards longer story archs, more potent in their importance, more grand in their aspirations. Season five didn’t do it too badly, continually drawing out attention back to the cracks and having large plot lines develop in the more notable two-parters. But lately it’s been like… sorry, what was that whole thing with the Time Lords? Yes well that was all rather interesting, let’s go do something completely irrelevant for the next few episodes. It just doesn’t work, and moreover, it’s frustrating. And unless Chris Chibnall either changes the way plot lines work, or changes the overall structure of the series, then I worry that it will continue to fall short of expectations.