So apparently Steven Moffat is taking over as head writer on Doctor Who.
This makes me very happy. Moffat is a great writer, clearly loves the series (and its history), and has written some of the best episodes — some of the best television — I’ve ever seen.
This also makes me very nervous. Russell T. Davies, who will be departing as showrunner next season, is no slouch as a writer himself, also clearly loves the series, and has penned some pretty good episodes, too. But it’s also clear that his focus has been sometimes scattered, and he maybe hasn’t always produced the best work he could.
Obviously Moffat won’t be writing every episode in season 5, but there is a part of me that worries what happens when he becomes more than a one- (or two-part-) episode man a year. I mean, I really liked Jeckyll, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say it got a little muddled near the end. And he’s apparently working on a Tintin movie for Steven Spielberg, too?
Still, I’m optimistic. I’ll be a little more worried when and if Daivd Tennant decides to leave. (I’ve recently been re-watching some episodes from the first season, and it’s amazing almost like a different show it is. Not to take anything away from Christopher Eccleston, who was terrific, but I hadn’t realized just how much Tennant had grown on me.)
Oh, and copyeditors take note of the missing capitalization in the linked news story above: “Steven Moffat: pictured on the set of coupling with his wife, Sue Vertue.”
I’m pretty much unreservedly happy and optimistic about this, myself. I don’t have the kind of problem with RTD that a lot of fans do, but it is perhaps time for him to be moving on, and there is absolutely no one I’d rather have take over from him. Oh, and dare I hope that Moffat will follow Davies’ tradition of writing the season finales himself? Because, honestly, Moffat is way better at writing two-parters.
I am cautiously optimistic. He’s the best and obvious choice, but I think it is possible to overestimate his brilliance, while also undervaluing Davies’ talents and importance to the show. “The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances” is one of the best two-parters, really quite terrific, it’s also the only two-parter Moffat has thus far written. (Unless you count the one that’s coming up, and I think even you won’t have seen episodes that haven’t aired in the UK yet.) “The Girl in the Fireplace” is wonderful, and “Blink” is terrific mad fun — even if it doesn’t quite hold up as well on subsequent viewings — but a brilliant episode a year isn’t the same thing as running the show.
Which isn’t to say this news doesn’t make me very happy. Just, y’know, not completely unreservedly so.