With the new season of Doctor Who on Disney+ and a new Doctor set to launch in May, fans are looking forward to the next chapter of the storied franchise. With every new Doctor comes big changes and things we’ve never seen before, but the new season is also taking fans back, as Russell T. Davies, who helped relaunch the series back in 2005, has returned as showrunner, and now we know another former showrunner will also be back, as Steven Moffat is writing an episode of the new installment.
Steven Moffat left Doctor Who at the end of Peter Capaldi’s run as The Doctor in 2017, and he certainly indicated at the time, and later, that he had no intention of returning. Speaking with the the official Doctor Who website, Moffat apologized to fans who may have felt misled by his previous comments, and he joked that he’s only back because his continued attempts to beg Davies to let him return were finally successful. Moffat cheekily said:
Yes, okay, fair enough - apologies to everyone I’ve very slightly misled - I am in fact writing an episode of the series of Doctor Who. Exactly like I said I never would. What can I tell you? There was begging, there was pleading but finally Russell agreed to let me have another go - so long as I got out of his garden. Working with old friends and a brand new Doctor I couldn’t be happier. Sorry I was a bit reticent on the subject for so long. It was all part of an elaborate plan that would have delighted millions but at the last minute I forgot what it was.
Any fan of modern Doctor Who has to be at least a little bit excited by this news. While Steven Moffat’s time as Doctor Who showrunner was somewhat divisive, his time on the show before that, when he wrote individual episodes of the series under Russell T. Davies as showrunner, produced some of the most popular episodes of the series. For example, Moffat wrote “The Empty Child” and “Blink” which are considered two of the best Doctor Who episodes. The idea of perhaps getting a new episode with a new Doctor on that level is too cool to overlook.
Moffat's time as showrunner on Doctor Who as well as Sherlock, was characterized by long-term plotlines that never seemed to conclude. Instead, there was always a next step or another level of mystery. Moffat's episodes, however, always had a satisfying end, and one assumes that's what we'll get with a single Moffat-written Doctor Who episode.
Details on the Moffat-penned episode are being kept under wraps. We know the episode will be directed by Julie-Anne Robinson, but no info on the story or when it will arrive was revealed. However, we do know when Doctor Who's new episodes will be available to those with a Disney+ subscription, as it's set to premiere on the 2024 TV schedule on May 10.
