The following conversation took place before Doctor Who’s New York Comic Con panel in October…
Chris Chibnall’s freshman series of Doctor Who has been one defined by change, to say the least. When longtime Doctor Who head writer and showrunner, Steven Moffat, stepped down from his position at the end of Doctor Who’s tenth series, Chibnall, a writer on the show since 2007, took control, redecorating with a new Doctor, new companions and a renewed focus on hope, kindness and social justice issues.
Having the responsibility of steering the Doctor Who ship in the right direction can’t be an easy one, considering the show’s legacy and millions of fans with expectations of their own, and now, halfway through Chibnall’s debut series, it’s clear that while the show’s new direction may not be appealing to everyone (some have complained about it becoming ‘too PC’), Chibnall is certainly forging his own path and not just following the same formula as his predecessors.
When speaking to Chibnall, who was joined by executive producer Matt Strevens at New York Comic Con last month, Flickering Myth asked Chibnall about the advice he received from previous Doctor Who showrunners about coming into the position.
“So the advice from… I didn’t get much,” he replied. “The stuff they told me was quite logistical, like be careful where you live (laughs). So there’s a lot of that. But one of the notes was, from Steven [Moffat], ‘Make sure they keep feeding you during a long day of meetings.‘ It was stuff like that. Steven, also, I think he had a great phrase [for] when you’re writing on the show. He said, ‘It’s not a piece of fragile china. You’re not carrying a piece of fragile china across a room. Everybody will tell you that you are, but you’re not. You’ve got to make it your own.’ And he said that to all the writers, and obviously, I wrote under him. And that’s what we’ve kept saying: the show demands that you make it your own. And for some people, that’s scary. And as the Doctor says later on today, ‘New can be scary. But that’s okay.’
Flickering Myth also asked about writing the first appearance of Whittaker’s Doctor, the first female one in the show’s history, for the episode ‘Twice Upon a Time’.
Chibnall said, “And then the first day on the regeneration… well, you can’t really believe it, to be honest. Cause you’re just sitting there going, ‘Jodie is there in Peter’s costume. We’re at the monitors. We haven’t made the rest of the episode. You come in for like 90 seconds. And by the way, then you blow the TARDIS up.’ So you’re like, ‘Okay, it looks like we’re in charge now. I guess we just do this.’ It was amazing.”
Saturday’s sixth episode of Doctor Who marks the first this series not written by Chibnall (he did co-write episode three with Malorie Blackman), which will give fans a good idea of what the show looks and sounds like when it’s not just his exact words coming out of the characters’ mouths; the next episode penned by Chibnall is December’s finale.
SEE ALSO: Exclusive: Doctor Who’s Jodie Whittaker on working with Bradley Walsh, Tosin Cole and Mandip Gill
Doctor Who airs on BBC One and BBC America every Sunday.
Justin Cook
