Moffat Out, Chris Chibnall in

[tomalak301]

You know there is one thought I have from this. Both Orphan Black and the Moffatt era of Doctor Who will be ending next year, almost like how they started with both shows on the same night. BBC America might be pleased about that, airing the finales on the same night or a week a part maybe. Might make up for lack of content this year.

I'm glad Doctor Who is getting a new showrunner. Might breathe some new life into the show.

 

[Timby]

And Chibnall probably has his own obligations for the year ahead.

He's busy writing and producing the third season of Broadchurch.

 

[Samurai8472]

Well he's okay. I don't know if Gatiss would have been better


I agree that series 10 will Capaldi's last. With Chibnall in charge it will be a whole new slate.

Probably in the vein of "....To the next 10 years!"

Moffat's the only last remaining piece of the first 10 years.

 

[StCoop]

Oh for the day someone writes a book on what Moffat's time in charge was really like...

https://twitter.com/Markgatiss/status/690671880257273856

 

[Christopher]

I liked the Silurian 2-parter and "Dinosaurs." And Torchwood's second season was a lot better than its first. As for Gatiss, I've found pretty much all his Who work to be mediocre, except for "Sleep No More," which was utterly ghastly. (And I've just gotten to "The Gunfighters" in my Classic Who rewatch, so I've already had my fill of ghastly Doctor Who for the day.)

I just hope Chibnall keeps the current TARDIS design, inside and out. I like the vivid blue police box with the St. John's Ambulance logo, and the Clara-era console room is the only one in the modern series that I've liked.

 

[Squiggy]

What's the problem with Chibnall?

 

[Starkers]

Oh for the day someone writes a book on what Moffat's time in charge was really like...

https://twitter.com/Markgatiss/status/690671880257273856

Is the inference that the BBC wouldn't let Moffat quit before now?!

 

[Timby]

What's the problem with Chibnall?

Outside of "The Power of Three," his Doctor Who work has been utter dogshit, and he produced the first two seasons of Torchwood, which were, um, shall we say ... lacking.

 

[StCoop]

Is the inference that the BBC wouldn't let Moffat quit before now?!

I would guess that if he hadn't agreed to come back there wouldn't have been any new episodes until Autumn 2017, since Chibnal has the last series of Broadchurch on his plate this year. I certainly got the impression when he was giving interviews at Christmas that he didn't leave as planned more out of obligation than desire.

 

[kirk55555]

Well, a whole year with almost no new Who sucks, but it will be nice to mix it up and get someone new in charge. I wish Capaldi had a bit more time, but it seems like Series 10 will probably be his last. I don't have much opinion on the new showrunner, except that I found his Doctor Who stories to be mostly ok. Not as good as Moffat's best, but none were as bad as Moffat's worse. I definitely have an open mind about the new guy.

 

[MickJo1701]

Outside of "The Power of Three," his Doctor Who work has been utter dogshit, and he produced the first two seasons of Torchwood, which were, um, shall we say ... lacking.

Hard to disagree, '42' is the only episode of nuWho I've never watched again since its initial airing.

Not exactly blown away by the appointment but we'll have to wait and see.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I think Chibnall is a good choice because he did good scripts with Life on Mars and Law & Order: UK (oh, and Doctor Who, too) but I haven't seen Broadchurch so I can't comment there.

As I expected, fans are already to freaking out because of his work on Torchwood (which was a mix of bad and enjoyable).

 

[Skellington]

Pants. Not because of the choice of Chibnall - I've enjoyed all of his Who single-parters - but about the 2016 hiatus and the probable loss of Moffat the script writer and Moffat the script editor. I hope the show retains some of its wit.

Anyway, the smart money would be on Capaldi leaving with Moffat. A pity; his performance hearkens back to the seventies Doctors, who managed five and seven seasons each.

Time to start thinking about Big Finish again, methinks.

 

[Timby]

"42" is basically a rushed and lazy retelling of "The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit," so I have nothing but loathing for it.

 

[DarthPipes]

Woo-hoo! So long, Moffat.

I can't say I'm particularly impressed with the new showrunner but I'm happy with new blood. And I admit, I liked that two-parter he wrote in Season 6.

 

[Turbo]

Well, it's better than the rate Sherlock comes out. The recent Christmas special was the only installment of that series between 2014 and 2017.

Sherlock has the added disadvantage of both of its stars being in huge demand on top of Moffat and Gatiss being busy with other projects.

 

[davejames]

I've always been a massive fan of Moffat's writing, and thought his episodes were always the most bold and clever and fun by far (even when they sometimes went off the rails a bit), so I'll definitely be sad to see him go.

That being said though, it does feel like it's about time for the show to have a fresher and newer style, so I look forward to seeing what Chibnall comes up with.

Chibnall's episodes may not have been the most clever or interesting, but they still worked a whole lot better than a lot of other writer's episodes have under Moffat. And as a showrunner I suspect he probably won't be writing as many episodes as Moffat did anyway.

 

[diankra]

I'm trying to see an upside to this, but... even ignoring the effective year off (thank you Charlotte Moore... but as she's effectively doing four jobs now she can be forgiven for losing track of the details):
Chris Chibnall is a fan and a nice guy, but that doesn't make him a good writer, at least for Doctor Who. His episodes have been at best enjoyably average.
I'll give him a pass on Torchwood season one, because it's clear that as staff writer on a new series which was trying to work out what worked, he was writing the test-out episodes that the freelances didn't want to do. And season two was better, so the personnel change-out was a bit unfair (even though Children of Earth is superb).
But... when Broadchurch was starting, he said in an interview on Radio Four that it came out of him being very disillusioned by a show-runner stint in the States (Camelot, I presume), so he just sat down to write something he'd like to see, regardless of whether it would sell. And that worked.
I think that's what he ought to be doing: one-offs (no second series), not trying to be a mainstream showrunner on a popular series. And particularly not on an SF series, let alone he one he loved as a kid.

 

[Christopher]

And particularly not on an SF series, let alone he one he loved as a kid.

Yeah... I think the weaknesses of Moffat as showrunner tend to stem from his fandom. He's such a fan of the Doctor that he's created a universe where every character and every civilization shares his fixation on the Doctor. As I've said before, it's stopped being a show about the Doctor exploring the universe and become a show about the universe reacting to the Doctor. Maybe Chibnall wouldn't do the same, but maybe what the show needs is someone who isn't a lifelong fan, someone who can more objectively assess what would make the show effective.

 

[USS Triumphant]

I'm cautiously optimistic, and hopeful that the new guy can bring my daughter back into the fold - she used to LOVE Doctor Who, starting with the 9th Doctor, but she despises Clara and thinks Moffat is the devil. Her reaction to the news about Chibnall has been that she can't lose, because Moffat has destroyed the show for her to the point where Chibnall can, at worst, continue that, and at best, make it worthwhile again.

My own feelings aren't quite that strong, but echo a good bit of it. Watching the last couple of seasons has felt like a duty to what was a good show and could be again, rather than anything I've actually enjoyed. And I was really hoping Clara would trade her life for Danny Pink's - I'd have preferred him as a Companion. There was an interesting relationship between him as a soldier and the Doctor with his attitude toward military that it really seemed like they were setting up to do something with. And then didn't.