Moffat on Movies & Scheduling

By Christian Cawley, August 26, 2012 - Doctor Who - 2 comments

You know, he must really be sick of answering this particular question. I wonder if David Yates is still on the Moffat Christmas card list?

Steven Moffat, writer of Doctor Who and SherlockYep, you guessed it – questions about a possible film version of Doctor Who were asked at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival’s Steven Moffat Q&A yesterday, with the series’ Executive Producer making it clear that his position hasn’t changed.

“There’s often been talk about a movie, I’m sure we should do one. What I keep saying is it can’t ever be allowed to interfere with the television show… that’s the thing that will go on forever.”

We all know by now that The Grand Moff has been pretty honest about all of this, and his attitude is right – a movie automatically pushes the TV show into second place in the hierarchy of importance in terms of budget and profile. The series has to remain the most important.

Interestingly, Moffat also gave his thoughts about scheduling, something that he apparently doesn’t consider as important as perhaps Russell T Davies did. Recent research has revealed that “just under” half of Doctor Who viewers catch it when it first airs. Changing TV habits and iPlayer have, it seems, forced a rethink at the BBC in terms of broadcasting the show at a set time each week.

“We no longer watch TV when schedulers tell us we should and that’s right,” he said. “Your bookcase doesn’t tell you when to read a book.”

It’s an interesting point; however Holby City and EastEnders remain popular and viewed on iPlayer…

(Via Guardian)

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A long-term Doctor Who fan, Christian grew up watching the show and has early memories of the Graham Williams era. His favourite stories are Inferno, The Seeds of Doom and Human Nature (although The Empty Child, Blink and Utopia all come close). When he’s not bossing around the news team, Christian is a freelance writer specialising in mobile technology and domestic computing, and enjoys classic rock, cooking and spending time in the countryside with his wife and young children. You can find him on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.