“In the case of both Simon and Richard, I know them slightly and they’d expressed an interest and that was all we needed, just because they’re really good writers,” Steven Moffat tells SFX. “One of the things I learned very early on with this job is it requires very experienced, extremely expert writers who are aware of every single scenario that can be thrown at them. It’s a big old job this, it’s not for newcomers despite the number of newcomers who want to do it.
“With writers with very clear identities like Simon Nye and Richard Curtis – who are just like writing gods, really – there has to be something very specific about Doctor Who that chimes with them. They’re not just going to come in and fill in one of my gaps. I was quite keen very near the beginning of the process to get Simon involved, but he was so busy with other things, then a gap came up just when I needed a brilliant writer, so we grabbed him. Richard I sort of jokingly talked about it ages ago and he texted me while I was in Kew Gardens one day with an idea for his Doctor Who, so I was delighted and leapt at it!”
There’s more from this exclusive interview with Steven Moffat in SFX 193, on sale 10 February .
