What does the future hold for for Doctor Who’s current showrunner when he steps down with this year’s Christmas episode? Unsurprisingly, a holiday is top of the agenda (“where [my wife] doesn’t book me an extra room where I have to go and write”) but beyond that there are clearly several projects forming in Steven Moffat’s capacious brain.
Interviewed at the recent Radio Times Television Festival, Moffat dangled a few possibilities before the expectant audience.
“There was one script I actually had greenlit by the BBC before Doctor Who and Sherlock came along… it needs a massive re-write but I still really like it” said Moffat, who also fancies writing a play “because it would be so completely different”.
Perhaps most intriguingly, it appears that his partnership with Mark Gatiss may yield another show…

“Obviously Mark and me, we can’t have a conversation without inventing some sort of TV series and we’ve got a notion we might like to do… “

Tantalising stuff, eh? With their shared background could we expect another revival or new take on a classic established character? Or is it more likely that they will want to head in a different direction with an entirely new idea?
Whatever the future holds for Gatiss, he’s not yet clear as to whether it will include writing for Doctor Who under new showrunner Chris Chibnall. Interviewed at the same event, Gatiss said he has “no idea” if he’ll be contributing further scripts:

“It’s a funny thing, an end of an era. Obviously working very closely with Steven I feel it more than when Russell left. I suppose there was more of a sense of continuity there, but I’ve no idea.”

What do you think? Should Chibnall go with an entirely new set of writers? With nine scripts (including the forthcoming The Empress of Mars for Series 10), Gatiss has been a regular presence on Doctor Who’s credits list since 2005 but would you welcome his continued involvement? Let us know!
Visit Radio Times for more on the interviews with Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss.