It appears that former showrunner, Steven Moffat, is returning to write Doctor Who, seemingly for the Christmas Day special.
Though details have since been deleted, producer Alison Sterling’s online CV notes that the “Series 15 Christmas Special” is directed by Alex Pillai (who’d previously been confirmed as a director for the series) and written by Steven Moffat (who was showrunner between Series 5 and Series 10).
Many fans have been desperate to see Moffat writing a new episode for the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa), especially as he’s written numerous much-loved stories like Blink, The Eleventh Hour, The Day of the Doctor, Heaven Sent, and World Enough and Time/ The Doctor Falls.
It doesn’t all track, however. In a recent issue of Doctor Who Magazine, current showrunner Russell T Davies, enthused:
“For the first time ever, I’m writing a Christmas Special… at Christmas! And this isn’t for next year, no, the 2023 script has been long since signed-off. The new one is for end-of-year 2024!”
So how might we explain this?
Of course, the CV could simply be wrong. Moffat has denied writing for Doctor Who again time after time. Or perhaps, given the renumbering fiasco which has tried to get outlets to call Gatwa’s debut season “Series 1”, things could’ve got muddled up. The “Series 15 Christmas Special” could mean 2025…
After all, Moffat’s Christmas episodes were pretty spectacular — A Christmas Carol, The Snowmen, Last Christmas, and The Husbands of River Song all received great acclaim, and even those that didn’t, like The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe, were filled with lovely festive moments. We could see Steven being welcomed back to write for Who again (doubly so, seeing as Moffat and Davies remain good friends).
We’ll have to wait and see.
