Chris Chibnall confirmed as new showrunner
It’s official. Steven Moffat will be stepping down as Doctor Who’s showrunner next year, to be replaced by Broadchurch creator Chris Chibnall from Series 11 onwards.
Steven – who has helmed the show since 2010 – is currently working on his final full series, to air in Spring 2017, which unfortunately means that fans will only be getting a Christmas Special this year. Chibnall will then take over the reigns with his first series due to hit our screens in 2018, although it is unclear whether or not incumbent Time Lord Peter Capaldi will also be accompanying the transition.
“It feels odd to be talking about leaving when I’m only just starting work on the scripts for Series 10, but the fact is my timey-wimey is running out,” Steven said. “While Chris is doing his last run of Broadchurch, I’ll be finishing up on the best job in the universe to keep the TARDIS warm. It took a lot of gin and tonic to talk him into this, but I’m beyond delighted. For Series 11, Chris will be the new showrunner. And I will be thrown in a skip.”
Meanwhile, Chris – who has previously penned such classic Doctor Who escapades as 42, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship and The Power of Three, as well as various episodes of its spin off Torchwood – described his next venture as “a privilege and a joy”. He continued: “I’ve loved Doctor Who since I was four years old, and I’m relishing the thought of working with the exceptional team at BBC Wales to create new characters, creatures and worlds for the Doctor to explore. Steven has achieved the impossible by continually expanding Doctor Who’s creative ambition and growing its global popularity. He’s been a dazzling and daring showrunner, and it’s clear he will be going out with a bang. Just to make my life difficult.”
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(4.92 out of 5)
not happy about this yeah maybe moffats time was up but chris is not a great appointment I’ll give him a chance he might be better as show runner but he has written some bad episodes imo but would like to take this opportunity to thank steven for his tremendous work on doctor who and making it more popular worldwide than it was under russell but this isnt the end he could still write episodes in future but i hope series 10 is a whopper and that peter jackson does direct an episode that steven has written long live king steven!!!!!
Well, Chris Chibnall worked with RTD on Doctor Who and was Head Writer and Co-Producer on Torchwood. He also created Broadchurch, so I’m certainly willing to give him a chance (albeit, his first series will now be TWO YEARS AWAY).
I agree that his Doctor Who episodes haven’t been the strongest, but I liked Adrift in Torchwood. That man screaming at what he’d seen was really disturbing.
The only way this is going to get worse if Moffatt sticking 2 fingers up at the fans and changing the Doctor into a woman. Moffatt lied about Doctor Who in 2016. He can’t get even some specials together for the Cybermen 50th year. It is a joke. The only issue is Chibnall’s statement – “Steven has achieved the impossible by continually expanding Doctor Who’s creative ambition” He certainly has done his best to bring Doctor Who down and grind it into the ground. He could not even doc a full length 50th anniversary!
I loved Torchwood and I for one am ready for a change. Not saying Moffat did a bad job in the slightest. Still a huge fan, but it’s good to shake things up a bit.
Rule number one… Moffat lies. (or he kills your joy) :( I loved what he did with Matt Smith, -except that painful-to-watch christmas special- but I have to admit the season 8th is really bad… I dont know. Im not sure a person that writes episodes of such slow pace as Broadchurch would be appropiate for what us whovians are craving…