January 06, 2018
Doctor Who: The Fan Show has released the first of three very special episodes which sit down with former showrunner Steven Moffat and look back on his time on the series.
When asked about the issue of sex appeal and the Doctor becoming attractive to new audiences, Steven stated this was not a new phenomenon. The writer commented:
“There were plenty of people watching classic Doctor Who and thought the Doctor was a bit of alright. That’s absolutely true.”
With a smile, Moffat added:
“You think Peter Davison went completely unnoticed?”
You can watch the interview in the player below.
When Doctor Who returned in 2005, much was made of the Time Lord becoming a “romantically-available” hero and a mainstream sex symbol, particularly with the casting of David Tennant and Matt Smith as the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors respectively. However, Steven felt that this element was always there in the show, he said:
“It was already there. It’s very naive to look at old Doctor Who and think it’s not there.
Television has moved on, we talk about those things but we don’t necessarily change it.
What’s different is, in the old show, we just assume the Doctor has no interest in anyone around him. That remains true. The only thing that changes is that, in School Reunion, Rose challenges him on it and says, ‘What’s going on here?’ As you really would if you were hanging out with a good-looking young fella. At some point you might say, ‘What are you thinking?’”
Steven also discusses 1999 Comic Relief special The Curse of Fatal Death and his days on writing for Doctor Who before becoming showrunner.
You can listen to an extended podcast version, featuring material not included in the video, in the player below.
