Doctor Who’s Writers Just Confirmed the Show's Biggest Secret
Is there really more than one Doctor?
Every Doctor Who fan has their favorite Doctor. Some even have their least favorite Doctor. And yet the irony is that there’s only one character, meaning what fans love or hate has more to do with the actor’s take on the character. But what makes a Doctor seem like the Doctor? What is the secret ingredient to capturing the essence of this eccentric Time Lord?
According to a new joint interview with writers Steven Moffat and Russell T Davies, thinking of the Doctor as segmented incarnations isn’t really how they approach writing the character at all. In fact, instead of the great differences between incarnations, (that fans love) to debate, Moffat and Davies seem to indicate that they never aim to write the Doctor particularly differently and that thinking of the character as a constant is the paradoxical secret to making each version feel authentic.
In a new interview posted by the official Doctor Who social media channels, Davies and Moffat are chatting in the current TARDIS interior, talking about fans asking them about writing for different Doctors. As Davies puts it: “It’s also fundamentally the same.” Moffat agrees, saying, “It’s the same character... the parts that are different just happen in your head by looking at that person and hearing them.”
Davies concurs saying, “I mean, I think if you sit and deliberately try to write a different Doctor, you just end up with mannerisms. Affections. Nonsense. Ephemera. And that’s not what the character is at all.”
Part of Moffat and Davies's analysis is focused on the notion that the Doctor themself is an “eccentric” person. But as both showrunners point out, the Doctor would never think of themself as eccentric. And so, writing toward that vague personality trait would be counterintuitive to creating an authentic character who, others might perceive as eccentric. “The Doctor would never actually call himself eccentric,” Moffat says. “And yet that’s used as a descriptor all the time. But he’d never think of it!”
With this short interview, Moffat and Davies have perhaps revealed a hiding-in-plain-sight secret to why Who is so successful. While Davies is now on his second round of being a showrunner, Moffat was a showrunner through two doctors (Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi) and has now, like Davies, written for at least five different versions of the titular Time Lord. In fact, for the past 20 years, nobody has written for more different Doctors across different eras than Moffat and Davies, proving that when it comes to capturing the voice and soul of the Doctor, they, like it or not, are the best living authorities on the subject.
David Tennant and Matt Smith in 2013.
In last year’s reboot “Season 1,” many fans noted that Steven Moffat’s episode “Boom” felt like it could have been a different version of the Doctor and that some of the speeches the Doctor gave had Capaldi or Matt Smith vibes. But, back in 2023’s “The Giggle,” Davies’ introduction of the 15th Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) showed us how he was a direct outgrowth of David Tennant’s 10th and 14th Doctors.
This insight from Moffat and Davies might seem simple and obvious, but the more one reflects on it, the more profound it seems. The basic science fiction proposition of Time Lord regeneration is difficult for mere humans to wrap our minds around. And yet, when the writing of Doctor Who clicks, we’re able to imagine the same person inhabiting a totally different body, with a different face, for thousands of years. The Doctor isn’t a vampire or an immortal in the fantastical sense, there’s an odd element of realism embedded in the character. And what Davies and Moffat are pointing out is plain: The reason we love and relate to the Doctor is that they aren’t a goofball or a weirdo. We just see them that way, because we’re only human.
