Doctor Who Tender: Steven Moffat's Reality Check for Future Producers

Posted in: BBC, TV | Tagged: doctor who

Doctor Who Tender: Steven Moffat's Reality Check for Future Producers

Ex-showrunner and writer Steven Moffat wants production companies pitching for Doctor Who to understand what they're getting themselves into.

Published Sat, 01 Aug 2026 07:37:09 -0500
by Ray Flook
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Article Summary

• Steven Moffat says Doctor Who’s BBC tender should attract plenty of suitors, thanks to the franchise’s prestige.
• Moffat warns Doctor Who is a year-round production monster that demands major experience, scale, and resources.
• He expects a new Doctor Who team will need time to define its vision, tone, and creative direction before returning.
• Moffat says great TV writing starts with entertainment first, with theme and philosophy only if they serve the story.

Which do you think will drop first? The BBC's official tendering info regarding what it's looking for from production companies pitching to pilot the future of Doctor Who – or ex-showrunner Russell T. Davies's memoir, which reportedly includes personal insights on his run on the show? While we continue the wait-and-see game, ex-showrunner and writer Steven Moffat has been sharing some thoughts on the whole thing in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine. When it comes to pitching the show, Moffat doesn't believe the BBC will lack potential suitors. "There'll be a lot of production companies excited at the idea. I'm just guessing, but I think there will be a huge number thinking, 'Wow, if we had Doctor Who on our books, that would be great,'" Moffat said.

But he also had some words of advice for those looking to step up to the challenge: it's a year-round commitment – and it's definitely not for a company without a serious production resume. "There are few things I can speak from experience on, but I can speak from experience on this. It's all-year-round work doing Doctor Who – it kind of blocks out doing other things. So I think it will have to be production companies of a size and prestige that are capable of it. Everyone thinks, whenever you read about these things, that Doctor Who is a show to give new people a chance. Like hell it is. You do 20 shows before you do Doctor Who, because it's a monster," he explained.

Checking in with Half the Picture earlier this month, Moffat addressed how the new production/creative team "will need a moment" to really bring together its vision for Doctor Who. "So long as everybody is talking about the future of the show, do you know what the show has? A future," Moffat shared about all of the buzz over the show's fate over the past few months. "If it's an entirely new team, which I think it will be, they need a moment. They need a moment to sit back and say, 'Okay, what's it going to be this time? Who's it going to be this time? What sort of show is it going to be?'" Moffat added. "Don't go rushing into that, and meanwhile, you've got all of 'Doctor Who,' all of it, on your iPhone. You can sit and watch anything that we haven't accidentally lost, and you'll be fine. Just watch it all end to end and give them time to get them going. But it will be back, and it will be good."

Moffat also had some interesting perspectives on television writing and the importance of remembering that a writer's primary job is to entertain. "They never mention the word entertainment, which is the minimum condition of anything you write. Not theme, which some poor sods ask me about, and not subtext. Oh, do me a favour. It's entertainment. That's all you're doing," Moffat said. "When people come home at night to watch a TV show or go to the cinema to watch a movie or the theatre, that's all they're going for. They're not going there for your thoughts on things. They're not wanting to decode the inner mystery of it. They want you to provide approximately 90 minutes of entertainment so they can go to a restaurant and have a nice time. That's it."

But that doesn't mean that Moffat's telling writers not to hit on important themes and address key issues with their work; it just shouldn't be at the expense of the viewers engaging with what's on their screens. "If you're anything beyond that, if you have deep philosophical insights, that's fine, so long as it doesn't get in the way of being entertaining," he noted. "You should always be thinking what's the next interesting thing that could happen? What would be exciting now? The simple rule is every sentence has to make you want to read the next sentence. All the words should lean forward. That's what you're doing. You're trying not to bore people."

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