No Who series in 2016, and Moffat quits to be replaced by Chris Chibnall

[Steve Green]

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2016-01-22/doctor-who-showrunner-steven-moffat-quits-to-be-replaced-by-broadchurch-creator-chris-chibnall

[Colin YNWA]

Wow the BBC is trying  to out flank DC with its next relaunch in June news (leak) in the nerd news stakes.

Will this be enough to get me back in the fold. Only time will tell.

[Jim_Campbell]

"Let's do an entire year without our single most successful drama series so we can install its absolutely fucking worst writer as the new show-runner."

Only at the BBC.

[Batman's Superior Cousin]

"Let's do an entire year without our single most successful drama series so we can install its absolutely fucking worst writer as the new show-runner."

Only at the BBC.

He's very well-liked!!!!

[IAMTHESYSTEM]

It was always a tall order to do both Dr Who and Sherlock and  I'm not alone in feeling that some of the recent Dr Who series felt rather flat. Sherlock I assume will be the show Mr Moffat is concentrating on so good.

Must admit I've never heard of writer Chris Chibnall- not mixing with the right circles, darlings.

[Dandontdare]

its absolutely fucking worst writer

Don't know the name - which did he write? And to be fair, producing/running a show is very different from writing it.

Holding it back because they've got big events in 2016 like the Olympics is a shit reason, but I think it says a lot about the BBC's (justified) paranoia about this government's plans to destroy them - they want to keep some "big-hitters" in the pipeline as far ahead as possible to make themselves unkillable

[GordonR]

its absolutely fucking worst writer

Don't know the name - which did he write? And to be fair, producing/running a show is very different from writing it.

Holding it back because they've got big events in 2016 like the Olympics is a shit reason, but I think it says a lot about the BBC's (justified) paranoia about this government's plans to destroy them - they want to keep some "big-hitters" in the pipeline as far ahead as possible to make themselves unkillable

I suspect there's a lot more to this story than we're currently getting....

...unless, of course, you think announcing this out of nowhere late on a Friday night is a sign that everything is running smoothly behind the scenes and people are leaving their positions happily and voluntarily.

[Jim_Campbell]

Chibnall writes Broadchurch, which is excellent. However, his Whos vary between dull and terrible, and his fingerprints are all over the generally awful Torchwood.

That said, Moffat wrote great Whos under RTD and has been a dreadful showrunner. Maybe Chibnall can do the reverse.

Cheers

Jim

[Dandontdare]

That said, Moffat wrote great Whos under RTD and has been a dreadful showrunner.

well he's just given us what I think is the best season of Nu-Who so far.

[CrazyFoxMachine]

Change is good

[Magnetica]

I think I read somewhere that Peter Capaldi wanted time off to do other things. That sounds like a better reason to delay the next series.

I was really excited when Moffat took over, but over I found his run a bit disappointing and so am happy to see someone else take over.

Don't really remember the Who episodes Chris Chiball wrote, but Broadchurch is enjoyable ( some unlikely plot elements notwithstanding).

[Jim_Campbell]

well he's just given us what I think is the best season of Nu-Who so far.

You could well be right — I adore Capaldi's Doctor and thoroughly enjoyed the most recent series. That doesn't change the fact that (despite also loving Matt Smith's Doctor) his 'mythology arc' completely failed to deliver, producing at least one entirely dull series and completely fluffing the anniversary special. Add on top of that the Christmas regeneration special, where Moffat engineers his oh-so-clever-solution (magic wiffle dust, really?) to the regeneration 'problem' solely by introducing an extra regeneration simply so he can wave a magic wand and resolve the matter...

No... Moffatt has written most of my favourite episodes of Nü Who, but has also been responsible for much of the fan-wankiest bollocks that has been to the detriment of the new series.

Cheers

Jim

[Dandontdare]

well he's just given us what I think is the best season of Nu-Who so far.

You could well be right — I adore Capaldi's Doctor and thoroughly enjoyed the most recent series.

Yeah, soon as I typed that I stated wondering whether it;s just because I love Capaldi far more than Tennant/Smith - not sure where the credit lies, is it the Doctor the writers or the guy in charge?.

[CrazyFoxMachine]

No... Moffatt has written most of my favourite episodes of Nü Who, but has also been responsible for much of the fan-wankiest bollocks that has been to the detriment of the new series.

The only fan he's wanking is himself I think. I can't remember which episode it was but as my friend put it "he really does write these one-handed doesn't he?" [/grossimage]

[Jim_Campbell]

The only fan he's wanking is himself I think. I can't remember which episode it was but as my friend put it "he really does write these one-handed doesn't he?" [/grossimage]

I agree completely. The whole 'solving the twelve regenerations problem' thing was clearly just because he wanted to be the one to solve the regeneration problem. The 'Doctor Who is a question' thing was utterly asinine — the seven-year-old me understood that it was the title of the show and alluded to the character's general mysteriousness and wasn't a question that, somehow, had eluded answering by any of the writers in the show's fifty-odd year history.

(To be clear: I was as strong an advocate for Moffat to be show-runner as anyone — the episodes he wrote during RTD's tenure contained much fewer of the things I felt to be flaws in RTD's preferred style for the show, but I was wrong. I don't think he's been good for the show, but I've just come to accept it for what it is.)

I'm really just astonished at the utter cack-handedness of how the BBC are dealing with this. Their most lucrative non-Top-Gear property (probably just flat out their most lucrative property now) and they're going to not run it for an entire year? And then appoint Chibnall, whose Who and Torchwood track record is terrible?

Cheers

Jim