Watching Doctor Who

An in-depth Look at the Whoniverse
 

- Jr Southall

As I type, all but one of the Doctor Who episodes that Steven Moffat will probably ever write are now ‘in the can’ – with just the 2017 Christmas Special still to go before the cameras. How he will be remembered is for posterity to decide, although beyond the usual reactionary response from a certain quarter of mostly old-school fandom, chances are his era will be regarded as distinct, boundary-pushing, and striking - both visually and narratively. But if there’s one single ‘mistake’ that will dog him to the end of his writing career, that will forever be associated with his showrunnership, and for which fandom will never forgive him, it won’t be the Paradigm Daleks, or the moon turning out to be an egg, or even that Clara managed to leave the programme something like seventeen times before she eventually went. No. It will almost certainly be what has unfondly come to be known as the Cyber-Brig.

With Series Eight due to finish broadcasting on Remembrance Sunday weekend in 2014, Moffat decided to incorporate a theme reflecting the occasion, so the story he told across the course of its twelve episodes included a prominent subplot about a soldier saving the world – and by doing so gaining the respect of the Doctor, which hitherto he’d fallen spectacularly short of and which was something he had no desire to earn. Because of the military motif, UNIT would, of course, also be involved – it’s impossible to imagine Doctor Who going out on Remembrance weekend and not including its foremost military organisation as part of the story – and that meant a starring role for Kate Lethbridge-Stewart.