{"id":709991,"date":"2026-07-25T04:40:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T04:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/709991\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T04:40:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T04:40:21","slug":"doctor-who-avoid-the-hard-reboot-path-argues-steven-moffat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/709991\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctor Who | Avoid the hard reboot path, argues Steven Moffat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Former Doctor Who boss Steven Moffat suggests that a hard reboot path is the wrong way forward for Doctor Who.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/filmstories.co.uk\/tv-show\/doctor-who\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Doctor Who<\/a>, as you\u2019re more likely aware, is currently in some degree of flux (with a little f), courtesy of Disney\u2019s decision to end its commercial relationship with the BBC over the show. The BBC has recently confirmed that, as per its usual process, it\u2019s putting the show out to tender, with a view to it returning in due course.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When it does come back, it\u2019s going to need a new Doctor, and a new showrunner as well, given that Russell T Davies has also confirmed he won\u2019t be returning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It does offer the opportunity for a fairly dramatic reset of Doctor Who for whatever its next iteration is. Steven Moffat, chatting to the terrific Doctor Who Magazine, does caution against that approach, though.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Offering the disclaimer that he\u2019s not just saying this because of his huge fandom for the show, Moffat posits that the hard reset is a \u201cbad idea\u201d, mainly because the audience doesn\u2019t need it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He\u2019s got form here, too. His Doctor Who era was evolved from Russell T Davies. And when he took on Sherlock, \u201cI didn\u2019t need to explain that Benedict Cumberbatch is not playing a continuation of Jeremy Brett, because he\u2019s a different actor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The setup of Doctor Who allows, of course, for continuing reinvention of the character. On the one hand, as Moffat points out, you can\u2019t quite do what James Bond does, by changing the actor and having the audience instantly aware that it\u2019s a new version of the 007 tale you\u2019re getting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWith Doctor Who, the fact it\u2019s a new actor doesn\u2019t tell you that at all, so most people casually watching would just be assuming \u2019it\u2019s the next version of Doctor Who, he\u2019s changed again\u2019. Then they\u2019ll say \u2018why doesn\u2019t he know who the Daleks are?\u2019 And you start getting confused.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Issue 632 of Doctor Who Magazine, the \u2018where next for the TARDIS\u2019 issue, has a lot more on this and do support print media if you can. Their website is here, and they\u2019re doing sterling work: <a href=\"https:\/\/doctorwhomagazine.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/doctorwhomagazine.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As for the future of Doctor Who? As someone once wisely noted, \u201ctime will tell. Always does\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Doctor Who boss Steven Moffat suggests that a hard reboot path is the wrong way forward for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,123320,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-709991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-steven-moffat","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}