Posted in: BBC, Disney+, TV | Tagged: doctor who, steven moffat

Doctor Who: Moffat on New Side, "Mean" Doctor in "Joy to the World"

Steven Moffat teases new and rarely seen sides of the Doctor in the BBC and Disney+'s Doctor Who Christmas Special, "Joy to the World."

Former Doctor Who showrunner and now itinerant freelancer Steven Moffat has been promoting his upcoming Christmas Special, "Joy to the World." He gave a very long interview to SFX Magazine, in which he offered some insights about the special and his process for writing the Doctor, this time played by Ncuti Gatwa.

When a Time Lord is Without a Companion

Moffat mentioned writing something viewers have never really seen: the Doctor by themselves when they don't have a companion to show off to, keep them company, or keep them under control.

"I think that's because you have a weird sense that the show isn't really about the Doctor," Moffat said. "It's about whoever he meets. Doctor Who does not begin with him stealing the TARDIS and running away. It begins with the schoolteachers following Susan home and encountering him. When it begins again in 2005, it begins with Rose trying to work out who he is. So you do experience him through the eyes of the companions. The moment there isn't a companion in situ, you're sort of thinking, 'There he is, alone in his TARDIS…' We do go into that a bit in this one, as to what actually goes on in that weird man's head when he's got no one to be the Doctor for."

"So there's an awful lot of the character that remains pretty much exactly the same and has done for a very long while," added Moffat. "But you accommodate the fact that sometimes he's older, " he's younger, sometimes he's grumpy, or sometimes he's more cheerful. But he's usually all of those things. So, I don't think writing the Doctor is massively different. There are turns of phrase you might suddenly find yourself using because it's coming out of a different mouth in a different accent, but for the most part, you write the Doctor, and he plays it."

The Doctor Gets Mean and Angry

"I was keen to see him go mean," said Moffat. "He does go a bit mean for once in this, and he does it for quite a long while. I always think that at some point, the ancient beast has got to snarl, or you don't think it's him. Underneath whatever set of flourishes and fripperies he's currently sporting, he's still that same bloke. He's quite dangerous, and he can be bracingly unsentimental when he wants to be."

Doctor Who Christmas Special: Joy to the World premieres on Disney+ outside the UK on Christmas Day.

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