Posted in: BBC, Doctor Who, TV | Tagged: bbc, daleks, doctor who, horror, steven moffat

Doctor Who: Steven Moffat Discusses Show Having Safe Scares for Kids

Former Doctor Who showrunner and still uberfan Steven Moffat discusses the ways the series has created safe scares for children for decades.

Steven Moffat might be the ultimate showrunner of Doctor Who next to Russell T. Davies, having been in charge of the show for seven whole series, longer than any showrunner or producer in the show's history. Moffat has written a total of fifty episodes for the series, with the upcoming Christmas Special "Joy to the World" the latest and possibly his last. He's a busy guy with new projects, but that doesn't stop him from talking about what he thinks makes the series tick. He's certainly had a long time to think about it. What he knows is that Doctor Who is popular with kids because it's a scary show – a safe, scary show for them to explore their own boundaries. That's what makes it different from other Science Fiction series. He recently discussed that with Radio Times, and since he's gifting his insights to the world, we're happy to take them and spread them around.

"It's something of the nursery somehow; there's something rather domestic about a Doctor Who monster," Moffat said. "They're not, if you look at the famously scary ones, tremendously convincing in the combat zone. The Weeping Angels, which are my most successful ones, I mean, they can't move if someone sees them! What kind of invasion force is that?! They're kind of nuts, but children are scared of statues – I remember being scared of statues and, in particular, shop dummies, but Robert Holmes had already done that one."

Moffat Gets Snarky About Daleks!

Moffat has written more Dalek stories and episodes in the show's history during his seven-year run on Doctor Who, some people might say too many, so he would have had a lot of time to think about them. Kids have loved Daleks since the 1960s. Dalek toys consistently sell, yet tiny children also find them terrifying. "The Daleks, he's the greatest genius in the world, apparently, Davros. Is he? Is he? What do you think of that design?" he jokes. "I mean, seriously, I don't think that was a brilliant design. It's a brilliant design for a monster on TV, but as a machine, I've got notes, Davros! I really do. It's silly, isn't it? What's that arm supposed to be?! How did the scientific elite of Skaro let that one pass when Davros – a week before he unveiled the Dalek gun, he must have unveiled the Dalek arm? Did they stand around in confusion, or did they applaud and say, 'Yeah, great idea. Let's not have fingers. Let's have a sink plunger.' Awesome, Davros, well done you. Storming genius."

"So there's something fundamentally silly about a great Doctor Who monster and something of the nursery. Kids have a strange relationship with the Daleks because they're sort of frightened of them, but they're like their favourite toys. There's something loveable about a Dalek, and frightening.  So I think embracing the fairytale nursery absurdity that goes along with a certain kind of creepiness, a kind of harmless creepiness. We don't go in for a lot of gore in Doctor Who. People don't get their heads ripped off or anything nasty. It's all a bit children's ghost story – and quite right, too."

Doctor Who: Many Kids' Favourite Terror

"It takes place under your bed and in the back of your cupboard. That's where it belongs. It doesn't take you to outer space. It brings outer space behind your sofa and frightens you with it. Even when Doctor Who is at its most epic, it always becomes a little bit domestic as well. It's living room scale menace, it's quite important to Doctor Who. I suppose that was originally a budgetary constraint that it had to be like that. The show no longer has quite the same budgetary restraints – it's hardly over-funded, but it doesn't have the same budgetary restraints – the style of show should evolve to cope with that.

"The slight homeliness of it all is a really good way of connecting with your audience. If you think the monsters are in outer space in metal corridors, well, that's not so frightening. But if you think the monsters are of the right size and type to creep into your living room, then that's frightening – frightening in a in a proper, kid-friendly way, in a nice way.

"Kids love ghost stories, not in a disturbing, harrowing way – we leave that to Newsnight."

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