Steven Moffat

**Steven Moffat OBE** (born 18 November 1961) wrote the *Doctor Who* television story *Blink*.

## Profile

Moffat came to *Doctor Who* after a successful career of writing for situation comedies that began in the 1990s. He was a major creative force on *Press Gang* (also his first television programme) and *Coupling*. His love for *Doctor Who* sometimes crept into his scripts for these programmes. In Coupling, for instance, the character of Steve explains the use of sofas as protection against Daleks. The character of Oliver, introduced in the fourth season of *Coupling*, worked at a comic book and sci-fi/fantasy specialty shop, which allowed for *Doctor Who* references. In one episode, for example, Oliver has a pretend conversation with his girlfriend, using a life-sized Dalek replica as the stand-in for his ex.

Classic Doctor Who writer Terrance Dicks noted Moffat's fandom in a commentary for Horror of Fang Rock, recorded in 2004.

## Opinions of the series

### Mid-90s, early 2000s

Prior to his first script for *Doctor Who*, Steven Moffat was a fan who sometimes publicly opined on his love-hate relationship with the program. In the mid-1990s, he was wont to extol the virtues of Peter Davison's acting abilities, saying that the reason "he's played more above-the-title lead roles on the telly than the rest of the Doctors put together" is "because — get this! — he's the best actor." Furthermore, he has called *Snakedance* and *Kinda*, "the two best *Who* stories ever." During a discussion after at least one round of drinks with Andy Lane, Paul Cornell and David Bishop, he claimed that although "as a television format, *Doctor Who* equals anything", he couldn't hold up the program as an exemplar of great television to "anybody I work with in television." He went on to call the original program "slow", "embarrassing", and "limited by the relatively meagre talent of the people who were working on it." He spoke particularly harshly of 1960s *Doctor Who*, stating:

> If you look at other stuff from the Sixties they weren't crap — it was just *Doctor Who*. The first episode of *Doctor Who* betrays the lie that it's just the Sixties, because the first episode is really good — the rest of it's shit. *Steven Moffat*
>
>

However, by 2004 when he gave an interview to *Doctor Who Magazine*, his opinion appeared to have shifted. Commenting on the show's prevalence in his childhood, he recalled *The Tomb of the Cybermen* and remarked how irresponsible it was for a show to deliberately set out to frighten children. (DWM 350) Moffat's statement on his own position as a fan was the one that most contradicted his earlier disparagement:

> I don't think I've tried to deny being a fan. I've gone through the 'it was all crap' phase, but I've come through the other end now. *Steven Moffat [src]*
>
>

## Work on *Doctor Who*

Moffat's first piece of professional *Doctor Who* fiction was a 1996 short story for Virgin Books called *Continuity Errors*. *Errors* is one of the few non-televised *Doctor Who* stories Moffat has written and established a pattern of Moffat only writing *short* stories in prose.

Soon after *Errors*, he wrote the first piece of televised *Doctor Who*, *Blink*, which won a Hugo award in 2008. He wrote his second televised story, *Silence in the Library*, for the very next season.

## Personal Life

Moffat married his frequent production partner, Sue Vertue, who produced *Sherlock*. They have two children who are, as of 2010, in the target audience age range of *Doctor Who*. Moffat has disclosed in *Doctor Who Magazine* [***which?***] that he often shares details about newly-arrived scripts with his kids. He is also the son-in-law of the legendary British television studio boss, Beryl Vertue, who is most significant to *Doctor Who* fans as the agent who originally negotiated Terry Nation's rights to the Daleks.

## Credits

### *Doctor Who*

* *Blink*
* *Silence in the Library*