Impending ‘Doctor Who’ showrunner Chris Chibnall, who will be taking over those duties from outgoing creative head Steven Moffat, has quite a daunting task ahead of him. The British sci-fi series has been going relatively strong since its re-introduction to the pop-culture masses a decade ago, but many fans and critics believe that the show has started to stagnate a bit in recent seasons. Chibnall believes that he was chosen to guide ‘Doctor Who’ to combat exactly that rationale.
In a recent interview, Chibnall talked about the process behind his decision to assume creative control of the series. Chibnall was already intimately familiar with parent company BBC, of course, having created another of the channel’s popular series in the U.K., ‘Broadchurch.’ He spoke a bit about what the BBC seemed to be looking for in terms of the future direction of ‘Doctor Who:’
“[The BBC] really had to woo me. But, in the end, I had ideas about what I wanted to do with it. When I went to them and said, ‘This is what I would do’, I actually expected them to say, ‘Ooh, let’s talk about that,’ but they said: ‘Great!’ What the BBC was after was risk and boldness.”
As is the case with most films and TV shows these days, lots of folks have lots of opinions about lots of things – and the advent of the internet certainly makes those opinions much more accessible and readily easy to hear. Chibnall, for his part, works hard to simply steer clear of all the “armchair quarterbacks” and their vast variety of pseudo-advice:
“I don’t read any of that. One of your jobs as a writer is to cut out the noise. All you have is your instincts and your process. The BBC came to me because they wanted those, and so reading coverage about the show is fundamentally useless and bordering on counterproductive. A TV show isn’t a focus group. It is great that people are speculating about who the Doctor will be… but it won’t affect in any way what we do with the show.”
Chibnall will officially assume showrunner duties for ‘Doctor Who’ upon the completion of the current season, following the Christmas Special in December of this year.
‘Doctor Who’ airs on Saturday nights on BBC America here in the U.S.
Tony Schaab wonders which a courteous zombie would prefer most: if you gave him a hand, played it by ear, got something off your chest, kept your chin up, stuck your neck out, or just gave him something off the top of your head? A lover of most things sci-fi and horror, Tony is an author by day and a DJ by night. Come hang out with Tony on Twitter or follow him on Facebook to hear him spew semi-funny nonsense and get your opportunity to finally put him in his place.
