Doctor Who's Steven Moffat abandoned first draft of new Ncuti Gatwa episode
Doctor Who writer Steven Moffat has revealed he abandoned the first draft of an episode in the new series.
The BBC sci-fi show returned on Saturday (May 11) with a double-header as Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson got their first series of adventures underway as the Time Lord and Ruby Sunday respectively, with the pair travelling all across the galaxy to prevent evil.
Moffat, who previously served as a showrunner on the series, will return to the world of Doctor Who in a screenwriting capacity for this Saturday’s (May 18) episode, ‘Boom’, marking his first credit on the show for seven years.
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Ahead of the episode, Moffat revealed that the episode will take a different shape to his original idea, explaining: “It was quite a long time ago, around two and a half years. I started tentatively writing and got about twelve to fifteen pages in, and realised I had got it completely wrong.
“I started the story in the wrong place, on the wrong foot, so to speak. So I threw that away and started again. I don’t think I had even told the production office that I had started writing, so when I sent it to [showrunner] Russell [T Davies] he was quite surprised.
“He didn’t know I had been working on it. Mainly, it felt pretty good and pretty familiar to be back on the TARDIS. It doesn’t seem that long ago since I was writing for [the 12th Doctor, Peter] Capaldi.”
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Following the premiere of the new series, Gatwa spoke about how his co-star Gibson shaped the personality of his character, saying: “When Millie walked into the audition room, I was like, I know where I want to take this character.
“The dynamic of the Doctor and the companion is so essential to the show. The companion teaches the Doctor so much and vice versa. As soon as [she] walked in, I was like, ‘we would have got in so much trouble at school’. That is where I want to take the Doctor.”
Doctor Who airs on BBC One in the UK and Disney+ elsewhere. Classic episodes of Doctor Who are available on BBC iPlayer in the UK.
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