The Future of Who

As I'm sure you are aware by now, Steven Moffat is leaving Doctor Who to be replaced by Chris Chibnall. I thought I would discuss what this means for the next few years of the show.

First off, there will be no series of Doctor Who in 2016. The only episode will be a Christmas special. This is of course sad news and means 2016 will see the least Doctor Who since before the show's revival in 2005. There are some good things about this though. For a start it's hard to deny that Series 9 did see a dip in the viewing figures, even if scheduling had large part to play in that. It will certainly do no harm to rest the show for a year on that side of things.

Steven Moffat

It will also mean that Doctor Who will go back to airing in the spring. This is where the show has worked best in the modern era but fell apart when Series 7 didn't start to air until the autumn. It should also be good for scheduling. Part of the problem of Autumn scheduling is that the show has to fit in alongside another BBC Saturday night show, Strictly Come Dancing. With the BBC losing the rights to The Voice, Doctor Who will likely be the main feature of Saturday nights on BBC1, which means the scheduling is likely to be more favourable.

The next thing for Doctor Who to do is introduce a new companion. It's still unclear at this point whether that will happen in the 2016 Christmas Special or the start of Series 10. If it isn't the 2016 Christmas special then we would have an episode of a solo Doctor or a one-time companion. Might I suggest it would be the perfect time for Moffat to bring back Captain Jack Harkness for an episode? There will still be some new Doctor Who content in 2016 in the form of new spin-off Class of course.

In the news of his resignation Steven Moffat suggests that the third series of Broadchurch, written by the incoming showrunner Chris Chibnall, will be the last. The crime drama starts filming in May so might just make it onto ITV by the end of 2016.

Broadchurch

In Spring 2017 a 12-episode series 10 will air, Moffat's last as showrunner. There's been no mention of a 2017 Christmas special as yet which is interesting. Chibnall is clearly stated as taking over from the start of series 11 in 2018 so it looks like Moffat will still be in charge for Christmas 2017. I suspect this is when we will see Peter Capaldi regenerate. He's likely to leave the show at the same time as Moffat, a la David Tennant, and would certainly have done the traditional three series tenure by then. It's plausible that we may even get more than one episode of Doctor Who over Christmas 2017, like we did with the The End of Time.

The Twelfth Doctor regenerates (from The Witches Familiar)

This would mean that when Chris Chibnall takes over in 2018, Series 11 will begin with a new Doctor. It's all speculation really but given the timings and what happened at the last handover this makes the most sense.

I'm intrigued by the sort of Doctor Who Chibnall will bring us. He's not written for the show since 2012's The Power of Three. It seems clear he is more character-driven that Steven Moffat so I would guess the next era will be closer to the RTD era than the Moffat one. So far I would say five of his six Doctor Who episodes are underwhelming (the other, The Power of Three, being certainly his best). It is a little worry that he hasn't yet written anything stunning for the show like Moffat had before his time as showrunner.

Chris Chibnall

It is worth remembering though that Chibnall was effectively the showrunner at Torchwood during it's first two series. I would say of his eight Torchwood episodes only one of them wasn't great and he wrote the excellent closing episodes of both the first two series and the opener to series two. Then there's Broadchurch which is fantastic, especially the first series. There's is certainly potential in Chibnall and I am cautiously optimistic about the show's future under him.