Favorite Doctor Who returns for a new series with the Doctor ‘on a knife’s edge’

Former Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat is back for the new series. He wrote the third episode which will see the Doctor “on a knife’s edge”.

After seven years as showrunner, the Scot announced in 2016 that he would be leaving alongside star Peter Capaldi. He returned to the BBC show to write the upcoming third episode of the new series titled Boom.

The series once again stars Ncuti Gatwa in the lead role. Millie Gibson stars as his companion Ruby Sunday alongside showrunner Russell T Davies.

“I did everything I could think of on Doctor Who,” Moffat said.

“But it occurred to me that Doctor Who doesn’t often do suspense or tension – it does adventure, love stories and comedy all the time. It does almost everything, but not much suspense. The Doctor kills the suspense because he’s funny and bossy, which quickly ends any suspense.”

The 62-year-old said the idea for the episode where the Doctor can’t move due to a land mine was inspired by an episode of the show that aired in 1975 that he enjoyed growing up.

He said: “I had this idea about the land mine – which of course is a short sequence from Genesis Of The Daleks which I happened to love as a kid. I thought “What if you did it for a whole episode?”

“The doctor on a knife’s edge, one wrong move and it’s over. It would take so much – he can’t run, he can’t control people, and he literally can’t move.

“I thought ‘there’s something I haven’t done.’

Moffat said he was “curious and surprised” to see Davies return to the show because “he’s not the type of guy to do something twice, he’s a guy who moves on”.

“We bounced ideas off each other until we had one about ‘what if he steps on a landmine and can’t move for the whole episode, and everything he normally does is taken away from him.’ , Moffat said.

“The minute I sent that one, Russell was incredibly excited, he responded within a minute saying ‘that’s it, that’s it, do that.’

Moffat said the show was a “big part of my life” and that he would often “daydream” about new stories for the Doctor. He said the new episode will see “tension, emotion and the Doctor fear”.

“Putting the doctor in absolute danger and making him afraid, you get to see that side of him,” he said.

“The doctor is not in control of the situation and he can’t do anything – he can’t help people, he can’t push his way forward and flourish his screwdriver and make something go away. He can’t do anything because he can’t move.”

Boom, which airs on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Saturday (May 18), follows the first two episodes of the new season titled Space Babies and The Devil’s Chord.