Doctor Who Season 8 Spoilers: Moffat On River Song Return, 'Mad And Dangerous' Peter Capaldi, And Continuous Broadcast Schedule

As "Doctor Who" begins season 8 filming, spoilers have surfaced on River Song, Peter Capaldi's new Doctor, and the broadcast schedule.

Firstly, executive producer Steven Moffat re-affirms earlier reports that "Doctor Who" season 8 will not be split in two as far as broadcast like earlier seasons.

“We’re not going to do splits, and the same format will repeat exactly the following year like that. So it will be the traditional form," said Moffat to DWM.

Spoilers confirm that the first block of filming for "Doctor Who" season 8 will be directed by Ben Wheatley, and Douglas Mackinnon will direct block two.

Meanwhile, Moffat also provided some spoilers regarding the new Doctor by Peter Capaldi, who will be quite different from Matt Smith of David Tennant.

“There would be little point in making as radical a change as we’ve made unless you’re going to go quite different with the Doctor. The last two Doctors have been brilliant, and have been your ‘good boyfriend’ Doctors. But the Doctor isn’t always like that," said Moffat.

"There is the sort of Tom Baker, Christopher Eccleston end of the spectrum, where he is mad and dangerous and difficult. If we’d cast Ben Whishaw, you’d know what we were doing. You’d think, ‘Well, that’s another quirky young man with entertaining hair!’ And he’d be a brilliant Doctor, but Clara would just think, ‘Okay, you’ve rearranged yourself a bit…’”

“I think it was time for the show to flip around a bit. The new version of the show is quite old now. It’s very old… We need the kick-up-the-arse Doctor, in a way, to frighten you and make you think, oh, it’s a different show again.”

And despite reports of familiar faces showing up in "Doctor Who" season 8, one person who Moffat is less certain will return is River Song, portrayed by Alex Kingston.

“It’s always down to whether there’s a good story. My immediate instinct was that story’s probably done. Not that we saw all of it, but I never thought we should see all of it. I’m slightly tempted, because I imagine Peter Capaldi and Alex Kingston would be absolutely hilarious together," added Moffat.

“She could certainly have met other Doctors. So there’s nothing stopping us… But is there anything new we can do? Or is the new thing that Peter Capaldi and Alex Kingston would be very sexy together? Is that enough? We’ve always had fun with the fact that they don’t look like a couple. Peter Capaldi and Alex Kingston would look like a couple – that’s the thing. Whereas I thought Matt and Alex were gorgeous together, but it looked slightly strange, because he was so much younger. Alex is just great fun to have on the show. It’s when you want to throw the Doctor a bit, because what River does so well is to make him a bit on the back foot and a bit flustered.”

Tags
doctor who
world news
Join the Discussion

Latest Photo Gallery

Real Time Analytics