Whoniverse Writer Interviews and Blogs

Video Interviews

Here you can find video interviews with the likes of Russell T Davies, Steven Moffat, Chris Chibnall, Toby Whithouse and more.

Russell T Davies

We spoke to Russell T Davies at our Wales Writers' Festival in December 2019. Russell explains how he now realises he is writing all the time (even though he may not be physically sitting at a desk) and how he gets into the right headspace.

He also explains why he thinks Doctor Who is the hardest show to write on television.

大象传媒 Writersroom interviews Russell T Davies

Chris Chibnall

大象传媒 Writers interviewed Chris Chibnall (Broadchurch, United, Doctor Who, Torchwood) at the TV Drama Writers' Festival in July 2013.

Chris talks about why he has to write, explains his tips for dealing with writer's block, and he gives some advice to new writers and discusses the future of TV drama.

大象传媒 Writers interviews Chris Chibnall

Steven Moffat

大象传媒 Writers interviews Sherlock co-creator and Doctor Who writer, Steven Moffat at the TV Drama Writer鈥檚 Festival 2013.

Steven talks to us about what鈥檚 involved in being a showrunner on Doctor Who, how he develops his characters and why writers should embrace writer鈥檚 block.

He discusses working on the Doctor Who 50th anniversary, and shares his thoughts on the future of television drama and why it鈥檚 so exciting that 鈥渢he rules that have formed are about to disappear鈥�.

Toby Whithouse

大象传媒 Writers interviews Being Human creator and Doctor Who writer, Toby Whithouse in 2012. Toby talks about how his training as an actor informs his approach to writing and how there isn't a single line of dialogue he's written that he hasn't said aloud first.

Doctor Who Q&A Panel

A Q&A with Steven Moffat (Lead writer and Executive Producer) and Nick Lambon (Script Editor)

Writing Doctor Who was a live Q&A session in the 大象传媒 Radio Theatre in Broadcasting House on 30th September 2016. Showrunner, lead-writer and Executive Producer of Doctor Who Steven Moffat and Script Editor Nick Lambon answered questions from Gavin Collinson and the audience.

Listen to clips from the event below which include some great insights and advice on subjects including giving and receiving script notes, structure, tone, drafting and read-throughs which are relevant to anyone interesting in scriptwriting and the TV drama production process.

Part 1: Showrunner Steven Moffat and Script Editor Nick Lambon discuss the origins of the Doctor Who 2016 Christmas Special 'The Return of Doctor Mysterio'.

Part 2: Story of the week or story of the series? Steven Moffat discusses striking a balance between the story of the week or building to a climax with a serial storyline across all the episodes of the series. He also reveals what he thinks make a good Doctor Who script.

Part 3: Giving and receiving script notes - "You will make more improvements by praising the good rather than criticising the bad"

Part 4: The writer's dilemma - getting to the good bits Steven Moffat discusses how he structures his writing and why you should never hand in a script that you don't feel is perfect - but you must also be ready to change it all!

Part 5: What's a tone meeting? About 6 weeks before shooting begins the heads of all the production teams sit down for a 'tone' meeting, but what does that actually mean, and what does it mean for the writer and their vision?

Part 6: The read-through - Script Editor Nick Lambon describes the importance of the read-through and why you should never write a part that he ends up reading!

Part 7: How will you look back on Doctor Who? To conclude the event, Steven and Nick ponder how they'll look back on the show in ten years time.

Blogs

Here you can find some more writing advice from Doctor Who writers and get some behind the scenes info!

Find out more about creating the Virtual Reality Doctor Who episode The Runaway Writers blog
Read about 'The Runaway' and where you can experience it in VR 大象传媒 Doctor Who blog
Read a blog post by Sarah Dollard packed with advice for writers Writers blog

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Copyright & Content Warning

Please note that all scripts are fully protected by copyright law. All scripts are available only for private, personal use and not for any other form of wider distribution. You are not allowed to share or distribute them, extract anything from them to develop or train artificial intelligence or to do computer analysis. Any enquiries concerning the rights for professional or amateur stage production, broadcasting, readings etc should be made to the 大象传媒.

Scripts reflect the time at which they were written and may include language, content or characters which you find offensive.