Confirmed Season 9 writers
Tom Tit
Posts: 2,554 Forum Member
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Quite obviously, we are going to discuss the writers for Season 9 here and quite possibly the stories they are writing... so you know, don't be an idiot and don't read past this point if you don't want to know anything at all about it.
I didn't want to clutter up the Spoilers thread with speculative chitter-chatter so I started a new one for this.
So far we know:
Moffat for two episodes
Whithouse for two episodes
Gattiss for at least one episode
Catherine Tregenna for at least one episode.
Assuming Steven Moffat will write at least 4 episodes that leaves the possibility of 4 more writers.
Who will they be?
Newcomers? Jamie Mathieson? Gareth Roberts? Chris Chibnall? Pip & Jane Baker? Even more Moffat (I hope so)?
If we're to believe the comments about more two-parters (and I don't necessarily) that could mean that there may only be a couple more writers.
Who do you think is likely to come back? Who do you want to come back?
Everyone agrees with me that 3 of Whithouse's 4 episodes have been awful, right, and that it's a shame he's coming back?
I didn't want to clutter up the Spoilers thread with speculative chitter-chatter so I started a new one for this.
So far we know:
Moffat for two episodes
Whithouse for two episodes
Gattiss for at least one episode
Catherine Tregenna for at least one episode.
Assuming Steven Moffat will write at least 4 episodes that leaves the possibility of 4 more writers.
Who will they be?
Newcomers? Jamie Mathieson? Gareth Roberts? Chris Chibnall? Pip & Jane Baker? Even more Moffat (I hope so)?
If we're to believe the comments about more two-parters (and I don't necessarily) that could mean that there may only be a couple more writers.
Who do you think is likely to come back? Who do you want to come back?
Everyone agrees with me that 3 of Whithouse's 4 episodes have been awful, right, and that it's a shame he's coming back?
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But the one classic means his return should be welcomed if they let him write something with a bit of gravitas as he can't do the fun stuff very well at all.
Tom Macrae is top of my list to return. Not only did he write one of the best episodes of New Who but I'm intrigued to see if it was just a beautiful one off moment of everything coming good or if he's a genuine long term prospect for the show because his previous two episdoes were diabolical and his sitcom was certainly not to my taste.
Also give FCB another go. He must be able to do better than 'In the shite Garden' surely?
There's always the potential Gatiss has written two individual episodes, too as in previous years but who knows...
Jamie Mathieson is believed to be too busy writing for his own new project to commit time to Series 9, which is a shame as I adored both his episodes last year.
I can't write off Harness, or any writer for that matter, for elements of one episode. So if he returns - I wouldn't take issue with it. Would be interested to see what he has.
Thompson's return could well be inevitable - but I can hope not. There's too much untapped potential in the concepts he is given, I would rather they be entrusted to somebody bolder. I would see Roberts' return, but only if it's not another "The Doctor undercover on Earth" episode.
I would have skipped Gatiss, but it's too late for that. His episodes are just too safe for me. Not rousing enough. It all feels a bit "oh, it's the Gatiss episode with Gatiss stuff." Pretty "meh" when I come to Chibnall, too. Doing well at the moment, I gather - but I'm unfazed by his Who.
Harness & FCB may have rocked the boat - with Mathieson at the helm - but I was far more invested in what they had to offer, for better or for worse, than some more familiar names. Fresh blood is exciting.
Hey, 2 two-parters already has it 1 up on Series 8
No real need to assume.
We Know he's writing the opening two parter and he's also talked of the cliffhanger he's written between the penultimate episode and the Finale so that's a second 2 parter he's writing.
Interestingly, this makes me wonder a couple of things. Is the eleventh episode a standalone story? And if so, if this is a series of twelve episodes will we be facing another one-part finale? Or is the series thirteen episodes, and will we be getting three consecutive Moffat episodes (bringing his likely Series 9 total to five episodes - 1, 2, 11, 12 and 13...six if you include the Christmas special which I'd suspect he is writing). To confuse matters more, Moffat also commented last year that he already had a brilliant idea for the cliffhanger in the penultimate episode of Series 9 in place, suggesting a two-part conclusion.
I think what we're picking up from all these little conflicting comments, plus the fact we have writers confirmed for two-parters (Moffat, Whithouse) and standalone stories (Gatiss, Tregenna) that they're really going for the sense of mystery as to how long a specific story is this series. Some stories may be loosely tied to each other, others strongly tied... the waters have been muddied as far as one-part/two-part stories are concerned. This could either go very well, or very badly - which the same can be said for consecutive two-parters which are very dependent on people enjoying them.
As for other writers for the series, this is all pure speculation and working with my preferred outcome now of thirteen episodes to accommodate a two-part finale as well as Moffat's 'Big Finish idea'...
901 - Steven Moffat (The Magician's Apprentice, series begins September 5th?)
902 - Steven Moffat (The Witch's Familiar)
903 - Toby Whithouse
904 - Toby Whithouse
905 - new writer ➀ (breaks up the familiar writers)
906 - Gareth Roberts (writing sixth episode again*)
907 - Peter Harness (writing seventh episode again*)
908 - new writer ➁
909 - Mark Gatiss (scary episode...likely to air on Halloween?)
910 - Catherine Tregenna (new blood, breaks up the Gatiss-Moffat heavy finish)
911 - Steven Moffat (Big Finish idea)
912 - Steven Moffat (two-part finale: part one)
913 - Steven Moffat (two-part finale: part two, finishes series a month before Xmas)
- Moffat commented that we'd be seeing a lot more of Jamie Mathieson and Peter Harness, or something to that effect. I suspect Mathieson may currently be too busy to write for Doctor Who, but Harness seems as likely a writer as any to have a slot here.
- Gareth Roberts made hints he might be writing for the show again in the reprint of The English Way of Death, or at least for a show that you'll see him credited for in 'late 2015'. This may or may not be Doctor Who, but he's become a bit like Gatiss of late - inoffensive as a writer. I tend to enjoy Roberts' episodes a lot more, but he's seldom given the shows best material to work with - a show about all of time and space, his previous three stories have been contemporary and set in a flat, a department store and a school respectively. If he is to write again I'd love something a bit...different.
➀ - the second new writer for Series 9 after Tregenna. If Roberts was talking about Doctor Who, then we may have a very young writer, born in 1990 according to him.
➁ - the third new writer for Series 9, or if I were to go for another tried and tested name it'd have to be Tom McRae...simply someone who isn't new, but still doesn't write for the show that often.
That might have been circumstances beyond his control if Moffett told him to create a scenario where Clara loses faith in the Doctor and vows to stop travelling with him, only for the Doctor to win back her trust in Mummy On The Orient Express.
All part of Clara's story arc when she kept lying to Danny and The Doctor about her relationship with the other.
You can have two consecutive stand alone episodes where the end of the first episode still provides a cliff-hanger for the second.
Like when series finales lead into the following Christmas special with the appearance of The Runaway Bride, the collision with the Titanic, or last year, when Santa turns up with a message about Clara.
"There's nothing you can do to prevent the catharsis of spurious morality!"
Seems to be a lovely blur filter over them.
Though I can say that they're almost certainly scripts for 'Doctor Who.' Though I'm not sure about that second word.
Wonder if Clara gets Christmas this year. Jenna Coleman has been in three Christmas specials which must be a record for a companion (even though she wasn't "our Clara" in one of them.)