I was wondering recently if Steven Moffat's portrayal of fathers and fatherhood in Doctor Who is a self-aware and self-deprecating reference to his own well-intentioned, earnest if flailing experiences. That's if he even has kids! [I'm sure he does! ] There was CAL's dad in 'Silence in the Library' and Craig Owens. Two paltry examples, but there you have it. [I won't include Rory as he is main character who's not been seen as a dad].

Also: isn't he just a romantic? What with all the River/Doctor, Amy/Rory, Amy/Doctor(?) shipping...Or is that just how the story unfolded?

Steven Moffat does in fact have two sons and he tends to run stories by by them to see what they think. He does have a habit of using things from his life - there was Brian Magboy from Press Gang and I think some of the Coupling stories were exaggerated versions of things that happened.

Actually, this example is the wrong way round, sorry!. CAL was Strackman's aunt, the computer complex was created by Strackman's grandfather.

Ignore me, I'm an idiot. I just realised that what I just said was exactly what you were saying - I didn't stop to realise that you were talking about the grandfather, not Strackman.

Steven Moffat didn't write anything with Craig Owens.

He does have kids and one of them has a youtube channel.

I was just curious, particularly after comparing the Moff to the Russell T. Davies-era. Awesome!

Nothing will ever beat RTD having Jack kill his own grandson!! :P

Aside from that the three other main influences on his DW work seem to be "The Time Traveller's Wife", "Firelfy"/"Serenity", and idea of sensory depravation or distortion.

I get the first and last references, but how do you think Firefly/Serenity has influenced Moff?

I'm not disagreeing, btw, I just wonder how you came to that conclusion.