If you were 'The Moff' creating Series 9 how would you make the next series better than the recent Series 8 ?

I for one would get a better team of writers, less running story arcs & include more stand-alone single episode stories featuring more alien planets with less emphasis on the companion and more on the Doctor himself.

I'll speculate that during Series 9 The Master will return, at least one new full-time (slightly older) companion will be introduced and Steven Moffat will resign.

For me, it would be:

1. Get back out into space and alien planets again! Too much of series 8 has been earth bound.
Actually, a couple of episodes this year i think would have benefited from NOT being set on Earth. The forest would have been far more 'plausible' set on an alien world with alien vegetation. Kill the moon would also have been a little more digestible had it been an alien moon on an alien planet, then perhaps the new moon egg thingy could have been smaller!

2. Some more 2-parters please. I miss the odd cliffhanger.

3. Tone down the grumpiness. I know he's more alien and this is great for some, but i think they should dial it back just a touch and at least soften him up a bit and make him a little more accessible (not relatable... just accessible).

4. Get a new companion who actually WANTS to TRAVEL!! Leave home and we get the impression that they live with the Doctor as always used to be. This 'day-tripper' companion thing doesn't seem right to me! Back to the Donna style companion who was there for the fun of it and committed to travelling full time.

5. Turn up on some random alien planet. Find an injustice / menace. Sort it. Save the planet / race / individual (because he cares). Leave. (ah the old days!)

That`ll do it.

Here's the problem with topics like this: they're rarely constructive or realistic.

Where would you get a better team of writers from? Do you not think that's what they've tried to do? Which writers do you suggest? Where would you look? It's easy to say 'I would do this' but you wouldn't do it because you don't have the capacity. In fact, Doctor Who uses many of the best writers in British television, who have also been successful in other mediums such as prose, theatre etc. Saying 'I would get a better team of writers' is less than a suggestion. It's akin to saying 'If I was God I would make food taste better'. It's fantasy, with no practical application.

More alien planets: again, easy to say; not so easy to do. There are budgetary reasons for staying on Earth. Creating alien planets is expensive. Any series of Doctor Who will always be more Earth-bound. Would your big plan as showrunner be to have an unlimited budget?



How would the storyline of 'Forests of the Night' have worked on another planet?

The moon story would work but would hardly have the same resonance and drama if it was some fictional world the audience doesn't care about. It would also remove Clara from the equation when it came to making the decision on whether to 'kill the moon', as like the Doctor it would be none of her business.

The Capaldi to iron out the (very few) wrinkles in his (aleady excellent) portrayal of The Doctor and writers writing material specifically for him. Maybe 60 minute episodes? Other than that, carry on as is.

Add: Give FBC another crack at a story!

Geeeessuuusss mate calm down there!!

erm, I was just answering the OP's question - nice to have a bit of chat on here and not be told you are WRONG at every turn.

To keep this constructive - there was not ANY mention or suggestion of getting rid of Stephen - this thread is NOT about that. Nor was there any implication that 'I can do better than the writers' - I, for one, cannot.

And don't get all defensive about budgets and HAVING to be set on earth. We are all well aware thanks that special effects and sets cost money and that there are budgetary reasons for staying earth bound. The point was simply that season 8 has been particularly so - back to that innocent OP question of 'what would you improve for series 9'

And as for Forest of the Night being on another planet... er why ever not?? I don't think there was any part of that story that couldn't have easily been transplanted to another planet!! Any planet could have been overrun with vegetation that protected from an impending solar flare. My point was simply that it wouldn't be such a stretch of imagination if it had been an alien world and that their vegetation was a bit more 'protective' than ours - and we wouldn't be left with nit-picky thoughts about what happened to all our well known concrete structures etc when the trees disappeared.

OP - good question - nice post, and speculate away at what sort of stories would make a good season 9! No Moff-bashing or 'i could do betters' in sight!!

Agreed, I too want a constant travelling companion. I liked the way Donna went from story to story, getting involved as she went along. Clara's constant "hopping on, hopping off" is getting to be quite irritating.

Too many Earthbound stories. We need more alien landscapes with proper aliens and monsters. I don't think the modern production teams have it in them to produce anything along the lines of the Hinchcliffe Era.

That would be a completely different story. No Danny or Coal Hill kids. All that would remain would be that one plot point. Also, the dramatic effect of London being totally overgrown would rather be lost if it was some unknown alien city wouldn't it? They could have done a story on an alien planet that had been overrun by vegetation with the resolution that it was a defensive measure on the part of the planet's eco-system to protect from a solar flare. That is the only transferable element. And would that be as interesting as Earth being overrun by vegetation? Actually, no. One of the great things about a concept like this is that as a viewer you can imagine waking up one morning and discovering this had happened to the world. That puts the concept up there with something by J.G Ballard or John Wyndham.

My tone was and is quite calm. You seem to be getting het up however with your CAPITALIZED EXCLAMATIONS. You say 'we're all well aware of budgetary restraints'. My experience reading threads like this (and they're a dime a dozen) is that people aren't, of if they are they disregard it.

About the writers: you're entirely missing my point and I'm not sure how much patience I have to explain it to you. I wasn't telling the OP 'you couldn't write better' (that's self-evident). I'm making the point that his suggestion to get 'a better team of writers' is entirely vacuous unless he can suggest how they go about doing that and where these better writers are to be found. It does rather carry an implication that the current team haven't tried to find the best group of writers they can, which is quite ridiculous.

This is going to draw some heat onto me, but I've learnt recently some people just need an excuse to criticise posters on here so what the heck -》

Tom Tit, I fully salute your posts, the most common sense, plainly spoken realistic posts I've seen for a while, I doth my cap.

Agreed. It's really hard not to get sucked into the mob mentality 'us against them' ethos of this forum. I know I'm guilty of being unfairly judgmental. But some people do tend to go through posts with a fine toothed comb in order to find things to shout about. Makes it all a bit joyless at times.

You've got the general idea. Keeping it simple.

I want the Master back.

Less children.
Less weak throwaway one-off stories.

Leave Gatiss's scripts in the bin where they belong.

I'd like the focus to be on the Doctor. Rather than so much time spent on everyone else who wanders in from up the road, from the school, supermarket, behind the bins, wandering in the park etc.

Maybe re enact some old scripts. That might work.

And more of Peter Capaldi. Might have mentioned that already.

Bring back 2-parters and cliff-hangers. 12 episodes consisting of 6 2-part stories. Companion (s) travel full-time. Tardis travel becomes more unpredictable (like it used to be).

Here's the thing with this (sorry for singling your post out; this is a common complaint): in the last couple of years there's been more focus on the Doctor and his life than there's probably ever been before.

This season we actually saw him as a boy on Gallifrey! We've never had anything more than hints about his life on Gallifrey before this, and certainly not his childhood. We saw the moment he stole the TARDIS and left Gallifrey in Name of the Doctor! In a storyline that was about the Doctor's name! And his grave. In Day of the Doctor we saw the Time War! You can't get a more Doctor-centric story than that. We saw John Hurt play a secret incarnation of the Doctor! Never has anything as big as that been done with the character before. In the last couple of years we've found out more about his backstory and the motivation that drives him than we probably did in the entire classic series, where the nearest they ever got was a vague speculation that he stole a TARDIS, possibly because he was bored.

Hell, Moffat even gave the Doctor a romance for the first time ever onscreen, and even had him marry. Could you have even conceived anything like that happening in the RTD era, let alone the classic series? The Doctor had a love affair and got married (kind of)! This is all in the last few years.

We've had so much about the Doctor and his life and history that some people, me included, even worry that they're showing too much and ruining the mystery.

Heres something else to consider: every time we see the Doctor argue with Clara or Danny Pink, we aren't just learning about them. We're learning about him. Every episode is about the Doctor.

The people who are making this complaint are straight up wrong. The show has never been more about the Doctor than the last few years.

This series has been among the very best work the team has done. I'm going to make a lot of people very unhappy now, by suggesting that perhaps this is related to having a bit of extra time between series, it seems like they've had longer to polish ideas and work to tie the stories together with more than just a breadcrumb trail of foreshadowing.

I like that they've got fresh blood coming in, both writing and directing. While I don't think it's the place for up-and-coming young writers to cut their teeth, I think it's great that they're getting indie directors and writers in to do the odd episode and show what they can do. I think that's where diversity and freshness comes from.

I'm usually fine with second chances (I'm that sort of a man).
But, on this occasion, I'll make an exception. Just no. Absolutely not.

That aside, yes more multi-episode stories please!

Love this. It's actually quite exhausting to see this complaint over and over again.

I agree with the judge. The finest poster on these boards.

Sorry. I mean second best. *bows*

1. I agreed with previous posters about the companion being full time, not popping home after every adventure.

2. IF there is a change of companion I would like there to be two new companions this time. I have always thought that the TARDIS feels right with 3 people on board.

3. I would love for Jenny to become a full time companion, maybe as part of a story line to rescue Strax and Vastra, or maybe their origin stories (oh that sounds better).

4. More 2 parters! Not every one but 2 per year would be about right I think.

5. Lengthen each episode to 1 hour even if this means we lose an episode or two from the series. Even with the most lighthearted of episodes feel hurried. Remember when each story used to be 2 hours long (4 x 30 mins)! Give the story a bit of time to develop like in Deep Breath.

Same format as Series 8 - 12 episodes, a two part finale and a Christmas special.
New female companion from a different time period, travelling with the Doctor full time, sees him only as a friend and is single.
Secondary male companion introduced in the latter half of the series, isn't a boyfriend for the female companion or threatened/hostile towards the Doctor.
Dalek/Davros/Skaro episode, maybe episode 6.
If there's a story, either another Paternoster Gang or UNIT appearance.
Psi and Saibra back for an early series episode, maybe the Dalek/Davros/Skaro one.
Less children/child related plots, no kids in TARDIS storylines.
Historical figures as usual but that's a given.
The Master as the main antagonist for the finale.
Another minor classic series monster brought back. Maybe Axons or even the Celestial Toymaker for a Christmas special.

Exhausting ? Perhaps I should have been more specific. I'm aware of the new information about the Doctor's life. I meant - screen time.
As Stephen Moffat has said, The companion,, Clara, has been the focus this season.

They wish. If they stretched for something comparable to these two giants, Ballard and Wyndham, instead of pitching it at the Balamory audience then we might have some BBC SF to compare to classic work like Survivors, Out of the Unknown and Doomwatch. A Dr Who echoing these landmark series would at least justify it`s post 8pm slot, something you can`t say about much of the juvenalia we`ve been offered up in this deeply disappointing season.