Skip to main content

CONFIRMED: Neil Gaiman to Write "Doctor Who" Script

Author and screenwriter Neil Gaiman ("The Graveyard Book") has been plagued for years by rumors about the long-running British sci-fi series Doctor Who.

Appearing [Thursday] night to give a live reading and participate in a question-and-answer session at Royce Hall (as part of UCLA Live's spoken word series), Gaiman was once more put on the spot and asked if he would ever write a Doctor Who script.

Gaiman's answer? He nodded emphatically.

While not exactly a confirmation, it's perhaps the most concrete answer those of us in attendance could have hoped for. Season Five of Doctor Who is set to air on BBC One and BBC America this spring and it's highly unlikely that Gaiman will contribute a script for the first season of newly installed Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith's run.

Whether that means that Gaiman will "ever" write a Doctor Who script remains to be seen but for those of us who would love to see the "Sandman" and "American Gods" author tackle The Doctor, it's at least something to hold on to.

UPDATE (2/6/10): After I posted the above yesterday, Gaiman himself confirmed the news at SFX Weekender, announcing that he would be writing a script for Season Six of Doctor Who. Gaiman's episode, currently entitled "The House of Nothing," will air in 2011. You heard it here first!
Labels:

Comments

Heatherette said…
That would be incredible! At least it sounds like he's up for it, should they ask. Fingers crossed!
2/05/2010
Matthew McIntyre said…
It's not just highly unlikely that he'll be writing for the 2010 series, it's impossible. The list of writers has been published in Doctor Who Magazine and it's: Steven Moffat (episodes 1,2,4,5,12,13), Mark Gatiss (3), Toby Whithouse (6), Simon Nye (7), Chris Chibnall (8,9), Richard Curtis (10) and Gareth Roberts (11). They're filming 12 and 13 at the moment and, after that, there's only 7 and 11 to go - so there aren't going to be any last-minute changes in writers.

There were some pretty strong rumours that Gaiman was working on something for this series and Moffat did say that Simon Nye stepped in when a script fell through. So it's entirely possible that Gaiman has a script in progress that will be included in 2011's series.
2/05/2010
Matthew McIntyre said…
Gaiman has just confirmed that he'll be writing a script for next year's series at the SFX Weekender. He refers to it as "giving them a scoop" here:

http://twitter.com/neilhimself/status/8735970111
2/06/2010
Matthew McIntyre said…
Another more specific tweet from SFX themselves:

http://twitter.com/SFXmagazine/status/8735533065

I expect it'll be all over the blogs and news sites pretty soon.
2/06/2010
Thomas said…
Awesome! This year Richard Curtis, next year Neil Gaiman, Steven Moffat already managed to get two of my dream Doctor Who writers on the show in his first two years! Also, Steven himself has written 6 of this years episodes? That's absolutely brilliant! Sooooo looking forward to it now!
2/07/2010
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What's Done is Done: The Eternal Struggle Between Good and Evil on the Season Finale of "Lost"

Every story begins with thread. It's up to the storyteller to determine just how much they need to parcel out, what pattern they're making, and when to cut it short and tie it off. With last night's penultimate season finale of Lost ("The Incident, Parts One and Two"), written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, we began to see the pattern that Lindelof and Cuse have been designing towards the last five seasons of this serpentine series. And it was only fitting that the two-hour finale, which pushes us on the road to the final season of Lost , should begin with thread, a loom, and a tapestry. Would Jack follow through on his plan to detonate the island and therefore reset their lives aboard Oceanic Flight 815 ? Why did Locke want to kill Jacob? What caused The Incident? What was in the box and just what lies in the shadow of the statue? We got the answers to these in a two-hour season finale that didn't quite pack the same emotional wallop of previous season
135 comments
Continue reading full story...

Have a Burning Question for Team Darlton, Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, or Michael Emerson?

Lost fans: you don't have to make your way to the island via Ajira Airways in order to ask a question of the creative team or the series' stars. Televisionary is taking questions from fans to put to Lost 's executive producers/showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and stars Matthew Fox ("Jack Shephard"), Evangeline Lilly ("Kate Austen"), and Michael Emerson ("Benjamin Linus") for a series of on-camera interviews taking place this weekend. If you have a specific question for any of the above producers or actors from Lost , please leave it in the comments section below . I'll be accepting questions until midnight PT tonight and, while I can't promise I'll be able to ask any specific inquiry due to the brevity of these on-camera interviews, I am looking for some insightful and thought-provoking questions to add to the mix. So who knows: your burning question might get asked after all.
253 comments
Continue reading full story...

Pilot Inspektor: CBS' "Smith"

I may just have to change my original "What I'll Be Watching This Fall" post, as I sat down and finally watched CBS' new crime drama Smith this weekend. (What? It's taken me a long time to make my way through the stack of pilot DVDs.) While it's on following Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars on Tuesday nights (10 pm ET/PT, to be exact), I'm going to be sure to leave enough room on my TiVo to make sure that I catch this compelling, amoral drama. While one can't help but be impressed by what might just be the most marquee-friendly cast in primetime--Ray Liotta, Virginia Madsen, Jonny Lee Miller, Amy Smart, Simon Baker, and Franky G all star and Shohreh Aghdashloo has a recurring role--the pilot's premise alone earned major points in my book: it's a crime drama from the point of view of the criminals, who engage in high-stakes heists. But don't be alarmed; it's nothing like NBC's short-lived Heist . Instead, think of it as The Italian
41 comments
Continue reading full story...