Steven Moffat Comments On Doctor Who’s First Female Doctor

Steven Moffat is on his way out as writer and showrunner of the popular long running BBC series Doctor Who. This is his last Comic-Con for Doctor Who, though he’ll likely return for his upcoming Dracula series… or who knows maybe another season of Sherlock.

When interviewed by Deadline at San Diego Comic Con today Moffat sounded ecstatic over the casting, “What an amazing, inspiring choice! Jodie Whittaker is never less than brilliant in everything she does, and now the whole universe is her stage. And best of all, little girls everywhere know the stars can be theirs.” Over his years as showrunner taking over with Matt Smith, and then his casting of Peter Capaldi, he caused a bit of a stir not considering casting a woman. In an interview with BBC Radio 4 he defended his decision “I didn’t not cast a woman… I cast a man. I didn’t [cast a woman] because I wanted to cast Matt Smith and I wanted to cast Peter Capaldi. I didn’t think it was a terrible idea [to cast a woman], I just thought, ‘I want to cast those people’ – that was it.”

Deadline also asked him how he felt about the response of some of the ground breaking he did on his casting and character decisions during his run.

DEADLINE: One barrier has been broken now with a female Doctor cast, you had a female Master in Missy, and this year you had a lesbian companion in the Pearl Mackie-portrayed Bill Potts. Where you surprised by some of the initial response to the announcement of the character?

MOFFAT: I was only surprised in good ways. I was nervous when it first got out, and there was much more fuss for a couple of days than I thought there would be. I thought, for heaven’s sake, surely we’re past thinking that’s a big deal, and then I was surprised in good ways because everyone just settled down and I loved the character. She was a huge hit, and her sexuality was actually barely mentioned, and that’s kind of the way it should be.

The final appearance of Peter Capaldi will be in the Doctor Christmas special, December 25th, 2017.