‘Doctor Who’ season 9: Steven Moffat on hopes for more female writers, directors
While there is a contingent of people out there upset about “Doctor Who” not having a larger array of female writers and directors, it turns out that there is a genuine reason for it: The majority of the women who are asked to take on such a role for the show end up saying “no thanks.”
This news comes courtesy of executive producer Steven Moffat, who spoke to Zap2It about this fact after confirming that Catherine Tregenna is going to be penning at least one season 9 episode:
“Female directors and writers have a tendency to turn us down … There are fewer female directors and female writers — it’s a statistical fact — it’s shameful but it’s true. Most of the people who are desperate to do ‘Doctor Who’ are men.”
If the majority of “Doctor Who” fans are men, then statistically it also makes sense that there would be more men in the entertainment business interested in coming over and doing an episode of the show. Moffat admits that even Tregenna said no at one point to working on the show.
He also adds in the interview that there is a female director booked for next season already, and ultimately, he just wants people, regardless of gender, who are going to do the best job:
“It’s not that I care particularly what brand of reproductive organs you wear to work … There’s very little reproduction that goes on on the ‘Doctor Who’ set. The reason we want women is because some of the best people for the job are women.”
This is all lovely to hear, mostly because it furthers along something that we’ve been saying for some time about whether or not there should be a female Doctor: If it is the right person, then yes. Don’t force the booking upon us just because you want to appeal to a certain demographic.
Thursday’s Christmas Special will be posing one other interesting question, and that is if the top person in the Doctor’s life in Clara is sticking around. You can read more about that here, or sign up today if you want to transport some more TV scoop in your direction courtesy of our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: BBC.)