Doctor Who season 10 premiere: Steven Moffat details fresh start

With the Doctor Who season 10 premiere coming onto BBC One and BBC America this weekend, one of the main subjects of conversation seems to be the fact that the new season is in many ways a reboot. You’ve got a new Companion, and from the first episode on, you’re going to get a good sense that the story is being devised this time for both longtime fans and people getting a chance to explore it for the first time. It’s a smart move for the show to do at this point, given that it wants to recruit new viewers – something that’s difficult to do with a show that’s been on the air as long as this one has.

In speaking about this further in a new interview released by the BBC, show executive producer Steven Moffat offered up some insight on how he’s going to start off the show:

“Series 10, sort of, begins the show again.  The first episode is called, quite mischievously, “The Pilot” – it introduces everything you need to know about Doctor who and tips you into the universe.  It takes our characters; the Doctor and Nardole (whom we already know) and Bill (who we’re about to meet) and throws them into the Universe.   They’re not equipped to deal with it, they’re not armed or wearing armor – they’re just flung into that universe and told to deal with it.  They become heroes because they hit those moments where there is no alternative – being a hero is about the time you need to become a hero.  It becomes the purest, most innocent version of Doctor Who in a way.  It is a brand new person, Bill – walking into the TARDIS – where will the TARDIS take us – open the doors – walk out and there’s a monster – fight it.  It is storybook simple.  Of course, that story complicates as it goes on because the Doctor is a much more complicated man than he first seems.  But it’s Doctor Who at its purest I would say.  Everything you need to know about Doctor Who is explained in that first episode – the cloaking device, the chameleon circuit, the ‘bigger on the inside’ – all of that is there and you even get to see the Daleks.  The idea was just to introduce Doctor Who properly – the story starts here.  You need to know nothing before this point.”

So will this feel like a retread to some viewers who already know the story rather well? We do understand the sentiment of people out there who may feel this way, but the counter that we’d offer here is that there are likely still to be many Easter eggs for some of these people. Also, we do think that the show is going to want to give this episode a certain sense of nostalgia for everyone out there who does know the show really well.

If you do want to get some other news leading to the Doctor Who season 10 premiere, we suggest that you head over to the link here right now! (Photo: BBC.)