New Showrunner Chris Chibnall Wants To Bring “Risk And Boldness” To Doctor Who

It’s all about to change on Doctor Who. At the end of this year, in the annual Christmas special, current Doctor Peter Capaldi will vacate the lead role. Likewise, showrunner Steven Moffat will also step down – after an impressive seven years in charge of the BBC sci-fi behemoth.

Taking over from the Sherlock co-creator will be Chris Chibnall, most known for his smash-hit crime drama Broadchurch. Though Chibnall has written for the show before, his gritty, down-to-earth approach to the aforementioned series has got fans intrigued to see what he’ll bring to Doctor Who.

Thanks to an enlightening interview from the Royal Television Society, we now have more of an idea of what Chibnall might do with the show when he gets his hands on it. Initially, the writer teased that the BBC’s acceptance of his ideas was what convinced him to take the job.

“I finally said yes because I love the show to my bones. I resisted it for a very long time, and [the BBC] really had to woo me…But, in the end, I had ideas about what I wanted to do with it. When I went to them and said, ‘This is what I would do’, I actually expected them to say, ‘Ooh, let’s talk about that’, but they said: ‘Great!’”

Even more intriguingly, though, Chibnall was then asked if he would, for instance, make the season one long storyline, à la his work on Broadchurch. 

“Yes. What the BBC was after was risk and boldness.”

His answer is short, but he definitely seems very keen on the idea. Even if that isn’t Chibnall’s plan, his talk about “risk and boldness” makes it clear that he really wants to push the envelope and do something new with the show. That’s bound to scare some fans who like it just the way it is, but it’s also hugely exciting as well.

Doctor Who is currently airing on BBC America on Saturday nights at 9PM and next up is episode ten, titled “The Eaters of Light.”