Hitfix’s Alan Sepinwall has an interview with Doctor Who show runner Steven Moffat. The interview talks about what we’ve seen so far in series six and what’s to come as the second half kicks off this Saturday.
If you’ve not seen the first half of series six, there are SPOILERS ahead.
So you knew going in that you would have this story to tell with River and you’d be in charge to tell it?
That wasn’t especially my plan. It came about for the most practical of reasons, River: it was because the Doctor had to be found in a library that had been sealed off for 100 years, and a team of archaeologists had to walk through that door, and some things the psychic paper won’t cover. So I didn’t want to have a long section where he was arrested, like the show used to have. That would be boring. And it was really hard, actually, to get around that. I thought that the lamest idea in the world is that one of them knows him, and I felt that was too much of a coincidence. But you can disguise the coincidence, hide it out of sight, if it’s someone he hasn’t met yet. And then it’s just click-click-click: What if it’s a woman? What if it’s a woman who flirts with him? And then you think, “That’s going to upstage the rest of the story, but let’s do it anyway.” But even at that point, I was thinking that this would be a one-off character. She was designed to be, and maybe she could be canoodling the 45th Doctor, and we wouldn’t have to see her again until I’m no longer materially involved in either making or watching it. But because Alex (Kingston) was so good, and the character was so popular, why not?
At what point did you realize the relationship that River and Amy would have?
Remember, all plans have to be susceptible to change. What if Karen had left early? You can’t make final decisions. In the process of writing that two-parter and rewriting the two-parter, I came up with one version of who she could be. So I left the option open when I came up with Amy Pond, knowing I was probably but not definitely going to bring River back. I made sure there was some link – the Pond/River thing – that I could return to later.
You can read the full interview HERE.
This confirms what I had suspected all along… HE’S MAKING IT ALL UP AS HE GOES!!! He had no plan or proper story-arc for River, and this paradoxical nonsense we’ve been getting in Doctor Who merely confirms that!!!