Doctor On Call: Steven Moffat Talks "Doctor Who"

Comic-Con kicked off with a bang this year, courtesy of a little British Invasion in the form of panels for UK series Doctor Who and Torchwood. Just don't ask writer/producer Steven Moffat if he enjoyed traveling over for the annual geek fest. The Coupling and Jekyll creator was apparently detained and questioned for about twenty minutes when he arrived in the States. Ouch.

Moffat and producer Julie Gardner took to the stage during the first ever Doctor Who event at Comic-Con, though sadly executive producer Russell T. Davies was a no-show as he never actually boarded his flight; Davies is in Cardiff working on Torchwood.

While Moffat--the inbound head writer of some of my very personal favorite Doctor Who episodes including "Blink," "The Empty Child," "Girl in the Fireplace," and "Silence in the Library"--was exceptionally discrete about revealing future plot points ("I’m not telling you" seemed to be a recurring answer), we did get to see a gorgeous 90-second trailer for the 2008 Christmas Special, which features the return of the Cybermen to the series.

And I cannot describe the cheer that erupted from the crowds during a clip package that showcased scenes from all of the episodes of Doctor Who that Moffat has scripted to date... save "The Empty Child," an omission which seemed to irk Moffat to no end.

While I was hoping for some information about the Doctor's companion for the upcoming Season Five (I'm still holding out hope for Sally Sparrow), Moffat was playing his cards very close to the vest, having started to write the new season's first episode whilst flying over the Atlantic.

We did learn, however, that just because River Song (Alex Kingston) recognized the Doctor during the recent two-parter "Quiet in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead," doesn't mean that she actually will marry this incarnation of the Doctor (David Tennant) and may have recognized some essential quality of the Doctor to realize that he would someday be the man she would marry. (Sorry, time travel and its inherent "timey-wimey, wibbledy-wobbledy"-ness is so confusing.)

Will Neil Gaiman write an episode of Doctor Who, as many of us have hoped? "That would be nice," said Moffat noncommittally.

But those of you hoping for Tennant to run into an older incarnation of the Doctor (as he did in the Children in Need sketch), don't hold your breaths. Moffat believes that the novelty of having the Doctor run the same adventure at two points during his life at the same time would quickly wear thin after about five minutes. That said, never say never.

Stay tuned.