Steven Moffat | Full Q&A | Oxford Union
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- Опубліковано 17 жов 2024
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Writer of Doctor Who and Sherlock, Steven Moffat has won an Emmy award, five BAFTA Awards and four Hugo Awards. He had been a fan of Doctor Who since childhood, and is responsible for some of the most famous episodes including ‘Blink’ and ‘Silence in the Library.’ In 2015, he was appointed an Order of the British Empire for his services to drama
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I'll say it: the GOAT Doctor Who writer. Say what you will about his show-running (which was still excellent, so there), no-one can claim to have written as many great Doctor Who stories as this man. And people normally balance that with "but he still had his stinkers", I'm not too sure he did. If we take his worst episodes as, say, Let's Kill Hitler, Asylum of the Daleks, or The Doctor The Widow and the Wardrobe, then he still brought excellent scenes, concepts, and a whole tonne of fun even at his worst. And then you have the sheer avalanche of classics from Blink to World Enough and Time.
I completely agree, the man is a creative genius, absolute innovator. Series 9 is one of my favourite series, with Hell Bent being one of my favourite finales. People hate that one but honestly I think it's pure gold.
I agree with all of this, but I still think RTD is the most concise writer, he's evolved a lot over the years, and don't get me wrong, so has Moffat, but he still gets stuck in the same tropes he's done before, he's a recycler, and there is absolutely nothing wrong it that, I just see RTD has the one that's evolved the most over the years, which makes sense, since he was the one to showrun first😅. Still, personally, I think that's a hell of a bird.
@@matheusflores619 I'll have to say I agree with you completely here, Matheus. Moffat definitely innovated Who but RTD continues to innovate telly - can't wait to see what he does in RTD2!!
@@matheusflores619 That's why I said "Doctor Who writer". RTD is possibly the best dramatist in Britain, full stop.
Absolutely with you on this. He is unfairly criticised for some complex plots. He is maligned for this as if the episodes you listed were the only ones he ever wrote. He was/is a genius and I even loved his lesser episodes. Without Moffatt there would ne no Angels, no Matt Smith, no Silence etc.. He could write good dialogue and he (I assume alongside a cast director) put together one of the best Tardis trio ever. Despite what others think I loved the character of Clara. Moffatt's final Dr. Who season with Bill and Nardole and the dry humour of Capaldi was sublime. He will go down in history as being the man alongside Russell Davies bought back some of the best Dr. Who. Sadly this viewer can not say the same about Chibnall, especially as a script writer. Hail the great Moffat, living legend.
Russell T Davies needs to do one of these. The wealth of projects he’s been involved in throughout his career would make him a perfect guest for the Oxford Union. Please invite him.
You do know that, if they invited Russel, we would literally die of old age before the man finished going into the plethora of things he’s written, don’t you? He’s written over 40 shows since he began!
RTD actually did a talk at the university I went to back in 2018, absolutely fascinating to listen to. I'd love to see a him do a recorded one.
@OxUnion - WHY HAVE YOU EDITED THE LAUGHTER OUT?
can confirm as someone in the audience, we were not dead. (can briefly here a cut at 1:58, for example). we appreciated this legendary writer being here, promise :(
I think it's immediately obvious something's been done to the audio, it's switching between sounding echoing and muffled and definitely cutting off some crowd noise all before 60 seconds in... Very strange choice
See from 0:27 to 0:30 at least it's so choppy
Thank goodness, I thought it was going really badly and made it difficult to watch.
Sreven was my engliah teacher he teached in greenock
Steven Moffat is such an international treasure. No kidding, we love him 3000
Steven Moffat was the first television writer I became a fan of and he was the one to make me start looking at the role of the writer with more respect. I was always excited to see his name on a Doctor Who episode, when he was a guest writer, and loved his time as the show runner. Coupling, Jekyll, Sherlock, and Doctor Who are some of my favorite tv shows and I look forward to seeing all his work in the future
Absolutely love him and his writing. Truly inspirational and genuinely funny man.
THE AUDIENCE NOT LAUGHING AT ANYTHING IS SENDING ME, POOR STEVEN 😭
The audio from the audience has been muted.
@@RhysofTime ahhh thank you!
@@RhysofTime I hate when they do that.
How did they not laugh at "indispensable I was"? Plus the interviewer energy is too low.
BEST WRITER EVER.
Not only in Dr Who, in general!
I read "Written by Steven Moffat" at the beginning of an episode and I KNOW it's going to be great.
Personally, my Dr Who story ends with World Enough and Time. I'm just sorry that there is one missing part: the doctor becoming the Curator, as in day of the doctor. It was of course meant for other seasons, but I really don't like the last doctor, not for the actor but for the writing. Moffat is and always be the GOAT for me ❣️I really hope I can meet him someday to thank him!
Did you not watch Twice Upon a Time? To me that's his best episode.
Yes yes of course, sorry! That is great too! I meant it ends with Capaldi Era (imo, the best era!) 😻
@@michaeljacksonina97 I agree, Capaldi's era is the best one. But even though I don't enjoy Whittaker's era, to say DW ends because of it might be too much, we're getting RTD back because of it anyway.
I feel the same way about post Moffat Who , RTD ‘s casting and writing is gonna have to be earth shatteringly brilliant and persuasive for me to buy into the timeless child retcon
Amen
Thank you for this marvelous interview, I adored Moffat's works, but now I also love him as a person, he is as cool as I imagined he might be.
Love this man!
Loved it and how self-deprecating he is!, Looking forward to The Time Traveler's Wife and Inside Man which seem to be different from what he has done so far
This is so cool and lovely. Being (as twatish and pretentious as it sounds) "a writer myself" (not a good one!), it makes you feel so much better to hear a legend say stuff, that makes you exhale, relax, and go "thank fuck it's not just me". Even the Moffat goes through that shit.
Moffat showing class and grace as always, something sadly lacking in an awful lot of Doctor Who "fans".
Russell started up the show, Moffat kept it going. And keeping going is the hard part
nice interview, but can we please start asking this amazing writer about his current and future work, I love Doctor Who and Sherlock but I really think Moffat has answered every possible question about these subjects, we could create a Moffat bot and we'd know his answers on anything Doctor Who or Sherlock related. this was an hour long and a far too small portion of it was about anything else. Unless you really truly think a question is original and the answer can't be found anywhere else, please ask him about anything else, excited fans I can forgive but can moderators and journalists please be more creative and curious.
This man Is incredible
Well, that was fun and informative, lol. IDK what else to say, this hour flew by thanks to SM.
Hopefully he returns to write a few doctor who episodes while RTD is the showrunner again
I am not sure if he should, I mean, yes, his era was fun, but bringing him back to is just repeating the past again. If they're just going to do that then there is no point in replacing Chibnall.
His time is over writing for Doctor Who.
@@bridgwll this comment aged poorly lol
I love how this man, at one point, was responsible for two of the most popular TV shows in the world. And yet, there are still douchebags who try to say he's not a good writer.
The best showrunner of Doctor Who!
If RTD wrote deep and emotional characters, Moffat had fascinating storylines. My idea of a best Doctor Who production would be with RTD handling characters and Moffat handling plots.
Blissful division of skills there.
He's such an amazing writer and very humble in what he says. I think he did such a brilliant job on Doctor Who and Sherlock (and Dracula), such a lovely interview 😁
I dog on Chibnall as much as anyone, but it is a low blow from Oxford to try and make Steven throw him under the bus.
Great discussion, when was this recorded?
I could listen to Steven Moffat talk for hours, but holy hell some of these questions were awful!
Yes, the questions got me cringing a few times...
Totally agree!
No shade against the interviewer personally, but some of these questions definitely felt like bait and were a bit awkward/rude
Ikr! Especially the bit about RTD and Chibnall??? Completely unrelated.
Also not very engaging. Very stilted and robotic. Interviews are best when the questions are interwoven into a discussion. I get it, this is Steven fucking Moffat. You want him to answer your questions and you want to respect him and give him room to talk, he's why people are there, not you. But you're there too, and even though this is Oxford, bring some informality to it. We're all human, classes in school, uni, polytechnics, are always best when they're informal and breezy and natural.
Moffat talking about Bond makes me want him to write a Bond movie.
I love his refusal to get involved in the culture war, as someone who's teen years were firmly entrenched in the pointless battlegrounds of Twitter and UA-cam comments, I've learned that pretty much nobody is open to conversation in this debacle over relatively unimportant issues. To steal a quote from none other than Doctor Who itself, "no matter how right you feel, when you fire that first shot, you have no idea who's going to die. Whose children are going to scream and burn. How many hearts will be broken, how many lives shattered, how much blood will spill before everybody does what they were always going to have to do from the very beginning, **sit down and talk** ".
Appropriating that quote feels ill-fitting considering the issue is people not wanting to sit down and talk, believing they're sitting down and talking. Or is that your point? The illusion they're involved in discussion while being immovable and trying to force their opponent to echo what they say, which obviously isn't a discussion at all?
16:11 - did he say T Russell?
The Russell
@@borusa1803 Russel THE Davis... (funny)
I think he said ‘I.S.T. Russell’s return’.
I.S.T Russell was the sixth Earl of Bedford.
His return was mooted in the Moot Parliament of 1183, but nothing came of it.
59 mins and not one question about the next season of Sherlock
Probably because Cumberbatch and Freeman are busy with Marvel. :D
15:43
13:52 - Earthshock reference.
Re 16:00: Okay, but Steven could still write EPISODES for Doctor Who under Russell. That was the sweet spot anyway.
what a dry audience
Right? Silence really did fall
Yeah I was laughing all the way through watching this but they barely seemed to react.
they was a noise remover on it. if you listen to the first 30 seconds it goes from very echoy to more clean - there's a audio effect that removes background sounds
@@EalesOnWheels Fair play!
He's wrong, the Doctor's name wasn't Theta Sigma. That was his nickname at the academy.
No, that was the ret-con, which he mentions. So you're wrong, Jamie!
It isn't clarified whether Drax is using a nickname or an actual name but I would argue it is clearly a nickname of a kind, for the idea of revealing the actual name of the Doctor is preposterous. It isn't all that significant anyway, for only seldom is it referred to (e.g. the writing on the cliff in The Pandorica Opens).
@@yannatoko9898 Agreed. Plus Theta Sigma doesn't sound like a name that would cause damage to the universe.
Oh my god the audience is dead haha
Their audio is cut
@@matheusflores619 whaat they should undo that
Very poor - the interviewer didn’t engage with SM at all - just reads out questions (that include a lot of repetition. “To what degree…”)
A wasted opportunity.
Is the interviewer wearing a red doo-rag? Is it just fashion or does it signify something special?
Needs a different presenter who knows at least his Dr Who episodes well.
Did steven moffat say chris chibnall's writing is at the same quality level as his?
I feel bad for saying this, but the host should do something about his hair. The color doesn't work at all for me....On this particular person that is.
The guy in red? I thought it was his hair too lol. It looks like a head covering
@@youtubeaccount697 Exactly. Red hair is fine, just not on this particular person.
If only Steven Moffat knew how back Chris Chibnall's "long form" season of Doctor Who would turn out. The Flux was one of the worse series of Who out there in my opinion with nearly none of the many mysteries or plots being resolved.
Which bits were you unsure of and don't say all of it please?
@@kzane I just want to know if the universe reverted back to normal or is still left destroyed. At the end of the Flux we saw the Cybermen, Daleks, Sontarans and Lupari all wiped out from war and the Flux but in the new Year Special, the Daleks are back. We got no explanation as to whether or not the Doctor saved the entire universe and everything is back to normal or if Earth is the remaining planet. Basically just expecting everything to be back to normal once more episodes roll out but getting no real answers to anything is disappointing and confusing.
@@Kschreck I think The Doctor and the Ood had a plan to fix things but this wasn't emphasised on screen. So I could see why you'd be annoyed.
@@kzane Yup I just assumed everything happened off screen but as a viewer, this is left to confuse and disappoint. I was enjoying the Flux and it was fun but everything hinged on a resolution of key plot points in which we got like 30% of the answers and a whole lot of stuff just left unresolved. Will be interesting to see if the next three specials answers any of these plot threads or if they will just be outright abandoned. Time will tell [See what I did there? I made me a pun]. ;)
I can't tell if Moff is just showing professional courtesy or if he legitimately thinks the new Doctor Who had critical acclaim. Are these writers so out of touch with their audiences?
Probably being polite. Rule 1 of interviews, never diss other writers/actors/producers in public.
@@cr10001 Yeah, but honestly all it does is put the audience off. How can one expect honest storytelling from habitual professional liars?
@@anon5263 Well of course the Moff lies. He's said so himself. You really expect an honest reply to a question like "Will there be Cybermen in this coming series?" I'd be pretty sure the Moff has his own opinion of Chibnall's series, but even more sure he's keeping it to himself.
What would put the audience off far more would be showrunners/writers/actors slagging each other off - which is why they generally don't do it.
@@anon5263 you just need to go and look at how Christopher Eccleston was treated to know if not liars they're covering stuff up for sure
@@Char10tti3 Exactly.
Love Steven, but everyones knows that Chibnall's era is a disaster. Lets be honest Steven cannot say anything, or the BBC will come down on him like a ton of bricks.
No, it's not a disaster. And "everyone" saying it is doesn't even mean anything. Colin Baker's era was a disaster. Oh, look, we're still here. What's your point?
I'll take Chibnall's era over Russell's first era any day, and the fact he's coming back (along with David) is a summation of the problem with fandom and appealing to fans who want the same but different, but the problem is it's never different enough because fans don't know what they want.
Remember the first rule of fandom: fans lie.
@@calumsanderson6741 i think 2022 davies js gonna be different from 2005 davies. Mainly because he already did it once so hopefully he learned from the experience.
But yeah, his return makes me worry that the show is gonna turn into "davies who", validating the idea that only he can do it and thus killing any potential new showrunner ability to do their thing without losing part of the audience just because they arent davies.
@@calumsanderson6741 ratings don't.
Any intellectual people in this video? Apart from Steven Moffat... The host was terrible... The audiance were pretty much dead... If this were comic con everyone would be reacting like humans with a brain and heart! But those people blimey it's like a old folks home...
You don't manage thousands of planets in hundreds of galaxies.
We don't want to have to set a precedent to take from humans whenever and wherever we see them, do we?
This is a policy you barbarians apply to non-humans and other humans alike.
nob
😂
Why did you write this who hurt you
But enough about you, Tom
@Finlay McLaren Nob can be spelled with or without the k. Don't be a nobhead.
@Finlay McLaren It doesn't necessarily mean different things when spelled with or without the K. I can tell you're not northern because that definition of nob was plucked straight from the first thing you see when you google 'nob'.
Knob and nob are both used to mean 'dick'.
simon
18:42