For Steven, “Travelling with you made me feel really special. Thank you for that.” —— I know I’m very late to the party, but I wanted to do something to pay tribute to my favorite writer leaving my favorite show. Over the years Doctor Who has become something very meaningful to me. (I know it’s just a silly British TV show, but humor me!) The idea that a person can be more than just one thing, that they can change and evolve, and that that can be sad yet thrilling has been extremely impactful on my life since I started watching. I was 22 the first time I watched Doctor Who. It was 2008, and I was visiting my aunt at her home and she had it on. I had absolutely no interest in watching what looked to me at the time like cheap, campy, science fiction garbage, but I was stuck there. I fidgeted, I sighed, I complained. The sets were unconvincing, the monsters looked cheap, and there was SO. MUCH. TALKING! But as the episode continued, I started to feel concern for the players. That perhaps these characters (I absorbed none of their names at the time) weren’t going to make it out of this. That maybe the threat was still right around the corner. And then, when the episode was over, I realized that I had been clutching a throw pillow. How did they do that? I remember thinking. It looked so cheap. I knew how they made it. I understood how it was filmed. It was not at all convincing, at least compared to the Hollywood films I was used to. So what was it that got me? I concluded that it must have been the writing. The episode was called “Silence in the Library”, written, of course, by Mr. Steven Moffat. After that I binged the rest of the (revived) series, enjoying every minute of it, but Steven’s episodes in particular. And was over the moon when he became the new head writer for the show. It was actually only recently that I learned he’s considered a divisive writer. And as much as I’ve tried to understand that view, I don’t. It saddens me to know that the last Steven Moffat penned episode of Doctor Who is behind me. I can’t wait to see what comes next, both for the Doctor and for Steven. But I couldn’t let the moment pass without saying something to commemorate the man that has taught me so much about storytelling. Thank you, sir! I let you go.
