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Steven Moffat interview 2007 - Radio Times, June 2007 |
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Once again, writer Steven Moffat has come up with a story to make young Doctor Who fans dive behind the sofa. He lets Nick Griffiths in on the secret to scaring responsibly.
"Think "Are you my mummy?"
or the tick-tock of the
Clockwork Droids. Both
are the work of Steven
Moffat - the man Who regenerator
Russell T Davies calls "the King of
Terror". Will his latest story, Blink,
offer more of the same?
"I'm scared to death," reckons
Davies. So that's a "yes", then.
Moffat is cagey in the detail, but
says this of his episode: "It's a creepy
ghost story, there's a scary statue
and a haunted house. And the
Doctor isn't there to help."
David Tennant's (and Freema
Agyeman's) virtual absence from
Blink is due to the production crew
having to film two episodes
simultaneously, and even the Doctor
can't be in two places at once.
But, contends Moffat, writing
Who without a heavy Doctor
presence isn't as weird as you might
imagine: "Many famous scenes
in Doctor Who don't involve him,
because they're the scary bits. The
Doctor tends to reduce the fear level
in a way, because he's the one who can
solve it. So stranding the companion,
or some innocent mortal, with an
awakening monster is an absolute
standby of Doctor Who."
So what's the secret to horror-writing for Who? "It's a particular
kind of scariness, as it's scariness
that's going out at 7pm, surrounded
by very loud, shiny-floor shows [such
as Any Dream Will Do?]," explains
Moffat. "But I think that's a positive
advantage. You have to remember
that being scared of the dark and
being scared of monsters is basically
a childish impulse. There's always
something of the nursery about
horror. A grown-up isn't scared of
the dark; a grown-up is scared of
getting ill, or the children being sick,
so what you're tapping into - the
kind of fear that Doctor Who plays
on - is that cowering in your bed at
night as an eight-year-old, wondering
what that shadow in the corner is.
"Adults never quite grow out of
their childhood fears," continues
Moffat. "They just belong in a
different part of our heads. Doctor
Who isn't a childish programme, but
it is childlike: it's a programme for
children. And many, many adults
who watch and love it watch it as that:
as something like Harry Potter. They
watch it in that frame of mind. And
that's the best frame of mind to creep
people out in, because it pushes you
back to a time when the shadows
were scary."
**
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