The Iris Affair writer looks back at his iconic Doctor Who speech – and his spiralling initial reaction
"It threw me into a spiral of misery."
The creator of new Sky series The Iris Affair, Neil Cross, has a number of prominent writing credits to his name, having worked on series such as Spooks and, most notably, having created Luther.
He also wrote two episodes of Doctor Who season 7 part 2, which aired back in 2013 and starred Matt Smith and Jenna Coleman.
The episodes in question were The Rings of Akhaten and Hide, with the former most notably including a speech, delivered by Smith's Doctor, which has gone down in history as one of the show's best, and has been widely re-watched on YouTube.
Cross was speaking with us for The Radio Times Writers' Room, our video interview series in which we get to know what makes screenwriters tick, when he was asked to reflect on that episode, its reception, and in particular how the speech has been adopted by the fandom.
"I wrote that episode second," he said of The Rings of Akhaten. "There's an episode called Hide, which is a haunted house episode, which I had actually written first. And Steven Moffat circled around afterwards and said, 'Here is a poisoned chalice'.
"Episode 2 with a new companion is always very difficult, because the companion has to learn about the Doctor, but we already know about the doctor. And Steven wanted something kind of optimistic.
"And yeah, I'm really, really proud of that episode in retrospect, but it was also released when a tweet could be a story in The Sun. So Steven called me the day before transmission, and he said 'Any episode of Doctor Who takes at least a year to find its place'. He said, 'So whatever the reaction, if they love it or they hate it, do your best to ignore it'. Fair enough.
"There was a full page story in The Sun – Worst Episode Ever. And because it was Doctor Who and because it was so special to me, it threw me into a spiral of misery."
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He continued: "And it was literally a tweet. Someone had tweeted it, The Sun had picked it up, it was like a page three story. And all I could think of was that my sister, who's my imaginary audience, my sister's gonna read this, and this is what she's gonna think of my Doctor Who.
"So it's an extraordinary kind of vindication that that speech has earned its place. I think it's the most YouTubed thing in Doctor Who history? Yeah, so there's a kind of a sweet victory stolen from that. I'm kind of indifferent to reviews… not indifferent.
"There's an old saying which is, ‘You can allow a bad review to spoil breakfast, but not lunch’. And that's my basic attitude is, ‘Oh yeah, that makes you feel s**t, you move on’.
"But the Doctor Who thing, it knocked me sideways. For weeks, I was really, really, really unhappy. So to see that speech attain the place it has is... vindication! It's better than revenge. It’s what we want."
Cross isn't far off with his suggestion that the speech is the show's most watched clip on YouTube. On the official Doctor Who YouTube channel, it comes in third with over 10 million views. It is currently only beaten by a clip from 50th anniversary special Day of the Doctor (with 13 million) and a clip from Richard Curtis's episode Vincent and the Doctor (with 30 million).
While chatting for The Radio Times Writers' Room, Cross also spoke about his other work, including on The Iris Affair, which stars Niamh Algar as an enigmatic genius called Iris.
In the Sky thriller, she is recruited by Tom Hollander's character Cameron, an entrepreneur who wants her to wake up a machine that could alter the future of humanity. When she runs off with a journal containing the device’s activation sequence, it leads to a chase across Italy.
Neil Cross's interview for The Radio Times Writers' Room will be available to watch in full on Thursday 16th October.
Doctor Who is available to stream on BBC iPlayer. The Iris Affair will launch on Sky and NOW on Thursday 16th October. Find out more about how to sign up for Sky TV.
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Authors
James Hibbs is a Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering programmes across both streaming platforms and linear channels. He previously worked in PR, first for a B2B agency and subsequently for international TV production company Fremantle. He possesses a BA in English and Theatre Studies and an NCTJ Level 5 Diploma in Journalism.
