Former Doctor Who boss reveals his verdict on Billie Piper regeneration

Notably, though, Piper wasn't credited as The Doctor in the credits, which has always happened previously when a new actor is introduced as the time traveller. The move caused much confusion about whether Piper will be playing the Sixteenth Doctor or not.

Asked about whether he thinks she's set to play the Doctor, Moffat told RadioTimes.com: "I genuinely don’t have any insider information, but they have hedged their bets.

"They've not said [she’s the Doctor] so I don’t know. I don’t even know if they know!"

Clearly, he's in the same boat as us! However, along with the other showrunners, Moffat is uniquely qualified to know what makes a great Doctor.

When asked what he looks for in a Doctor and what qualities the Sixteenth Doctor should have – whether it ends up being Piper or someone else – he shared: "Attractive, but odd. There's something utterly odd, a sort of benevolent, kindly, slightly incompetent impersonation of a human being. The Doctor is never quite right."

Moffat added: "He's really trying, or she's really trying. [They're] not quite there. 'I'm really cool because I got a bow tie'. 'I've got a nice suit.' 'I put my trainers on.' There's just something off-kilter about them.

"Above all, it's someone that little kids would want to run up and take that [person's] hand and feel absolutely safe. That's what the Doctor's about. Somewhere between Indiana Jones and Willy Wonka."

He added: "But also there's got to be an edge, slightly dangerous – the most dangerous [person] in the universe. All of those things. It's a tall order."

Piper recently opened up about her return to Doctor Who, saying at Florida SuperCon: "This is such a minefield. I have to really engage with how I answer this. All I can say is I was approached very last-minute, and I can't talk about in what capacity, but I found it very emotional to film and I think it's a really great ending.

"As in, I just found it quite moving, and it was really fun to film because it had such a sort of cloak-and-dagger feeling about getting it made. So, yeah, I have to lie a lot about anything to do with Doctor Who, it seems."

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