Steven Moffat Will Be Back For Doctor Who Season 9, And The Cybermen For Season 8
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We only recently found out when the Doctor will be making his return for Doctor Who’s eighth modern season — on Saturday, August 23 — kicking off a new era of Who with a brand-new Doctor in the form of Peter Capaldi. And that’s not all that’s new, since the Twelfth Doctor is the first of a whole new regeneration cycle for the time lord thanks to The Time of the Doctor, which means we should hopefully be getting another 50 years of the Doctor’s adventures at the very least. But while we’ve got a new season, and we’ve got a new Doctor, one familiar presence is staying constant. Showrunner Steven Moffat is still at the helm, and it sounds like he’ll be sticking around for a while yet.
Matt Smith beginning his tenure as the Eleventh Doctor coincided with Moffat taking over as executive producer and showrunner, so the departure of Smith last year might have seemed like a natural time for Moffat to make his exit. But he’s clearly not done telling Who stories, and Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor will give him the chance to tell a different type of Who stories. And in a column for Doctor Who Magazine, Moffat seems to confirm that he’ll keep spinning his tales of the time lord through two more seasons at least — the impending eighth and the inevitable ninth. Moffat writes:
Sitting here, right now, just before the [series eight] finale shooting block, I’ve figured out the cliffhanger to the penultimate episode of the next series. And it’s a whopper. Ohh, I don’t think you’ll see this coming!
If he truly is already figuring out the end of season nine, I have to wonder if he’s already thinking about season 10. That could theoretically give us three seasons of Capaldi, which is a long enough stretch that it’s entirely possible he’d be ready to step down from the role. And, again, it’d provide a natural exit point for Moffat to leave as well, and to let both a new showrunner and new star step in. Whether that will happen remains to be seen, but at the very least it sounds like we’ve got two more season of Moffat to look forward to (or dread, depending on your opinion of his Who tenure).
Meanwhile, a familiar old foe has been confirmed for this upcoming eighth season of Doctor Who. They say history repeats itself, and that’s certainly the case with Who baddies. As much as each season will introduce new threats, you just know that some classic baddies are going to show up over and over and over again. Case in point: the below set pic from the BBC, which shows the Doctor flanked by those pesky Cybermen. Next to Capaldi is guest-star Michelle Gomez, sporting some impressively vertical hair.
You can check out the latest season 8 trailer for Doctor Who below.
