Doctor Who writing wizard Steven Moffat has hit out at reviewers who reveal the details of upcoming episodes before theyâre broadcast, singling out one ‘ham-fisted’ hack in particular.
The executive producer of the new series has written many of the episodes and expressed his anger at a fan who attended the press launch for the current series earlier this year and then revealed detailed storyline information on the internet.
Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, Moffat shared his thoughts about those who post spoilers: “You can imagine how much I hate them. It’s only fans who do this, or they call themselves fans. I wish they could go and be fans of something else.”
“It’s heartbreaking in a way because you’re trying to tell stories, and stories depend on surprise,” he continued. “So to have some twit who came to a press launch, write up a story in the worst, most ham-fisted English you can imagine, and put it on the internet (is very disappointing). I just hope that guy never watched my show again, because that’s a horrific thing to do.”
Moffat went on to insist that most of the fans of Doctor Who are âspoiler-phobesâ? who would rather not know the outcome before they see it.
“They want to preserve the surprise,” he said. “The tragedy is you have to work hard at that now. Stories depend on shocking people. Stories are the moments that you didn’t see coming, that are what live in you and burn in you forever. If you are denied those, it’s vandalism.”
Doctor Who continues on Saturday at 6.30pm on BBC One, with Neil Gaiman’s highly-anticipated episode ‘The Doctor’s Wife’.
