LETTER FROM
This editorial is being written very last minute – but then again, what else is new? I’ve had ten years of last-minute frantic scribbles, so it’s far too late for me to try to break the habit now. At least this time I have an excuse, because – as I type these words – although the cover and most of the pages for this issue have already been printed, we’ve been able to hold off on this page and on Gallifrey Guardian, in order to make sure we include the news of Jodie Whittaker’s casting as the Thirteenth Doctor! By the time you actually read this, the dust will have settled – just a little. Well, here we go again! Welcome aboard, Jodie!
But for now, with this issue having been more-or-less finished before this announcement was made, I want to take a look back over the era that’s drawing to a close. The Steven Moffat years have been, I think, absolutely extraordinary. Some of the boldest and most inventive Doctor Who we’ve ever seen. I know that as fans we all have different tastes – that’s fair enough – but you can never criticise the Moffat era for being unambitious. Episodes like The Eleventh Hour, Vincent and the Doctor, The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang, A Good Man Goes to War, Let’s Kill Hitler, The Time of the Doctor, Hell Bent, The Return of Doctor Mysterio, Extremis and World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls (to name but a few!), have completely redefined what Doctor Who can do. These episodes, and many more, have genuinely broken new ground. It’s sometimes difficult to spot a golden age when you’re living through it, but I really think that we’ll look back in years to come and realise how influential and daring these past eight years were. And Doctor Who must always keep taking risks.