Steven Moffat
Steven Moffat is a Scottish television writer and producer.
Moffat's first television work was the teen drama series Press Gang. His first sitcom, Joking Apart, was inspired by the breakdown of his first marriage; conversely, his later sitcom Coupling was based upon the development of his relationship with television producer Sue Vertue. In between the two relationship-centred shows, he wrote Chalk, a sitcom set in a comprehensive school inspired by his own experience as an English teacher.
A lifelong fan of Doctor Who, Moffat has written several episodes of the revived version and succeeded Russell T Davies as lead writer and executive producer when production of its fifth series began in 2009. In 2008 he scripted the first The Adventures of Tintin film for director Steven Spielberg. He co-created Sherlock, an adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes detective stories.
Many of the programmes upon which he has worked have won awards, including BAFTAs and Hugo Awards for some of his episodes of Doctor Who.
“The Doctor: It's my nose; it has special powers.Nancy: Yeah? That why it's so...?The Doctor: What?Nancy: Nothing.The Doctor: What?Nancy: Nothing. Do your ears have special powers too?”
“Rose: Look at you, beaming away like you're Father Christmas!The Doctor: Who says I'm not, red-bicycle-when-you-were-twelve?Rose: [shocked] What?The Doctor: And everybody lives, Rose! Everybody lives! I need more days like this! Go on, ask me anything; I'm on fire!”
“All lives end. All hearts are broken. Caring is not an advantage.”
“Kathy Nightingale: What's good about sad? Sally Sparrow: It's happy for deep people.”
“The universe is big, its vast and complicated, and ridiculous. And sometimes, very rarely, impossible things just happen and we call them miracles. And that's the theory. Nine hundred years, never seen one yet, but this would do me.”
“Well we've moved through the funfair a bit - we've done the rollercoaster, now we're on the ghost train.”
“I'm not a psychopath, I'm a high-functioning sociopath. Do your research.”
“It's a fez. I wear a fez now. Fezes are cool.”
“Reinette: One may tolerate a world of demons for the sake of an angel.”
“When you run with the Doctor, it feels like it'll never end. But however hard you try you can't run forever. Everybody knows that everybody dies and nobody knows it like the Doctor. But I do think that all the skies of all the worlds might just turn dark if he ever for one moment, accepts it. Everybody knows that everybody dies. But not every day. Not today. Some days are special. Some days are so, so blessed. Some days, nobody dies at all. (In the library, the Doctor walks back to the TARDIS. He stops, looking at the doors. Then he raises his hand, and stands there poised like that for a long moment. Finally he snaps his fingers. The doors open. He smiles slowly and walks in, joining Donna. Then he snaps his fingers again, and the doors close. River's voice continues over this.) Now and then, every once in a very long while, every day in a million days, when the wind stands fair, and the Doctor comes to call... everybody lives.”
“The Doctor: Amazing. Nancy: What is? The Doctor: 1941. Right now, not very far from here, the German war machine is rolling up the map of Europe. Country after country, falling like dominoes. Nothing can stop it, nothing. Until one tiny, damp little island says "No. No, not here." A mouse in front of a lion. You're amazing, the lot of you. I don't know what you do to Hitler, but you frighten the hell out of me.”
“You're guaranteed to be lucky several times in your life-it's what you do with it. Young writers spend all their time worrying, in a way that David Gerrold did not and I did not. How do they get to meet the right people? How do they get to the right parties? If only someone would read my script... Forget all that. All these things are easy and will happen. The way you get your script to the right people is that you put it in an envelope. It's fucking easy. The difficult bit is writing something that is so good people will take a punt on a brand new writer. That's it-you have to write an absolutely terrific script.”