<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Steven Moffat (1961 -) is a British writer who may be best known to genre fans for his contributions to the revived Doctor Who and for the miniseries Jekyll. He has also written a number of sitcoms, including the popular (original British version of) Coupling.

The writer has recently been asked to script a film version of European comic strip Tintin for helmers Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson.

Early Life

Born and raised in Shropshire, Scotland, Moffat earned his degree in English and became a teacher. However, he claims to have entered the teaching profession merely as a necessity. He felt there was very little else he could do with an arts degree. Nevertheless, it was clear that he had other ambitions, writing and submitting a number of scripts for television - all of them rejected.

At the time, Steven's father, Bill Moffat, was teaching at a school in Glasgow. When the school was used to film a religiously-themed television show called Highway, Bill mentioned to the producers that he thought a school newspaper might make an excellent subject for a children's show. Intrigued, the producers asked if he had a sample script for the prospective show. Bill replied that they could only use the idea provided that his son was allowed the first attempt at scripting the first episode. Since Bill actually offered this initial script for free, the producers had nothing to lose by accepting these terms.

The initial script submitted by Steven stunned producer Sandra Hastie, who commented that it was "the best first script" she had ever read. The show that would eventually be called Press Gang began airing in 1989 and had a highly successful run of five seasons, entirely written by Moffat himself. It won multiple awards during its run including two Baftas for "Best Children's Program."

Continuing Career

While working on Press Gang, Moffat's first marriage came to an unhappy end. The events became fodder for his next series, the comedy Joking Apart. This series, which debuted in 1993, juxtaposed the events at the beginning of a relationship to the events at the end of the same relationship. This series was also critically acclaimed, but failed to attract a large audience. It lasted only two seasons.

Moffat's next series, which began airing in 1997, was called Chalk. However, this series was loved by neither viewers nor critics. It also lasted only two seasons.

In 2000, he created and wrote the series Coupling. Inspired in part by early events in the writer's relationship with his new wife, Sue Virtue, the series was immediately successful, running for four seasons on BBC 2 and earning a following on BBC America as well. American network NBC attempted to capitalize on the success of the series by having Moffat create an American version. But, this series failed to gain traction, running for only four episodes. Moffat would blame network interference for the show's failure.

In 2007, the writer would debut the miniseries Jekyll, an update of The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde.

Doctor Who

Moffat has on several occasions claimed to be a fan of Doctor Who since childhood. He watched a bit of Patrick Troughton's take on the Doctor in the late 1960s, but really became hooked with the start of Jon Pertwee's run in the early 70s. He most often credits his love of the program to the giddy fascination children have with material that scares them.

"I remember going to school on Monday morning," recalled the writer in the series Doctor Who Confidential, "and you'd talk about whether you'd made it through the entirety of Saturday's fear that day. I really do. And I remember thinking "I've made it all the way through those Autons and that was pretty tough..."

In the same program, Moffat would comment that Doctor Who was really the reason he became a television writer in the first place.

His first venture into the world of Who writing was a 1996 prose short story, "Continuity Errors," which was published in Virgin Books Decalog anthology series.

He was able to jump into Who television in 1999. His wife, Sue Virtue, was a co-producer of that year's telethon for the Comic Relief charity. Through that connection Moffat was asked to pen a series of sketches to air during the telethon. He chose to make the series into a Doctor Who parody, called The Curse of the Fatal Death.

When the BBC announced its intention to bring Doctor Who back in 2003, Moffat immediately contacted new show runner Russell T. Davies about the prospect of writing for it. The awards Moffat had earned for his television work (albeit, for comedy projects) earned the writer an easy entry into the program. For the 2005 season, Moffat contributed the Hugo award winning episodes The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances. For the following season, he would earn himself another Hugo with The Girl in the Fireplace. Blink, his 2007 contribution, also ranks among fan favorites. Also in 2007, he penned Time Crash, a seven-minute Doctor Who short for the Children in Need telethon. He has been contracted to write a two-episode story for the program's 2008 season.

On May 20, 2008, the BBC announced that Moffat will be taking over the position of show runner for the 2010 season. Davies will depart the position after the completion of a somewhat brief 2009 season.