Neil Gaiman’s Doctor Who Episode is a “Game-Changer”

Spaceship graveyard? The Doctor in love? “Game-changer”, you say? Go on …

In case you hadn’t heard, Neil Gaiman wrote an episode for the new season of Doctor Who. The news, naturally, caused seizures of joy throughout the fan community of both the show and the writer, and now Gaiman has started talking a little about what the episode will be like.

According to Gaiman, the episode will be a “game-changer” for the series. Also, the story takes place in a spaceship graveyard where The Doctor will, apparently, fall in love. When asked to clarify how his episode will be a game-changer, Gaiman explained:

I think any good Doctor Who episode is going to make you see the show in a whole new way. Because the glorious thing about Doctor Who is, everything that works adds a little bit to the mythos. And you know, some of the shows that have added the most to the mythos didn’t actually change anything. They were things like ‘City of Death,’ where you just go, ‘No, this actually… Here is the platonic ideal.’ ‘Blink.’ ‘Girl in the Fireplace.’ It’s a perfect Doctor Who episode. The fact that the Doctor falls in love isn’t what makes it work.

And so for my episode, I hoped that what will work is kids watching it, hiding behind cushions and hiding behind the sofa. And I hope it’ll be the equivalent of what my daughter did when she was watching one of the episodes where she wound up quietly, silently soaking my T-shirt with tears while she was watching. I would like it if, somewhere, maybe a kid will do that. That’s, I think, the most important stuff that you do to the mythos, which is that you give somebody something glorious to remember and take with them.”

The sixth season starts this week, and I couldn’t be more excited for Mr. Gaiman’s episode. On top of that, Mark Sheppard (better known as Badger in Firefly) is scheduled to appear in for a few episodes, as will the delightful/dangerous character River Song (whose origins will supposedly be explained a bit more). It’s time to set your DVRs, folks.

Source: io9