Doctor Who finale will be best yet, promises writer

Doctor Who's lead writer insisted today that the upcoming series finale is the best episode he has written.

Steven Moffat, who took over as head writer and executive producer of the show last year, said the final episode, The Big Bang, is his favourite story since Doctor Who returned to TV screens in 2005.

But he said he feared he may have lost his job if the debut series was a flop with fans.

Saturday's episode follows a cliff-hanger ending which left The Doctor locked in a prison by a coalition of some of his most-feared nemeses, including Daleks and Cybermen.

While imprisoned, The Doctor's Tardis explodes and his companion Amy Pond is shot dead by a plastic version of her boyfriend.

While the 48-year-old was tight-lipped about exactly how the series would end, he promised fans that they would not be disappointed.

He said: "The Doctor is trapped inside a prison from which even he can't escape. Amy Pond is dead. Rory is plastic. River Song has been blown up in the Tardis, which has been blown up and destroyed every sun in the universe.

"I think any other hero would be in a pickle but I think The Doctor can take it.

"I really do think episode 13, the episode we'll see on Saturday, is a story only Doctor Who can do - no other show could have come close to a story like this. That's what is exciting about it.

"I am absolutely thrilled by how successful it has been.

"I have never done a job that has had so much pressure. It is extraordinary pressure.

"But the pressure lifted in another sense quite recently. When Matt Smith's first episode went out and Matt and Karen became the toast of the nation, I thought: 'well that's a relief'.
Because up until that point I was thinking: 'well I could be a novelist at the end of the year'."

He said the central idea for the fifth series, mysterious cracks appearing all over time and space, came to him when a large crack appeared in his 11-year-old son's bedroom wall.

He said: "There was a crack in Louis's wall, very much the same shape as the one in the series. I just looked at it as I went to bed one night and I thought: ooh, that's good. That's quite scary.

"I went away and I thought: what could the cracks be? And that's where that plot line came from.

"Like all the greatest and most terrifying things in the world, they came from a small child's bedroom."

Moffatt was speaking as he launched a new interactive Doctor Who computer game at the primary school where his sister is head teacher.

He was joined by Cybermen and Daleks, including the man who provides their voices, Nicholas Briggs, in a question and answer session with pupils.

He said the day was "the perfect opportunity to combine work and family".

He went on: "I'm thrilled with the games. We were very, very keen that these weren't some lame spin-off.

"This is a proper Doctor Who adventure. This is for real. This actually happened. And I think that makes it so much more exciting."

His sister, Gillian Penny, said: "Today has been absolutely amazing.

"Cybermen in the gym hall are absolutely fantastic. Doctor Who is one of those concepts that can go anywhere, any time, any place. You can do anything with it.

"For children it hooks them straight away."