Neil Gaiman Reveals Why Secrets Don’t Leak Out Of The Doctor Who Office


Neil Gaiman has written a Cyberman-centric episode in the upcoming series of Doctor Who, but like most things Who-related, very little is known about it. During a talk at the Sydney Writer’s Festival on Friday night, Gaiman made it clear why this is so — as well as letting slip a tiny new secret.

During the Q&A section of the evening, a question came up relating to the episode, asking very specific questions about the episode.

Gaiman pondered on this for a while before stating that:

“Steven Moffat, who is the current man behind Doctor Who…the showrunner, the impressario, the God…has trained squads of Ninja Assassins. Probably there are a couple of people in this audience tonight who are plants.If I actually got to the point of saying ‘OK, I will tell you what you want to know’…something would happen. And then I would crumble. Smoking gently, probably. A mysterious black figure would exit and next be seen in Cardiff, saying ‘Mission accomplished’. Steven Moffat would go ‘Good. And he didn’t say anything?’ And the figure would say ‘No’. I tell you NOTHING.”

Gaiman was content to note that it’s not that far away before his episode airs — May 11 in the UK, but it’s not clear here when it’ll officially be screened — but did let one tiny new secret slip out. Apparently, his Cyberman story will contain porridge.

Image: Alex Kidman