Neil Gaiman discusses his recent Doctor Who episode “Nightmare in Silver,” and reveals that the Doctor was originally supposed to travel with a different version of Clara. There are no spoilers in this article!
In a new interview by the Radio Times, Neil Gaiman reveals that when he originally started writing the Doctor Who episode, it was with the Victorian Governess Clara as the intended companion for the Doctor. “The original companion was going to be very much the Victorian Governess we saw at Christmas,” says Gaiman. “We decided they can do more weird stuff if it’s now the contemporary third incarnation so I had to reshape it so it wasn’t the governess.”
Rewriting is a natural part of any writer’s process, regardless of what you’re writing for: Books, TV, movies, etc., so we’re not surprised that Gaiman was asked to rewrite his episode a few times. However, it’s definitely interesting to learn that the original Clara 1.0 was meant to be a Governess because now “Nightmare in Silver” makes so much more sense!
Governess Clara would have had to take the kids along because they were her primary focus, and she was responsible for them more than the contemporary Clara was. This explains why we don’t get an explanation to why the Doctor said yes to the kids, because perhaps before the rewrite the kids had more of a central arc with Victorian Clara.
Gaiman didn’t have a lot to go on when originally writing this script 14 months ago. At the time all he had to base Clara on was the audition piece that Jenna-Louise Coleman had read, so he made due. “He sent me that and said ‘This is what she sounds like.’ But from that you just make her up as you go along.”
On a more interesting note, Gaiman says that he doesn’t have time to write for Doctor Who, due to several factors. “It doesn’t pay very well, but you also have to rewrite it and rewrite it and rewrite it and never get paid, whereas in America you get paid for every rewrite,” Gaiman claims. There are also other possible projects on his plate which make writing for Moffat less intriguing, like “things including movies, novels, an HBO series that I should be doing…”
But never fear, Gaiman isn’t totally turned off from the idea of writing more Doctor Who episodes. “I haven’t done [a Doctor Who] episode set on Earth yet, and I haven’t created a new monster. And there’s part of me that feels… I haven’t scared anybody yet… The Cybermen has a few little scary bits but it’s running at about a 5 of 6. I’d love to a 9.”
We’d love more episodes written by Gaiman, and especially love the idea of him creating a new monster that’ll terrify the adults as well. “Nightmare in Silver” definitely made us smile with the return of the Cybermen but we’re excited to see what Gaiman could possibly hash out next season, assuming he comes back to the writer’s table.