Doctor Who's most important new arrival is not Matt Smith - it's Steven Moffat

You can divide Doctor Who into eras based on the man at the Tardis controls – but it makes more sense to look who's really steering the programme.

As a Doctor Who's showrunner, Steven Moffat is likely to be less concerned with searing emotional journeys than laughs and scares.

Doctor Who, you may just have heard, returns this Saturday with a new guy at the helm. And we're not talking about Matt Smith here – Steven Moffat, many Who fans' favourite writer, is making his debut as the programme's showrunner. Moffat's appointment in the role previously occupied by Russell T Davies, credited with bringing the show back to life, is as important for Doctor Who's future as Smith's performance. While it's certainly most straightforward to look at eras of Who through the prism of the actor who is playing the Doctor, using the show's producers as your cosmic file-dividers is perhaps more telling. Each has shaped the programme just as much as the man journeying in the Tardis.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2010/mar/31/doctor-who-most-important-arrival