Madame Vastra Spin-Off

Think a Victorian Silurian spin-off from Doctor Who sounds like a good idea? Steven Moffat agrees

Did you watch Doctor Who ’s mid-series finale “A Good Man Goes To War” and sense some serious spin-off potential in Victorian lady-lizard Madame Vastra and her katana-twirling maidservant Jenny?

You weren’t alone.

“I instantly pitched it to Ben Stephenson [Controller, Drama Commissioning],” showrunner Steven Moffat exclusively tells SFX . “He just said ‘…Yes!’. And then I said ‘I obviously don’t have time to do this…’ [laughs].”

But our screens may not have seen the last of the sapphically-charged 19 th Century investigators.

“I think I might revisit them,” reveals Moffat. “They were great fun to write. Obviously the first person to think about a spin-off was me, when I was writing ‘A Good Man Goes To War’… A Victorian Silurian? Her lesbian maid? Come on!

“I was pleased by the reaction to them, but not surprised. They really cut through as characters, given how little screentime they had. I certainly wouldn’t be averse to them returning. It’s just a thing that worked, isn’t it? I love that Victorian setting, and having kicked it out of Sherlock Holmes I can always kick it in somewhere else!”

Nick Setchfield
Editor-at-Large, SFX Magazine

Nick Setchfield is the Editor-at-Large for SFX Magazine, writing features, reviews, interviews, and more for the monthly issues. However, he is also a freelance journalist and author with Titan Books. His original novels are called The War in the Dark, and The Spider Dance. He's also written a book on James Bond called Mission Statements.