Steven Moffat breaks down his Doctor Who season 14 story’s call back to the very start of his previous showrunnning tenure during Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor era. The writer made his return for Doctor Who season 14 – marking the first time he’s worked on the series since 2017 – with episode 3, “Boom”, which saw the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) step on a landmine, forcing him and companion Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) into a tense, life-or-death situation. Moffat previously served as a writer for the shows revival, becoming showrunner from 2010 to 2017.

With Moffat’s Doctor Who season 14 episode leaving viewers exhilarated, the writer opened up to TV Insider about the return of fish fingers and custard. The nod to the Eleventh Doctor left Moffat looking back, though he admitted he took caution when incorporating the reference. Check out Moffat’s response below:

Paying tribute to myself, it’s rather odious really, isn’t it? It’s 14 years ago. I hadn’t realized that. Suddenly I thought, ‘My God, that’s 14 years ago.’ That’s a very old episode. I was young. I’m afraid I should have controlled it better than that, frankly, but I do like making a few back references. But I’m always very careful about it because if you’ve never seen the show, they still work.

I mean, just the fact that he likes fish fingers and custard is fine. If one day you’ve become so enthralled by Doctor Who you go and check the old ones, you’ll see, yep, he really does. He actually eats it, but you’re careful with that. It’s like the Bond movies, throwing in sly little references that won’t get in the way of anyone watching it. But the people who love it better know that they’ve had a special little nod.

Source: TV Insider