At the first preview screening of Twice Upon a Time, both Peter Capaldi and Steven Moffat shared some powerful words to Doctor Who cast, crew and fans. You can read a transcription of each below.

Peter Capaldi:

“For me, it’s been an amazing trip. I went to the end of time, I met fantastical creatures… and I blew them up. But now it’s over. Time I was off.”

“I’d like to thank everyone who loves the show for sharing it with me, and sharing the boundless generosity of spirit that it embodies. I wish Jodie and the new TARDIS team all the best for the future, and the past, and everything inbetween, and look forward to watching them journey to new and wonderful places.

“I’d like to thank all my friends on Doctor Who for sharing their good humour, talent and life with me over the last four years. And particularly, Steven Moffat, who has brought so much to Doctor Who, even more than might be realised today, but will be seen clearly in the future.

Steven Moffat:

“I’m just going to say it, because I don’t ever say it, but now I’m leaving I’ll just say it… it is actually the greatest television show ever made. And I’m going to prove it to you.

“There are probably press here who are saying, “No, it’s The Wire!” or something. No, it’s not! It’s not The Wire. It’s not I, Claudius. It’s not The Office. It’s not even Blue Planet. It is Doctor Who… and I’m gonna prove to whoever is doubting me the hardest that they’re wrong to doubt me.

“How do you measure greatness? Do you measure it by ratings? Do you measure it by reviews? Christ, no, of course you don’t.

“Do you measure by perfection? Is Doctor Who perfect every week? No, it’s not. It really isn’t. It can’t be, because every episode of Doctor Who is an experiment and if you experiment every single week, sometimes you get a faceful of soot and you’re blinking the smoke away and you look a bit ridiculous.

“That happens. Perfection is the refinement of boredom – it’s doing the same thing all the time, perfectly. Doctor Who, by always being different, can never be perfect.

“So how do we measure its greatness? There are people who became writers because of Doctor Who. Loads of them. There are people who became artists because of Doctor Who. There are people who became actors because of Doctor Who… and two of them have played the Doctor!

“There are people, believe it or not, who have become scientists because of Doctor Who – and that seems improbable given that we said the moon was an egg. You’d think they’d have a problem with it!

“People become scientists, people change their view of the world and what they’re capable of, because of a silly show about a man who travels around in time and space in a police box.

“So never mind the reviews, never mind the ratings, never mind any of that. Countless scientists, the musicians, the scholars, the writers, the directors, the actors who became what they are because of this show… count, as you might say, the hearts that beat a little faster because of Doctor Who.

“I do not even know what is in second place, but without doubt, and by that most important measure, Doctor Who is the greatest television series ever made.”