You can stop holding your breath now, fellow Whovians and general Doctor Who fans. Yes, you can. Because Steven Moffat just made it clear he'll never bring back certain classic Who characters we've all been waiting for, such as the Rani and the Meddling Monk. Question is—why?

According to Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat, characters such as the Rani (a renegade Time Lady who was once "pals" with the Doctor and the Master when they were young) and the Meddling Monk (a renegade Time Lord and former friend of the young Doctor on Gallifrey who enjoyed meddling with history for his own selfish ends) would be lost on casual viewers.

Contrary to everyone's favorite psycho Time Lord, the Master, that is.

Moffat explained the Master's exception in the latest issue of SFX magazine :

"Even people who don't know the past very well get thrilled by the idea that you've brought something back. Everyone got very excited—and by everyone I mean real people—when the Master came back, even though most people could barely remember him.

Then Moffat added:

"It has to be self-explanatory, it has to be free-standing, it has to be clear for everybody. If I did the Meddling Monk teaming up with Mavic Chen's daughter and the Krotons then yeah, that's too much, because no one gives a toss. "People always ask me "Do you want to bring back the Rani?" No one knows who the Rani is. They all know who the Master is, they know Daleks, they probably know who Davros is, but they don't know who the Rani is, so there's no point in bringing her back. If there's a line it's probably somewhere there.""

Do you guys agree with Steven Moffat here? Do you think characters such as the Rani and the Meddling Monk would really be lost on "casual" viewers? Isn't it weird that people keep asking Moffat to bring back the Rani if, as he claims, no one knows who she is?

(via Doctor Who TV)