Steven Moffat has said that the “fairytale” era of Doctor Who is over and promised that the Series 8 stories will have bigger consequences.

Speaking to SFX he said: “I think it feels more serious. One of the watchwords we have this year is there are consequences for choosing to live like this. It’s not a fairytale. If you have people back home, if you run away it’s going to have an effect on them. And it’s not necessarily always going to be lovely. And does the Doctor make you better? We want to make it feel that these adventures can hurt…”

On Capaldi’s Doctor: “He’s not as immediately approachable and he’s not necessarily looking for your approval. I would like to restore the sense that when he says ‘Wait here, I’ll be back’ you really hope he’ll be back, but you’re not absolutely convinced… What he’s not doing is reassuring you very much.”

On Clara’s relationship with Capaldi’s Doctor: “From a Doctor she could sort of control, because he had a crush on her, she’s landed with a Doctor who barely registers that she’s a girl. They’re great friends and all that but she has to be his human interface with everybody else.”