Daleks no more???

AFTER decades of driving terrified Doctor Who fans into hiding behind the sofa, it looks as if the Daleks will finally be exterminated.
The newly appointed producer of the cult BBC show has announced that he will be taking a fresh approach rather than
bringing back old friends, foes and Doctors as many viewers want.
Steven Moffat said: “Fans always look back, but shows have to look forward.
“There’s a brand new audience of kids for Doctor Who each year and they have to think it’s their programme, not some relic that belongs to their parents.”
His clear-out may include the Doctor’s assistant Rose Tyler, played by Billie Piper, who was last seen starting a new life with a more passionate clone of the Time Lord.
Steven, 46, succeeds Russell T Davies as the show’s producer after writing several recent episodes.
He said: “I’m as obsessed with the show’s past as many in the audience, but I have to resist my impulse and keep everything fresh.”
Steven was speaking in San Diego, California, where he is making his first public appearance as the new Doctor Who chief in front of thousands of science
fiction fans at the city’s Comic-Con film and television festival.
“I could choose to feel pressure, but why bother?” he said. “I’m incredibly excited to work on Doctor Who which, like Sherlock Holmes or James Bond, is one of those mighty British institutions.”
Many fans had hoped Steven would write an episode featuring actors who have been past Doctors or reintroduce some former assistants – but they are likely to be out of luck.
Steven added: “You’ve got to be careful you don’t make the universe seem like it’s got about seven people in it, all about to be exterminated by the Daleks. You want it to be a big, wide-ranging universe.”
His Doctor Who could be less tragic than some earlier series. Nobody has died from anything but old age in the episodes he wrote, while those written by Russell T Davies have often had a high body count.
But the new boss laughed: “It wasn’t a case of Russell sitting there wondering who he was going to off next. There’s no death agenda for either of us.”
He refuses to be drawn on whether the wildly popular David Tennant will stay on as Doctor. His cagey response is: “Wait and see.”
David is set to appear in four specials in 2009 and while the BBC are keen to keep him, his future in the role after that is still in doubt.
Steven, who wrote the hit sitcom Coupling and the forthcoming Tintin film for director Steven Spielberg, is committed to the show for years to come.
He said: “Television shows aren’t democracies – you don’t vote on artistic ideas. But this isn’t a case of me saying I must enforce my vision and all other ideas must be crushed beneath my heel. It won’t be a dictatorship.”