Doctor Who: 10 Creepiest Corners Of Steven Moffat’s Mind

10. Famous Figures From French History Are Being Stalked By Clockwork Robots From The Future...

The next time you encounter a child who believes that there is something under the bed; don€™t be so quick to laugh the notion off, especially if the kid happens to be a noted historical figure from 18th Century France. In the Second Series episode The Girl In The Fireplace, Mr. Moffat made the (admittedly unlikely) suggestion that clockwork robots from the future are using mirrors to stalk famous figures from French history (well, at least one of them, anyway). In one particularly spine tingling scene, the automaton in question was actually shown to be hiding under the bed of a young Madame De Pompadour. Throughout her childhood and into her adult life, Pompadour found herself constantly troubled by the recurring robotic assailants (that were planning to harvest her brain in order to repair their own damaged spacecraft - just in case you missed the episode and wondered what possible motivation they may have had). The ship, adrift in deep space and (from our perspective at least) many, many years into the future, had already been infused with the body parts of its fallen crew, its circuits and on-board computers freely intermingling with the exposed vital organs of the deceased. So, in Moffat€™s mind, it is entirely logical that a cybernetic spaceship from the future, crewed by half-crazed surgically fixated clockwork robots, is screwing about with earth€™s history, even as you read this sentence.