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Gatiss has been a key player in the revived series of Doctor Who from the start, both as a recurring writer and actor. A lifelong fan of the original series, his earliest published fiction came from the Virgin New Adventures series of Doctor Who novels in the early 1990s (a series that would produce a number of writers for the reborn TV show). In the twelve years since Doctor Who's return, Gatiss has penned nine episodes for four different doctors, largely specialising in historic settings.

His first, The Unquiet Dead, was the third episode of the revived series, the first not to be written by showrunner Russell T. Davies and the first time the Ninth Doctor and companion Rose travelled into the past. A festive Victorian story of ghostly creatures in gas lamps starring Simon Callow's Charles Dickens, The Unquiet Dead helped to establish New Who as a time travel adventure worthy of the attention of twenty-first century audiences.

Gatiss' work on the show since that enjoyable first episode has been more hit and miss. His one episode for David Tennant, The Idiot's Lantern had a fun fifties setting and a good monster in Maureen Lipman's face-stealing creature assuming the identity of a period TV announcer. On the other hand, his first episode for Matt Smith, Victory Of The Daleks, received a lot of backlash for debuting the fascist pepper pots' chunky, primary coloured redesign.

In recent years, meanwhile, Gatiss has attempted, with mixed results, to revive the Martian Ice Warriors as a recurring villain.

Overall, Gatiss has proved a reliable writer of light-hearted adventures for various doctors, but perhaps without the enduring staying power of some of the revived series' best episodes.