"So to have some twit who came to a press launch, write up a story in the worst, most ham-fisted English you can imagine, and put it on the internet (is heartbreaking).
Why Steven Moffat is angry with the Doctor Who fans who spoiled the plot
"I just hope that guy never watched my show again, because that's a horrific thing to do."He said the majority of Doctor Who fans were "spoiler-phobes" who refused to go online for fear of finding out any information in advance.
"They want to preserve the surprise," he said. "The tragedy is you have to work hard at that now."
Moffat said he believed that keeping elements of storylines under wraps was an essential element in drama.
"Stories depend on shocking people," he said.
"Stories are the moments that you didn't see coming, that are what live in you and burn in you forever.
"If you are denied those, it's vandalism."
Moffat is such a girl - and precious with it. Vandalism? You c**t. The only tragedy I can see is that you're in unilateral charge of the show.
Also enjoyed the snobbery of 'in the most ham-fisted language you can imagine'. Well, I can imagine some pretty indigestible sausage-shaped verbal tripe. I heard it in the last series. Even the last episode had swathes (appropriate image) of utterly undistinguished dialogue.
I suppose if you make the show into one endless teased-out cliffhanger with random characters popping up left right and centre then you need to keep secrets.
You can hear Moffat's terror in these quotes. He was always an anal plotsmith, carving and weaving intricate and improbable storylines in that sitcom of his - in fact the show was predicated on on it. Now he's doing it in Who. But the stand out moments in the history of the programme prior to his involvement have not been to do with elaborately fret-sawed plots, more to do with good dramatic writing and brilliant production design - something that's been left to slide since the show came back.
There's more money but some of the design work has been appalling. Leaving aside atrocities like the flared-trousered Cybermen, The Silence were a case in point - a pair of rubber gloves and a mask. Like something out of an Ed Wood movie. There hasn't been anything to match the brilliant work of John Friedlander, who sculpted the original Davros head and the Draconians and the Kraals.
Surprise is a part of all writing, but with Moffat you start to think that's all he's got. Hence the unusually aggressive language in the interview. One 'idiot' fan can blow Moffat's load prematurely, like tickling the balls of a wanker in a bukkake movie before the shot's set up.