“Doctor Who Author Responds to Rumors of Beloved Character’s Return: ‘Every Great Thing Comes from Budget Cuts'”

If you have been hoping to see Steph de Whalley’s Anita again from the last Doctor Who Christmas special, then Steven Moffat has just tossed a sonic screwdriver into the scenario.

The Doctor Who writer has made it evident that the Sandringham Hotel manager in ‘Joy to the World’ was indeed a one-time role. Therefore, we shouldn’t expect to see her again anytime soon (or ever, considering how these things operate).

In conversation with Radio Times, Moffat admitted, “She is, like all remarkable elements in Doctor Who, and you can trust me on this because I understand my Doctor Who facts – all notable things in Doctor Who stem from a budget constraint.”

As Moffat quickly noted, scaling back on expenses for the Time Lord’s escapades is not always a new phenomenon. “The spaceship resembles a phone box. Why? Due to budget constraints. That’s precisely what Anita was – we couldn’t afford to have Ncuti Gatwa travel the globe in search of another hotel.”

Even though he may be the bearer of unfortunate news, Moffat still commended Whalley’s role as a companion to Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor along with Nicola Coughlan in the ninth Christmas Special. The episode showcased Anita and the Doctor spending a year together in the unique venue, the Time Hotel. “So we transformed it into a little, not exactly a romance, but a sort of quasi-romance with Anita,” Moffat clarified. “So, while Anita is a result of budget constraints, in Doctor Who terms, that means Anita is one o