Speaking to the Daily Beast, Doctor Who executive producer Steven Moffat has made it clear that there has been no reduction in the number of episodes in the next season of Doctor Who and that fans may be seeing more, rather than less, of the programme as it approaches its 50th anniversary.

On the same day that the Radio Times clarified that some of the next 14 episodes will air in 2013, Moffat confirmed that transmission in 2012 will be “moving a bit later… There’s lots of reasons for that that will become clear quite soon…It is certainly not a reduced episode count. Do you think the BBC would really let that happen? With an average audience of 10 million?…Doctor Who’s international profile is huge. It’s never been more successful. You’re not going to reduce a show like this. The opposite is going to happen, in fact.”

Moffat did admit that the show is “an exercise…in clever exploitation of limitations,” pointing out that “You have to know how to write to savage limitations but make it look like a movie by being very clever and judicious with your sets and your locations and your CGI.”

The full interview, with Moffat’s comments on the extra footage that precedes US transmissions of the episodes, can be found here.