Despite various discussions online regarding the number of episodes that we may have lost as a result of the split seasons of Doctor Who, Steven Moffat has confirmed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that Matt Smith’s “Plan A” was “we would do three series and then he would do the 50th and then he’d do Christmas.”

This would seem to fly in the face of the idea of one complete season per year – three seasons would have been 2010, 2011 and 2012 under the original broadcast schedule established when the show returned in 2005 – but makes sense in hindsight of the division, particularly of series 7, across autumn 2012 to summer 2013.

Moffat has also confirmed that he did try to persuade Smith to do a further season, but “he said that he’d come very close to doing another series but it was the same argument: ‘If I do another series, I think I might do two more series, or three more series. I think I might never leave.'”

The head writer also stated that the 50th anniversary special runs “certainly well over an hour” and that Hurt’s Doctor is “a whole new Doctor played by a proper screen legend.”

The whole interview can be read here