Peter Moffatt was a dependable television director with a particular care for performance. We value the practical skill in his Doctor Who work, though the case for him as an innovator is harder to make.
Fi1m perspective
In State of Decay (1980), the vampires move with a balletic formality while the scientists and peasants behave naturally. Moffatt makes the difference in performance do some of the work of making the threat strange. We found the contrast unsettling because the ordinary human behaviour makes those carefully arranged movements seem less human. It is a small, specific directing choice, and a better reason to remember him than the number of familiar programmes on his CV.
Before Doctor Who, Moffatt had worked with John Nathan-Turner on the veterinary series All Creatures Great and Small (1978). Nathan-Turner was his producer on Doctor Who, and Peter Davison was an actor he directed in both programmes. Moffatt's six Doctor Who serials, made between 1980 and 1985, included The Five Doctors (1983) and The Twin Dilemma (1984). The former brought multiple Doctors together; the latter introduced Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor. These assignments required him to manage reunions and changes of leading actor within an established programme.
Our affection for Doctor Who (1963) comes with a reservation about its stubborn pacing, but the actors keep making its absurd situations matter. That helps explain what we value in Moffatt, although our enthusiasm for the programme is not a verdict on each of his six serials. His reputation as a craftsman seems fair: there is specific evidence of care with actors, and less reason to claim he remade the programmes he joined. His reliable handling of the complicated The Five Doctors is worth recognising without turning it into a claim for invention.
Outside the Doctor's travels, the work continued with EastEnders (1986) and further episodes of All Creatures Great and Small through 1988. Soap and rural drama sat alongside science fiction in a career that did not depend on sticking to one genre. For a first look, choose State of Decay and watch what happens when the monsters and the people are allowed to behave differently.
Biography
Peter Moffatt (15 April 1922 – 21 October 2007) was an English television director. He began his career as an actor in repertory theatre after the Second World War before moving into directing in the 1960s.
His credits include episodes of Crane (1963), All Creatures Great and Small (1978), The Gentle Touch (1980), Juliet Bravo (1980–1982) and EastEnders (1986). For Doctor Who (1963) he directed the serials State of Decay (1980), The Visitation (1982), Mawdryn Undead (1983), The Five Doctors (1983), The Twin Dilemma (1984) and The Two Doctors (1985).
Moffatt was married to the actress and director Joan Kemp-Welch from 1959 until her death in 1999.
