Steven Moffat’s Flip-Flopping on a Doctor Who/Sherlock Crossover (Wholock)

Steven Moffat has been inconsistent with his thoughts on a Doctor Who/Sherlock crossover.

Depending on when he was asked, you will likely get differing opinions from Steven Moffat on whether or not a Doctor Who/Sherlock crossover, aka “Wholock,” could conceivably be possible. For example, in a 2015 interview with Entertainment Weekly, we have the following exchange:

"EW: Last I checked, you were swayed that a Sherlock and Doctor Who crossover is not a good idea and won’t happen. Any movement on that?Moffat: My instinct—and this is probably from years of doing Doctor Who—is I’m just such a tart. If people want to, we should give it to them. But I got persuaded by Mark, Benedict, [executive producer Sue Vertue] and Martin saying, “Look, it will never be as good as they think it’s going to be,” and then I say, “Yes, but we’ll just bang it out and make it as good.” “Yeah, but you can’t give everybody everything they want all the time.” I’m in the camp of giving them everything they want. But I think they’re sane and right and I’m just a tart."

Sooo… He thinks that it can be done, but also thinks that… it can’t be done? I am quite confused.

Anyway, while sitting on a panel for a press preview for LEGO Dimensions at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con, this happened:

"Questioner: Seeing the Doctor Who characters and Batman together, do you get any ideas about any other detectives you want the Doctor to meet maybe soon?Moffat: Hey, listen. Talk to all the rest, I’m fine with it. My wife, [Mark] Gatiss, [Benedict] Cumberbatch, [Martin] Freeman — I’m fine with it. I’m the nice one. I say yes! It’s the rest of them!Questioner: [jokingly] So, it’s confirmed. Everything is canonical and the Doctor and Sherlock will be in the next game. Perfect.Moffat: You’re assuming I have some power over it."

As you can see, at this point Moffat was all for a crossover, and passed the buck in regards to it not getting made. If he was that enthusiastic, surely he thought that the concept made sense. In our next example, however, he sings a different tune. Here is an excerpt from a September 2015 interview with Collider:

"Collider: Are you surprised that people seem to always want to know about the possibility of a cross-over between Doctor Who and Sherlock?Moffat: That’s a question that I get asked so often, and I can’t keep answering it. It’s all right for Doctor Who. That’s fine. But it would change Sherlock’s life, if he met the Doctor and knew that time travel was possible. He’d have to factor that into every crime he solved. And do we really think that Sherlock Holmes lived through a Dalek invasion? I don’t think he did. I think he’d have mentioned it by now. It’s not going to happen. That’s just the truth of it."

His reasoning for why the crossover would not make sense for Sherlock is perfectly valid — and there is the other issue to consider of Sherlock Holmes being established as a fictional character in the Whoniverse in ‘The Snowmen‘ — but this is Doctor Who that we are talking about here. It may not make sense for the “real” Sherlock to encounter the “real” Doctor, but what if one or even both of them was not “real”?

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Just look at what Doctor Who did with fictional characters in ‘The Mind Robber‘ and ‘The Robot of Sherwood.’ Also, we have previously mentioned how excellent it would be to use a holodeck as a nod to Star Trek: The Next Generation and their use of the Moriarty character. And considering Sherlock‘s ‘The Abominable Bride,’ that show does not seem to be shy about playing with reality, either. So, there certainly are ways, even beyond our suggestions. The writers just need to get creative. They could even throw in the Paternoster Gang to make things extra interesting.

The interview continues with this question:

"Collider: What do you think they’d each think of each other?Moffat: I suspect it’s a bit like when the Doctors meet. It’s fantastic, at the beginning, and then you think, “What the hell am I going to do with three of the bastards?” It’s just weird. You don’t really need more than one person like that in a show."

I can imagine that such an interaction would be quite challenging for a writer, but it’s not like it hasn’t been done well multiples times before. In a meeting of the Doctor and Sherlock, there is both dramatic and comedic gold to be had for someone who is willing to dig it up.

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Next: Vastra as a Detective May Be Explainable

Moffat is entitled to change his opinion, and I don’t blame him for being tired of the question. All of this back and forth, however, seems silly. It’s honestly not all that important to me personally if they make Wholock or not. It would be quite fun, though. Alas, it seems unlikely that we will ever get to see it on television, but Big Finish thought that a Doctor/Sherlock Holmes adventure was good enough for them when they recently produced the audio drama ‘All-Consuming Fire.’ Just sayin’.