Doctor Who series 8: Steven Moffat says this year will feature the biggest changes since 2005

The new series will be starting in August with Peter Capaldi as the new Time Lord

Steven Moffat cast Peter Capaldi as the Doctor to ensure the show did not become "ordinary" (Getty Images)

The new series of Doctor Who will see some of the biggest changes to the show since it returned in 2005, according to showrunner Steven Moffat.

“We haven’t made much of a change to Doctor Who since it came back in 2005. It’s been the same show, it’s maybe amped some things up and lowered some things but it’s basically the same,” Moffat told the audience at the Hay Festival earlier this week.

“I just feel it needs to be a bit more different now and it needs to be surprising again. We’ve got the hang of this, we need to change it,” he added.

Moffat also said that he chose The Thick of It star, Peter Capaldi, to play the 12th incarnation of the Doctor because he wanted to keep the show fresh.

“Can you imagine if we’d cast another handsome yet quirky young man with entertaining hair? It would have just exposed the formula,” he explained, going on to say, “the show would have just become that little bit more ordinary”.

Capaldi’s casting was a departure from the previous actors who have played the Doctor in the new series.

The Scottish actor, 56, is older than his predecessors, Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant and Matt Smith when they took on the role.

But he is not the oldest actor to have played the part, John Hurt was 73 when he played a version of the character last year in the 50th anniversary special The Day of the Doctor.

The episode saw all of the incarnations of the Doctor, including Capaldi, save the Time Lord's home planet of Gallifrey.

Read more: Foxes to guest star and sing in new Doctor Who series
BEN MILLER TO STAR ALONGSIDE PETER CAPALDI AS NEW VILLAIN
THE CRIMSON FIELD'S HERMIONE NORRIS TO GUEST STAR IN DOCTOR WHO
KEELEY HAWES TO STAR ALONGSIDE PETER CAPALDI AND JENNA COLEMAN

When Doctor Who returned in 2005, the Doctor said that he had destroyed Gallifrey to end the disastrous Time War between the Time Lords and the Daleks.

Moffat’s comments could be a possible reference to The Day of the Doctor and the development of this storyline.

Doctor Who originally started in 1963, with William Hartnell, then aged 55, playing the Time Lord, followed by several other actors after him.

The sci-fi series ran until 1989 when it was cancelled by the BBC after falling out of favour with the corporation's bosses and declining ratings.

After several failed attempts to revive the series, including a film in 1996 starring Paul McGann, the show was finally brought back to the small screen in the mid-Noughties.

Last week a teaser trailer was released revealing that Series 8 of Doctor Who will be starting in August, although no specific date was given.