How much does Greys Anatomy and Private Practice creator Shonda Rhimes love the British sci-fi show Doctor Who? I feel the two highlights of my past five years are I got to meet (former Who executive producer) Russell Davies and I got to meet the star of (Who spin-off show) Torchwood, John Barrowman, who was in one of our pilots, reveals the prolific TV showrunner. Indeed, an episode from the most recent season of Greys Anatomy featured a Who fan who lost his ear at a fan convention while rushing to get a model TARDIS signed by Davies.

Rhimes talked about her love for the show in last weeks Entertainment Weekly Doctor Who cover story (see above). But she had much, much more to say about the 49-year-old TV institution whose new season debuts on BBC America later this summer as you can read below.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So, are all the writers on Greys Anatomy fans of Doctor Who?SHONDA RHIMES: Were psychotic Doctor Who fans. Im always talking about Doctor Who over there. Even the people who dont watch Doctor Who at Greys know about Doctor Who because its all we talk about in the writers room. When we were doing that episode, it was supposed to be the all-male show, and we were talking about the things that we could never do in an episode that was geared towards the women and one was a comic convention. Then we were like, Well, if were going to do Comic Con, whats really interesting to us? And for me it was Doctor Who. We loved the idea of people fighting over a TARDIS signed by Russell Davies. We wrote it as real fans, which was great.

How did viewers react to that show? It was interesting. There were some viewers who loved it. Some of our guy viewers were like, This is great, this is exciting. And then there were some of our girl viewers who had just never seen Doctor Who and were like, I dont get it. And I would just say, Well, you have to watch it. Because its got all the good stuff in it.

When did you start watching Doctor Who? Id never seen the original, old-timey Doctor Who. Id heard about it but Id never seen it. I probably picked it up around season 2 [after its 2005 relaunch] and then went back and watched season 1 and really loved it and have been an avid fan ever since. I own all the DVDs and I own the books that Russell wrote about it. I got up in arms about Matt Smith [replacing David Tennant] and then fell in love with Matt Smith, just like everybody else.

Image Credit: Craig Sjodin/ABC

So many TV shows have referenced Doctor Who recently. Is it a show which is generally beloved by TV writers.I think it is. I mean if you have any feelings for sci-fi, you know the show and you love it. Im not even a giant sci-fi watcher. I liked Buffy and I liked Angel and I liked Battlestar butI hate to say this because Ill probably get some lettersIve never seen episode of Star Trek. But if you are at all interested in television thats taking chances then, yeah, I think you like it.

Its completely different from anything thats on network television here, or even on cable. Im not even sure it can exist on American television in the way it exists on British television. I think there is a freedom of storytelling and a leap of logic that Russell is willing to take and Steven is willing to take that Im not sure network studios here would get on board with. I think thered be a lot of questions. Doctor Who travels through time? It would just get strange for them.

Steven Moffat told me that he felt one of the big differences between the new Doctor Who and the old one is that the new version is more emotional and is thus more female-friendly.I dont know if its more female-friendly but Steven Moffats Doctor Who feels like its told from Amy Ponds point of view, which is a departure from the way Russell did it. I think its interesting and I think it works. Youre sort of rediscovering the Doctor all over again.

You know Karen Gillans leaving the show, right? I know. Im very upset. When I heard she was leaving I tried to hire her. I think shes really, really talented. But apparently shes doing a movie next, so we couldnt get her.

Read more from the original source:
‘Doctor Who’: ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ creator Shonda Rhimes talks about her ‘psychotic’ love for the Time Lord