Doctor Who director “would love” to return for Russell T Davies’s second era

He continued: "I was with [Russell] last night and someone asked the exact same question, ‘Oh, does this mean you're going to do Doctor Who together?’ and I said, ‘No,’ and you could tell nobody believed a word I was saying, but it's true. I grew up with Doctor Who, hence why I would do it again."

He spoke about the impact of Doctor Who on his own career, explaining: "I grew up with that show, and I'm here because of that show. And from that, I just span out into all kinds of science fiction. I mean, my favourite science fiction is like The Last of Us where it's not massive, it's like, you know, just a twist of fate that becomes our all of our fates, all of our lives. It's a quick little tiny change.

"And that's pure science fiction, really, as opposed to science fantasy, like Star Wars, or whatever else, because then it becomes epic and big and wonderful but the humanity is sometimes lost."

His recent work paired with his longstanding love of Doctor Who is enough to inspire the director to take on more sci-fi projects, with him stating: "So I will definitely do – [if] this is an open call to do more sci-fi, then I would definitely say yes. There's a few projects that I have, you know, around, one of which is pure sci-fi. But you know, it's not mine yet.

"But maybe one day. There’s a tease for you."

For now, Hoar's talents are clearly on display in episode 3 of The Last of Us, which has been a HBO series faithful to the original game but has deviated in the most recent instalment entitled Long, Long Time. The result is a moving episode telling the love story of two middle-aged men, played by Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett.

Speaking about the episode, Hoar also revealed that the cast, crew and showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann found the latest instalment highly emotional.

He said at a Q&A: "Quite honestly, Craig was a wreck through episode 3 because his heart is on his sleeve. And that's how he sees the world. That's how he tells stories. And I think it would never have worked for him to do it any other way.

"And the game is like that, people might not think it is but honestly, you've never played a game like it - it's so heartfelt. As I said, I had to stop because it was too much to do it in one sitting. It was months in between, before I'd go back and go and try and finish [the game]."

Additional reporting by Louise Griffin.

The Last of Us is exclusively available on Sky Atlantic and streaming service NOW. Doctor Who is available to stream on BBC iPlayer with episodes of the classic series also available on BritBox – you can sign up for a 7-day free trial here.

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