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I Feel Like Nine is The Most Underused Doctor
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I've been thinking about the Ninth Doctor recently, and began to feel a bit sad that there wasn't more for him, especially since he has less material than every other Doctor.
Yes, Eight had a single movie, but he also had loads of comics, audio dramas, and even an entire book series consisting of over seventy novels. Every other Doctor had many of these, both Classic and New, but outside his thirteen episodes, he only has six books, and a small, handful of comics, all of which feature the same companion.
He doesn't really have anything that is distinctly "Ninth Doctor Era", since everything he had, TARDIS, companions, storylines, were all inherited or done again with Ten. Even being the shell-shocked single survivor of a terrible war seems a bit moot with Nine since it became a much more frequent and prominent feature of Ten.
Out of all the Doctors that could have returned for the 50th, it was really disappointing to see that Nine wouldn't return, because it would have been nice to see something NEW with him.
Maybe in ten, twenty years, Big Finish will get the license to use the New Series Doctors, Eccelston will possibly reprise the role of Ninth Doctor, and hopefully will get some material that would be truly unique to his era.
Yes, Eight had a single movie, but he also had loads of comics, audio dramas, and even an entire book series consisting of over seventy novels. Every other Doctor had many of these, both Classic and New, but outside his thirteen episodes, he only has six books, and a small, handful of comics, all of which feature the same companion.
He doesn't really have anything that is distinctly "Ninth Doctor Era", since everything he had, TARDIS, companions, storylines, were all inherited or done again with Ten. Even being the shell-shocked single survivor of a terrible war seems a bit moot with Nine since it became a much more frequent and prominent feature of Ten.
Out of all the Doctors that could have returned for the 50th, it was really disappointing to see that Nine wouldn't return, because it would have been nice to see something NEW with him.
Maybe in ten, twenty years, Big Finish will get the license to use the New Series Doctors, Eccelston will possibly reprise the role of Ninth Doctor, and hopefully will get some material that would be truly unique to his era.
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But he should be commended for relaunching the franchise!
Then again Ten isn't much better, he only managed about 4 years.
It's not clear how long Nine was Nine before the series restarted. I know there's a couple of instances in Rose which might indicate that he'd regenerated fairly recently, but there's also those archive photos which show Nine on the Titanic or at JFK's shooting, so he could have been around for a long time before Rose.
Then again we have the "900 years of phone box travel", and the Doctor telling Rose he is 900 years old - even though those are contradictory statements.
Gah!
Well, there's that scene in Rose when he sees himself in the mirror and comments about his ears and the impression definitelz is that he is seeing that face for the first time. I doubt that he could have traveled around the universe without ever seeing his reflection for too long. What happened in the pics could technically also have happened inbetween episodes of series 1, it's not like we get to see all of the Doctor's stories.
I don't know really. I doubt The Doctor left Rose alone throughout series 1 or that he ever took Rose to the Titanic or JFK, yet he is alone in those pictures. Or minus Rose at any rate.
Yes he could have had those pics taken in his future, but as it's presented those pics seem to indicate that CE has been around for a while. But, the episode contradicts this with the very clear implication that CE is all new (checking his reflection). Sigh.
She could have been the one taking the pictures.
Now there's a time paradox right there
But I doubt it haha
I guess he could have gone off on some other adventures in that time, but it's been a while since I've seen the episode so perhaps I'm missing something vital.
I'd much prefer to see more of Eight. I can't afford any of the audio stories so they only chance I have to get to know Eight is the one Movie he did. I also think Six deserved one more season and a proper regeneration story.
Though it's possible this may have been a hint to a recent regeneration, I always see it as a cheeky rehash of Tom Baker looking in the mirror and later commenting on his ears from his first episode in Robot!
As to his screentime, as has been said, Paul McGann fared far worse despite the audio adventures, fans of the Ninth Doctor should really be grateful for the 13 episodes they did get, at least he wasn't a one-night wonder.
There's a theory that the doctor actually goes away before he comes back at the end of Rose, but decides he really needs someone so he comes back and tells her it travels through time and then she accompanies him.
I don't think it's "definite" that he hasn't seen his face before, and I believe that the scene is played in such a way as to leave that ambiguous.
It's also quite possible that he can't believe the ears he has, and that every time he glances at his reflection he is just, well, taken aback a little!
I do also believe the images that Clive has are supposed to be pre- Rose adventures. So much more could have been played with if there was also someone similar looking to Rose in the same pics!!!
The Eighth Doctor audio stories are sometimes on Radio 4 Extra. That's where I've listened to them - they've been excellent. Nothing on at the moment afaik, but if I see they're on again I'll post on here for anyone who's interested.
(If you don't catch them when they're aired you can catch up on i-player).
The shada webcast is freely available on the BBC website....
Ah yes, but he could just be commenting about his appearance in general and not in a just-regenerated kind of way. That's how I see it.
Also, there are the various tales depicted on the Whoisthedoctor site that show him by himself (as well as a couple with Rose) so they could be before and during Series 1. (Well, It's not like they're going to be after. Well, this is Doctor Who. Series 1b anyone? )
Nine has the advantage of always being remembered as the guy who brought it back, so even if we only got 1 series of him, it will always be special for that reason.
Alas, Chris is another reason why we didn't see much of Nine. True, I like his character arc over his 13 episode run, but there is a little episode coming up in November he could well have taken part in....
Oh well.
The Eighth Doctor Adventures
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/BBC_Eighth_Doctor_Adventures
I've read a number of them, and I they're rather entertaining. And odd.