Technically, the first 3D episode was made in 1993: the Children in Need special, Dimensions in Time, which could be viewed through 3D glasses sold by the BBC, the proceeds going to Children in Need.

Dear ting, you cannot extrapolate your experience to that of the general public.

CE had been in Let Him Have It, Jude the Obscure, The Others, Shallow Grave, Second Coming, Our Friends From the North, and, of course, Cracker - and that's off the top of my head. He was very well known and rightly highly respected as an actor. From what I read of him he has a reputation for integrity, and remaining true to his principles.

Doctor Who was an old TV show with a reputation for poor stories and dodgy sets which had been cancelled 15 years previously because no one watched it.

Yes people knew what Daleks were and what the Tardis was - but that doesn't mean they wanted to watch the programme they came from.

RTD must have been very persuasive imo, to get CE to take the part of the Doctor.

Very well put....

Agreed! CE had worked with him before on The Second Coming, though, so he knew what he was capable of writing.

Eccleston said that he emailed Davies when he heard he was writing the new series.

I think "The Second Coming" is the best thing Davies has written. Mind you, you can't go wrong with that cast, can you?

I didn't know that. Obviously CE had respect for RTD's capabilities, then. Still a bit of a risk for him, though, imo.

Was up at the Edinburgh festival this year and heard a few things about this (I know a few stand up comedians and a few of them have contacts in the BBC)

Apparently CE got the gig cos he agreed (in principle) to do two years.... bigger names where asked but only wanted to do one year......

Irritatingly I can't back this up further than that so take it as you will....

He was "fantastic" in 28 Days Later before Who.
I think Dr Who got him noticed in the USA too because he was in the first (and best) season of Heroes as the invisible man.

Interesting, if true. He didn't sign a contract for 2 years, though, seemingly

Completely off topic, and just me wondering - does anyone know did David Tennant sign a contract when he took on the role, and if so how long for?

You're quite right. Especially when at least one person in the UK had never heard of him.


I've read the very same thing - he apparently kept them waiting and waiting and they eventually went ahead and decided to regenerate him.

Very well known to people who happen to watch gritty dramas about depressing northerners does not necessarily equate to very well known to the general public-a lot of people I know had no idea who he was and, beyond Doctor Who, still don't.
Rubbish. That so-called 'reputation' was almost entirely the creation of lazy journalists and schedule filling TV list shows., not people who had actually grown up watching the show.
The huge chunk of the audience who remembered the old series would have watched it regardless of who was in it-they didn't watch it because that-bloke-who-got-killed-in-Cracker was in it.
He's an actor. It was a prestigious job. No persuasion needed.

Hartnell and Troughton were both consummate character actors, well experienced in their craft, long before they took the role. Hartnell being an older actor gave the Doctor gravitas and scientific credibility but also the great likeability which has endured..

However, IMHO the evolution from there to the modern Doctors began with Patrick Troughton, because he made the role his own and put the quirkiness into the character which let the following Doctors play with the part and put their own stamp on it. e.g. Jon Pertwee brought comedy to the role.

I'd opt for Patrick Troughton

Are you sure?

He played it far straighter than most, if not all of them.

Just because the bucolic types you mingle with in rural suffolk don't watch gritty dramas doesn't mean no one else does.

Yes, the reputation was the creation of lazy journalists, but it was a reputation that had stuck, unfortunately.

You and I would have watched it regardless. Of course we would. I suspect a lot of people would have watched it out of curiosity. Having a well known and popular actor was an added incentive, surely?

Why could he not be persuaded, then, to do 2 or 3 series? It would be even more prestigious by then when the show was such a success.

He had his moments, though! Singing in the shower, escaping a hospital - gagged - on a wheelchair, dressing up as a cleaner lady and a milkman... none of the other Docs did that!

(Just remembered Matt Smith had a shower scene in The Lodger!)

It was for me. It made me think "well, they're taking it seriously" and added gravitas to it. A couple of my friends who weren't fans of the classic series gave the first episode a chance solely because of CE but they didn't stick with it because they thought shop dummies were silly enemies. I wasn't sure I'd stick with it until I saw The Unquiet Dead. By then I was hooked again.

It doesn't mean the majority do either, though. And he's not exactly known for his broad range elsewhere, is he?
Because he couldn't cope with the workload, I suspect. And also had issues with the way people were treated on set, if the rumours are to be believed.

Troughton dressed up in a variety of bizarre disguises including a (female) fortune teller in his early stories...

I will have to disagree and say I think the majority of film and/or TV audience (which is the majority of the population) would know CE. (See Facepalmer above).

I agree he's not known for his broad range - perhaps why I wasn't keen on him as the Doctor - not able to encompass comedy and tragedy like, say, David Tennant*.

*I just put that in to annoy you

And, sorry, davey, I seem to have highjacked your thread

That's not the point. The point is that Eccleston was generally thought of much more highly than Doctor Who was at the point of casting.

I didn't know who he was but then again, I was only 13 when he was cast, so I didn't grow up watching much gritty stuff. I was aware of Cracker, though, and I had seen him in '28 Days Later'!

Yeah but less moments than the rest (relative to the number of episodes). I'd suggest that Peter Davison and possibly Paul McGann in the TVM where the only guy's who played it as straight. Patrick Troughton was far more comical than Jon Pertwee

I doubt my opinion will sway Ting on this one. My friends and I are depressing gritty northerners after all

Seems CE is a fan of Matt anyway.
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/cult/s7/...att-smith.html

hear hear



I am being completely serious...unlike some people I don't live in a bubble that assumes the world revoleves around my likes and dislikes and knowlegde....

My Friend, who have I have recently introduced Doctor Who too, when talking about who has starred in it...one didn't know this show even existed...didn't know about Chris or DT, or Matt despite Doctor Who being as huge as it is now....and doesn't even know the likes of Derek Jacobi.....doesn't mean that at the point of telling her all this...none of thooe people, or the show for the matter are not well known by the majority...and well respected in the industry.....

The difference between my friend and you is that she didn't go on about saying "oh I didn't know him so that means no one else did as well" ...she just "oh, never heard of him".....



Aww that is lovely....and your one of the lucky ones to be there throught out its history!!!



Would that two years have included the fact that series one was initially going to be two series? so technically he may have done what he agreed to do.....


No he is well known in America too....what with the films.....and in all fairness, Doctor Who isn't that well known in America even know.....in 2005...it would be even less, so Doctor Who definitely cannot be seen as a spring board to America


As well as films like the Others and Elizabeth and Gone in 60 seconds that had nothing to do with northeners.....so he was well respected actor among Film makers.....
he was also a cult favourite due to films like Shallow Grave.....Due to the controversial stroyline of the Second Coming, his name was banded in the press....

And yes you can say that the whole reputation DOctor Who had pre-2005 was medai genearted....but that doesn't mean people didn't accept it....and it provided a risk when the show was brought back, because the knives were ready.....but the were put away soon enough.

And for someone who doesn't watch northern gritty shows....seems to know a lot about what happend to the character that Chris played




Exactly.....for me, I knew of the Daleks, and something called the Tardis...and a man who dresses werdly...who calls himself Doctor Who....and I thought CE was mad to do something like that, that it was below him.....but I was wrong...and happy to admit it....

Awww that is sweet......