Interview with Eccleston in which he says that it was "tragic that I didn't play him for longer" and that he believes that his performance would have improved in series 2.


http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2016-...who-for-longer

He's someone who I do wonder what he could have done had he stayed longer, especially since series 1 was so good. (Though being a big 10th doctor fan I'm glad we got him when we did and for as many years)


Regarding playing the role longer though, I'm not one of those who act like he should have been forced to appear in the 50th, but it does make me wonder, why, if his only reason for not doing the second series was due to clashes with the production team at the time, why he didn't ultimately want to do the 50th after he'd had regrets about how short his time was.

From what I recall, his reason(s) for not doing the 50th were something along the lines "get me a script for X date" and nothing materialised and he didn't pursue it. He definitely had initial meetings about it.

The way I heard it, he was intent on not doing it from the start, but then had a meeting with Moffat purely out of courtesy, and was almost talked around, but then ultimately passed, which may have been due to lack of script or something else, but either way, it still means that initially, and then ultimately he was against the idea, which strikes me as odd with what he is saying now.

I wonder if it's maybe that he's gradually mellowing more and more and would maybe agree to appear if he was asked a few years down the line.

Maybe he would be open to doing a Big Finish audio?

My favourite doctor who.

He put on that jacket and owned it.

With Billy Piper.. magical times.

I heard that he didn't feel the 50th offered any character development - which of course was true as he would have been playing an earlier version of the 9th Doctor.

I loved season 1 and liked the 9th Doctor. But I LOVE the 10th Doctor so I struggle to feel sad that Ecclestone quit after one season.

This is a really great interview with Chris, and I think it's pretty good of him to keep talking about the Doctor and that first series, despite being asked about it a million times...!

A couple of new things he said there, that he watched his performance back and was planning on how he was gonna improve the way he played the Doctor in series 2, particularly the comedy side of it. So he really did think he was gonna do series 2 at some stage. He also basically describes series 1 as a disaster of a production (something that we kind of gather, despite it never being publically acknowledged by anyone other than Chris).

It would have been interesting in the vein of all those who complain about Tennant being more lighthearted, and having romance storylines, yet say Eccleston was great, to have seen Eccleston in series 2, being lighthearted and having that romance storyline.

Would it have changed those people's minds on Eccleston I wonder?. What I'm getting at is, with the people who dislike Tennants doctor, was it his first series romantic tinged storyline itself that made those people dislike Tennant (since that's all they seem to moan about) or was it really just Tennant's doctor in general, and would they have reacted differently with Eccleston in that same arc, playing it just as lighthearted as Tennant as he is clearly saying he planned to do.

Its a shame RTD didnt tie him down to a 3 year contract.

I love Chris if I ever see him I'm just gonna give him one big hug, But I just want to see something pay tribute to his Doctor. I thought it would've been amazing to have the Ninth as the Metacrises Doctor in Journey's End. Wish Christopher did Season 2 and see Rose's relationship with the same face Doctor she first met, it would be interesting to see how'd she react if Nine stayed on Longer and their relationship grew, and he suddenly changes.

Granted we'd have to sacrifice the magnificence of Tennant who I also loved, for the first few seasons. What do you think if you could rewrite it would you keep Tennant or keep Chris?

Regrets are like belly buttons CE, everybodys got one.

I think it's a shame, I reckon I would have enjoyed the second series more with Eccleston in the role. Apart from personally being more comfortable with him in the role, RTD seemed to have a much better hold of his Doctor than he did Tennant's, where he just seemed to go off the rails, and Eccleston had a lot more chemistry with Billie Piper in my opinion.

Of course, if the romance between him and Rose continued that still would have bothered me, but a lot went wrong for me when Tennant's Doctor was introduced, and that's not due to his excellent acting.

I think it's more that he had to get out and wouldn't have changed that rather than regretting not staying. He has said on a few occasions that the behinfd the scenes problems made him realise he HAD to go and wouldn't stay.

Obviously he would have loved to have stayed but it just wasn't feasible for him.

I'm absolutely totally and completely delighted that Eccleston went as soon as he did. Sad? You must be joking!

Imagine if he'd stayed and we hadn't had Tennant as 10th Doctor? Terrifying. makes me shudder with horror.

Here's hoping that he decides to return to the show even for a cameo.

60th Anniversary?

Anything can happen in Doctor Who.

I don't have a belly button (I had one but due to a botched op it got infected and had to be removed)

I remember it was announced he had quit Doctor Who after only one episode of season one had been shown (Rose). So it was strange getting to know this new incarnation of the Doctor when he'd be gone in just a few episodes. I was really sad at the time . . . until that final scene at the end of "The Parting of the Ways". David Tennant won me over in just seconds. Seconds!

Does anyone else (like me) firmly hope/believe that we'll get to see both Chris Ecclestone & Paul McGann in a future episode?

Regardless of what's been said (it'll never happen, etc) do we dare to dream???

There's no reason why Tennant wouldn't have been the doctor after Eccleston's second series. It's not as if Tennant was a big star at the time.

Ideally, Eccleston would have done the 2005 Christmas Special and a second series, before regenerating into Tennant's 10th Doctor.

Then we'd have had three successive series from Tennant (2007-2009), culminating in his regeneration in the 2009 Christmas Special, rather than the infamous 'gap' year and mixed quality specials.

Who knows, with casting happening at a different time from what it did, and Russell in a different mood, who are we to say he would have definitely picked the same person.

For me, I love what we had with Tennant, but am curious in how Eccleston would have developed in a second series.

Basically, if someone said to me, I could change time so that Eccleston did a second series, but that Tennants series afterwards happened exactly as they did, I'd say yes, but if someone said that I could change time so that Eccleston had a second series but it meant that Tennant still left when he did and had a series less, i'd say no thanks.

With the likelihood that in reality a second series of Eccleston would have likely meant the latter (a series less of Tennant) than the former, then ultimately I'm glad things worked out as they did, and we got as much Tennant as was possible.

Somewhere out there in a Parallel universe The Ninth Doctor didn't regenerate After being dragged to The Gamestation, and Tennant wasn't cast as the Tenth Doctor and Rose and The Doctor didn't get separated at Torchwood Tower, Canary Wharf and Donna wasn't transported to The TARDIS on her wedding day and The Daleks won The Invasion of '09 *shivers*

Nowhere in that article does he say he regrets his decision to leave.

He implies that it is a shame circumstances were such as they were that he didn't play the character for longer. That is not the same as regretting the decision he made to not play the character for a second series.

This is the problem with the Internet... anyone can type anything and there is no filter for things written by people with lower levels of reading comprehension. And now many people will respond to what you wrote as if it is an accurate representation of what Christopher Ecclestone said...

That last part is basically Turn Left.

That's easy to say in hindsight, but no one knew what a success the show was going to be. Can you imagine someone having to be bought out of a 3 year contract with the Beeb because a show was cancelled after 1 series? The Daily Mail would have wet themselves with delight at the mileage they would have got out of that one!

That's an interesting point. He would have, of course, been able to develop the character but in reverse. We met 9 as a battle hardened at the point of softening from the first episode. What would have been awesome was if we'd seen the truly battle hardened and ruthless 9 who took out the timelords and daleks and his altercations with his future angsty remorseful future selves.

War Doctor was good, but he wasn't the ruthless doctor we were expecting the time war to have produced.