Christopher Eccleston Speaks Up About A Potential Doctor Who Return

Television

A once-beloved Doctor who has spent the last 17 years ignoring the fans and disassociating himself from the fandom is finally returning to the franchise that he so shunned. Christopher Eccleston, the Ninth Doctor in Doctor Who, returned to his iconic role in May 2021 to helm a series of Big Finish audio dramas going through the beginning of 2023. This marked his first involvement with the franchise in many years, and along with this return came an unbecoming begging for money from the fans. After shunning the Doctor Who community for over a decade, Eccleston came back with his hand out, imploring the fans to support his waning acting career without making a single admission of guilt or contrition.

It must be mentioned that the initial divorce from the fandom was due to incredibly trying personal issues that are not contested by the fans. However, long after recovering from those personal issues, no reconciliation was attempted, and no apology for his absence was even hinted at. Fans acknowledge his struggles but wish that he would acknowledge theirs derived from his absence.

Following these less than stellar remarks and decisions, in a recent interview with DoctorWhoTV, Eccleston elaborated on the possibility that he may appear in the upcoming Doctor Who 60^th Anniversary Special. When asked if he would return to the live-action sect of the franchise, Eccleston had this to say:

“I’ve never been a fan of multi-Doctor stories. When I worked on the series, I had really strong ideas about what works and what doesn’t, and I always think that multi-Doctor stories are a bit of a cash-in, and a bit of exploitation. Creatively, they never worked for me. I looked at the script for the 50th anniversary and I felt as soon as I said I wasn’t doing it got better because, well, if I’m not in it, it’s better.”

The multi-Doctor specials may be a convenient way to bring in a broader audience and make additional profits. Despite that, they were always about so much more than that. Even back in 1972, when The Three Doctors released and began the multi-Doctor specials trend, it was about far more than money. These specials were an ideal way to reassure audiences that these Doctors were indeed the same character, showing their stark differences, but more importantly, showing their fundamental unity in heart and spirit.

Multi-Doctor specials also kept old Doctors relevant and provided the opportunity for new fans of the franchise to meet them in the environment that they were comfortable with and entice these new fans to check out the old series. These opportunities offered the writers a wellspring of creativity in which to show the same character interacting with many versions of himself, exploring a deeper aspect of this beloved character. So, the fundamental assertions of Christopher Eccleston’s comments here are broken. This man has been separated from the show, his character, and the fandom for so long he has lost touch with the fundamental spirit of the show. With that understanding gone, it may be more beneficial for him to remain absent from the series.

Christopher Eccleston’s comments carried on after that in his interview with DoctorWhoTV. He continued:

“I mean, the father of us all is William Hartnell, but the greatest Doctor is Jodie Whitaker.”

He started strong, giving all due praise to William Hartnell, the First Doctor. That alone spits in the face of the Jodie Whitaker run because that run was built off removing William Hartnell as the First Doctor, replacing him with hundreds of more diverse Doctors prior to him. But what little goodwill he gained by that was immediately abolished by his assertion that Jodie Whittaker is the greatest Doctor. This goes against the very foundation of the fans’ unity. The majority want him and the other Doctors to return for this special to separate the show from Jodie’s run. So why would they want to hear that he believes she is the best of them? If this is how he truly feels, he has really lost touch with his audience and would only harm the series if he returned.

Eccleston rounded out his comments by saying:

“The Ninth Doctor, in particular, is a one-man band. Definitely. So he doesn’t work with other Doctors. If you want me back, you’d get me on my own.”

The Ninth Doctor may have started out war-torn and broken, but even then, he did not work alone. He immediately sought out a companion to accompany him on his adventures. If Eccleston has forgotten how vital a hand to hold was to the Ninth Doctor, he has truly lost the pulse of the character. That remark, plus the demand to come back alone, speaks towards a vain individual with a broken character that would not contribute to the series in wholly positive ways.

At this point, it seems impossible that he will ever return to the live-action series. For the time being, fans will have to struggle through the final two episodes of Jodie Whittaker before a potential return to form with the return of Russell T. Davies. It is unlikely that the Ninth Doctor in all his glory will ever or can ever be seen again.