Review The Eccleston Doctor

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
I do suspect that Christopher regrets ever e-mailing RTD asking if he could play the Doctor.

I just don't think he understood that once you play the Doctor that role is part of your life forever, perhaps overshadowing all other work.

Also, I was never sure about the buzz cut hair or leather jacket. This felt like an actor imposing his misjudged ideas onto a production team.

I wonder if Chris is still under the delusion that all this Doctor Who stuff will fade away - or whether he is still blissfully unaware that he is going to be asked questions about that thirteen week run on the telly in 2005 for the rest of his life?

Since, in the event, we only had him for one season anyway, could we feasibly have skipped the Christopher Eccleston Doctor and gone straight to the David Tennant Doctor?

Or was Christopher's short tenure essential for establishing the show as a twenty first century success story?
 
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chainsaw_metal1

Member: Rank 8
If we were to skip him, then RTD should have forgone the destruction of Gallifrey. He was a battle weary Doctor, who had seen the horrors of a terrible war, and that's what made his relationship with Rose work so well. He needed someone to bring light into the darkness, and she brought him that hint of humanity that he had lost. We see that in the episode Dalek, where he is willing to shoot a Dalek simply because it's his enemy. And he would be justified in doing so, but as she points out, the Dalek has changed, and in the end, what would that make him? This reshaped him, and allowed for Tennant's Doctor to be more lighthearted. I still wish we could have seen more of him and what he might have done with the role, but in that same vein, maybe one season was just enough to get the character back, and then move on.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Eccleston explains why he left Doctor Who

http://badwilf.com/eccleston-explains-why-he-left-doctor-who/


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“I left Doctor Who because I could not get along with the senior people. I left because of politics. I did not see eye-to-eye with them. I didn’t agree with the way things were being run. I didn’t like the culture that had grown up, around the series. So I left, I felt, over a principle.

“I thought to remain, which would have made me a lot of money and given me huge visibility, the price I would have had to pay was to eat a lot of shit. I’m not being funny about that. I didn’t want to do that and it comes to the art of it, in a way. I feel that if you run your career and– we are vulnerable as actors and we are constantly humiliating ourselves auditioning. But if you allow that to go on, on a grand scale you will lose whatever it is about you and it will be present in your work.

“If you allow your desire to be successful and visible and financially secure – if you allow that to make you throw shades on your parents, on your upbringing, then you’re knackered. You’ve got to keep something back, for yourself, because it’ll be present in your work. A purity or an idealism is essential or you’ll become– you’ve got to have standards, no matter how hard work that is. So it makes it a hard road, really.

“You know, it’s easy to find a job when you’ve got no morals, you’ve got nothing to be compromised, you can go, ‘Yeah, yeah. That doesn’t matter. That director can bully that prop man and I won’t say anything about it’. But then when that director comes to you and says ‘I think you should play it like this’ you’ve surely got to go ‘How can I respect you, when you behave like that?’

“So, that’s why I left. My face didn’t fit and I’m sure they were glad to see the back of me. The important thing is that I succeeded. It was a great part. I loved playing him. I loved connecting with that audience. Because I’ve always acted for adults and then suddenly you’re acting for children, who are far more tasteful; they will not be bullshitted. It’s either good, or it’s bad. They don’t schmooze at after-show parties, with cocktails.”
 

McQualude

Member: Rank 3
Eccleston was a great Doctor and I would like to have seen him stay. Eventually I came to like David Tennant more but not by a lot -- maybe not even more. A man who has lived 900 years and seen and done these things should have a presence, an undercurrent of danger, maybe even someone you want to avoid -- if you really know him. Rose Tyler had no idea about those things and she was fearless. Rose is still my favorite companion.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Eccleston Hated Being In “Thor” & “GI Joe”


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As part of a new profile piece for The Guardian, acclaimed thespian Christopher Eccleston has spoken about some of his past work and, as usual, is brutally honest about his time in those films and shows – quite a few of which he didn’t care for.

Talking about some roles he took primarily for the money, he said he had no love for them – most notably his turns as the villains Destro in the first “G.I. Joe” film and Malekith in the second “Thor” which were both widely panned (the latter often seen as either the worst or second worst MCU film behind only ‘The Incredible Hulk’):

“Working on something like GI Joe was horrendous. I just wanted to cut my throat every day. And Thor? Just a gun in your mouth. Gone in 60 Seconds was a good experience. Nic Cage is a gentleman and fantastic actor. But GI Joe and Thor were… I really paid for being a whore those times.”

He also, understandably, doesn’t look back fondly at his time with “Doctor Who”. Eccleston has previously stated that while he loved the part, the politics surrounding it and the work schedule were a nightmare. He now talks about how his decision to walk away cost him dearly:

“What happened around Doctor Who almost destroyed my career. I gave them a hit show and I left with dignity and then they put me on a blacklist. I was carrying my own insecurities as it was something I had never done before and then I was abandoned, vilified in the tabloid press and blacklisted. I was told by my agent at the time: ‘The BBC regime is against you. You’re going to have to get out of the country and wait for regime change.’ So I went away to America and I kept on working because that’s what my parents instilled in me.”

Eccleston is currently starring on stage in a new version of “Macbeth” for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Christopher Eccleston says Marvel were ‘dishonest’ to him about ‘Thor: 2’ role


Christopher Eccleston has claimed Marvel were “dishonest” to him about his role in Thor: The Dark World. In the 2013 movie, the actor played the part of Malekith – the leader of the Dark Elves. Asked about the prosthetics he was dressed in for the part, he explained to the presenter that he hadn’t been made aware of how long transforming him into Malekith would take before starting work on the film.
 
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Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Marvel were “dishonest” to him about his role in Thor:
he hadn’t been made aware of how long transforming him into Malekith would take before starting work on the film.
I was abandoned, vilified in the tabloid press and blacklisted. I was told by my agent at the time: ‘The BBC regime is against you. You’re going to have to get out of the country and wait for regime change.
Blimey, the BBC - and now Marvel - bridges burned...

I reckon our local theatre company might employ him, unless he has already upset them too. But they only meet every other Thursday. :emoji_confused:

I can't quite make my mind up if he is a man of integrity - or his own worst enemy; an idiot, biting the hands that feed him..

I have to say, if I was getting what Marvel must pay, I would put that make up on quite happily, no matter the hours involved, and then catch up on my sleep when I could.

If he runs out of employers he should perhaps try a factory job? But everybody moaned about the hours and the stupid hairnets they had to wear when I was there. :emoji_nerd:
 
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Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Christopher Eccleston On Becoming "Malekith" In THOR: THE DARK WORLD

Christopher earning his pay for "being a whore" at the time of release....



 

chainsaw_metal1

Member: Rank 8
I know actors often take parts because they need to pay bills, but Eccleston really has lost a lot of my respect. Not for the roles he has taken, but at being quite the whiner about them. I also wonder if some of his recent comments about DW were based on cast members talking about how much more they enjoyed working with Tennant than with him. Maybe if he wasn't such a twat to others, he might get better roles.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
And it still seems not to have registered with him yet that, like it or not, he will have DOCTOR WHO carved on his gravestone, so to speak.

Worse than that, I think it will be the one role that he is primarily remembered for. Everything else he has done - or ever will do - will, with the passage of time - whether it is worthy material or not - become secondary.

That's unfair, perhaps, but if I were him, I would make some kind of mental adjustment to that reality.

All of the previous Doctors have made that adjustment; realising that there is a living to be had and rewards to be reaped - even a career afterlife of sorts, with Big Finish and conventions and the like.

As it is I wouldn't even want to see him at a convention. He would no doubt sulkily lounge in his chair, arms folded, looking resentful and miserable at even being there at all.

Let's hope that the penny drops with him at some point in the years to come, for I fear his bad memories of the role - and his reluctance at being immortalised by the show - are going to get worse and more resentful as time goes on.

When he should, in fact, be happily finishing his latest BIG FINISH season. Which doesn't require prosthetics. :emoji_alien:
 
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Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Eccleston Finally Talks “Doctor Who” Exit


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Christopher Eccleston took on the role of The Doctor for just thirteen episodes in the first season of the 2005 series reboot of “Doctor Who”.

Eccleston famously has had no desire to return to the role due to behind-the-scenes disagreements that took place on the show – mostly with management at the BBC. In the past, he has talked about how he loved playing the character but the work environment didn’t really work for him and he holds animosity toward the production to this day for the way they treated him.

As part of a new interview with the Radio Times, he’s gone further into detail – naming names and explaining what exactly happened that led to his exit from the massive TV series:

“My relationship with my three immediate superiors – the showrunner, the producer and co-producer – broke down irreparably during the first block of filming and it never recovered. They lost trust in me, and I lost faith and trust and belief in them.

Some of my anger about the situation came from my own insecurity. They employed somebody [as the Doctor] who was not a natural light comedian. Billie [Piper], who we know was and is brilliant, was very, very nervous and very, very inexperienced.

So, you had that, and then you had me. Very, very experienced, possibly the most experienced on it, but out of my comfort zone. When I left, I gave my word to [then-showrunner] Russell T Davies that I wouldn’t do anything to damage the show. But they did things to damage me. I didn’t criticise anybody.”


Eccleston adds that he will never have a working relationship with Davies again. Davies of course left “Doctor Who” with the departure of David Tennant


An interview from before he left, but when he surely knew he was going....



 
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Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
  • Christopher Eccleston is to do his first signing at the LFCC in July. Unconfirmed report that he will be charging £95 for his autograph.
Will chase up and confirm or scotch this rumour a.s.a.p.
 
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Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
https://showmastersonline.com/forum...st-guest-announcement-christopher-eccleston/&


Above is their forum discussing it...

Suspiciously, any criticism of such an astounding price of £95 has either been non-existent - or grumbling posts are being deleted. Everyone seems happy and no complaining whatsoever.

Some posters, however, have been warned that their posting rights will be taken away if they "insist on posting the same things" so I suspect that any criticism is being censored.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Also, he will not - apparently - be doing a talk, only popping in for the signings, then vanishing.

The explanation being given for this is that, as he is only there for the Sunday, he won't have time to do both signings and a talk.
 
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