Did He Jump Or...?

[Si Hunt]

Clever, clever.

Si.

[Darren]

In the Confidential introducing Matt Smith, DT says he was cast as the Doctor in the December, four months before Rose aired. So either CE's departure was planned or he walked away from Series 2 shortly after filming for S1 began.
The episodes aren't shot in order, so it's possible Ep13 was in the bag before he quit and that's why the regeneration sequence felt tacked on.

[Jon Masters]

RTD called this a "dummy" scene, but going in to pure speculation mode, if that had perhaps been meant to be the planned ending and Rose was dead/dying, what would the Doctor need to do next? Go to the best hospital in the universe perhaps? One that has a cure for everything? Like the one in New Earth....?

But would that then have been the Christmas episode ? Or woould we have had a Christmas special with Rose acting like a stiff for the episode (insert your own jokes here.....)

[Perry Vale]

But would that then have been the Christmas episode ? Or woould we have had a Christmas special with Rose acting like a stiff for the episode (insert your own jokes here.....)

As I said, it's only speculation, but a Xmas special wasn't a given at the start, so presumably he'd have to have planned ahead for a S2 (if greenlit) that simply continued from S1.

[Jason Thompson]

The Christmas Invasion is quite obviously a standard 45 minute episode (probably called The Sycorax Invasion) with 15 minutes of Christmas stuff tacked on, mostly at the beginning. The stuff with the robot Santas can be excised with no detriment to the plot whatsoever.

So, possible scenario: Series 1 is written assuming Eccleston will stay on, with an ending where Rose is dying, leaving us a cliffhanger into the next series where she is taken to a hospital on New Earth.

Eccleston announces he is quitting, so the end of The Parting of the Ways is rapidly re-written to include a regenration. New Earth doesn't fit as a 'post-regeneration' story, so a new episode 1 for series 2 is written: The Sycorax Invasion.

Now New Earth becomes episode 2 of series 2, and a new reason for the Doctor going to the hospital on New Earth is needed, so the Face of Boe is brought back to send a psychic message to the Doctor to bring him there.

The BBC gives Doctor Who a Christmas special. But the special will have to follow on from the regeneration. Rather than write a whole new post-regeneration, introduce-the-new-Doctor episode, The Sycorax Invasion has some Christmassy bits thrown in to make it suitable for a Christmas Day special slot and to extend it to an hour in length.

Series 2 is now an episode short, so RTD takes the opportunity to write a whole episode setting up the Torchwood spin-off he is planning. This episode is, obviously, Tooth and Claw, which has been described before as being a hasty addition when the Christmas special was announced.

A whole extra episode now has to be included in the shooting schedule. With one episode awaiting the winner of a 'design a monster' contest, RTD finds a perfect opportunity to write an episode that hardly features the Doctor and Rose, thus allowing an extra episode to be shot without exhausting his cast and crew, who are already on a rather full schedule.

[Simon R]

Diabolical ingenuity.

Or could the original Sycorax Invasion have had the 9th Doctor taking Rose Montrose back to the council estate to be with her family in her dying days?

[Perry Vale]

Series 2 is now an episode short, so RTD takes the opportunity to write a whole episode setting up the Torchwood spin-off he is planning.

A spin-off that was announced after having first declared that Captain Jack would be back for S2...

[Logo Polish]

In the Confidential introducing Matt Smith, DT says he was cast as the Doctor in the December, four months before Rose aired. So either CE's departure was planned or he walked away from Series 2 shortly after filming for S1 began.
The episodes aren't shot in order, so it's possible Ep13 was in the bag before he quit and that's why the regeneration sequence felt tacked on.

Bad Wolf/TPOTW was the last story in Series 1 to be recorded though. Eccleston's last day working on it was 5 March 2005. Tennant came in and recorded the regeneration on 21 April 2005, several weeks after every other scene in the story had been recorded. Billie Piper wasn't present for the recording of his sequence in that story either, all of her reactions to him had been recorded in March.

[Darren]

Billie Piper wasn't present for the recording of his sequence in that story either, all of her reactions to him had been recorded in March.

I never knew that. What about the extended sequence for CiN. Was it all re-recorded? I thought it was the remainder of what they didn't show at the end of Ep 13.

[SiHart]

That was filmed in a season 2 session- you can tell because Billie's hair is slightly different.

Si xx

[Logo Polish]

Yes, the CiN scene was recorded on 3 November 2005, only a fortnight before it was broadcast.

[Dino]

He's being interviewed by Graham Norton at the moment.
At the minute they are talking about "The Shadow Line" new series. Going through who's in the cast.
Go on Graham... ask him about Who!

(The rest of this post might be misspelt as my fingers try and keep up)
And... we're off!

No, he's talking about "Heroes". Dum de dum... "None of it made any sense"
RTD reference! A question from someone about how she likes Dr Who but loves The Second Coming. So he's talking about that.
He went after the part of the Doctor when RTD was announced as the writer. He thinks children won't be patronised and a better audience. He decided to play him as a loner.
"No no, my intention was to make that show a success so the next two series could follow. I did what I set out to do."
And now he's talking about the Moff.
"No, never bathe in the same river twice" as to the question about going back. But he'll still give autographs but not 6 because they get sold for profit.

So there goes the 50th Anniversary story then!

[Perry Vale]

He's doing quite a bit of promo for 'The Shadow Line', he was on Front Row this week too.

[Perry Vale]

There's some bloke called Christopher Ecclestone appearing on The One Show tonight. Wonder if Matt & Alex will do one of their "funny" skits where they dress up as Doctor Who?