Eccelston's departure

[dalekkiller]

I was looking on another forum and came across this post

Nah, he came onto the show being told it was going to be serious, modern, mystical and all that stuff, and found himself sharing the screen with farting aliens, burping wheelie bins and android Anne Robinsons. Also, allegedly, he was deeply unimpressed by some of the unprofessional shit happening on set (there are various scary-sounding tales, the most famous involving CE's fury at a somewhat cavalier attitude to the safety of extras).

From what Eccleston's said, there was also a personality clash with some of the production team, and while I can see that there may well be some thespy preciousness going on there, I've seen interviews with Christopher Eccleston and I've seen interviews with the Doctor Who production team of the time, and I know whose side I'm on instinctively (i.e. without knowing anything about it, har har).

All I'm saying is, if Eccleston wants nothing more to do with the show (this is assuming he genuinely isn't involved with the 50th in any way), he's probably got a pretty good reason. He seems like a fairly sound bloke to me. A miserable bugger who takes himself too seriously, perhaps, but hey - he's an actor, isn't he?

I did recall reading somewhere that he walked out because of bullying on the set. Has anyone heard anything else about this?

[Rob McCow]

As far as I'm aware nothing is confirmed, which is unsurprising! We can only assume it wasn't a happy departure, for whatever reasons.

I don't buy that Eccleston wasn't in to the 'tone' of the show, there was an interview at the time where he was praising the writing for bringing sophisticated drama to children.

As for the unprofessional stuff - nobody had really attempted a show like Doctor Who in the UK before, it was a huge risk. That first year sounded like there were loads of teething problems, not least of which was the production team getting weeks behind on the first day of filming! The pressure must have been pretty horrible.

Still! I think it worked out for the best in the end. He had a good year, we got the concept of regeneration introduced, it made a great end to the season and his successor was ludicrously popular. A winner all round.

[Dave Tudor]

But did he punch Keith Boak?

[SpaceGandalf]

If it was just about bad stuff happening on set (bullying etc) then why wouldn't he agree to come back for the 50th?

There is a lot of different personnel in the production team now, especially at the top.

A 30 sec cameo to do the hurt regeneration scene would have meant so much to the fans, and he was asked.

I though he was a good doctor but now I just think he sucks!

[Wayne]

Eccleston says stuff:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/d...FB_mirror_main

[MacNimon]

Interesting comments. Nothing particularly surprising there, but it's nice to hear it from Eccleston himself rather than just as fan speculation. I wonder who the three unnamed people were...I seem to remember how he had previously enjoyed working with RTD in a number of projects. Have they ever worked together on anything since?