Ah, well I retract, but I'm sure that was his stated position at one time.
FTA-TV Doctor Who
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AdelaideGT
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Can't recall him ever saying it, but he did claim in 2018 that the BBC had 'put him on a blacklist' after Doctor Who.
Mind you he's back-tracked on a number of his statements in the past.
He also said back in 2017 he would not do conventions as he preferred to 'earn his living by acting'...
Elmer_Judd
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I want to hear what he really thinks about Johnny 'get my junk out' Barrowman, even before the flashing scandal came out last year (which i had known about for years btw) a big reason Eccleston quit was because of Barrowman's lewd and unprofessional behaviour apparently (according to multiple sources over the years)
Cannot believe there are fans out there who still defend JB and want him back in the show.
Going by his social media posts, he is a narracist who thinks he did nothing wrong.
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Just had a look back at BBC work Eccleston has done since leaving Doctor Who (and I may have missed some):
2008 BBC Four - World Cinema Show
2010 BBC - Lennon Naked
2010 BBC - Accused
2011 BBC Two - The Shadow Line
2011 BBC One - The Borrowers
2012 BBC One - Blackout
2014 BBC Four - Brian Pern
2016 BBC - The A Word
2018 BBC - Macbeth
2018 BBC Two - King Lear
2018 BBC - Come Home
2020 BBC Two - A Year in the Life of a Year
2022 BBC - Dodger
Seems to be more than he's done for British commercial networks in that time. Hardly looks like a blacklist by them or a boycott by him.
SM
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Think most people knew about it for years, it didn't 'come out' last year.
Elmer_Judd
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Well he was back in the show fairly recently.
And there were a lot of Aussie fans happy to see him when he appeared at Melbourne Comic-con a year or so back. I see he's a 'virtual' panel guest at Oz Comic-cons this year too.
Perhaps plenty don't see it as a big deal in the scheme of things.
I'd like him back in the show. Having seen at a convention he's just as seen on any of his social media, a great narcissistic showman.
As for an updated rating of Doctors. Top 3:
Tom Baker
David Tennant
Pertwee
Bottom 3:
McCoy
McGann
Jodie Whitaker
Though the top two were given little in the way of budgets / stories to work with. The writing for Whitaker is also s**t, but just don't think she does a good Doctor regardless.
Wow. Haven't been to conventions the last 3 of so years with COVID, but that's around double what was paying back then. Admittedly not a Doctor, but Billie Piper, Jemma Coleman weren't that much. And I'd put the likes of Tricia Helfer at a similar level of sci-fi stardom and a photo with her wasn't that much (swoon). s**t, years back the wife and I paid $500 a piece for dinner at Armageddon with Dan Starkey (Strax) and Catrin Stewart (Jenny), not long after they'd first shown up in the show (6 fans total along with them). That's not a lot more than just an autograph and photograph.
SM
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Just watched Evil of the Daleks for the first time and wow what a cool story. The fact it runs straight on from the Faceless Ones and into Tomb of the Cybermen is great too. I really do hope we get to a point where they have animated all missing episodes as having the old episodes filled in is so wonderful.
Dixie Flatline
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I saw him at SupaNova back in 2018 or 2019 (I can't remember which one it was now - it was not the year that Capaldi and Pearl Mackie came out to SupaNova). He was actually hilarious.
I must admit that I didn't know about his behaviour off-screen though. Having read about it in the last 12 months, I understand David Tennant tried to get him to pull his head in, but the problem appears that the producers tacitly condoned his behaviour by allowing him to remain part of the show.
Christopher Eccleston is due to be at SupaNova in Melbourne this weekend. SupaNova charge an arm and a leg for everything, so I'll pass on seeing him and, yeah, agree that he won't be answering questions about what happened backstage on Doctor Who. It's almost 20 years ago now.
Eccleston has also been recording audio books for Big Finish reprising his role as the Ninth Doctor. I'm positive that Big Finish do this under licence to the BBC, so I'd say that Eccleston appears to be somewhat happy to be back in the tent as far as Doctor Who is concerned.
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Whilst I don’t think you’re off the mark, I do think that elements of season 22 are underrated. There are some good stories in this lot. Here’s my summation;
Attack of the cybermen - the concepts are all quite interesting. The cybermen preventing Mondas being destroyed by redirecting Halley’s Comet is a pretty bold concept, and we get to revisit Telos. Lytton is a great character and I like Bates & Stratton. Definitely not a bad story.
Vengeance on Varos - love it. Grim, dark, and a great representation of the writers perception of the future. It deals with reality tv and the consumption of violence as entertainment. Great characterisations by all the guest cast. Nabil Shaban and Martin Jarvis are exceptional. Baker is on point here.
The two doctors - it’s a serviceable adventure with a complex plot but it introduces Shockeye whom is great. The sontarans are a bit of a miss but it’s definitely getting a pass.
Revelation of the daleks - probably Baker’s best story. It’s just really dark and grim. Again, a bold plot and the concepts of Davros undertaking his particular ‘project’ to rebuild his dalek force is really interesting. Baker gives a toned down, serious, concerned and smashing performance. It’s a throwback to the goth horror era of the Tom Baker era.
As far as Tom Baker stories from season 15 onwards? Well it took a big dive. We got a classic opening story in horror of fang rock and the image of the fendahl was good, but basically everything on was pretty average. At this point, Tom Baker had a stranglehold on the show and basically whatever he wanted is what went. The stories were toned down because the previous seasons were too ‘violent’ and we got the comical, hammed up silliness from Baker whom was close to taking the urine.
I agree with season 17. City of death is ‘ok’ but we get more Baker being ridiculous and ‘comical’. Destiny of the daleks is an ok opener. It pretty much dive bombs in creature from the pit, nightmare of eden and horns of nimon. The production is just horrendous. The quality control has gone, JNT is calling in the glittery space themes, and the scripts are rubbish.
The final season is better. Baker improves significantly and we get some really good stories in full circle, state of decay, warriors gate. It’s no doubt that these are improved by Baker being a lot better and acting properly. He conveys a sense of danger, threat and urgency to the role and we get some good scripts.
Despite the obvious flaws I've also always quite liked season 22. Can't stand Trial/23 though.
SM
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I like the fact S22 went with 40 minute episodes, meant the pacing was much better.
Elmer_Judd
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It was a precursor to modern genrr/sci-fi TV is these days in many respects. Also at the time a decent budget stretcher.
Unfortunately i feel like Sixie's/Colin's fate was doomed when Eric Saward and JN-T thought it was a good idea for The Doctor to strangle his new companion 6-7 minutes into his first episode (The Twin Dilemma part 1)
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Having watched the Eccleston and Tenant seasons of new Who, I can’t understand the hype around Tennant at all. I am genuinely surprised he is ranked so highly. It must be new fans seeing him as the one they like, but I just don’t like the way he portrays it. Both Eccleston and Tennant play it predominantly to Rose as this big brother type of character, an excitable and almost star struck character that resembles a sense of naïvety and humanity which is just not alien or emotionally removed from the situation and companion. They seem to display envy far too frequently and there is this obvious sexual tension between them.
I am not sure what they were going for, but I feel this has missed the mark and whilst there are some great stories (Dalek, tooth and claw) the portrayal of the doctor is just not very alien. They’ve also messed up unforgivably with the daleks. Initially it was Dalek where it was supposed to be the last one. That whole notion and concept was then thrown out the window in the last two stories of the ninth doctor’s tenure. It’s all become a convoluted mess of ‘how can we fit the daleks into it again?’
Unfortunately this is nothing like classic who and it’s an altogether different and new show that lacks the seriousness, threat, and proper personality traits of the leading man.
I am not sure what they were going for, but I feel this has missed the mark and whilst there are some great stories (Dalek, tooth and claw) the portrayal of the doctor is just not very alien. They’ve also messed up unforgivably with the daleks. Initially it was Dalek where it was supposed to be the last one. That whole notion and concept was then thrown out the window in the last two stories of the ninth doctor’s tenure. It’s all become a convoluted mess of ‘how can we fit the daleks into it again?’
Unfortunately this is nothing like classic who and it’s an altogether different and new show that lacks the seriousness, threat, and proper personality traits of the leading man.
SM
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Yeah a re-watch has seen me re-rank Tennant much lower than at the time. Clara as a companion is also very patchy with her first season with Capaldi absolutely awful (I'm talking her character, not the season). Interesting what re-watches can do to perspective! I think S10 on rewatch is just about the best season of New Who, behind only S4.
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Agree. You’ve literally got two ends of the spectrum over two stories. The Caves of Androzani is frequently listed in the top echelon of stories, and the twin dilemma sits at the bottom of the heap, frequenting the position of worst or close to the worst when you ask for opinions.
This was the nadir of the classic series. It was the argument that the executive at the BBC could draw on to justify the cancellation. We’ve just seen the 5th doctor sacrifice himself to save Peri, and now this new doctor, in an outfit that can’t be taken with any level of seriousness and is utterly preposterous, had just tried to murder her in the safe space of the TARDIS. What is worse is that this story ended the series! So before attack of the cybermen came out, this is what the audience was left with!
Colin Baker was actually very good, but he got given average scripts, a directive to be a bombastic and temperamental, and his tenure was cut short by a BBC executive that hated the show. The budget was gone, the production values shoddy, JNT insisting on guest stars with names like Jason Connery, Jacqueline Pearce, Paul Darrow, Alexi Sayle etc whom really offered no great value to the show. Baker really wasn’t set up to succeed.
Trial of a time lord was below par. A convoluted and botched mess with howlers like Mindwarp and the ultimate foe. Terror of the vervoids wasn’t bad, but who thought the vervoids costume was acceptable? I’d personally have loved to see Baker continue and finish the show properly, particularly as McCoy started in average fashion before improving by the time remembrance of the daleks came about.
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SM
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I think Tennant and Eccleston both do that quite well when required too, think you're selling them a bit short.
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SM
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Yeah doesn't bode well for the new season given I found RTD's seasons on the whole to be quite weak.
Elmer_Judd
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Matt Smith seems to have had the more successful post Who Career since Eccleston and Tennant (case in point the Morbius movie and the new GOT prequel series)
I look at it this way, Eccleston's was too alien and Alpha, Tennant's too Sissy, Matt Smith's Doctor combined the best and worst of all Nu-Doctor's qualities with his own unique alien mannerisms and charm
SM
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Successful? Morbius?
Tennant and Smith have both been pretty successful.
I don't think Tennant was 'too sissy' whatever that means, at all.
Elmer_Judd
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S1 was reasonably ok - outside of the farting aliens - but S2 and S3 I thought were on the whole quite weak outside of the Moffat eps. S4 was definitely his strongest so hopefully he's learned from that.
