Eccleston Didn't Enjoy Working on Doctor Who

[LostTimeLady]

I think it's a shame that Eccleston felt the need to leave 'cos even though he's not my Doctor or my favourite Doctor he really kicked off the new series' well as he was the sort of Doctor that made you wanna keep watching. He was dark, he was inteligent, he was alien, he had charm and it was good.
All the same, maybe if TimeLord's plan works he might consider coming back for a 50th Anaversay 3 Doctors speical.
He was THE Doctor, and as Eccleston says really it's not about all the problems it's about the fact that they resurected and regenerated a British Icon.

 

[wammnebu]

I'm not surprised he thinks this after the way he was treated by Russell T Davies. Although I thought he played the 9th Doctor very very well, gritty and determined yet funny and spontaneous. I was touched when I heard he thought the letters he got form children meant a lot to him. That proves despite his reservations he acted like a professional and he was happy people enjoyed his preformance.

I'd love to see him team up with David Tennant and Matt Smith, that would make me explode from the awesome.

Sylvester McCoy, and Paul McGann are still alive, we could have all five work together!!!!

Its sad that they treated Eccleston like crap. Eccleston is one of my favorite Doctor's along with Hartnell, (and maybe smith, well see). He brought a lot of personality to the Doctor (set the precedent for the next two actually), while at the same time remembering that he is supposed to be mysterious (to the opposite of tennent who started revealed more than a truth serum addict in a confessional) and have something hidden inside. I wish we could have had a few more years of him. Christopher Eccleston if you are reading this, you were the first doctor i ever saw, and you to me you aren't the 9th Doctor, just The Doctor.

 

[DayDark]

What the hell is Doctor Who?

 

[jbchillin]

I loved him he was a great actor and no one says the word "Fantastic" like he does. I wish he would of kept with the show but i guess it was for the best.

 

[Lord Beautiful]

What the hell is Doctor Who?

It's the sequel series to Professor What.

 

[Sylocat]

As I've mentioned before, I think a lot of RTD's detractors are looking at their favorite Old-Who episodes through the rosiest of glasses... I keep hearing "The Green Death" brought up as a shining example of great writing, and it does pretty much everything people complain about RTD doing and more, only it does it all in slow motion given that it's a six-episode arc in which very little actually happens.

I thought Eccleston's acting was alright, decent but nothing on Tennant's performance. I for one am glad he left so early

So no bias then

, as we then had four glorious years of the Tenth Doctor

Glorious, hardly. A space-romcom that had the titular character funneled as a writer outlet maybe.

In the words of the master, "So no bias then."

what Davis, and to an extent, Gatiss did was use the Doctor as a channel for their own frustration.

Wow, armchair psychiatry much?

Season 1: Bad Wolf - Rose is writing cryptic cosmic graffiti to herself so that when she becomes a Goddess, she knows that...what exactly...oh, she becomes a writer and can write things out of canon.
Season 2: Torchwood - RTD takes one of the most popular BBC series to have 13x45 minute adverts for his new show.
Season 3: Harold Saxon: RTD takes 11x45 minute adverts to popularise a nemesis battle, steals heavily from other sci-fi series and the Bible, and then restarts the world WITH THE BRITISH PM KILLING THE AMERICAN PM ON NATIONAL TV....but no-one notices that.
Season 4: He actually starts to get it. He starts producing decent episodes, but then collapses with the whole "I WILL REWRITE CANON" lark.

And don't start me on the inexorable "specials" which defy logic, sense and anything else for a cheap heartstring pull.

Season 1: Agreed.
Season 2: IIRC, Torchwood wasn't even planned to be a spinoff series at first. Besides, given that they were the primary villain of the second series, I rather like how they were built up.
Season 3: Again, I liked the mystery about who Harold Saxon was, and I liked the reveal that it was a nemesis they unleashed who had been pursuing them throughout the past. The dynamic between the Doctor and the Master was great (I loved how the Master's personality was a twisted mirror image of the Doctor's, rather than being just another cackling megalomaniac; and I thought the Toclafane were a brilliantly creepy perversion of the Doctor's relationship with humanity).
(oh yes, and when Martha revealed that the word everyone on the planet was chanting was "Doctor," it was cheesy, but at least the word wasn't "love.")
Season 4: I liked it a lot better my second time through. I thought the finale was more coherent (or at least more thematically consistent) than many give it credit for, and while the stakes creep was embarrassing, I didn't mind the crossovers.
The Specials: I'll say this much: "The Waters of Mars" is one of the greatest (and bleakest and most depressing) hours of television I've ever seen. And don't tell me you didn't like Wilf as the companion.

What RTD is write sit-dram/coms, he doesn't write Who. Torchwood, at the best of times, was "which lesbian alien shall we fail to kill today, in a Welsh way".

Moffat, Whithouse, Ford, Roberts all write Who well. Their shows keep people entertained, enthralled and talking about them afterwards.

RTDs get people shouting out of angst or loathing. Usually against the insatiable use of symbols for everything.

Well, while high ratings doesn't equal good quality, it's somewhat arrogant of you to imply that "people" aren't entertained by RTD's episodes, or that they don't talk about them afterwards. Oh, and if you have a problem with the Rule of Symbolism [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuleOfSymbolism], why do you like Moffat's episodes?

 

[Sylocat]

Wow, I didn't realize it had been 4 months since the post I quoted. Sorry about the necro.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Glorious, hardly. A space-romcom that had the titular character funneled as a writer outlet maybe.

In the words of the master, "So no bias then."

Not really, or at least bias that's held out. And most writers do that. One's that specifically state they're doing that tend to be held up.

what Davis, and to an extent, Gatiss did was use the Doctor as a channel for their own frustration.

Wow, armchair psychiatry much?

Sure, you only have to watch the "Confidentials" to see how he speaks about the Doctor as his little baby to get that implication. It's as bad as Meyer and Edward.

Mostly agreements with a little tit for tat

And don't tell me you didn't like Wilf as the companion.

Bernard Cribbins was stealing the script, and even kicking Tennant into second place.

Well, while high ratings doesn't equal good quality, it's somewhat arrogant of you to imply that "people" aren't entertained by RTD's episodes, or that they don't talk about them afterwards.

I'm a fanboy (as I've already often explained ); a certain level of arrogance comes with the job.
I've talked to a huge number of people - including some Whovians from 4 (I think she was?) to 80. The RTD series has some appallingly soppy/sloppy writing - with a few good set pieces. Each of the others writing has "almost" always produced some wonderful work.

RTD just seems to dash out rom-coms and then subvert them. He's almost making console-ports - if you'll pardon the double-pun.

Oh, and if you have a problem with the Rule of Symbolism [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuleOfSymbolism], why do you like Moffat's episodes?

I don't have a problem with the Rule of Symbolism (Goddam you TVTropes, you won't stop me this time) but Symbolism has to fit context. The second two Matrix films were engorged by RoS and failed as a result.

To take a quoted point: RTD got the idea for Gridlock while driving his car down the M25.

Sooooo...this leads to "Drugs are bad" - First 10 minutes "All normal couples die/All other sexualities survive" - first 10 minutes - "Cars never need refilling in the future" - Yeah....

Just a whole load of easily solvable problems in that episode with heavy, heavy symbolism chucked in there.

Symbolism is meant to be subtle, not hammered.

As I've mentioned before, I think a lot of RTD's detractors are looking at their favorite Old-Who episodes through the rosiest of glasses... I keep hearing "The Green Death" brought up as a shining example of great writing, and it does pretty much everything people complain about RTD doing and more, only it does it all in slow motion given that it's a six-episode arc in which very little actually happens.

The Green Death is hogwash. You can officially quote me on that.