The people who will hound him ARE these ardent fans.
The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot
- Thread starter Chris3123
- Start date
However badly he was treated (and from what I've read I don't think it was all the BBC and RTD's fault--they're trying to make a TV show and can't wait forever for the lead to decide if he's coming back or not) it's probably nowhere nearly as bad as Colin was treated, and it certainly hasn't stopped him working on other BBC productions.
I've read an interview with Davison where he says everyone they called up about the Five-ish Doctors said they'd do it...with one exception. Obviously that exception could have been anyone because even with it's cast of thousands plenty of people were missing (Hines, Strickson, Padbury...just off the top of my head) but you do have to wonder.
I've read an interview with Davison where he says everyone they called up about the Five-ish Doctors said they'd do it...with one exception. Obviously that exception could have been anyone because even with it's cast of thousands plenty of people were missing (Hines, Strickson, Padbury...just off the top of my head) but you do have to wonder.
On the live BBC Three after-party, he mentioned that everyone had agreed to do it, "With one exception... I'll leave you to figure out who that was!" Cue lots of laughter in the studio. My first thought was Eccleston but given that Tom wasn't in it either, and the use of Jon Culshaw and the Shada footage (which turned out to be a funnier substitute anyway), I'm guessing it was him.
But Colin Baker didn't get any screen work that wasn't Doctor Who-related for seven years after he left the show, although he did a fair amount of stage work. Most of what he did onscreen were the Stranger fan videos which were thinly veiled Who stories. Whereas Eccleston's been getting plenty of other work since he left the show. Maybe Baker was willing to do Who-related work because he didn't have any other options. Eccleston, by contrast, has an active screen career that no doubt takes up a lot of his time. He has to weigh the offer to do a Who appearance against the time it would take away from his other projects -- projects that he might find more professionally and personally rewarding. So it's a different calculation for him than it was for Baker.
That would suggest that this is a project done for the money, which I doubt it was or could be. I'm sure the actors were compensated, but I doubt they were compensated at a competitive wage.
True, although he did say recently: "I didn’t work for seven months after Thor. I am open to any kind of work so I can pay the mortgage."
I keep forgetting that this thread is about the Reboot. It seems so strange to me to talk about Eccleston's involvement in the context of that "classic Doctors" short instead of "The Day of the Doctor."
The point is, he's allowed to make his own career and life choices for his own reasons and he doesn't owe us a damn thing, including an explanation.
I think we all agree on that. Eccleston is absolutely free to accept or refuse any project for any reasons of his own, and he doesn't owe us anything. And we're allowed to have an opinion on those choices and express it.
Yeah, I agree with that. It doesn't make sense and would have been dumb. RTD and John Barrowman were fun cameos, but they were able to have cameos precisely because they weren't the Doctor. Having Chris Eccleston in it in a minor role would be odd more than anything else because the question would be why he didn't have a bigger role.
I think that's true and completely fair. But that doesn't mean we can't be disappointed in his choice (and it is still a choice).
I do wonder why RTD had nothing to do with the celebrations besides the cameo in this though.
Disappointment is one thing, but this entitled attitude I'm hearing from some people that Eccleston is an awful human being simply because he made a different career choice than we wanted is just petty. That's not a healthy way of addressing disappointment.
I think it's quite notable that Eccleston turned down Doctor Who (and a paying gig) when he could have used the money, as I think that points to how thoroughly nuked the bridges were in his departure and its aftermath.
He offered to write a graphic novel for BBC Books for the fiftieth. They said no.
Hmm. That's a shame.
How are people who bitch and moan about this on the internet hounding him exactly?
Chris made his choice. From all the stories I've read about it there seems to be a very personal issue behind it all and I can't blame the man if the show made him feel there was no other choice but to quit or respond to his treatment by production staff by quitting. He is a professional actor and comes across as a level headed mature guy.
I'm getting tired of all this entitlement shit. The show is big. Yeah, whoopty fucking doo. But no TV show or movie is bigger than how a man chooses to live his life freely.
It was his freedom to make that choice. This isn't a law he broke so get over it.
According to Moffat RTD calls him after he sees the show and geeks out with him over it but they try and keep the future events of the show secret for him because he doesn't want the spoilers.
If that is so, its an admirable quality of RTD's. Not only does he still enjoy the show, but he wants to enjoy it once again as a fan, without the advantage of having been a showrunner. I don't know if I could be so distant willfully myself, but RTD being such is really nice.
As for Eccleston... really, what is wrong with fans? Sure, its too bad he wasn't involved with any of the celebrations, but at least he was asked to do it, and even thought long and hard about it. He didn't disregard the offer off-hand, and both he and Moffat are in good terms - Eccleston remembers Moffat's two-parter, and praises it to this day, while Moffat called him recently a "good bloke". Really, this friction is only of the fans' making, and I'm sick of it.
That being said, I can't deny that I did miss him in the special, and I think if he'd been in it it'd have been even better, if only SLIGHTLY. Because I think the special worked anyway, and any faults on it are purely outside the Want-The-Ninth-Doctor-In-It argument (like the lack of a frickin' resolution to the Zygon thing, for instance). And sure, it'd have been nice to at least have had him in the regeneration scene, to see how the Ninth Doctor truly began, but... Alas, it wasn't meant to be. Too bad, but the special worked anyway.
By the way, I was just looking at the Tardis Data Core (wiki) entry for the Reboot, and I'm amused at the way it's entered in the usual format for episodes:
"Main character(s): Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy
Main enemy: Steven Moffat"
"Main character(s): Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy
Main enemy: Steven Moffat"
Indeed it's not. I have to admit that I've been guilty of this, and it's silly. There is something about Christopher Eccleston's public persona that has rubbed me the wrong way at least since Cracker, and I can't deny that I get irritated pretty fast by what I perceive to be his "look at me, I'm a proper actor" shtick, which is a shame because I really do like him as an actor.
Which also explains why some people don't feel that the "I didn't like the politics" answer satisfyingly explained the magnitude of the incident.
Oh yes, that should do the trick.
By the way, I was just looking at the Tardis Data Core (wiki) entry for the Reboot, and I'm amused at the way it's entered in the usual format for episodes:
"Main character(s): Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy
Main enemy: Steven Moffat"
That did make me laugh when I saw it!
I also love what Peter Davison said in this interview.
Peter Davison said:
