Rank & Rate: The Christopher Eccleston Era

[Emperor-Tiberius]

And so, we have arrived in 2005, the start of NuWho, and the era of the first Doctor of the new millenium, the Ninth Doctor! Also the shortest lived Doctor longevity-wise (although the number of stories he did is approximately the same as Six and Seven).

What did you think of his stories? Which one of those 10 stories is your fave? Do you think his era was a significant improvement over the last couple of mixed bags? Or did his era start a negative trend for the character? What did you think of this Doctor?

Would you have liked to have seen him in Day of the Doctor? :P

Discuss!

 

[zarkon]

best to worst:

The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances
Dalek
Father’s Day
Rose
The Unquiet Dead
Bad Wolf / The Parting of the Ways
The End of the World
The Long Game
Aliens of London / World War Three
Boom Town

This is the only doctor who had no outright bad stories whatsoever. From Long Game downwards they're not so hot, but they're all perfectly watchable.

The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances was brilliantly written, and I liked the conceit that everybody lives (though of course when moffat himself took over Who he rather overused it). Eccleston himself is my favourite nuwho doctor, and second only to mccoy overall. RTD also begun his creation of a superb "godlike" time lord mythos that harkens back to the War Games, although moffat would sadly screw this up royally with day of the doctor later on.

RTD took his chance to bring who back and did so in a big way, for which I'll always be thankful.

 

[MacLeod]

Well it did what it set out to do and regenerated the show for the 21st century. Sure it has it weaker episodes but the highlight of the season has to be "The Empty Child" and the "The Doctor Dances" with "Dalek" close on it's heels.

Sure it would have been nice to have around longer and perhaps in "Day of the Doctor".

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

To me, this shy start of the RTD era, is a triumph. My favorite Doctor, as well, my favorite era, TV-wise, and my favorite series of all of Doctor Who (series 4 of NuWho a close second). Eccleston's performance as the Ninth Doctor in this is my favorite performance (thus why he's my fave Doctor) and his arc in this is the most consistent, most believeable and thoroughly enjoyable. He's not quite the joyful Doctor that the equally awesome Tennant will be after him, but as is, he's a fantastic Doctor, with a solid legacy.

As been mentioned, no bad stories, with The Long Game being just mediocre. He has the distinction of having at least 7 classics, IMO, and that is a hard record for any first series of any Doctor. The ranking:

10. The Long Game
9. The Unquiet Dead
8. Aliens of London / World War Three
7. The End of the World
6. Boom Town
5. Rose
4. Father's Day
3. Bad Wolf / The Parting of the Ways
2. Dalek
1. The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances

 

[sttngfan1701d]

Loved Eccleston as the Doctor, loved some of his episodes...but in my 2013 nu-Who rewatch with a friend new to the series, I found it quite childish and "Saturday morning" the second time around. I guess that was the point, but sometimes it was just too silly.

Empty Child/Doctor Dances and Father's Day are my favorites.

 

[mythme]

Eccecelston recently said the one thing he would chance about his performance was to tone down the humor. I also just rewatched the first season and there's a strange dichotomy there. On one hand you have farting Slitheen, talking skin trampolines, the Anne-droid, fights with mannequin arms, etc. On the other you have dead fathers, commentary on FOX news, bi-sexuality themes, a complex Bad Wolf paradox, post-genocide trauma, and frightening kids in gas masks. Obviously at this early stage Doctor Who didn't know who exactly its target was going to be. That Eccelston could toe the line between the two extremes is much to his credit. As lesser actor might have fumbled and NuWho may have died a quick death. This is why Chris is so missed. He was a "fantastic" Doctor with complexities we would have loved to explore further.


10. The Unquiet Dead
9. The Long Game
8. The End of the World
7. Aliens of London / World War Three
6. Rose (needed another half-hour. For a newcomer, like myself at the time, it took me a while to figure out exactly what the Nestene/Autons were. It's not explained very well in the episode; relying to much on viewers being familiar with Classic Pertwee stories)
7. Boom Town
4. Father's Day
3. Bad Wolf / The Parting of the Ways
2. Dalek
1. The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances

 

[kirk55555]

My very first Doctor. This is where I first got into the show (although it was years after 2005, this is still where I started).

Rankings in Categories:

Great:
Dalek
The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances

Good:
Rose
The End of the world
The Unquiet Dead
Father's day
Boom Town
Bad wolf/The Parting of the Ways

Ok:
The Long Game

Bad:
Aliens of London/World War III

The only bad episodes of his run in my opinion are the slitheen episodes. They are easily the worst aliens I've ever seen in all of Doctor Who, and their episodes (while not terrible) were still bad.

As the Doctor, Eccleston was brilliant. Maybe not my favorite NuWho Doctor, but that's probably because the others got a lot more time (plus, I really can't pick a favorite NuWho Doctor, its way too hard for me, I like them all too much ). I really wish he'd been in Day of the Doctor, seeing him with 10 and 11 would have been amazing. The 9th Doctor started the era of NuWho, and he started it with a bang. I wish we'd seen more of him, but what we got was one of the most solid single series in all of Doctor Who, and a great way to bring the show back.

 

[sttngfan1701d]

He took two meetings with Moffat about the 50th Anniversary. We were so close to seeing more of him. It's a shame we only got the one series and nothing more. But yes, he was fantastic.

 

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

Loved The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances and Father's Day. The others were pretty meh. I liked him as the Doctor. He was humorous but there was a harshness about him that was interesting. Probably because he was the Doctor after the Time War. I would have enjoyed seeing him for a second series.

One thing that I didn't really like was his outfit. It didn't scream "the Doctor" to me. It just made him look like some ordinary guy who owned a time machine.

I don't think series 1 had a great start but by the finale, it seemed like the show was definitely headed for big things.

 

[Csalem]

The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances was superb and the best story of the season. Not sure about the worst, or least enjoyable. Maybe Boom Town or The Long Game.

 

[DWF]

The End Of the World
The Unquiet Dead
Dalek
The Empty Child/Doctor Dances
Parting Of The Ways

While it was exciting to see Doctor Who's return, Eccleston's Doctor IMO wasn't very heroic. And I have mixed feelings about his departure as the Doctor and realyl outside of being burnt out by the Time Wars it's hard to handle on his Doctor.

 

[Timewalker]

I liked Eccleston, hated some of the stories, but there was one that was very well done: Dalek.

I was sitting here, watching it, and crying over a damn Dalek! It takes a lot to get that kind of emotional reaction out of me when it comes to science fiction, and while this episode was playing out, I kept thinking about Genesis of the Daleks, when the Doctor was literally holding the fate of the Daleks in his hands and asking, "do I have the right" to kill them.