The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot
- Thread starter Chris3123
- Start date
You have entitlement issues. I'm sorry to put it plainly like that, but it's true. Eccleston doesn't owe you, me, Moffat, the BBC, or fandom anything.
I'll tell you why I think Baker did his cameo in "The Day of the Doctor" -- Lis Sladen's death. Go back and read the eulogy/remembrance he wrote when she died, and there's a very clear sense that he knew he screwed up by blowing off Big Finish for as many years as he did and he cost himself the opportunity to work with old friends again. I think Tom appeared not for himself, not for the fans, not for Moffat or Doctor Who, but for those like Lis and Ian and Mary who are gone.
Either he has a crush on Janet or his wife is a mouth with legs?Of course, for some reason I kept expecting to see her walk by and my stupid brain never made the connection!
I do love how Janet Fielding segues into Davison's wife in the earlier dream sequence. Is Peter trying to tell us something?
Absolutely. I've been thinking exactly the same thing for the last week. Between pushing Nicholas Briggs to do The Light at the End and his appearance in "The Day of the Doctor," Tom Baker is trying to make up for lost ground and lost opportunities because he clearly misses Lis, Mary, Ian and Nicholas dearly.
"Quel dommage, Davros!"
Now I wish that could be a real catchphrase.
Don't we all. That scene with Russell "The" Davis (ha funny) really made me miss him and his enthusiasm for the show.
While not a fan of RTD as writer (QasF is ok), he does give the best interview
. I've been using 'Quel dommage' in random conversations the last few days, to bemused looks.
I think this comes off the clearest in the interviews for the audio plays he's done the last couple of years, especially in the tribute for Mary Tamm.Thanks. I was afraid I was totally off-base in my reading of Tom the past few years, and it's nice to see that others are thinking the same.
Doesn't really compare though, does it? If An Adventure in Space and Time has any kind of accuracy to it, than it would seem his time on Doctor Who was one of the highlights of Hartnell's later years and that he truly loved the show. So it stands to reason he would take part in The Three Doctors. Tom Baker's attitude these days as others have suggested could be influenced by the loss of his co-stars especially in recent years.
Really? Imagine for a moment a job you really hated. You leave and move on with your life, but nearly a decade afterwards they get in contact with you wanting you take part in some sort of company celebrations. Would you really agree to that?
I really like that analogy. I think that describes the situation very well. Though I might change "a job you really hated" to "a job that wasn't at all what you thought it would be."
^^In my mind they're the same thing.
Speaking only for myself, if I got the opportunity to express publicly how much I despised the whole experience, if it only took one day, if I got paid for it and if people even thanked me for it, yeah, I would jump at the opportunity. In my opinion, that's what would have happened if Eccleston had had a cameo in The Five-ish.
I do hope for consistency sake you, and those who feel as you do, were equally upset and disappointed at Tom Baker in the 80s who also chose not to appear in an anniversary special. And for many years wanted nothing to do with Who.
It seems to me that Eccleston's feelings regarding Doctor Who are more ambiguous than that. On the one hand working on the programme was a bad experience for him. On the other hand, he's aware how much the show means to many people. Hence the message he made for the celebration.
And that was a much bigger deal because back in the day Tom was really the most popular Doctor by far (he still kinda is, I guess). For a new Who analogy: It would be like Tennant not wanting anything to do with it anymore.
Can we just get one point right? By at least some of the accounts Eccleston didn't leave Doctor Who. He had a very unpleasant experience, and when asked about signing for a second series asked for time to think about it. The next thing is that the BBC have signed Tennant, and are putting out stories that he couldn't take the pace of filming or didn't want to risk being typecast - either of which might have damaged his chances of future work. Effectively, they fired him and then made up lies about him.
Honestly, would you want to go back into that?
He gave all the interviews, said all he wanted to say ages ago. If he'd done stuff at this point, it would have started it all back up again with more questions, more complaints. Closing the door and walking away really is his only option.
Evidence is that he's great when he meets fans, especially children. But he doesn't want to get back into the screams for him to do more, do audio, do conventions and all the other entitled cries from the fans.
Honestly, would you want to go back into that?
He gave all the interviews, said all he wanted to say ages ago. If he'd done stuff at this point, it would have started it all back up again with more questions, more complaints. Closing the door and walking away really is his only option.
Evidence is that he's great when he meets fans, especially children. But he doesn't want to get back into the screams for him to do more, do audio, do conventions and all the other entitled cries from the fans.
Oh? Was that the one where he went all "I might come back for the 100th anniversary... when we're all DEAD! BWAHAHAHA!", because that sounded more like he was trolling the fans.
Well his cunning plan didn't really work, did it?
That's not what happened. He went into the 1st series with him and RTD knowing he was only going to do one series. Tennant was hired and the BBC jumped the gun announcing Tennant would be the new Doctor right before the 1st episode ("ROSE") even aired. He was always only going to do one series.
Not according to accounts at the time. I believe his agent even put in a complaint to the BBC for taking the decision out of his hands and then lying in their press release. But the story has changed a lot over the years.
That's very close to what I've heard, though it was that they forced him to quit rather than fire him. Eccleston had a contract option for series 2 that he hadn't yet exercised, but his waffling led RTD and Gardner to sound out Tennant about the role if Eccleston didn't return. Eccleston found out about this, felt betrayed, and left. His contract had a non-compete clause which meant he couldn't work in the UK for the second year which is why he took the short-term gig on Heroes because he needed the money. Rest is as you said -- the BBC put out stories that weren't true, but it's the stories that are remembered rather than the subsequent retractions.
Well, if they lied about him at all, I don't blame him for not wanting anything more to do with them. As long as he's not rude to the fans (since none of it was their fault), that should be the end of it.
If the show is still going by the time the 60th anniversary comes around, maybe he'll have had a change of heart by then or the actual truth will come to light (the real truth is probably somewhere inbetween the stories and speculations).
If the show is still going by the time the 60th anniversary comes around, maybe he'll have had a change of heart by then or the actual truth will come to light (the real truth is probably somewhere inbetween the stories and speculations).
Well his cunning plan didn't really work, did it?
Agreed. He's made thing worse by not appearing in the anniversary special
For years people will hound him
"Why didn't you participate?"
Well his cunning plan didn't really work, did it?
Agreed. He's made thing worse by not appearing in the anniversary special
For years people will hound him
"Why didn't you participate?"
He should just give them a link to all the previous answers to the very same question.
And I don't think he's made it worse. At all. Perhaps to a few ardent fans. But for the vast majority.... it's not an issue.
