Doctor Who: What if Christopher Eccleston Had Stayed?

One of the laments about Christopher Eccleston’s time on Doctor Who is how brief his stint as the Doctor was. But what would the show have been like if he had stayed?

Doctor Who, as we know it, would not exist without Christopher Eccleston. He was the Doctor when the show first came back to the airwaves, the one tasked with taking up that iconic role and bringing it to modern times and a new audience. He certainly did his part in his only season in the role, paving the way for Doctor Who to become one of the more popular shows on television.

While the popularity of Doctor Who truly began to take off when David Tennant took on the role of the Tenth Doctor, one has to wonder what the show would have been like had Eccleston remained in his role for longer. Fans of the Ninth Doctor often lament that he did not have another season, often wondering what the show would have been like had he not departed so abruptly.

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And yet, one has to wonder if Doctor Who would have reached the same level of popularity with Eccleston as the Doctor. While his incarnation was brilliant, Tennant’s good looks and the the romantic subplot between the Tenth Doctor and Rose brought in a different fanbase, helping the show become the cultural phenomenon it currently is.

One can certainly debate as to whether or not that would be a positive. There may well have been a more classic feel to the newer episodes, and not just from Series Nine. However, Doctor Who would not be the easily recognized entity that it is, making it more difficult to find merchandise and to watch our favorite episodes whenever we desired.

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Doctor Who would have been a lot different, as would be our impression of the show, had Christopher Eccleston remained for more than one season.