Doctor Who: Christopher Eccleston thinks not including him in Day of the Doctor was an improvement

Christopher Eccleston has given some thoughts on Doctor Who’s fiftieth anniversary special, The Day of the Doctor – and believes the special was actually improved by his absence.

At a New York Comic Con panel last week, Christopher Eccleston gave some more thoughts on the fiftieth anniversary special for Doctor Who, The Day of the Doctor. We know that he decided against appearing in the special. But he’s given some thoughts on how the episode itself turned out – and, in his opinion, it turned out rather well. Better than if he did decide to get involved, in fact.

"It was written by Steven Moffat, so obviously I was really interested. But when I read the script, I felt that it was basically myself, Matt [Smith] and David [Tennant] riffing… I personally didn’t feel the narrative was strong enough, particularly for the Ninth Doctor."

This isn’t exactly surprising. Multi-Doctor stories have often been like this. Both The Three Doctors and The Five Doctors featured a lot of banter between the multiple Doctors. It was fun to see the older incarnations back, but the stories weren’t there to explore their more interesting sides.

While I’m not keen on the story as a whole, one thing The Two Doctors did well was to give a good role for the Second Doctor, with the serial feeling like his era naturally collided with the Sixth Doctor’s. More recently, we’ve had Twice Upon a Time, which again gave a good role for the First Doctor, especially in terms of exploring his reaction to regeneration. But what of The Day of the Doctor?

One thing that didn’t help in Eccleston’s decision about not returning was how he was being treated in the press.

"As the show was being celebrated, I was being abused in the press and that was hard to take and very confusing,. So I looked at it and I thought, ‘Is this the way I want to come back?’… and I decided it wasn’t."

Which is fair enough. I certainly hope that Eccleston returns to the role one day, even for Big Finish – especially for Big Finish – but he also needs to be completely comfortable with the part in order for it to work.

An improvement?

However, while he didn’t want to take part in The Day of the Doctor, that doesn’t mean he didn’t enjoy the episode itself. Especially with some of the major changes Steven Moffat needed to make in his absence.

"I just thought that script was immaculate, and I think it added to the canon of Doctor Who in a way that me coming back wouldn’t [have]. I think the War Doctor was a brilliant working of Steven Moffat’s imagination, and I loved watching [John Hurt] do that."

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If I’m honest, I actually agree with that. It’s ironic, but the War Doctor – the one who had never even appeared in Doctor Who before – was arguably the one with the biggest story in The Day of the Doctor, as the episode explored the Doctor’s darkest day as well as what it means for him to actually be the Doctor. Plus, we got John Hurt as the Doctor – not just for this episode, but eventually, for a full-length audio series, too!

But for fans wanting Eccleston to return one day, he did have a couple of suggestions for when that might happen.

"I’m gonna do the 100th anniversary! In 2063, the Ninth Doctor will return! I may have a Zimmer frame instead of a leather jacket, but I’ll be back!"

But if that’s too long, then he did suggest something a little nearer.

"Maybe in 2022, because you add 13 and 9 and it’s 22. Let’s just start something off, shall we?"

We can only hope, Christopher. We can only hope.

Do you think the fiftieth anniversary special would’ve worked better if Eccleston had been involved? Or do you think Hurt’s new War Doctor helped to add something extra? Let us know in the comments below.