As the British acting legend turns 60, we look back on one of his greatest performances.
“Nice to meet you, Rose. Run for your life!”
That’s the moment Christopher Eccleston won me over as the Ninth Doctor in Doctor Who – six minutes and 57 seconds into the first episode of the first season of the reboot.
Every Doctor Who fan has a moment like that with the witty, fiery and unknowable Ninth Doctor, and the fact that he’s so well-loved is no mean feat.
As the British acting legend turns 60, I couldn’t resist looking back on what I think is Eccleston’s greatest ever performance – and why it’s even more impressive all these years later.
Eccleston’s casting was announced in 2004, when Doctor Who had been off air for eight years following the TV movie (which received a rather tepid reaction, although Paul McGann‘s Eighth Doctor has rightly been more appreciated since).
Before that, it had been seven years since Sylvester McCoy‘s Seventh Doctor wandered off into the sunset in a rather abrupt ending to what we now know as Classic Who.
Basically, Doctor Who wasn’t in the best place, and there was no suggestion that it would return to being the titan of British TV that it is today.
It’s no secret that things didn’t exactly run completely smoothly on the first season of Doctor Who, either. From the low budget to disagreements behind the scenes, there were seemingly very few signs that rebooting the sci-fi would work.
But there was clearly one big sign, which showrunner Russell T Davies has since referred to as a secret he relished keeping – just how electric Eccleston and his co-star Billie Piper (Rose Tyler) were.
The odds were completely stacked against Eccleston and yet, in one season, he gave a performance for the ages.
Not only did he bring the Doctor bang up to date (aided a little by his iconic leather jacket), he instantly found the heart (or two hearts) of what the Time Lord is really about.
Balancing rage and loss with a sense of unbridled adventure with perfect comedic timing, Eccleston held out his hand and took all of us along for the ride.
From one-liners to out-and-out monologues, and switching between pure emotion and cheekiness with ease, he had everything you could ever want when it comes to the Doctor.
Eccleston departed after just one season for a multitude of reasons, and was replaced by David Tennant, whose reign only did more to secure Doctor Who as the television giant it is today.
But it’s astonishing to think that Eccleston was only the Doctor for 13 episodes, especially when you compare it to his successors Tennant (at least 50, including the 60th anniversary specials) and Matt Smith (upwards of 40).
In a fraction of the time, Eccleston made just as much of an impact (potentially more, in some cases) than those that would come after him. No one’s done it like him since and maybe no one will again.
If we were to look at Doctor Who’s iconic moments, so many of them are from Eccleston – whether it’s “lots of planets have a north” or referring to a Dalek as “the great space dustbin”.
Whether it’s him screaming “just this once, everybody lives” or “the oncoming storm”. Or simply the final, “You were fantastic. And, do you know what? So was I.”
In his one season, Eccleston’s Doctor fought the Daleks and so many other iconic monsters, saved the world countless times, and provided one of the best two-parters in Doctor Who history with Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways.
To date, Eccleston has never returned on-screen to play the Ninth Doctor, and he’s made it clear he has no plans to. If he ever does, it’ll be one of the most jaw-dropping moments in the show’s history.
Maybe we shouldn’t rule it out entirely – after all, after 15 years, he decided to return to the role as part of Big Finish’s audio adventures, something that seemed impossible a few years earlier.
If he doesn’t, though, it doesn’t matter – we have 13 episodes of perfection to look back on. Absolutely fantastic.