I thought Christopher Eccleston’s approach to the Doctor was ‘fantastic’. I really appreciated the childlike delight he took in small things while being very serious when getting down to business with the bad guys. I didn’t think I could ever get used to David Tennant, but I have to agree with you that the writing is truly top notch with Season 2.

I couldn’t wait for this DVD set to come out, but honestly haven’t watched it yet, for much the same reason… I’ve seen all the episodes at least 2 or 3 times recently, and now that Season 2 is on, I just don’t have time to go back.

I still would recommend the series, and this DVD set, although I haven’t gone through all the extras yet. I wasn’t aware of the Eccleston interview, so thanks for pointing that out. I definitely want to see that. Living in the States here, I feel like I’m missing out on the behind the scenes bits of Doctor Who and Red Dwarf and the likes. Why DID Christopher Eccleston leave the show?

Like you, I look forard to enough time passing so that I can truly relive the joy of this season… not that I want time to go passing any faster, mind you!

Cheers, JOHN :0)

You aren’t a true Whovian until you can sit through repeat viewing of Colin Baker…

So, are you watching Torchwood?

I agree that Tennant’s performance is more fun and I like him better as the Doctor, but thus far Christopher Eccelston got (mostly) better scripts. With some notable exceptions, I didn’t think season two quite measured up to season one, writing-wise…I’ve got high hopes for the third season. :-)

Regarding the trailers, I assume these are from BBC 1′s unfortunate “cover two thirds of the screen in orange” period, part of a truly horrific exercise in station branding. That dreadful oragne was the official BBC 1 colour at that time, and they were making continuity announcements over horrendously pretentious footage of people in orange, supposed to represent some London media idiot’s idea of “every walk of life.” (By far the worst was a scene of orange-clad, multi-ethnic, dancing wheelchair basketball players, which had clearly been prepared by going through a tick list to see how many minorities they could fit into thirty seconds.)

In fairness, UK graphics generally tend to be a lot more subdued and minimal than American ones – a lot of US television looks absolutely histrionic to British eyes. Having seen Gordon Ramsay on British reality TV shows, I can barely stop laughing at the editing on Hell’s Kitchen.

For a much better example, and far more imaginative, example of UK channel branding, take a look at these efforts from Channel 4:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CVdllN67OQ

Incidentally, BBC1 have since changed their idents. It’s, er, not much of an improvement. They’ve toned down the orange, but it’s still remarkably pretentious. I weep at the thought of how much money they wasted on this stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63II5HNY3Ko&NR

(And here’s a compilation of the “isn’t orange great” era. Terrible things. But worth seeing so that you get the joke when they do the kung fu monks in season 2.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_05xtTFilC4&mode=related&search=

“John, I got the impression (based on not much, now that I look at it) that Eccleston is considered a more “serious” actor, and so he didn’t want to stick around too long so he could do other things.”

That’s pretty much correct; he wasn’t really ready for the grind of series television (IIRC he clashed with the director of “Rose” and “Aliens of London”)and was physically and mentally burned out by the end. He won’t even do the radio plays, which all the previous doctors have done- in fact, there’s a new McGann play coming out soon.

Thanks Johanna and Dan,

I would really love to hear or read an in-depth interview with Christopher Eccleston concerning his stint on Doctor Who, if anyone can point me to one.

Honestly, I’m not sure if I understand his motives. I mean, as a freelancer, there are certainly times when I wish I had more time for my own projects, but hey, when a great gig comes along, you go for the ride, because you just know that all good things come to an end eventually, and great gigs are rare.

Maybe it’s the parallels to my own life that make me so interested? Maybe I’m still shaking my head at David Duchovny for leaving x-files? :0)

Anyway, I was in the UK a few months back, and I read something about David Tennant saying that Doctor Who was so much fun that he couldn’t imagine leaving. I thought that was a dig at Eccleston, but who knows?

Both seasons are definitely enjoyable in their own ways.

Cheers, JOHN :0)

You aren’t a true Whovian until you can sit through repeat viewing of Colin Baker…

Hey, Colin Baker has his moments.

Well, the “Trial of a Timelord” season-long story is pretty good.

Once you get past the parts with Peri. And fast forward through any scene with Mel.

Which leaves you with, what, about a third of that whole season. Maybe. But that’s decent!

Oi — Colin Baker is vastly underrated! Genius portrayal, let down by appalling scripts and a hostile script editor.

I’d happily point you to an in-depth Ecclestone interview, John; but there aren’t any. I sort of doubt there ever will be. As far as he’s concerned he’s “been there, done that.”

And I have to say that, IMHO, the scripts on the second series haven’t quite matched the consistency of the first. Tennant is superb, though.

Eccleston is a name actor in England, sort of like Jimmy Smits. He agreed to do the first season of Dr. Who as a favor to Russell Davies, who’s a pal, but he never planned to stay longer, because everyone who has had the Doctor role has gotten stuck with it including Peter Davison, who was well known before the role. The only sort of exception was Tom Baker. John pertwee did okay, but he did a lot of cons, too.

I like Dr. Who, but I’m a true WHovian going back to the Spirit of Light conventions. I’ve met Tom Baker, John Pertwee, Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy.

But objectively, the episodes are awful. (The Big Finish audio plays are better.)

Don’t get me wrong, Allan. Colin Baker did have his moments. As I said, he was quite good in the Trial storyline. And I thought he played quite well off of both the second Doctor and Jamie in The Two Doctors. I even enjoyed the fact that not only was his Doctor, on more than a few occasions, all of the character’s worst characteristics personified – smug, crotchedy, vain, terrible dress sense, etc. – but that he was actually sort of proud of it. He just got saddled with terrible writing, as you said, and also with two of the least likable companions ever. But Mike’s not the first person I’ve seen say that the 6th Doctor audio plays from Big Finish are actually pretty good.

Colin Baker, personally, was just fine in terms of what he did with the material. But he was saddled with some of the worst scripts in the show’s history, not to mention the horrendous costume (which overpowers any attempt at subtlety by an individual director or production designer by being so horrific).

The idea of the Sixth Doctor was an interesting one; the idea of Trial of a Time Lord was also theoretically interesting. But the reality fell far short, and Trial in particular is an absolute mess – as I understand it, the final episodes had to be written at short notice by writers who didn’t actually know how it was all supposed to fit together, and not surprisingly the result was chaotic. Even the notoriously nerdy Doctor Who tie-in novels from the nineties had an official editorial policy of not going anywhere near Trial of a Time Lord because it was too much of a continuity nightmare even for them.

As I typoed, I like Colin Baker, but the paradigmatic example of what Paul’s talking about in Trial is the mere fact that Mel and the Doctor never meet. They travel. They know each other. They never meet.

“The Trial of a Time Lord,” however, did introduce the character with the best name in sf tv history: Sabalom Glitz.

The Doctor and Mel’s “meeting” was written into the novelisation of the final “Trial” story — it’s not particularly satisfactory, but they did try…

“Trial” on tv fell apart at the end when author Robert Holmes had the misfortune to die before finishing anything other than a first draft outline. Script editor, Eric Sayward, wrote a finished script and then quit, refusing its use at the eleventh hour. All in all, a bit of a nightmare. But then that sums up much of Colin Baker’s run, unfortunately.

I’m a longtime fan of the series. I really like Tennant a lot-liked Eccleston too, and thought he left far too quickly, but I guess ya gotta do whatcha gotta do…

As to the Colin Baker info, I really appreciate the insight. I remember wondering why things seemed disjointed back when he had his run. Now I understand. Thanks for the comments.

I really like Eccleston. I think Tennant is good but to me Eccleston is better. He seemed more like the doctor who’s that I have watched. One of my favs is Tom Baker. He had the longest stretch I believe and I really liked his dry since of humor.

[...] spite of its origins in Doctor Who, a series for all ages, Torchwood is intended to be a more adult show, and it shows in the tone, [...]