The Ninth Doctor’s Best Moments
Guest contributor Luke Gwalchmai goes through five of Eccleston’s best.
It’s amazing to think that it has been ten years since Christopher Eccleston first appeared on our screens. Eccleston had a tough task on his hands; to introduce the Doctor to a new generation of fans and get them to fall in love with Doctor Who. I think it’s fair to say, a decade on that he was successful. He may have only stayed for one series, but the Ninth Doctor had many fantastic moments during his short tenure, and I would like to run through a selection of my favourites here.
“Nice to meet you Rose, run for your life!”
What a brilliant way to introduce the Ninth Doctor this was! Just casually saving a young woman’s life, escorting her out of the building, and then telling her that you’re going back in to blow it up and probably kill yourself doing so! This scene was brilliant; it may very well be the last conversation he’ll ever have, and he’s so nonchalant and calm and just gives us a big smile! It gives us a great taste of what’s to come from this Doctor and a small insight of where he’s at mentally right now. He’s out to get the job done and is prepared to put himself in danger to save others, without as much of a second thought for his own safety.
I also like that while he’s quite callous in the way he tells Rose that Wilson is dead, he then makes sure she doesn’t damage her eyes via sparks from the sonic screwdriver. It shows that he’s not always got time to cater to people’s feelings, but he’s still the Doctor in that he doesn’t want any innocent people to get hurt or killed. I can’t help but smile when he says the line in the heading; Eccleston delivers it expertly and I find it to be a truly memorable scene. It is also the scene that started many fans journey with the Doctor; he didn’t just get Rose caught up in this mad world, he gets millions of fans swept away too! This is a scene with many layers that gives us a nice early insight into Eccleston’s Doctor, and was a great way to introduce this Doctor.
“I just wanted to say how sorry I am.”
Sometimes you don’t need to say much to tell a story, and this was certainly the case in this emotional scene with Jabe in The End of the World. Here we have the second time (if I remember correctly) in this series that the Doctor is confronted about his people. It’s different to the encounter with the Nestene Consciousness, it’s more intimate, and we get a different reaction from the Doctor. He doesn’t say anything here, but the look on his face says it all. It’s heartbreaking to see the Doctor start to cry, as you know that whatever happened would have to have been something pretty big to strike such an emotional reaction out of him. Eccleston is magnificent here, and gives us another glimpse of just how much the Time War has affected him. You can tell that whatever happened there, it has shaped who he is today, and the haunted, traumatised look on his face told more of a story than a 300 page book could in my opinion, though George Mann gave it a pretty could shot. This scene really helps the audience to connect with the Doctor; to see such emotion drawn from him, allows us to feel sympathetic for him and to see through his hard exterior.
“I watched it happen. I made it happen!“
This scene is one of the greatest scenes in Doctor Who history in my opinion. There is such a tense atmosphere surrounding it, and it was terrific to see the Doctor come face to face with the Daleks for the first time since the Time War. Eccleston is absolutely sublime here, and delivers some of the greatest acting I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching. He goes through practically every emotion in the book, from sheer terror when he realises that it’s a Dalek in the room with him, to relief/elation that its weapon isn’t working, and so on.
This Doctor was generally one to try to keep his emotions in check, he’s been hardened by the events of the Time War, so it was really interesting to see such raw anger that the Dalek brought out of him. It was like it lifted the lid on any emotion he was trying to keep under wraps. The Doctor is so unpredictable here, as he varies in his emotions, and his tone of voice, and is quite scary and intimidating for a moment or two. It’s scary to see what that war has done to the Doctor, and how he is torturing himself inside. Eccleston conveys every aspect of the Doctor’s survivor’s guilt, including even flicker of remorse he feels for committing genocide against the Daleks, for all their evil, stating that he had no choice. His performance really displays that the Doctor has a long history with the Daleks, which works to convince new viewers who may not have been aware of that fact.
The scene also demonstrates to us just how dangerous the Daleks are, because even though it is pretty much defenceless at this point, the Doctor still chooses to kill it. Because many new viewers may not have seen the Daleks before this point, to see the Doctor willing to execute something being held prisoner with a damaged weapons system, you just know that you’re dealing with something really bad. It’s scary to see the Doctor jump straight to that conclusion, and shows us already how terrified he really is of the Daleks, he’s not prepared to underestimate it, and knows exactly what he needs to do.
Chris really shows us all how it’s done in this scene, and it’s a real acting masterclass, showcasing that he truly was perfect for the role of this particular Doctor. This is a memorable and iconic scene in my opinion, it’s one of the best in the show’s history, which is largely down to Christopher Eccleston’s amazing performance, as he shows us just how layered his Doctor is, and how traumatised and battle-scarred he is. It’s utterly sublime. I’m running out of superlatives here so I’ll move on!
“Just this once, everybody lives!”
I challenge pretty much anyone to watch this scene and not smile! It’s so heart-warming to see such euphoria on this Doctor’s face. In every episode prior to this, at least one person has died. After we heard Clive’s declaration that death is the Doctor’s ‘constant companion’, the series really delivered on that, and episode after episode we saw many people meet their fate when the Doctor was around, and no one knew this more than him. So it was lovely to see, after this series and especially the Time War that the Doctor is able to save everyone this time. No one deserved a day like that one more than the Ninth Doctor, he has seen his fair share of death while he has been constantly trying to do the right thing, so he deserved to be able to walk back to the TARDIS without putting more deaths on his shoulders. After a quite high body count, it was refreshing to see everyone live, and to be able to escape the often cruel consequences of crossing paths with the Doctor.
I haven’t really got much else to say on this one; it is a terrific scene, simply because it was so great to see a Doctor like Eccleston’s, who’d become so hardened by the amount of death that has preceded him, and having to kill in the Time War, be able to save everyone. The look of joy on his face says it all really, it’s always nice to see the Doctor happy, and this moment really gave the Doctor a spring in his step and was a bit of a turning point for him.
“Rose, before I go, I just want to tell you, you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And do you know what? So was I.”
I love the Ninth Doctor’s regeneration scene. It’s so sad, and really makes me admire the Ninth Doctor even more than it is possible. He is clearly scared by what is about to happen, because he doesn’t know exactly what will happen, and he is worried about it. But he puts his own fears aside to explain to Rose what’s going on in the best way that he can, and tries his best to help her, and viewers at home who hadn’t experienced regeneration before, deal with it. I’ve seen this regeneration scene about a thousand times, but I must admit it makes me sad every time. It is one final piece of brilliance from Eccleston, as his performance is very understated and subtle. Just through a couple of facial expressions, you can tell how scared he is inside, even though he’s putting on a brave face.
The Doctor was brave, reassuring and very heroic in the way he faced his regeneration. He accepted what was going to happen admirably and sets a great example to everyone of how to accept change and face the fear of the unknown. It was so nice to see such an angry, remorseful Doctor bow out with a smile on his face, and see his Doctor come full circle. His last line is awesome, and puts a smile on my face every single time.
Conclusion
Quite simply, I love the Ninth Doctor. I absolutely adore Eccleston’s run in Series One. The greedy part of me is absolutely gutted that he didn’t do at least another series, because he was so fantastic. But I respect Eccleston’s decision to leave and I don’t care what happened off screen, I admire Eccleston for having the guts to leave a job he was not happy at, instead of just putting up with it, taking the money and being unhappy for another year or two. He is a great man too, as he demonstrated recently when he helped a man to propose to his girlfriend by getting into the character of the Doctor for once more. I respect him as a man, and as an actor. He went out on a high and ends one of the best regeneration of the Doctor of them all.
Eccleston had an amazing, sort run as the Doctor. He captured many people’s hearts and was instrumental in making the show popular for a new audience, and without him, there may not be a show now, so I will always be grateful to him for that. I can relate to this Doctor more than any other, and I can connect to the character in different ways to any other. He is such a layered character, and Eccleston is a marvellous actor, and it was a privilege to have had an actor of such quality involved in the show. Since departing Doctor Who, Christopher Eccleston has proven what a talented actor he is, most recently in series’ such as The Leftovers and Fortitude. But, for a lot of people, he will always be remembered as the Doctor, and he was a truly fantastic one at that.
I have chosen just five of what I feel are some of Eccleston’s best moments in the role, but there are many amazing moments from his tenure that I haven’t chosen that I feel guilty for not including them, but feel free to list them in the comments.
