As anyone who knows me or reads this blog will know, I am a pretty big Doctor Who fan. Though I had seen the classic series as a young child, I think it’s safe to say that it was Christopher Eccleston who cemented me as a committed lifelong fan when he played the Doctor in the 2005 revival of the show. My twelve year old self simply couldn’t wait to see the next episode every Saturday. I was hooked.
He played the role very differently to most of the other actors who have played the Doctor. He was less whimsical and a lot more serious. Now, I love whimsy – but I also loved his refreshing take on the character. He only had the part for one series before passing it on to David Tennant and that one series is pretty much nothing but solid classics. Despite much less time to get to know him, he cemented himself as one of my favourite Doctors. Part of it may be that his single series is so different – it exists almost in a bubble, removed from everything that came before (and after, to an extent).
It is known that Christopher Eccleston did not enjoy his time on Doctor Who and that’s always been a very sad fact to me. As a consequence, he has never returned to the role, even though there have been many times where it would have been perfect for his character to do so – and, sure, they have included the Ninth Doctor in comics, books and other mediums which did not require Christopher Eccleston himself (some if it, I should say, is pretty darn good), but it never quite compared to the joy of watching him perform.
So I am very excited that today, Big Finish Productions have announced that he will be returning for twelve full-cast audio dramas. It’s the most excited I have been about a piece of Doctor Who news in a long time (though the latest series with Jodie Whittaker had some real thrills too). Big Finish are good at making fans’ dreams come true, so I can only wait with eager anticipation to see what they do with this.
