Moffat: Eccleston Turned Down 50th But “Really Cares For Doctor Who”

Katie Gribble is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

The 50th anniversary episode of Doctor Who, The Day of the Doctor, was a landmark in the shows history. It was simulcast in 94 countries and shown in 1,500 cinemas around the world – a spectacular success for TV’s longest-running sci-fi series. There were documentaries on almost all BBC channels and a massive three-day convention at London’s ExCel. It was an unabashed, unapologetic celebration of all things Who. Bringing aspects from across the timeline of the series from 1963 up until the present day and beyond (No, Sir! All Thirteen!). I certainly remember it being a huge event, gathering friends together in my living room to cheer, laugh and cry at this beautiful commemoration of 50 years of Doctor Who.

In an interview with the Radio Times, Steven Moffat, showrunner and man tasked to bring the 50th anniversary special to life, revealed the trials and tribulations of getting such a highly anticipated piece of television to air. We learn now that The Day of the Doctor was a nightmare to make with so many uncertainties, last minute changes and secrets all trying to find the right story to tell.

When asked about the original plans for the anniversary special, Moffat revealed that one of the initial ideas involved Clara Oswald as the central pivot of the story with the anniversary following the Series 7 finale where Clara leaps into the Doctors time line to save him. Certainly an interesting idea, but hardly something that could be justified as celebrating all 50 years of Doctor Who. However, the most interesting piece of information to come from the interview was the revelation that:

“The first version was David [Tennant], Matt [Smith] and Chris [Eccleston] together…But I knew that Chris was almost certainly going to say no. I met him a couple of times and he was absolutely lovely. He met with me because he didn’t want to say no through his agent or a phone call or email. He wanted to do it personally. And I three-quarters talked him into it.

“So I started a version of it but I got to a point where I could go no further unless it was going to be him. I went for another meeting with him and he decided no. His reasons are his business and he’s a very private man. But it’s reasonable to say he really cares about Doctor Who. He’s well versed in what’s happened since he left, and happily chatted away about Amy Pond by name.”

News of Eccleston’s involvement was bandied around way in advance of the 50th anniversary and was certainly a hope that, despite Eccleston’s refusal to return previously, he would return for such a big event for a show that he clearly still cares very much about. After the special aired and we were introduced to John Hurt’s brilliant War Doctor, there was of course a lot of praise for the episode but naturally questions about how close the production team had got to getting the Ninth Doctor into the anniversary began to surface.

On 17th October, a fan on various forums revealed how close the production team had reached. What Moffat’s confirmation in his recent interview about Eccleston being in the original version can be shown by his appearance in storyboards drawn up for the show by Andrew Wildman. The user who revealed this news TheBlackKnightRises on reddit revealed that:

“I asked whether the artist had read the script featuring Nine and he said yes, so who knows, maybe one day we’ll also get to read the original idea! But for now I hope you guys find this cool, it’s certainly interesting to see how similar the drawings are to what we eventually saw.”

Wildman had worked on episode storyboards before and was asked to storyboard most of series 7 along with three Christmas specials and a few bits for the 50th anniversary. The appearance of these storyboard images is particularly exciting and shows how close we came to having the ninth Doctor in the anniversary. However, we sadly were not to see him except for the inclusion of footage from his series and in his appearance in the final shot of the episode. Nevertheless, we should not be completely downhearted that Eccleston did not take part. From that decision came John Hurt’s beautiful War Doctor; certainly a very welcome addition to the Doctor Who universe who has opened up a period in our history that we didn’t even know existed.

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