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Dr. Who Series Star Quits
TinheadNed writes "The day after the BBC confirmed there will be a second Doctor Who series next year, as well as a Christmas special, new Dr Who actor Christopher Eccleston has revealed he will not continue in the role, for fears of being typecast. Billie Piper, who plays his assistant Rose, will probably continue in her role."
Now they'll have to come up with some sort of complicated plot device to explain why the Doctor looks different next season! ...oh, wait.
That green slime had it coming.
You play one eccentric, British Time Lord, and central casting want you to play them all.
Unfortunately, I am not Wil Wheaton
I thought Eccleston made a very good Doctor Who - A great actor with just the right amount of humour. I didn't like *any* of the previous Doctors - excepting Tom Baker - to the point where I couldn't watch the show. Just when I start getting back into it, the guy leaves.
Chris Evans would agree, that's what happens when you spend too much time with Billie Piper!
You've got mail. Pattern baldness. - Crow
I recommend the show. Lovely! Completely ridiculous technofobia in a modern coating! The best of old and new! Great show, ill be watching.
Read "I Am Not Spock" by Leonard Nimoy sometime if you want to know the answer.
The bottom line is that too many people see *Spock* (or in this case, the Doctor) after a while, and not Nimoy (or Eccelston).
Nimoy played Tave (sp?) in Fiddler on the Roof, and had a number of other successful roles in film and theatre, but how many people here (or anywhere) would know that?
But show anyone a picture of them, and they don't say "Nimoy!" they say "Spock!".
Yes, it can be a help to your career (as for Nimoy, he could play the one character forever and anywhere), but a lot of serious actors want to show that they have talent and depth, and being typecast largely prevents that.
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... that he would have considered the typecasting possibility earlier ...
could it be that he could not agree with the Beeb as to how much he would be paid for a second season?
He had nothing to fear about a second season typecasting him. he was typecase at 17:05 last saturday when he poked his head around a door and said "hello, I'm the doctor"...
A friend of mine was in London on Saturday, when he came back in to work on Tuesday he said, "guess who I saw in london on Saturday?, Doctor Who", not Chris Eccleston, Dr Who... jobs already done...
I doubt he's afraid of being type cast. This is a negotiating tactic, plain and simple. Let it be known that you won't be around for a second run if you're not already contractually obligated to do so, and then they come at you with more money right out of the gate.
In other words, Christopher Eccleston is an idiot.
...make a prequel.
How about an eaiser explination. There was a forum I was reading where they were complaining that Rose looked to be a love intrest for the Doctor. I'm not sure I saw it that much just in 'Rose', but we'll see. But my though was it's getting to the point where he needs a love intrest so he can have a child, which he can then play geames with time, pick him up when he's older and then go off to "die".
No reason the son can't just be called "The Doctor" as well.
The official word from Russell Davies has always been that the processions was McCoy -> McGann -> Eccleston.
News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters? Like hell.
This is not always necessarily true...
For example, I really liked Jean-Luc Picard's role as Professor X in the X-men movies.
Dr Who actor Christopher Eccleston has revealed he will not continue in the role, for fears of being typecast.
Now everyone will just remember him as "that jerk who quit Dr. Who after one season because he was afraid of being typecast".
Read "I Am Not Spock" by Leonard Nimoy sometime if you want to know the answer.
Read his later book "I Am Spock" and you'll find he's recanted a lot of his thinking on the matter.
Trolling is a art,
I liken it to my fear that every perl script i ever write will be exactly the same. But I have to type it over again from scratch each time. What it amounts to is that doing the same thing day in and day out is boring.
It also has to do with once you are "typecast" the number of roles you are offered greatly diminishes, and if for some reason it becomes popular to not have this type of character in movies or tv shows your shit out of luck.
It's sci-fi. All it takes is one good writer and he can have as many regenerations as he likes.
There is a plot device. It's called the "Eye of Harmony" and was used by The Master" in the story "The Deadly Assassin" to get past his twelfth regeneration cycle.
It's a real shame though - After seeing the first episode, Christopher Eccleston seemed to be ready to match Tom Baker's mix of eccentricity, creativiy, and insanity (not forgetting that wild-eyed grin). The other doctors never seemed to have that edgy psychotic attitude, that would justify wanting to escape from the home world and travelling between random locations in space and time.
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Allthough he was in a serious role, I expected him any minute to sit down on that couch, put his hand in his trousers, and start bitching at his wife...
Damn typecasting.
There have been female Time Lords, but the Doctor is a guy. The last thing we need is a gender-bending regeneration to lose all the former fans due to fanservice.
Unless, of course, you mean have a DIFFERENT Doctor, who is female, in which case you could do the whole Highlander-the-series protege-dies-then-comes-back-to-life revelation, 'Rose, you're actually a Time Lord that was left on this planet as a baby etc. etc', perhaps the love child of the doctor and Rose's mother, and we could turn it into a space opera with Daleks.
Actually, this is starting to sound weird enough that it just might work. After all, they only have two Doctors left anyway. Personally, I'm hoping that when they get to their last Doctor, they make a feature film, hugely dramatic, the Doctor sacrifices himself and dies his final time to save the universe. Then at the end, the companion lays dying with the secondary character(s) around, then suddenly, we see the regeneration effect, and s/he changes into a new form.
'Rose..? Is that you?'
'Yes... But please, call me... Doctor.'
*Cue badass Dr Who theme*
javax.media.bbc.BadTypecastException: actor does not want to be typecast.
--Rob
Towards the Singularity.
Never saw Eccleston (Doctor) sticking with it - he's a much better actor than the role requires and the writing allows. A recent interview on BBC's Jonathan Ross show saw him looking rather bemused with the whole thing (and with the line of Dr Who dolls due to come out this Xmas) he's probably feeling embarrassed by the first ep.h ift/nigel-kneale.shtml) then please let them come forward and seize the day before Dr Who is cancelled once again. ...
The material given to him in the first ep. was p***-poor and the story quickly gravitated towards Billy Piper (Rose) which is one of the many pointers to the soap-like focus that the show will now suffer (after all, the target audience will be young ladies as it is for all drama-based TV shows these days -my sister felt sorry for the Doctor when he pleaded with Rose to come with him).
Of course even Eccleston wouldn't want to turn down a paying job but I don't expect the BBC even wanted him to continue in the role otherwise they would have tied him to another series already.
BBC Three (which has all the after-show shows here in the good old UK) transmitted the Dr Who Confidential show after the actual ep. on BBC 1 and the new production team kept banging on about their view of the essence of Dr Who, which boiled down to the Doctor character (but without the traditional dandy clothing - i.e. a time traveller that follows 21st century Earth fashions?), a Tardis (but only the exterior and the bigger-on-the-inside tricks have been kept the same), the space/time travelling (but the first episode was set in the now, and the next is supposed to be set at the end of time), and scary creatures (but the first episode had very unfrightening shop dummies). Nothing more! Ok, maybe I'm not sure what the essence of the original series was but I'm sure it was more about presenting new ideas and challenges to the viewer (e.g. what would we do if the earth was invaded by round tin-cans / human-like tin cans / big flies / etc) rather than wondering how long Eccleston will be able to reel of the names of lame galactic accords and stare meaningfully at Rose.
The BBC should have looked to the late-70s Quatermass series which resurrected an earlier BBC series with a challenging premise and story line, instead of the long list of Mal Young resurrected soap-dramas. If there is some one in BBC land who is more like Nigel Neale (Quatermass, The Stone Tape*) (http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/times
Then again, what do I know
* The Stone Tape is superb and highly recommended.
While there are female Time Lords, I don't think a female Doctor would work (either in a the current or a new character entirely).
And if you promoted Rose, might as well just call the show Dr. Buffy, The Dalek Slayer.
Though why the Beeb isn't considering Anthony Stewart Head is beyond me, I think he would do a much better job than all the other candidates.
Dr. Wu
"I've never met Napoleon"
That's because Patrick Stewart is a decent actor and can actually play characters other than Captian Picard.
The few times I've seen Leonard Nimoy in roles other than Spock I identified him as spock just as much because he acted like spock as because he looks like him. This leads me to believe he is probably not a very versatile actor.
There are plenty of examples of good actors that have moved beyond their roles in popular and long lived television series.
- the Hun
I'm a Tasty-vore. If it's Tasty, I'll eat it.
I demand the finest wines in the universe! I want them here, and I want them now.
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
If William Shatner didn't get "typecast" then I don't think this guy has much to worry about; OTTOMH, Shatner has played a starship captain, a policeman, and a lawyer (and all THAT after he played a Hitler-type character...or did he actually play Hitler in a movie...? Aha! to the rescue!! Holy COW, his IMDB entry is HUGE...ok, I'm seriously OT now, but Eccleston has nothing to worry about.)
This space intentionally left (almost) blank.
And of course if you want to complete the full Leonard Nimoy cycle, you must read "I Am Also Scotty"
Actually, she continued to be a very successful actress...she was in 82 movies all the way up till 1979...then she made guest stars on several TV series and of course she was in the Maxwell House Coffee commercials up till the day she died in 1985.
She was a talented actress and was up till she passed.
"Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
that's the first slashdot post in ages that genuine made me laugh aout loud (and almost choke on my lunch). someone mod this up...
The author of this post asserts his moral rights.
>>Rich Johnson (comic book rumor columnist) posted a [...]
I'm sorry, I don't want to be offtopic but... Isn't that just one of the saddest job occupations that you've ever heard of?
I can just imagine him at his "newsdesk" (in his parents' basement) posting up newsflashes (cue Comic Book Guy voice):
"Attention. I have just received most horrible news. It appears that in the new Spiderman series, they have decided to colour his pants light blue in a spider-mesh pattern, instead of solid dark blue like in the previous series. Clearly this cannot stand. We are inquiring with Marvel on this serious matter. DEVELOPING....
Anyone who gets compared to Shatner has something to worry about.
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It does look like the BBC have dropped the ball here on more than one level. Firstly yeah, when casting a part like The Doctor the contract should include multiple series if it proves popular[*].
Secondly, was it really necessary to confirm that the new series is in the planning before the second episode of this one has even aired?
Letting people know there's a new series before the current one finishes is a good thing, but confirming it this early seems a little bit overkill to me.
Finally they really dropped the ball by having it known that the lead actor isn't in the next series before we're even really into this one.
Surely something like this kind of announcement you leave until as late in the series as you can. All announcing it this early does is make it harder to want to get used to the current actor as you know there's be a new one next year. Not a great move, I think.
[*] Although it might simply have not occurred to them. In an interview I heard, it seems that neither Eccleston nor Watson had thought past this current series. If true, then this was possibly shortsighted on the planning front.
I guess the real problem here was that if no-one was sure that a second series was going to happen - or when it would happen - it'd be harder to get someone to commit to multiple series.
Tiggs
"120 chars should be enough for everyone..."
Robert Heinlien used the revelvant one for this case in "All You Zombies" -- "orphan girl meets boy, boy gets girl pregnant, boy runs off, girl gives baby up for adoption, girl turns out to be hermaphrodite whose womanly parts just happen to be ruined by the birth so has sex re-assignment surgery as a man, man joins the time patrol, man meets girl, man gets girl pregnant, man runs off, man time-jumps ahead nine months and adopts baby...".
See, this simple, classic plot solves the BBC's dilema with Dr Who quite neatly!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
There's a point near the end of the first episode of the new series where the Nestine Consciousness addresses the Doctor accusingly as "Time Lord!" -- it's quite noticable, as it's the only thing it says in English rather than random burbling.
Sounds like the Time Lords will be referenced somehow at least. IIRC in a magazine interview Eccleston also mentioned that the Doctor is so fond of the Tardis in part because it's the only thing left of his civilization.
DNA just wants to be free...
Also, The Master escaped death by a unexplained method in the Movie.
I didn't really think the Master was portrayed very well in the movie - spitting at people just didn't seem very polite behaviour for an intergalactic supervillain.
Though, I did like the Tardis better in the movie than the new series, but it's better than the old series., which obviously looked like a studio set. The movie set looks more "lived in" with all the bits of antique navigation gear, toolkit boxes and furniture.
It's informative to see the design storyboards for the tardis. The designers almost seemed to be heading for a Star Trek theme, before heading towards a Star Wars look, before looking more like a rusted neutrino detector. If that were a student flat, there'd be a lot more stuff everywhere (boxes, bookshelves, monitors, rugs). Not forgetting a large "mind the step" or "contents may have shifted during transit".
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The thread is quite old now so I doubt many will see this but for more info on one of the key people involved in the creation of the badass Dr. theme tune have a look here.
Delia Derbyshire Website
Delia created the theme tune from Ron Grainer's original score. On first hearing it Grainer was tickled pink: "Did I really write this?" he asked. "Most of it," replied Derbyshire.
In an age when women were not "allowed" in recording studios she is pretty much responsible for one of the most recognised TV theme tunes ever.