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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."

17 of 513 comments (clear)

  1. Oh, no! by Xaroth · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

    1. Re:Oh, no! by mccalli · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Taking your comment in a fashion a lot more po-faced than I should be doing...

      They might have to come up with a plot device quite soon though. No doubt an expert will correct me, but I thought the Doctor got twelve regenerations? Let's see, we've had...

      1. William Hartnell
      2. Patrick Troughton
      3. John Pertwee
      4. Tom Baker
      5. Peter Davidson
      6. Colin Baker
      7. Sylvester McCoy
      8. Paul McGann
      9. Richard E. Grant (audio, accepted as canon by the Beeb apparently)
      10. Christopher Ecclestone

      Arguably, you could include another: Peter Cushing from the films (doubtful though, I'd put him down as a Hartnell'a'like).

      So now we've got another series to go which needs another regeneration, that puts it up to eleven minimum and twelve potential (Peter Cushing). Better watch out for those Daleks, Doctor...

      Cheers,
      Ian

  2. Good for him by CleverNickedName · · Score: 5, Funny

    You play one eccentric, British Time Lord, and central casting want you to play them all.

    --


    Unfortunately, I am not Wil Wheaton
  3. Damn by Foss · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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
  4. Re:typecast by tquinlan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    --
    DBA? Software Engineer? My company is hiring! Click
  5. You would have thunk... by fatgeekuk · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ... 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...

  6. When all other ideas are exhausted... by d_p · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...make a prequel.

  7. Re:typecast by WormholeFiend · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is not always necessarily true...

    For example, I really liked Jean-Luc Picard's role as Professor X in the X-men movies.

  8. Good thinking by Dachannien · · Score: 5, Funny

    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".

  9. Re:typecast by grub · · Score: 5, Funny


    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,
  10. Re:Maximum number of regenerations by Kanon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's sci-fi. All it takes is one good writer and he can have as many regenerations as he likes.

  11. Re:Promote Rose? by Sentry21 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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*

  12. Ob Geek Joke by autophile · · Score: 5, Funny
    ((Doctor Who)Christopher Eccleston).act();

    javax.media.bbc.BadTypecastException: actor does not want to be typecast.

    --Rob

    --
    Towards the Singularity.
  13. Re:typecast by thehun101 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.
  14. SCRUBBERS! by mekkab · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.
  15. Re:typecast by nickstance · · Score: 5, Funny

    And of course if you want to complete the full Leonard Nimoy cycle, you must read "I Am Also Scotty"

  16. Re:Maximum number of regenerations by mikael · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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".

    --
    Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads