BBC Apologizes To Who Star

An anonymous reader writes "SciFi Wire is reporting that 'The BBC, which earlier reported that Doctor Who star Christopher Eccleston was leaving the show after the first season, issued an unusual apology to the actor for mischaracterizing his reasons for departing...the network broke an agreement with Eccleston not to reveal that he had planned to film just one season of the hit show all along.'" We covered the announcement of his resignation late last month.

Comments

Is it just me

[elid]

or does anyone else find it odd that he only planned on being in one season...

Re:Is it just me

[Staplerh]

does anyone else find it odd that he only planned on being in one season...

An insightful post. One has to wonder what Eccleson thought, signing on to a series that one must have thought he must have hoped would have been successful? Either he was banking on Dr. Who tanking (doubtful) or simply wasn't thinking ahead.

Now this is just a wild-assed guess, but perhaps he's trying to make the leap off the small screen and Dr. Who was seen as a mechanism for him to make the transition. He certainly has recieved more media attention in light of this move - the initial reports of his departure from the show as well as the reports of the BBC apology?

Suppose that's just free publicity. He did get two appearances on Slashdot however.... and that can't mean nothing can it?!

Re:Is it just me

[R.Caley]

but perhaps he's trying to make the leap off the small screen

Well, that makes lots of sense. An actor who most people probably associate with movie work doing a TV series to get out of TV.

Who?

[nxtr]

Doctor Who!
Doctor who?
Doctor who!
Doctor Who?
Not the pronoun, but rather a doctor with the unlikely name of "Who"

Re:Who?

[nacturation]

Not the pronoun, but rather a doctor with the unlikely name of "Who"

Were it the former, we'd have a bunch of grammar nazis claiming that the title should read "BBC Apologizes To Whom Star". Not to mention the ensuing thread of replies pointing out how it still isn't correct.

The BBC seems to apologize a lot

[brandonp]

The BBC seems to apologize a lot for their reporting, do a quick search and you will find many examples. Here is a few:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ifs/hi/newsid_4220 000/newsid_4222300/4222353.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ifs/hi/newsid_4270 000/newsid_4273300/4273385.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ifs/hi/newsid_4030 000/newsid_4032600/4032665.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_ra dio/1544897.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/1050290.s tm
http://www.vermontguardian.com/dailies/0904/0322.s html
http://cbsnews.cbs.com/stories/2003/03/21/iraq/mai n545215.shtml
http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/12/03/news/beeb.h tml
http://www.rediff.com/news/2004/jan/28bbc.htm

Some are serious, some are ridiculous. But in the end, apologies result from improper reporting, much different than a simple correction.

Re:The BBC seems to apologize a lot

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, we will try better from now on, really.

-- BBC

Re:The BBC seems to apologize a lot

[quacking duck]

Far, far better to apologize when you're wrong, than to ignore (and if that doesn't work, deny) that there was ever an issue.

Too often these days big media are guilty of going the ignore/deny route. That the BBC at least attempts to rectify incidents of bad reporting puts them heads and shoulders above most others, because let's face it, no media outlet is always correct, especially where biases may affect the reporting.

Re:The BBC seems to apologize a lot

[mollymoo]

Naughty BBC for apologising when they get something wrong, what a shocking example to set for the children.

The doctor is a cylon

[loggia]

Very subtle joke for the attentive.

Air it in the United States already!

[shadowlight1]

When will a station finally pick the show up in the United States??? It's showing in Australia, the UK, Canada, and Italy to record ratings. Someone needs to wake up the execs that be and get this show on the air before we look like complete morons.

This isn't terribly surprising.

[A Sea and Cake]

Networks can be incredibly forgiving of actors if they really want them - the one-season limit of Christopher Eccleston seems to fall under that rule. Hell, The producers of Witchblade kept Yancy Butler when filming Witchblade, even though she had a substance abuse problem. They went so far as bringing her mom on set to keep her sober and filming shots where she wobbled after throwing a punch again.

Whereas if a crew member showed up once just a bit inebriated, they'd probably have been sacked. Cogs in the wheel, I suppose.

What are they going to do for next season, though? Ignore the elephant on the sofa, and change characters? Do an episode where Dr. Who wakes up in a different body due to some bizarre transformation gun he gets hit with? Deal with it Ed Wood style and have him killed off-screen?

Re:This isn't terribly surprising.

[Anonymous Coward]

Do an episode where Dr. Who wakes up in a different body due to some bizarre transformation gun he gets hit with?

Not a big Dr. Who fan I see.

Shame..

[Turn-X Alphonse]

It's a shame he is leaving after one season. As I grew up I never had any intrest in Dr. Who, it always seemed to drag on and be boring when I watched it (so did episode 3 of the new series to a point though..). But the new Dr. Who intrests me, the humour is very... classic so to speak. Rather then the "heres a few black people or a daughter living with her player father" crap we see every week in and out, Dr. Who is infact funny when it's ment to be. You don't sit there going "hey go on make a joke!" but when you do get a joke it's most the time at least slightly amusing. I'll probably follow the full series through and see how much I like/dislike the new Dr. as to what I do next season, but right now Christopher is carrying the series.

Billie Piper is "okay" but her tone just ruins it for me, she sounds like she needs to be pregnant and have several kids just to get a free house and some extra (free) money from the government. Now theres no problem with sounding like that in modern stuff, but when you're traveling time and no one notices you've got a weird voice somethings up... ep 3 did... minorly cover this issue, but again very minorly..

Where it really stands out is how Christopher plays the Doctor. He bounces and bounds and generally seems to rather enjoy traveling time, saving the Earth and quite frankly having a bit of a giggle while he's at it. I've not seen him in anything else and don't really desire to, but as the doctor he's perfect.

Hopefully the BBC can get him to do a few more seasons. Everyone saying "he's using it as a stepping stone", the other way could be he's trying to revive Dr. who so it will open up sci fi again beyond "star gate and enterprise" on channel 4 every bloody weekend. While he may "waste" a regeneration he's still managed to win over thousands of fans new and old, maybe even some hated enemies of the show.

So like him or not, or his actions. He deserves all the respect he gets for being a magnificent actor in his current rule and reviving not only Dr. Who, but decent comedy which isn't a parody or steriotyped.

Re:Shame..

[Leontes]

Doctor who on television was dead, though. If it means having a really amazing doctor for one year vs keeping the television program off the air, I'd prefer the one year of interesting shows. I'm not so sure if I agree or even understand your criticism of Piper. Accent accuracy and response by others within the context temporally can either be explained by the translator field generated by the TARDIS or just adorable kitsch campy production value. The fact you find her accent to be low class and that of a stereotypical welfare abuser suggests to me they've done a great job in casting, since I feel, people whom have such thoughts should be exposed to stimuli that counters to such harmful, ridiculous stereotyping.

Re:Shame..

[R.Caley]

I have absolutely no clue as to what class status UK accents signify.

Hm. Translation.

Imagine Rose is speaking white trailer-trash, the Doctor some variety of black English.

Her accent nails her to a social and educational background (she wasn't going anywhere without losing that dialect), his is one which would have traditionally have had been associated with strong, mostly negative, steriotypes, but more recently has become sonewhat cool, especially with younger people.

Here's a theory. Given the translation effects of the tardis, perhaps we hear the doctor as his companions see him/need to see him. Hartnel is the slightly old fashoned schoolmaster two 60s teachers expected, Pertwee had to be the kind of expert who the brigadeer would listen to etc.

Rose, of course, meets a figure she has to instantly respect and listen to -- ``I'm the Doctor, run for your life!'' -- that can't be the kind of authority figure she has clearly rejected from school etc, nor the kind of people she lives amongst (consider that awful boyfriend), so she hears a slightly exotic, slightly cool dialect which is not `them', but distant enough from `us' to carry some weight.

Re:Off topic but...

[Leontes]

Actually, I have a theory that they are hinting to a huge temporal war that ended up in the death of the timelords except for the Doctor (and perhaps what the celestine conciousness was blaming the doctor for when he gets made at him in the premier). It's a pity that Enterprise has kind of poisoned that concept, but it seems pretty different, considered the tragic outcome has already occurred. I hope I'm right. A subtle interlocking arch tying together the seasons of Who is exactly what is needed to keep this on the air for another 26 years.

If they were really intelligent...

[ashitaka]

They would make taking a turn as the Doctor into something all well-known actors would aspire to, just like the guest spot on the Muppet Show used to be.

This would set off raging discussions online about who the next Doctor will be, who the next Doctor should be, who the best Doctor was, etc.

Built-in buzz. C'mon BBC get with it.

That's What you get.....

[oO Peeping Tom Oo]

For partaking in armed rebellion!

Re:blame the Beeb

[Golias]

Odds are, the conversation went:

Dear Chris,

Please, please, please star in our new show. We think you are the right man for the job, and we are really committed to making this new show work.

Cheers

Dear BBC,

Okay, but only for one season. I would like to spend the rest of my career taking on new roles in film and on television, rather than being the guest of honor at Sci-Fi conventions for the rest of my life.

Yours, etc.