Here's your place to talk all you want about the Ninth Doctor, star of the series that's airing on the Sci-Fi series.

The Ninth was my first Doctor, and he certainly made an impression. Christopher Eccleston completely sold the character on his first line. However, until I fully figure out the whole spoiler policy I'll leave it at that for now.

Same here. That first line convinced me that, even though I was unfamiliar with the series and the other Doctors, I would be able to completely fall in love with the show and the Ninth Doctor.



Me too, especially since I'm not sure if, at this point, Eccleston's departure and thusly the Doctor's regeneration would be a spoiler or not (spoiled just in case).

In regards to the spoiler policy I would guess it would be considered a spoiler and thus needing tags since it would spoil a particular episode (and the whole run of the first series) and should probably only be discussed without spoiler tags in the episode thread for "Parting of the Ways" when it's created. Unless the TWOP higher-ups say otherwise.

Chris Eccleston was also my first Doctor... well almost, I've seen the 96 movie but it made so little impression on me that I don't think it counts. His performance IMO is so dynamic and endearing throughout.

I grew up with Who - I know all 9 Doctors so to speak and frankly I went from an unbeleiver to a believer (about reviving the series) in about a heartbeat of watching Chris.
Plus I was still sulking about Anthony Head not getting the part. And since I am major ASH fan this shows you just how awesome is Chris.
Love his lines, love his delivery - love how Chris makes the Doctor have just the right balance of intergalatic fatigue and childlike glee/innocence/curiosity.
Leather jacket wearing Doctor is so cool.

Ah, but ASH gets to play The Master in the next series, so it ain't all bad.

Back on topic, I saw "Rose" on a flight to London last fall and thought it was pretty good, albeit a bit derivative of "Terror of the Autons", and Eccleston is terrific.

ASH is not playing The Master, he is playing a school headmaster who is actually an alien.

Chris Eccelston is brilliant. I always have a hard time picking a favorite Doctor as they all have qualities I enjoy. But I think this is the best acting we ever got from a Doctor.

I stand corrected re: ASH -- I'd heard the early rumors and not the corrections.

Bummer. He'd make a great Master.

The Ninth Doctor was my first Doctor too and now he's my Doctor, you know? And while I really loved his first line it was when he asked Rose to come with him with the "or you could come with me" and the maniac grin that really got me. Eccleston rocked this part.

"Did I mention that it also travels in time?" Heee!

Nah for me it was total love when he said The Unquiet Dead "I love a happy medium." . That is not to say I wasn't already hooked by his enticement of Rose as you said pinkmoon.

But yeah I agree CE has given the best acting ever seen Headcase for Who. Nicely balanced performance all round. I don't think he dropped the ball once. As far as I am concerned he is THE Doctor.

Yeah bummer about ASH! Still even if it is just one epi it will be cool. Is this spoilery - I'll cover up JIC.
But even worse as far as I am concerned is that I fall for this new Doctor and they take HIM away too! Life is so unfair!

Feel free to open an ASH thread, you guys, or even take it to the spoiler thread.

Please don't feel like you need to consider this 9th Doctor thread a catch-all for the whole series. Glark and I worked hard to figure out the best solution to the US-spoiler stuff, and that means that any threads you open are a priori spoiler zones.

CH's take on the Doctor really did a grand job of mixing humour with tragedy, and the Doctor's wit often appeared in strange ways. My favourite was in and amongst the surrealness of Earth's soon-to-be demise in EotW, the Doctor offered the Forest of Cheem an exhale in lieu of an actual gift. Odd, and funny!

Eccelston was almost my first doctor, but not really. I had vauge memories from the PBS of my early childhood of Daleks in black and white (1st or 2nd doctor, I'm not sure, that's how fuzzy we're talking), and later of Pertwee. But I saw it only intermittantly and before the age of 8, so I never really knew what was going on. Given that when Jabe ID'ed him as a Time Lord I went all "ooooooohhh", I think we can say that for all intents and purposes, I was new to the show.

And I loved it. After getting into the new series, I went back to aquaint myself better with the old.

And I loved him. I'm sad to see him go, but it looks like the Tennant will be a fine replacement. And with respect to 9's character arc, I kinda understand why he, as a character, needed to be regenerated after one season. 9's personality was defined by the Time War and the scars that it left. Both his relationship with Rose and the final destruction of the Daleks give him a chance to heal from that and move on. And becoming 10 seems to best way to do that; I just can't envision 9 as being 9 without that underlying tension and angst, that slightly haunted look about the eyes.

Treppie, Oh, I totally agree that Nine's character arc seemed done when he finished that "So was I" line. I agree that it's almost for the best that he's done now. Of course I'll miss him, but he acted the hell out of the character, and I loved the arc.

Exactly, Aurelian. "So was I" was the signal of his closure, his leaving behind of his survivor's guilt and being ready to move on with his life. To remake himself -- more literally than usually, in his case -- without being so laden down with pain.

We can always hope for those 3 doctors, 5 doctors epi-arcs that they made from time to time for the old series! Or did CE say never again?

When asked in an interview, he said he'd consider doing a "radio play" like some of the previous Doctors once some time had passed. It seems obvious he actually meant the Big Finish Audio CDs though ( www.doctorwho.co.uk ).

The trouble with that, though, is that BF's licence specifically precludes them from using the Ninth or Tenth Doctors or any element from the new series [they can't even use the redesigned Police Box or Dalek on their covers]

I imagine that BF and BBC would probably cut another deal for new series stuff when appropriate.

Doctor #9 was my first doctor, but I've gone back and seen the old serials (the first classic Who I saw was The Five Doctors), including a few of Baker's (Genesis of the Daleks! Harry!) and Davison's. The Sixth Doctor reminds me of Richard Simmons, so I don't think I'll ever see any of those.

Having said this, Christopher Eccleston's incarnation will always be my Doctor; my love for him is indescribable because if I tried to explain it, it'd all gush out and still not convey everything I want to say. I love what I've seen of Tennant so far, but I do wish Chris had stayed on a bit longer.

I imagine the majority of Who fans would consider that a wise decision whether they too see the resemblance or not. Colin Baker's sixth Doctor enjoys the distinction of being the least-liked version of the character even though most people haven't seen the bulk of the first two Doctors' adventures.

Topic, please.

I, being of the fandom whorish kind, saw lots of icons and pics of Nine around the intarweb and loved him just from that. His big adorable grin just drew me in.

And then the glee with which he uttered his first line, I squeed and fell desperately in love. Just so mischievous and gleeful and competent. The matter of fact way he answered all Rose' initial questions. Adorable!

Something that confuses me.......

The sci-fi ads keep calling him the last of his kind. But I don't recall that ever being true for doctors 1-7. ( I vaguely remember the 8th doctor ) What's up with that?

Booklord, that is a bit of a spoiler, so read at your own risk. We find out during this series that Gallifrey has been destroyed and all the other Time Lords with it.

It gives Nine a very markedly difference from all the other incarnations.

Having been of age when PBS aired the Baker epps in the 80's I was cautiosly optimistic last Saturday night. But, CE completely won me over. I'm not sure if it was when he checked out himself in Rose's mirror and complained about the ears or this exchange:

Rose: You sound like you're from the North.

Doctor: Every planet has a North!

Or the classic intro:

Doctor: Nice to meet you, Rose. I'm The Doctor. Now, run for your life.

Like I needed another show to get all Happy Fanboy over again. But, I am. I am. Can't wait for the DVDs in July!!!!

Check out the Dr. Who novels "The Infinity Doctors" and "Lungbarrow". I believe a lot more about the Doctor's background is explored there.

Now, I don't know if any of what happened in those novels is relevant to the TV story line (and, to be honest, I read those books so long ago that most of the details escape me), but it might help... if you can find them. Dr. Who novels are somewhat scarce on bookshelves.

I was a little taken aback about the "war" that Nine mentioned. Who was it with? How could the all-seeing, all-powerful Time Lords lose? And is the Doctor truly the last one? What about the Rani and the Master? I hope these are questions that are answered.

They're not. This "last of his kind" thing is new for this series.

Lungbarrow is available online, as are a few others. Hurray for the BBC!

I think the novel you really want is "The Ancestor Cell", from what I've heard.

That said, RTD has said that the destruction of Gallifrey in the new series is not the same one as in The Ancestor Cell, though there seem to be similarities between the two. I suspect RTD just borrowed what seemed like a good idea without caring whether it fit in with the novels.

And I'm glad he did, because I love the new dimension it's given to the ninth doctor. Not just for the survivor guilt, but also because it restores some mystery to the doctor. We don't know why he's the only one to have survived, or exactly what happened, and we might never find out.

In fact, we don't even know that he actually is the "ninth" doctor -- it's never been stated in the show. He's the ninth one we've seen on TV (if you count the 1996 tele-movie), but anything could have happened between the tele-movie and now.

Davies has stated that he is the ninth Doctor and if he backed out now, he'd just piss off all the new and casual fans of the series.

Don't fret - some of those questions will be answered in future eps.

Nine was my first Doctor and I love him to bits. He's so smiley.

Oh this is so true. Now is it the innate sexiness of CE? Was he written that way or did the writers see BP and CE and go...phwoar - these two are hot together, let's amend scripts people!!!

Thoughts people?

I vote innate sexiness of CE, but I'm incredibly biased towards his floppy ears and big nose so I'm not discounting the chemistry between him and BP. :)

Lol. I know so hard to be objective!

Steven Moffat, who wrote the Hugo tipped Empty Child episodes made a great comment that the first thing you notice when meeting Eccleston in person is how incredibly handsome he is, but that he's some sort of 'anti-photogenic' thing going on, where his face becomes very angular and strange when viewed through a lens.

So, basically, if you think the Eccleston in Who is pretty, he's about four-five times better looking in person.


Off a question by Chorusgirl in the End of the World thread:

The accent Eccleston used for the Doctor was a slightly softened version of his normal speaking voice. He's done other accents for other programs where it made sense to do so (like in the movie Elizabeth or playing an educated WWI army officer in The Others) but he's been quite eloquent in interviews about how there's a stereotype that Northerners are slow and undereducated. As a child he never saw anyone who spoke like him on television and he thought it was important for children watching the new series to know that you could be intelligent and knowledgable without being from the South of the country.

There's more on the North/South divide in the UK in the Britspeak thread, but basically Eccleston's decision was the equivalent of trying to prove that you don't have to sound like you're from New England to be a genius.

I've been a big fan of Eccleston since, hmm, was it "Jude?" or "Shallow Grave?" I even saw "Anchoress" in college -- a truly bizarre film. He rocks the stern British thing that I adore (Ralph Fiennes being another stalwart), but he also has a kindness, even as the baddie in "28 Days Later."

I'm new to the Dr. Who series, and tuned in largely to see Eccleston. He gives a great range as the Doctor. He's sort of lovably daffy, but also shows moments of torment over his homelessness, and can be quite empathetic and intimate with Rose. It's cute that holding hands is about as racy as it comes on this show.

CE was my very first introduction to Doctor Who as well, and he was, well, fantastic. Thanks for that note about the accent, Nuallain; I was curious about that myself. The thing I love most about CE is his quick ability to switch between hilariously adorable to very badassedly dark.

Although I do, against my own will, really like Tennant as Ten, I would give anything to have CE back. Tennant seems to have good range, but, like I said, CE's gorgeous ability to flip his darkness on and off was just astounding. And the chemistry! I knew CE was leaving after season one, so going into "The Parting of the Ways," my heart was already breaking. Sending Rose back just about killed me, even though by then, I thought it was absolutely in character for him.

I shall have to tell my sister this. We had a marathon of the first series and we're both completely in love CE. We loved how he could go from being complete absurd to completely serious in no time at all. I also loved his voice, it's excellent and I'm glad that it's close to what he really sounds like (actually, I've heard him speak ooc before).

He's my first doctor, too. My mum* used to watch the older series when I was little but I never really got into (she's actually the reason I decided to watch this series). But CE was absolutely fantastic (I really can't help myself) and I'm completely hooked.

You too, man I thought I was the only one. Everyone else seems to have seen at least one other Doctor. But he was the first for me too. I think what I liked about him the most was his enthusiasm it was infectious. I got so caught up in his exitment and his joy at having these great adventures. He grabbed my attention at the start of every episode and didn't let go till the end. And no matter what I always ended the episodes with a smile on my face because I enjoy the show and his character so much. And I haven't had that kind of enjoyment of a show in a long time.

Tom Baker was my first Doctor and I loved him better than anyone since - until CE, who won me over in about a nanosecond.

Much handsomer in real life? dies

Hee. And yes.

Nine is easily my favorite Doctor right now, though if I actually ever get the chance to revisit my faintly-remembered original series memories, that could ::doubtful expresssion:: change. And of course, I haven't seen Ten yet.

I just posted this picture of CE, and some slightly-inappropriately-fawning comments, over in the "Cast in other Appearances" thread. Thought some of you might be interested.

Loved him as the Duke of Norfolk. fan-TAS-tic, indeed!

...VERY hot in the Elizabethan garb and beard. Yum!

I watched Doctor Who from about 1970 to the early 80s. I largely (and perhaps mercifully) missed most of the Colin Baker and all of the McCoy years. Pertwee, (Tom) Baker and Peter Davison did great interpretations of the role and put their own unique stamp on it. They had their strengths, and a few weaknesses. I was quite nervous about the resurrection of the show, but was totally blown away by CE's interpretation - and very sorry that he only signed up for one season.

Thanks, CE, for bringing the franchise back so strongly!

So... more handsome in person and an accent that I adore?

More and more good reasons to do my after-degree in Manchester.

CE is just one of those great actors (to me) who is infinitely believable in unbelievable situations. Alien, last of his kind who like chips? Okey Dokey, tell me again about you time machine and the anti-plastic.

I have no defense against him and I think I'm ok with that.

I'm glad I'm not the only one loving CE to little bits. That grin...sigh...

I was trying to explain it to my sister (who doesn't watch the show), and she looked at me like I was crazy. "Big ears, big nose, pointy face, big grin? Yeah, he sounds really hot." Somehow it all works - I think because he is so goofy, but you also know he could be a bad ass as required.

I'm excited for the next eppie tomorrow - I'm trying very hard to stay spoiler free, which is hard because I also want to spend my workday googling CE. I'm so getting fired... :-)

Hey, it's my long-lost identical twin williams!! Let's see, it's about 3pm PST right now, so another 30 hours until blast-off. Re: googling, fortunately for me, things are a little slow around the office right now. ;-)

I did the exact same thing with my best friend! She unfortunately, did not jump on the CE luuurve train as I have. Oh well, more for me! He's so, I don't know, charismatic and charming to me.

I watched this show obsessively when I was younger - our PBS station did a huge marathon every week, and I feel like I've seen the majority of every doctor. Tom Baker was my first Doctor, and I'm an unabashed fan, but I feel like Chris Eccleston is the first Doctor not only to seem to have a sexual identity, but also some emotional depth and range. After these episodes, I like him very, very much.

My two favorite doctors had always been Baker and Pertwee (my first was the first, but that's so long ago that he's more of a piece of archetypical imagery than a character)...

...until now.

Until now I can count on the finger of, uhm, one finger the times I thought the Doctor was sexy. (Baker, and I think I had a head cold, so, whatever).

Now, I can't put my finger on it, but CE is most excellent.

He makes The Doctor real (although he doesn't match Baker for making The Doctor kind of underlying-occasionally-psychotically-angry-for split-seconds-alien).

His Doctor is in love with the universe far more than, say, Pertwee (terminally pissed-off) or even Davison - perhaps because he had a role in screwing it over, via the Time War? Or because he knows how much of it he's lost? Dunno, look forward to finding out.


And his smile. Ack. I haven't had a TV crush for awhile.

No, actually, I'm lying about that last, but certainly CE is a great addition to my faunch cupboard.

I've loved CE in most of his role (just no one say Gone in 60 seconds, ok?) and I loved him though I'd never really wanted to jump him before his Doctor incarnation. I love his goofy excitement about life. The smile just about kills me every time. He's my first Doctor, I didn't know anything about the show and entire cultural phenomenon before and he has completely sold me in everything. Not that I don't like Tennant but CE just comes first in my heart and probably always will

I don't really have something particular to say about the character. I don't know whether there are some traits that are inherent Doctor Who traits or if in each incarnation he's different. Any help here?

I adore the chemistry with Rose and the age difference between the actors didn't really phase me. I thought it would but CE's portrayal just gives an incredible innocence to the character and the sexual chemistry works instead of ending up a little lecherous.

I'm with you, mimine. Their chemistry is sexy, but very playful, so it never crosses the line into making you think about their apparent age difference (or their real age difference).

I love this Doctor because even with his underlying sadness about whatever happened in the Time War, and with hundreds of years of experiences, he's as enthusiastic about the world as a child.