The actors who’ve played the Doctor are a pretty close-knit bunch. After all, Doctor Who is famous for its perennial multi-Doctor episodes in which various incarnations of the character encounter one another, usually causing sparks to fly.
One notable exception to this rule, though, is Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor. Despite successfully relaunching the show in 2005, the award-winning actor left the series after a single season under a cloud, going so far as to blame the BBC for blacklisting him and negatively affecting his career in the years that followed.
His animosity towards the creative team meant that he was notably absent from the 50th Anniversary special The Day of the Doctor, in which David Tennant’s Tenth and Matt Smith’s Eleventh incarnations teamed up with John Hurt’s War Doctor to save time. But, thanks to a chance meeting at the London Film and Comic-Con, it seems that relations may be thawing just a little.
Here’s some video my daughter took pic.twitter.com/TStsaw9MId
— Janine Learner (@JanineLearner) July 29, 2018
As you can see, as Eccleston was crossing the packed floor he spotted Matt Smith, shouted his name and called him over, giving him a hug. Smith, clearly recognizing the significance of the encounter, appears bowled over by his friendly welcome. To cheers from the slightly gobsmacked crowd, Smith says that it’s “so good to see to see you” and Eccleston responds that they’ll have to meet in future. With a big smile on Smith’s face, Eccleston departs.
It’s a momentous meeting, adding a little something special to what’s Christopher Eccleston’s first ever convention appearance. In a further indication that he may have made his peace with the show, he was signing pictures of him as the Ninth Doctor and even offering up photos in front of a TARDIS.
There are an insane number of former Doctors at the convention, too, with Eccleston and Smith joined by *deep breath* Peter Capaldi, David Tennant, Tom Baker, David Bradley, Peter Davison, Paul McGann and Colin Baker (which I think are all the living actors to have played the character – unless you count Richard E. Grant).
It’s been five years since our last multi-Doctor episode, and with Jodie Whittaker about to launch her own Doctor Who adventures, it seems about time to get some of these guys back together for a collaboration. I don’t know about you, but my fingers are tightly crossed that Eccleston might one day step back into the leather jacket and remind us that “lots of planets have a North.”
