Meet the Ninth Doctor, played by Christopher Eccleston—the fresh face who brought Doctor Who roaring back to life in 2005. This video explores how Eccleston’s intense, edgy, and deeply human portrayal helped reboot the beloved series for a new generation. From his leather jacket to his fierce determination to protect the universe, the Ninth Doctor redefined the Time Lord with grit and heart. Discover his unforgettable adventures, iconic companions like Rose Tyler, and the renewed energy that set the stage for modern Doctor Who.
Join us as we celebrate the Doctor who started it all over again!
Join us as we celebrate the Doctor who started it all over again!
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00:00Christopher Eccleston the ninth doctor was absolutely fantastic it was 2005 the year that
00:22YouTube was invented and Doctor Who was reborn the ninth doctor came charging back onto our screens
00:29with a tough new attitude and wearing a leather jacket that was unlike anything we'd seen before
00:34this was a doctor for the 21st century when the ninth doctor burst onto our screens everybody
00:41had been waiting for him to come back for such a long time wherever he was so excited to have an
00:46actor like Christopher Eccleston playing the bar giving him that kind of conviction that energy
00:51it was such a treat it was great to see him in action you think it'll last forever people and
00:57cars and concrete but it won't one day it's all gone even the sky he wasn't quite who you expect him
01:07to be you initially thought he would be continuation of the other doctors you've met before but he was
01:12this new epic figure the last of the Time Lords with you know quite a strong backstory that was
01:17hinted at throughout the series my planet's gone it's dead it burned by the earth it's just rocks and
01:30dust for its time the doctor in the modern series has the huge burden of guilt because he's the man
01:38who ended the Time War the Time War sprawling around the universe igniting everything everybody's suffering
01:43somebody has to end it and he takes a terrible decision the only way he can end it is to wipe
01:48out both the Daleks and the Time Lords he commits double genocide and that's me he does it for the best
01:56of reasons but given that he is the man he is that is a terrible wound in him he finds different ways to
02:04deal with it but that's something that he never forgets what he did that day what happened
02:09there was a war and we lost
02:14what about your people
02:22I'm a Time Lord I'm the last of the Time Lords they're all gone I'm the only survivor
02:31I'm left traveling on my own because there's no one else
02:36he's just gone through hell he's gone through the Time War we're not really even sure when he
02:43regenerated there's a little bit of weirdness and confusion because he may have been around for a
02:47while before the Rose episode but he may not have looked in a mirror he seems very puzzled by by his
02:53ears and his face oh it could have been worse look at the ears all the same he was nice lucky a lady he's
03:01efficient he's wearing a leather jacket he's not dressed to kill this doctor doesn't have a look he
03:10doesn't care he's got his jacket on he's a fascinating performance the ninth doctor was like the modern Bond of the
03:18doctors did he was like the Daniel Craig of the doctors you know the tone of darkness that he
03:23brought to it that Russell put in those scripts but still having the humor they had you know made
03:28it work really well Chris is an actor is very front foot he doesn't like to sit back and let it come to
03:34him he likes to be forward and he likes to make his point there's a speech he gives about the nature of
03:43time about where he's standing and what he can feel and you realize this is somebody in touch with the
03:51entire universe he knows what's going on he knows the shape of things and it's a huge moment of gravitas
03:58and a beauty the turn of the earth the ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour and
04:08the entire planet is hurtling around the Sun at sixty-seven thousand miles an hour and I can feel
04:13it we're falling through space you and me clinging to the skin of this tiny little world and if we let
04:19go I think in a way the brief on doctor who was like the absent-minded professor there was a thing
04:26that you know was like oh I can do yes and but oh no and we you know and Chris was like we're gonna do
04:33this we're gonna do that you're gonna come with me but you're not gonna come look this is gonna
04:37happen whether you want it to and it was very direct and matter-of-fact that's who I am now
04:42forget me Rose Tyler go home one of the things that I started noticing that he could do that I
04:52don't think any doctor before or since has done is he doesn't do anything quite a lot and yet he's
04:58still the center of attention everybody's panicking and people are shouting and Christopher Eccleston the
05:06ninth doctor it's just standing there doing practically nothing just commenting on what's
05:12going on and you cannot take your eyes off him he is absolutely the center of whatever's going down
05:19another scene that I think that defined for me the ninth doctor was the sequence where he meets the
05:26Dalek the cage contains my one living specimen and what's that like you don't know show me you want
05:32to see it fly me you can smell the testosterone Goddard inform the cage we're heading down you
05:38English look after the girl go and canoodle or spoon or whatever it is you British do and you doctor with
05:45no name come and see my pet you had a Dalek that was basically on its uppers I mean this thing was
05:52practically out on its feet the doctor comes to the story which features the return of the Daleks believing
06:02that the Daleks have all been entirely destroyed I mean I think that's possibly one consolation for him
06:08about the terrible stuff he's been through with the almost unmentionable time war look I'm sorry about
06:14this mr. van stat might think he's clever but never mind him I've come to help I'm the doctor
06:20ah they brought back the great iconic Doctor Who villain they've made it really scary again
06:30and you see this what you come to know is it's very powerful very confident very intelligent character
06:41scared to see him kind of brought so low terrified afraid but also angry I think it's a real real sort of
06:58force the great space dustbin how does it feel before what are you gonna do to me this survivor
07:09it's really kind of subjects the doctor to a bit of mental torture and it really pushes the doctor
07:17to the limit and the doctor finds himself turning on him 10 million ships on fire the entire Dalek
07:22race wiped out in one second the ninth doctor is the one born out of conflict the one with tremendous
07:37guilt and who's shoving the world away from him he was the the the John Wayne high plains drifter or
07:43doctor he was a loner the best way in a way to see that is to see the opposite of it at the end of the
07:50doctor dances he has an absolute a very rare than an absolute victory he saves absolutely everybody nobody
07:59dies at all it turns out there's no villain even the principal villain turns just turns out to be a
08:04little boy what are you doing software patch gonna email the upgrade you want those roles I'll give you
08:14everybody nobody died he actually gets it all to work and nobody died and it is a moment of perfect
08:39doctor who glory he's so happy that he managed to pull that off and everything for once worked and
08:45all those windows aligned and everything was perfect you suddenly realize how much it hurts him the rest of
08:51the time you know you grieve for him more during his losses because you know how much saving people
09:01matters to him captain jack was the first american character introduced to the new doctor who his urbane
09:09wit and easy sexuality is quite discomforting to the ninth doctor they were rebooting doctor who from the
09:18beginning because there were viewers watching it who were not born the last time the doctor was on the
09:23screen so they needed to give us both the doctor and a companion and what Russell did that was so
09:32brilliant was make the companion our way into the story and the companion was rose the doctor and rose
09:39started running and they never stopped before she met the doctor she had a nice job in a nice shop and a
09:46nice boyfriend suddenly this 19 year old was off to the edge of the universe and she wasn't coming back
09:52she's lovable she's smart she has a family she has a ne'er-do-well mum a vague boyfriend she lives in a
10:02block of flats in London there's nothing to single her out as anything special except there is except
10:11that she gets it and she gets the doctor the first thing she does is she saves him no a levels no job
10:21she is a very real person with real emotions and we for the first time for a doctor in the
10:51who companion we learn a lot about her background the doctor had never met a companion's mother
10:57before and after Jackie Tyler it's amazing the doctor ever tried it again Jackie can't quite get
11:04her head around this strange person you ask her she won't tell me that's all she says traveling that's
11:11what I was doing with your passport still in the drawer it's just one lie after another I meant to
11:16phone I really did I just forgot what for a year you forgot for a year and I am left sitting here I
11:24just don't believe you why won't you tell me where you've been actually it's my fault I sort of
11:29employed roles as my companion when you say companion is this a sexual relationship no she
11:37doesn't like the doctor she doesn't trust the doctor and she's not sure what the doctors intentions are
11:40and and she really has no reason to like or trust the doctor because the first thing he does is
11:44essentially kidnap her daughter for a year so why would she like him how old are you then 40 45 what
11:51you find her on the internet just go online and pretend you're a doctor I am a doctor move it stitch
11:57this mate mechanic Mickey Smith thought he had the perfect girlfriend until one day she left him
12:05for an alien when Rose came back Mickey's life didn't get any easier how do you compete when your
12:10girlfriend spends her time saving the world Mickey when we first meet him in Rose it's just a regular
12:17take everyone for granted guy you know takes his girlfriend for granted that you know wants to
12:22come home come home watch football coffee yeah and if you wash the mug and I don't mean rinse I mean
12:29wash can I use your computer yeah any excuse to get in the bedroom he's really not sure about Rose
12:34because he's not sure whether he's lost her and he's not really sure that he ever deserved her or
12:40wanted her I think there's there's a real awkwardness to their relationship Mickey really came into his
12:52own and really you know became a true doctor who companion who was not there for the reason of
13:03chasing the girl which is what he was originally there for he was there for the greater good that's
13:09what makes the companions brilliant they realize they're there for a bigger purpose the doctor
13:17had never had a companion like Captain Jack before a time-traveling con man the dazzlingly attractive
13:23captain first spotted Rose swinging from a barrage balloon during World War two in a crisis Jack
13:29would be ready with a big smile and an even bigger gun Captain Jack was the first American character
13:36introduced introduced to the new doctor who he was a con artist and he was a time agent and he was
13:44introduced with the ninth doctor and with Rose hello hello sorry there was hello twice there
13:57he's not particularly likable to start with you know he's superficially likable because he's charming
14:10and he's good-looking and he seems confident but really he's just a bit of a small-time con man who use
14:16any trick to get the girl in his arms or even the guy in his arms companions I think always work best when
14:23they contrast with the doctor and his urbane wit and easy sexuality is quite discomforting to the ninth doctor
14:30he both needles the ninth doctor but also he he supports him the doctor would never carry a gun the doctor you
14:39know uses the sonic screwdriver the doctor will resort to violence at the last resort so for him to have this
14:47American gunslinger with him you know Jack's answer to everything is to pull out the gun and just shoot
14:53them between the eyes or blow you know kill them that's it it's a great relationship between the two
15:13characters which you know works all the way through the back end of the series
15:16we have your associate you will obey or she will be exterminated no but she will be destroyed
15:26no because this is what I'm gonna do I'm gonna rescue her I'm gonna save Rose Tyler from the middle
15:33of the Dalek fleet and then I'm gonna save the earth and then just to finish off I'm gonna wipe every
15:39last stinking darling out of the sky it is a beautiful defining moment at the end of that
15:44first series and for the ninth doctor in particular Rose the Daleks in the ninth doctor series would
15:57definitely know the Daleks 2.0 the last great time war was fought by the Time Lords and the Daleks no one
16:03one no one survived apart from the doctor and it seemed one lone Dalek soldier who fell burning
16:09through time to earth but was this last mutated soldier really alone it was the classic design it
16:15was everything you remembered but actually this was how you thought they always should have been they
16:22looked tough they looked like you know battle tanks they looked like they had weight and they would
16:27really hold their own in a kind of battle scenario the principal change obviously is the color they
16:32know the bronze Dalek it's a new color we've had the great eyes we've had the white Daleks the
16:37silhouette you know you wouldn't want to change that you meddle with an iconic design like that at
16:42your peril of course Russell added you know a load of treats to it you know the idea that they they
16:48could fly at with ease seeing some of the mills beautiful CGI effects that they kind of pivoted
17:09with the gun arms and then the sequence where that the Dalek unfolded to reveal the mutant inside
17:16the thing about the Daleks is that no matter how much you think they've been utterly destroyed
17:35they haven't and given that they'd mastered time travel there's always that possibility that they're
17:42going to go back and mess with history anyway but it turns out that after the the time war some Daleks
17:49had sort of hidden themselves away
17:51that's impossible I know those ships they were destroyed
17:59have you said they survived who did who are they 200 ships more than 2,000 on board each one
18:13that's just about half a million half a million what Daleks at the point where the Daleks have
18:28captured Rose and the doctor manages to get in touch with them on the screen there I think he's he's not
18:36going to mess about no they also know that he had a pivotal role in the whole ending of the time
18:52war which we don't know about at the time but we know he possibly did something very extreme and very
18:57bad and I think that that also he knows that the Daleks know that and that gives him a power over them
19:04he just loses all fear I think and
19:34and just says I'm coming to get you and it and it throws the Daleks into a terrible panic
19:40but you have no weapons no defenses no bang yeah and doesn't that scare you to death
19:49it is a beautiful defining moment at the end of that first series and for the ninth doctor in
19:54particular Rose yes doctor I'm coming to get you that's the thing about the Daleks and the doctor
20:01because they're such a terrible threat it makes him more heroic it raises the stakes for the doctor
20:10and it makes the doctor and doctor who better to have the Daleks in it I think Chris carved something
20:18in stone that was going to be really difficult to repeat and in a way what he was was a springboard
20:24for the rest of the series to continue and so he had to be really kind of tough and hard and and much
20:30more 21st century for me I think Chris's vision of who the doctor was is unique I think the ninth doctor
20:40absolutely told you that there is a huge melancholy in this man this is a damaged man you can never
20:47forget what he's carrying with him now after that the subsequent doctors they don't have to play it
20:52up so much because we know it's in there they just give you one wounded look and and for a moment you
20:57see the ninth doctor looking out of their arms Saturday a new doctor oh yeah and the darkness a new series
21:08emmy where are you and an old friend don't miss the season premiere of doctor who and bbc america's
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