When Doctor Who was revived in 2005, it had been nearly a decade since fans had last seen a new incarnation of the Doctor. Therefore, they were eager to see Christopher Eccleston in action. However, the Ninth Doctor only remained on the show for one season, and his run is frequently overlooked by fans and casual viewers alike. Still, Eccleston’s Doctor deserves a lot of love, and as Jodie Whittaker prepares for her final season as the Thirteenth Doctor, it’s time to honor the man who brought the Doctor back into our hearts.
Ever since Doctor Who’s first episode aired on the BBC in 1963, fourteen actors have played the role of the centuries old Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. Eccleston’s run lasted for 13 episodes, and ended with the Ninth Doctor regenerating into David Tennant, who gave fans one of the most iconic incarnations of the character. Passing the torch to someone as well-liked as Tennant relegated the Ninth Doctor not into oblivion, but to the backseat of viewers’ memories. Though a couple of Eccleston’s adventures are still featured on lists of best Doctor Who episodes, they’re frequently overlooked or considered a kind of prequel to Tennant’s reign. But the truth of the matter is that Eccleston had a fantastic run as the Ninth Doctor. The actor presented us with a unique take on the Time Lord and helped establish what the show would be from then on, turning Doctor Who into the beautiful, fun, and sometimes sad series we now know and love. In order to celebrate this legacy, here is a list of five memorable moments that prove Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor was one of the best Doctors ever.
5. The Doctor Is Attacked by a Mannequin’s Arm (Season 1, Episode 1: “Rose”)
When Christopher Eccleston first appeared on the screen, he immediately set himself apart from the Doctors that had come before him. Instead of distinctive clothes or a strange hairstyle, what fans saw was a man with a buzzcut wearing sober, dark clothing. It seemed like a great change for a character that used to accessorize with a stalk of celery. It was a look that became Eccleston, an actor already well-known in the UK for playing serious, sombre roles. Minutes in, however, the Ninth Doctor already proved looks can be deceiving. Eccleston cracked many jokes throughout his run as the Doctor, but his funniest moment was the scene at Rose’s (Billie Piper) house in the very first episode of the show. After being attacked by mannequins and seeing her workplace explode, Rose returns home with a million questions in her head and a plastic arm in her hand.
Controlled by an alien entity called the Nestene Consciousness, the arm is thrown away by Rose’s boyfriend, Mickey (Noel Clarke), but it finds its way back from the trash. What follows is an incredibly funny scene, with the Doctor making puzzling remarks about his appearance and a couple in a celebrity magazine (“That’s not going to last. He’s gay, and she’s an alien.”), but things really take a turn for the hilarious when he’s attacked by the mannequin arm itself. What follows is a Time Lord’s struggle against a piece of plastic that is trying to strangle him, all the while Rose is still completely oblivious to the danger humanity faces. That is, of course, until the arm jumps to Rose’s face. Luckily, the Doctor manages to deactivate the arm before it causes any real harm. Fast-paced and with few props besides the plastic arm itself, the scene is a true testament of both Piper’s and Eccleston’s skills for physical comedy. It sets the tone for the show’s humor, and ends with a pun impossible not to chuckle at: “There you go. You See? ‘Armless.”
4. The Doctor Faces the “Last” Dalek (Season 1, Episode 6: “Dalek”)
If the fight against the mannequin arm set the comedic tone for the rest of the series, “Dalek” is the episode that cemented what the show’s drama would be like up until Tennant’s “Time Lord victorious” speech. In a secret museum of alien artifacts, the Doctor comes across one of his many long-time enemies: a Dalek. Voiced by Nicholas Briggs, the Dalek contained in the facility isn’t just any Dalek. Like the Doctor himself, the Dalek is his species’ sole survivor of the Time War. There are two main confrontations between the Doctor and the Dalek in the episode. In the first one, the Time Lord tells the Dalek of his role in detonating the device that destroyed Gallifrey and killed the entire Dalek fleet, putting an end to the war. The scene ends with the Doctor torturing the Dalek with electric shocks, a demonstration of all his hatred for that particular enemy. But it’s in his second talk with the Dalek that we truly see the full extent of the Doctor’s sadness and anger.Over the conversation, the Doctor asks the Dalek why he won’t just die, and even points a gun at him and Rose. But as the Time Lord tells the creature that there is nothing left for him, it’s unclear whether he’s gloating for murdering the Daleks or grieving for the death of his own kind.. The saddest moment is when the Doctor hears from his enemy those frightening words: “You would make a good Dalek.”
3. “Just This Once, Everybody Lives!” (Season 1, Episode 10: “The Doctor Dances”)
“The Doctor Dances” is the conclusion to one of the most spooky Doctor Who adventures. During the London Blitz, the Doctor, Rose, and Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) investigate the mystery of a strange epidemic of people with gas masks instead of faces asking for their “mummy”. Patient zero seems to be a young boy, severely injured by the fall of an alien object mistaken for a German bomb. When the object is discovered to be an ambulance filled with tiny healing robots called nanogenes, the Doctor realizes that the affected had only been “fixed” by creatures that don’t understand the first thing about human DNA. Upon discovering that they were wrong, however, the nanogenes go back to fix everyone again. No more gas masks, or deaths. This doesn’t go unnoticed by the Doctor, who celebrates that, for the first time in a long time, everybody lived. It’s a remark on the previous episodes of the show, of course, but it’s also a touching moment of true happiness for a man hardened by war and genocide, and a reminder that the Doctor values life more than anything.
2. Coward or Killer? (Season 1, Episode 13: “The Parting of the Ways”)
After being teleported to a satellite that broadcasts murderous versions of regular British TV shows the Doctor, Rose, and Captain Jack face-off against the true controllers of this media enterprise: a rebuilt Dalek fleet, ready to take over the Earth. It’s a battle in which our heroes are at great disadvantage, and which costs many human lives. As Jack and the people of Satellite 5 try to fight the Daleks with regular guns, the Doctor builds a device that would send a Delta Wave capable of eliminating the Daleks once and for all - as well as everything and everyone around them. Aware of what the Time Lord intends to do, the Dalek Emperor states that he’s anxious to see the Doctor become “the great exterminator”, and asks him to choose between being a coward or a killer. He hesitates but then answers: “Coward, any time.” It’s an emotionally charged moment that teaches us that, sometimes, cowardice isn’t the wrong choice, but that also serves to show that the Doctor has found the balance between the hate from “Dalek” and the joy from the end of “The Doctor Dances”, his hesitation indicating that, had this face-off happened before, perhaps the answer would’ve been different.
1. The Doctor Kisses Rose (Season 1, Episode 13: “The Parting of the Ways”)
Being both the end of Season 1 and of Eccleston’s run, “The Parting of the Ways” was bound to have many memorable moments. And the last one on our list is the one that cemented romance as an element of the revived show, paving the way for the Doctor’s future love interests. Ever since the first episode, many fans picked up on the sexual tension between the Doctor and Rose. However, they never confessed their love for one another. The Ninth Doctor acts flirty towards many characters throughout the season, and Rose not only has a boyfriend on Earth, but also falls briefly for the charm of Captain Jack. Still, there was always a hint of romance in the air between the two protagonists.
This atmosphere culminates in a kiss that, although motivated by more practical reasons, swept a lot of fans off their feet. In order to stop Rose from dying on Satellite 5, the Doctor puts her in the Tardis and sends her back to Earth. But Rose doesn’t accept her fate easily: with the help of Mickey and her mother (Camille Coduri), she opens the Tardis’ console and stares into the time vortex. The energy contained in it grants her the power to return to Satellite 5 and put an end to the battle. However, her human body cannot withstand it. In order to save Rose, the Doctor kisses her and absorbs the energy from the time vortex. It’s this act of love and self-sacrifice that forces him to regenerate, though not before telling his companion that she was “absolutely fantastic”. And you know what? So were you, Doctor. So were you.