Christopher Eccleston, the ninth Doctor and a key factor behind the success of the shows revival in 2005 has stated that he has no interest in returning to Doctor Who.
Despite only staying for the one season, before being succeeded by David Tennant, the star has ruled out returning to the show. In an interview on Graham Norton’s BBC Radio 2 show, Eccleston spoke about out about how he sought out Executive Producer Russell T. Davies, wanting to play the part.
“I heard Russell was going to do Doctor Who and I thought, ‘That’s quite strange’,” Eccleston explained. “When I heard he was writing it, I emailed him and said I’d like to play the part. I went after the part.”
The actor added: “I’d done a lot of television for adults. I actually think the most intelligent and the most difficult audience are children. They will be not patronised… I wanted to front a big series like [Doctor Who], which I felt was going to be intelligent.”
The star went on to discuss that he admired the qualities of the doctor and that drew him to the role.
“The thing about The Doctor is, he’s very inclusive. He doesn’t see the alien in aliens and I loved that about him. Also the fact that he’s never at home. He’s a Time Lord and he’s always, always falling though the universe. When I thought about that, I thought I could play that.”
Later in the show Graham Norton inquires as to whether Eccleston would reprise the role of the Ninth Doctor for the shows 50th anniversary in 2013 to which he responded, “No, I never bathe in the same river twice.”
You can listen to part of the video here…
During an interview on The One Show, Eccelston explains further why he has no plans to return saying, “It’s that desire to keep coming out of different boxes so that your employable, so your not just being seen as one thing. And also I suppose at drama school I was taught to stay curious and keep challenging myself. It’s easy to stay in a job, take the money, take the comfort, but I’ve always wanted to do things that I felt I wouldn’t be able to pull off”
Whilst Eccleston may not be up for returning, there is still a chance we may see some old faces again as we reported last week that John Simm and John Barrowman could potentially return to the show.
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