This makes me sad to hear if I’m honest

What’s also sad is there will be people interpreting this as a slight against Davies, even though I don’t see that at all in these remarks. Episodic television, especially shows with such a gruelling pace as Doctor Who, is not for everyone. Genevieve Bujold, one of the acclaimed actresses of her generation, quit Star Trek Voyager after only two DAYS. Eccleston is not a TV series actor, he’s a film and stage actor. That’s why we haven’t seen him as a regular anywhere else. He tried a series, and he didn’t like the environment required to make a series, so he left. Fair enough. And 5-6 years later he remains proud of his work. That’s the part of the comment we need to focus on. And his decision to leave allowed RTD to craft a self-contained arc that remains unique in the history of Doctor Who and helped make the show relevant to mainstream audiences again. And he opened the door for Tennant to come in. It was all for the best.

I don’t see how it can be interpreted as a slight against RTD as Eccelston had worked previously with RTD on Second Coming & presumably wouldn’t have worked with him again if there was a problem. I agree its probably more a case of the demands of working on a long series.

I don’t really find that bad at all. If the enviroment wasnt right, well fair enough, he still did one fantastic series and put Doctor Who back on the popular TV Programme list and he is proud of it. And if he hadnt gone we wouldnt have been presented with David Tennant for another year or so who was fantastic, so it worked out for the best

I wonder why? And I wonder what were those things he thought ‘were wrong’? Could be just the format, as Alex said, or it could be something DW specific, I suppose.

I’m just nosy, me.

It’s very sad, but due in part to Eccleston being vague the speculation is flying fast and furious. There’s a discussion thread at TrekBBS that, frankly, has turned offensive in some of its unfounded suggestions as to Eccleston’s motivation. I won’t justify that garbage by repeating it here, except to say it centres around Eccleston’s use of the phrase “I was open-minded”. Oh, and as I predicted, some people are indeed using this as another excuse to pile on RTD and the Bad Wolf arc in general. Very unfortunate.

Most people with half a brain will, no doubt, realise CE is being critical of the BBC NOT RTD, Julie or Phil.

They don’t detract from the fact that he was an incredible Doctor and gave the series so much credibilty on its return. If it wasn’t for Christopher being so good in 2005 we might not still be enjoying series after series now.

CE – “He told the Radio Times he was proud of the show but “wasn’t comfortable” working on it. ” Why? Whatever the office politics in the BBC, why was so wrong on set that he wasn’t comfortable? What were his experiences on the first season that force him to change his mind and leave? See, I have a problem here, if he had such a bad time because of the BBC culture, why has he returned to working for the BBC time and again since? It’s not as if he could not do work else where.
CE’s Doctor was amazing, even tho the character itself has changed to far from the original character traits that lasted until 1989 (something, SM has returned to the show, thankfully). I wished CE had gone on to do another season.

He was a fantastic Doctor, and I appreciate his honesty about his reasons for leaving. Like people have already said, tv schedules are grueling, and we all know that DW is no exception.
He’s proud of his work, we loved his work, and he brought the Doctor back, so I think that’s all that matters.

@Steve
He hasn’t said it was the BBC culture, you’re drawing your own conclusions there. We don’t know quite what it was that made it an uncomfortable experience.

I wish he had of been more specific. It is quite sad to read that he didn’t enjoy it, because I really enjoyed watching him as The Doctor. Maybe it was all the extra stuff outside of filming that didn’t appeal to him. There was a confidential recently (for the recent series) that just showed it was none-stop even when filming was over. Who knows.

i can understand it, coz they have to obay the spoiler rule like a religion…. i assume that’s what he means by bbc culture….

@TWWL I was referring to other comments designed to blame other sources other than the most obvious! And I also said “if”
I noticed no one has responded to my questions. Perhaps more people agree with me than would like to say!

To be honest I’m not that surprised that’s come out. He always looked dead awkward and uncomfortable when he gave interviews on dr who confidential and wasnt really as open to the public as DT or MS have been (not that im knocking him of course. he was a brilliant doctor and served as the perfect actor to bring the series back)

I PERSONALLY (imo only) feel that I dont think he could handle the amount of attention dr who gets (as we know, it gets a lot!)and maybe that was a factor for him leaving. Agree with most I dont think it was to do with RTD, JG or PC

However I have to admit it was good in a way he only lasted one series because it introduced the idea of regeneration early on. And personally I dont see how he would have fitted into the stories of series 2 (although he would have still been amazing im sure)

HAA i always thought chris didnt like bein in doctor who, but he did help reinvent it.