Australia’s ABC News website is reporting here that Christopher Eccleston has been cast as the new Dr Who.
Now, I lost interest in this show sometime around late Tom Baker early Peter Davison when I either grew up or the show got crap, but this sounds like a good choice to me. A decent actor, not a nutter like Colin Baker or Sylvester McCoy, a good age, and a Dr Who connection by virtue of 28 Days Later!
I really only know him from 28 Days Later, where he played that 'orrible military commander, and from The Others where he played Nicole Kidman’s
dead husband
Probably the best-credentialed actor ever to take on the role. He was in Shallow Grave too, but it’s been too long since I’ve seen that, and I can’t remember him in it.
Gut reaction is that he’s a more interesting choice than the names that were being thrown about. Can’t see him doing the Doctor as a comic turn though, so I’m guessing they’re going for quite a serious tone.
I think the hardest part about playing the Doctor is balancing the serious and the comic, which Tom Baker excelled at. I mean, come on, the setup is by nature comic. A super-intellegent Time Lord who can’t control his own vehicle. Here’s hoping 1) he can pull it off and 2) it appears on BBC America.
You’re referring to Mark Gatiss and Steve Moffit respectively - and that’s the way I was reading the runes until this morning.
Of course, regardless of that, the fact that Gatiss has been dropping nostalgic hints about The Pyramids of Mars just this week is a good omen.