The Ninth Doctor...

[fajrdrako]

doctorwho today posts an item from Entertainment Weekly about Doctor Who, basically saying how good it is. With which I can only agree. (It's a list of the 25 SF best SF shows.) But what I liked most was this part:

THE BEST BIT Check out the first season of the newest incarnation, featuring Heroes' Christopher Eccleston as the ninth Doctor (the best ever — apologies to Tom Baker) and the piercing, poignant wit of writer Russell T. Davies.

David Tennant is so popular I sometimes fear that Christopher Eccleston is forgotten; and I love Eccleston so much in the role.

Though I must say that the phrase "Heroes' Christopher Eccleston" made me smile.

Comments

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

The first season is my One True Love. I can't decide if Three or Four comes next.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Four, I think, for me. Three was wonderful because I loved Martha so much, but I wanted more happiness for her.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Actually, I changed contexts! I meant the Fourth Doctor and the Third Doctor. In other words, Nine is the Best Doctor Ever.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Ah! I see. I haven't seen Three at all, and not enough of Four to judge. I do like Ten, but Nine is ... I agree... best of all.

[louiex.livejournal.com]

I realized, upon debating this with a friend of mine a few days back, that Ten really sort of pisses me off more than not :D And the more I try to defend him, the less a lot of what he does makes sense and/or is the best of options he could have taken~

Christopher Eccleston's Nine really will always be MY Doctor and it was a shame we only got one season out of him!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Ten really sort of pisses me off more than not

Yes. I have such mixed feelings about him. But he frequently infuriates me, and I'm finding it harder and harder to forgive the way he treats his companions. I have a lot of warm-fuzzy reactions to him but he drives me crazy.

Which is entertaining in its way, but he's not "my" Doctor.

Christopher Eccleston's Nine really will always be MY Doctor and it was a shame we only got one season out of him!

I agree. That season has some of the best writing in the show, also.

[louiex.livejournal.com]

I forget how we got started on it but my friend brought up a lot of good points in that Ten, despite being 'the Last of the Timelords' seems to also be killing off a lot of other 'lasts' without batting an eye about it. He also reacts in very immature ways then falls back on his woes of the Time War that I think CE's Nine showed in a much better manner in balancing his mania with his depression. Ten jumps around so much that I get dizzy and suddenly am thinking maybe he's NOT the one who should be steering this boat :D

The whole Rose ordeal (the Doctor has lost many a companion before under better and worse criteria, really. Ball up Doc and move on!) and how it rippled outward to how he treated Martha during her season will NEVER sit well with me. But therein lies having a 'younger' Doctor who is more inclined to have love stories with the young women he keeps around him~

And yes, Nine ftw!!!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Ten, despite being 'the Last of the Timelords' seems to also be killing off a lot of other 'lasts' without batting an eye about it.

Yes.

He also reacts in very immature ways then falls back on his woes of the Time War

And has brough on many of his woes himself.

I think CE's Nine showed in a much better manner in balancing his mania with his depression.

Absolutely! He never made me snarl. I could understand what he was doing and why he did it. It never seemed arbitrary or unkind.

and how it rippled outward to how he treated Martha during her season will NEVER sit well with me.

I couldn't agree more. Martha deserved better.

But therein lies having a 'younger' Doctor who is more inclined to have love stories with the young women he keeps around him~

I want a Doctor (young or old) who can love. The list of things Ten has done that annoy me gets longer and longer. I still love him - not sure why! - but he could be so much better, without changing the scenario or the plotlines.

[louiex.livejournal.com]

I want a Doctor (young or old) who can love. The list of things Ten has done that annoy me gets longer and longer. I still love him - not sure why! - but he could be so much better, without changing the scenario or the plotlines.

Yes, yes, I concur! I love that man to pieces, I truly do, but there are so many reasons on the other side of the scale that would encourage otherwise! This past season finale? While yes, I can't hold a character responsible for the writing (so I guess I can contently say I like the character but want to throttle the writers something fierce), there was so much more to do with Donna than what happened in the season finale. SO many more things that we've seen in CANON to fix that sort of situation rather than the etch-e-sketch maneuver that we saw~

Don't even get me started on the way he treats Jack, that Ten!! XD I'm a Nine/Jack all the way, and probably always will be if I had to pick one Doctor for him to be with :D

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I love that man to pieces, I truly do, but there are so many reasons on the other side of the scale that would encourage otherwise!

Uh-huh. Times I want to shake him.

I can't hold a character responsible for the writing (so I guess I can contently say I like the character but want to throttle the writers something fierce)

Well, yes, the real fault is theirs... But they have created this strange Doctor whose morality seems to result in hurting those who love him. Yes: there were so many potentially better ways to solve Donna's problem.

Don't even get me started on the way he treats Jack, that Ten!!

My psychic scream of anguish when he dismantled Jack's vortex manipulator not once but twice - ! First time, I thought, "I can't believe he did that." The second time - Aaargh! Jack deserves so much better. (Like, maybe, a hug of thanks?)

I'm a Nine/Jack all the way

Yes, me too. The idea of Ten/Jack offers some interesting problems that are fun to tackle conceptually, but nothing beats Nine/Jack, the pairing I love.

[louiex.livejournal.com]

*facepalms* Oh the vortex manipulator XD The first time 'I can't let you run around with this' why...? Cause Jack would misuse it and to terrible things after being strung up for a year and instead of running off all giddy with you for adventures has chosen to stay and PROTECT THE EARTH but nooooooh Jack can't be trusted *shakes head* Second time, it's more like a pissing contest or something. Like Jack can't also be a time-traveling immortal~

But yes :D I've got the occasional issue with Ten, by far I enjoyed the dynamics that Nine had with Rose (as a guardian, more than an awkward love interest) and with Jack (as the symbol of a warrior turned savior, turning Jack from the conman into a hero of the world). I had a point somewhere in here, but it's run off le sigh, about the transition of Nine!Jack to Ten!Jack being a better evolution of character (let alone DW!Jack to TW!Jack) than Nine to Ten but yeah.. gone! This is why I shouldn't dash off to do something in mid reply!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Oh the vortex manipulator XD The first time 'I can't let you run around with this' why...?

Because the Doctor wants to be the only time traveller left in the universe?

Because, after all Jack has done for him, he wants to prove he's boss?

The only real excuse that satisfies me is the notion that the Doctor knows that if Jack uses his vortex manipulator, terrible things will happen - the Reapers will come, worlds will end, etc. Except... Jack did use it (in "The Stolen Earth") and nothing bad happened. So? Amend my theory: something terrible might happen. Even that theory gets weaker by the minute.

It makes the Doctor look like an ungrateful bully.

I see big differences in personality and emotions between Nine and Ten. Similar outlooks, but manifested differently.

[laurab1.livejournal.com]

"Heroes' Christopher Eccleston"

The Who fandom hive-mind did decide that Claude and his spiky-ness was only-just-regenerated-into-Nine

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

The Who fandom hive-mind did decide that Claude and his spiky-ness was only-just-regenerated-into-Nine

Works for me. The personality seemed close enough. I couldn't believe how Eccleston could make such a scruffy guy seem so sexy.

I wrote a drabble on a related theme - Jack was trying to prove Claude was the Doctor.

[laurab1.livejournal.com]

Personality *and* moves - I remember saying when I first saw Claude that CE had used the exact same things on Jack and Rose that he then used on Peter. Especially when he steals a beer from Peter's fridge, and says, "C'mon, then." ;)

I wrote something similar; a kind of fob-watched Nine, ages before HN/FOB aired.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I remember saying when I first saw Claude that CE had used the exact same things on Jack and Rose that he then used on Peter

There were such delicious similarities. I found myself wondering what I would have made of Claude if I didn't already know him as the Doctor - would I have loved him so much? I'm not sure, but I think so. For the same reasons.

a kind of fob-watched Nine, ages before HN/FOB aired.

I don't remember reading that; I must have missed it. Can you send me the title and URL? It sounds delicious.

[laurab1.livejournal.com]

My little Claude-as-Nine story, "Chameleon", is here, with a Jack/Tosh, a Jack/Suzie and a Clark/Lois:

http://laurab1.livejournal.com/180203.html

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thank you! I'll visit that tonight.

[nina-ds.livejournal.com]

I've always found it highly amusing that those Americans who only know CE through Heroes consider him blond and very, very funny. He's definitely the latter, and at some stages of his life has been the former, but it's so different from his British persona. I love that, proof of his chameleonic nature.

I've noticed that American publications are more likely to prefer Nine than British ones, and I have wondered if it's because Tennant is so self-consciously "fashionable". That style just isn't as popular in the US, where despite massive amounts of talent, charisma, and wit, Jarvis Cocker failed to register.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

proof of his chameleonic nature.

If any human being were ever a chameleon, it's him!

American publications are more likely to prefer Nine than British ones

How interesting.

I have wondered if it's because Tennant is so self-consciously "fashionable".

Maybe. It isn't what I'd have expected, but, yes.... Though Nine seemed more 'regional' (with his Northern accent and phrasing), he also seemed more international/interplanetary. Interesting notion!