Occasionally, just occasionally, I have to pinch myself and remember that the Ninth Doctor, played by veteran character actor Christopher Eccleston, actually existed. Its not that he was bad at the job; far from it. But he did only have a single season and was then overshadowed by the very popular and sometimes brilliant David Tennant. Still, for that first year when Doctor Who returned to TV after 16 long years, Eccleston was indeed the Doctor, and did a truly wonderful job in the role. While at least some of his episodes werewell, pretty bad, some of them were truly excellent and hold their own against anything that came from the old series or the audios. Lets have a look at five!
5. Rose (Story 157, 2005)
Dont get me wrong; therere a lot of flaws in this episode. The stupidity with Mickey and the bin comes to mind, as does almost every scene with Jackie, and the less said about the actual story, the better. But it does introduce Rose (Billie Piper), as well as introducing the Doctor to a new generation and it brings back the Autons, who spent much time menacing the Third Doctor. This was the episode that showed us that, yes, Doctor Who could work on the screen again after all those years of being away. Eccleston really was the Doctor from the moment he walked onto the screen. I, along with many other people, really looked forward to a long, joyful time watching this Doctor. Sadly, thats not quite how things turned out.