10 Biggest Controversies In Doctor Who History

While we've grown accustomed to Doctor Who's stars exiting the show under amicable circumstances, it's not always a smooth transition from one Time Lord to the next.

Christopher Eccleston played the character for a sole series, the first year of the 2005 revival. Doctor Who fans owe the actor many thanks for helping to bring the show back so successfully, and while his episodes are a joy to watch, things apparently weren't so peachy once the cameras had stopped rolling. In fact, Eccleston had such a poor experience making Doctor Who that he chose to leave rather than continue on.

Over the years, the actor hasn't been coy in sharing details about how nightmarish his time on the show actually was. He's said that he didn't enjoy working with showrunner Russell T Davies, and that he "lost faith" in his superiors. He's also said that he "didn't like the culture" that was built around the series, and has even accused the BBC of putting him on a blacklist, which almost "destroyed" his career.

In addition, there are whispers that the production of his series was borderline disastrous, with Eccleston rumoured to be considering leaving before filming had finished. In particular, the actor failed to click with director Keith Boak, who helmed three episodes. Eccleston, rather pointedly, has described Boak's work as a "disaster".

Was Eccleston mistreated in some way? Is this all just a simple case of creative conflict? We'll probably never know for sure, but there's an unusual amount of heat emanating from this situation, and it's clear that there were some major problems behind-the-scenes on Series 1.