10 Biggest Doctor Who Leaks Ever
4. Christopher Eccleston's Debut Hits The Internet Three Weeks In Advance
After a 16-year break, Doctor Who returned as a continuing series on 26 March 2005, and despite the unwanted intrusion of Graham Norton, it became a runaway success that audiences are still enjoying 17 years later.
In 2022, Doctor Who has been back on our screens for longer than it was ever away. However, in the wasteland of the 1990s and the early 2000s, fans could be forgiven for being impatient to see Christopher Eccleston's first episode as the Doctor.
On 8 March 2005, it was reported that Eccleston's Doctor Who debut had been leaked online. The source of the leak originated in Canada, whose Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was a production partner on the revived Doctor Who. Eccleston even recorded links for each of the episodes in Series 1.
It wasn't a completely finished version of Rose, as Murray Gold's arrangement of the iconic theme tune hadn't been added to the title sequence. Instead, it included a classic version of the iconic Delia Derbyshire arrangement of Ron Grainer's theme. In the years that followed, it's been speculated that the leaking of Rose was an attempt at guerilla marketing, to gauge the opinions of hardcore Doctor Who fans ahead of broadcast.
It's probably an overly-romanticised view of what was likely an excited fan working at CBC who was keen to share RTD's bold new vision for Doctor Who.