10 Things RTD's Return WON'T Bring To Doctor Who
9. Christopher Eccleston in the 60th
One thing that we can be sure of with regards to the 60th anniversary is that Christopher Eccleston won't be playing any part in it. At least, not on-screen.
Whilst he's recently returned to the role for a series of Big Finish audios, it appears that the rift between him and Russell T Davies hasn't been healed in the intervening years. Eccleston's autobiography highlights a lot of what he felt to be the failures of that first series; most notably, a lack of direction and guidance on the character of the Doctor.
If that was, as Eccleston suggests, an issue with Davies' writing, then taking part in an RTD-scripted anniversary special won't hold much appeal. It's probably for the best. The Big Finish audios have proved that, stripped from that tight survivor's guilt arc of the first series, the Ninth Doctor is slightly adrift. By the very nature of being "missing" adventures, the audios are unable to push the character in a new and interesting direction.
The real tragedy of the Eccleston/RTD rift is that one of our best character actors and one of our best television writers will likely never work together again.