10 Unbelievable Doctor Who Facts That Are Somehow True
9. CBC Wanted To DUB Christopher Eccleston
From the very beginning, Doctor Who has been intrinsically linked with Canada, as the brainchild of Toronto-born TV producer Sydney Newman.
Shoutout to all of WhoCulture's Canadian subscribers while we're here.
In 2004, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation agreed to invest in the upcoming revival of Doctor Who, starring Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor. It wasn't a no-strings-attached fling however, as they did have one bizarre request that Russell T Davies was very quick to shoot down.
That request? That CBC could completely redub Eccleston's voice with the voice of a Canadian actor!
This was presumably because some far-off executive thought that the Doctor's Northern tones might be unintelligible to the average viewer in Canada. As though Salford is some alien planet, and not a place in England. To his credit, Russell T Davies put his foot down, telling CBC that they would definitely not be doing something so utterly insulting to their lead actor.
Given how fraught the relationship between Christopher Eccleston and Doctor Who was in 2005, it's truly a relief that this insane request was turned down.