3. He Introduced A Whole New Generation To Doctor Who
Many people credit David Tennant for making the relaunch of the show the hit that it has been. To a certain extent this is true; he had a four year run that saw him rocket to the top of many fan polls for the best Doctor ever and altogether he consistently brought a great performance. However, Doctor Who needed this quality from the get-go. With an interesting but flawed TV movie with Paul McGann falling short of bringing the show back, who would introduce everyone to a new and exciting world of time and space travel? Maybe a more difficult question is, 'How do you get everyone from young kids to nostalgic adults on board with a character whose personality has already changed eight times?' For Doctor Who to return the BBC needed a serious, strong foundation and Eccleston was perfect. He wasn't too eccentric, too dark, too fun or too angry and serves very well as a 'base' Doctor for the show. With many people bringing different aspects to the character, perhaps the purest portrayal is from Eccleston, who is at his core a brilliant man who undertakes the terrible burden of trying to make everyone, even the bad guys, better.