Doctor Who: 20 Things You Didn't Know About The Day Of The Doctor

16. The Initial Plan Featured The Ninth Doctor

Doctor Who Christopher Eccleston The Day of the Doctor
BBC Studios

While John Hurt's turn as the War Doctor went down a treat, there was some disappointment about the absence of Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor.

In his initial plans for the anniversary special, Steven Moffat had intended for Nine to feature. He reached out to Eccleston, who unfortunately decided against reprising the role, and the War Doctor was created in his place.

No hard feelings here though, because Eccleston himself has since explained that he loved what Moffat and Hurt did with the character:

"I just thought that script was immaculate, and I think it added to the canon of Doctor Who in a way that me coming back wouldn’t [have done]. I think the War Doctor was a brilliant working of Steven Moffat’s imagination, and I loved watching [John Hurt] do that."
 
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Ellie has been part of the WhatCulture team since 2021 where she began as a freelance presenter for the WhoCulture channel. As a diehard Whovian with a BA (hons) degree in Drama and Acting, this role was the perfect opportunity for her to combine her screen presence training with her extensive Doctor Who knowledge. From there, she branched out to various other WhatCulture channels, including TrekCulture, and became a full time Content Producer/Video Presenter in 2023. Ellie is now a regular fixture on both WhoCulture and TrekCulture and has become a well respected public figure within both fandoms, building up a substantial following across her social media platforms and being given the opportunity to represent the channels and the wider communities at several industry events. Her favourite Doctor Who character is River Song and her favourite Star Trek character is Captain Janeway - which tells you everything you need to know about how she approaches her role within a generally male dominated field.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!