Doctor Who: 20 Things You Didn't Know About The Ninth Doctor
6. Eccleston Was Tricked Into A Ninth Doctor Reference In A Later Role
Post-Doctor Who, Eccleston played the role of Claude Rains in the popular sci-fi series Heroes, and as it turns out, the showrunners were big fans of the Whoniverse.
In his memoir I Love The Bones Of You: My Father And The Making Of Me, Eccleston states that the writers and executives of Heroes wanted him to dress in a similar way to Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor, requesting that he wear a scarf.
Not wanting to be so blatantly self-referential, Eccleston refused, but the writers did get him to make a nod to Doctor Who when they put the word "Fantastic!" in the script for one of his episodes, something that Eccleston failed to register:
“They inserted the line ‘Fantastic!’ into the script. I didn’t realise until too late that it was a trope from Doctor Who.”
In short, he was tricked into a Doctor Who reference. Sneaky showrunners.