When Russell T Davies brought Doctor Who back in 2005, it was with Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor. The actor ended up bidding farewell to the role after just a single season, causing speculation in the press to go into overdrive.
BBC announced Eccleston wouldn't be sticking around shortly after his first episode and hinted that he was struggling with the commitment of playing the Doctor amid concerns about being typecast. Later, the broadcaster had to admit to "falsely [attributing] a statement" to the actor and breaking an agreement about not revealing his departure so soon into his run (as you might expect, the fact Eccleston wasn't sticking around quickly soured many fans on him).
Over the years, Eccleston has made it clear he won't return to Doctor Who and reiterated that he remains angry with both the BBC and the creative team who he feels threw him under the bus.
Appearing at "For The Love Of Sci-Fi 2023" alongside Billie Piper, Eccleston revealed what it would take to bring him back to the long-running sci-fi series.
"Sack Russell T Davies," he stated. "Sack Jane Tranter. Sack Phil Collinson. Sack Julie Gardner. And I'll come back. So can you arrange that?" Something tells us Davies, who recently returned to Doctor Who, isn't going anywhere. The same can likely be said for those executive producers as well.
Still, despite not being a fan of how his time on Doctor Who was handled, Eccleston went on to confirm he has no problem with being linked to the show.
"Not at all, I love being associated, just don't like being associated with those people and the politics that went on in the first series. The first series was a mess, and it wasn't to do with me or Billie [Piper], it was to do with the people who were supposed to make it, and it was a mess."
"You know, the first series, nobody wants to know. The BBC were like we're gonna keep a big distance from this. And then as soon as it was a success they were all up close going 'I was responsible for that,' but they were all like at a distance. Like this is a folly, Eccleston's folly, Piper's folly, Russell T. Davies' folly. And then when it worked, suddenly 'Oh yeah I worked on that.'"
"They wouldn't come anywhere near us and then they jump on the bandwagon. Those kinds of politics I'm not very good at handling, I can't swallow that shit."
On the plus side, Billie Piper said she would jump at the chance to play Rose Tyler again. "Well, I've returned a bunch of times. I couldn't stop returning for a while. It has been a while. Too long, too long. Yeah, I think I would. I think I'd go back. I think also now again because my kids are a bit older, I'd quite like to share all of that with them as well."
Check out Eccleston and Piper's full Docor Who panel appearance in the player below.