Doctor Who: Eccleston Was Interested in “The Day of the Doctor” Return

Posted in: BBC, TV | Tagged: doctor who

Steven Moffat on the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special (“The Day of the Doctor”) and Christopher Eccleston’s initial interest in appearing.

Published Sat, 27 Jun 2026 07:37:08 -0500 by Ray Flook

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Article Summary
Steven Moffat reveals Christopher Eccleston initially wanted to read a script for Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor.
Eccleston later declined the 50th anniversary special, prompting Moffat to create John Hurt’s War Doctor role.
Moffat says The Day of the Doctor would have stayed largely the same, but from the Ninth Doctor’s point of view.
He also insists Doctor Who has not been cancelled, despite no Christmas special and the series being out to tender.

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Checking in with host Tia Kofi for this month’s episode of The Whoniverse Show, ex-Doctor Who Showrunner Steven Moffat covered a wide range of topics regarding his years with the show and what the future could hold. One highlight from the interview (which you can check out above) was Moffat sharing how the Doctor Who 50th anniversary special (“The Day of the Doctor”) nearly included Christopher Eccleston. That would’ve meant a special with Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor, Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor, David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor, Tom Baker’s “The Curator,” and John Hurt’s War Doctor. Though he was open to the idea of making a return, Eccleston would eventually pass.

“Matt Smith was out of contract. David Tennant wanted to see a script. Christopher Eccleston wanted to see a script. So I got about two-thirds of the way through the script. Chris decided in a very gentlemanly way, and he had warned me that he probably would decide this, not to do it. So I thought – I mean, lovely Chris, but it was a pain,” Moffat shared about where things were at with the script when Eccleston passed. And it seems that Tennant and Smith had their own issues, too. “It was quite funny because David was saying, ‘I’m just a comic relief,’ and Matt’s saying, ‘Why has David got all the jokes?’ And I’m going, ‘Guys, you’re sharing the part, you’re sharing it!'” he added. “And then I had to come up with this idea of the other Doctor, this unknown Doctor from history, which I think was a good idea. You’re tweaking every last thing. And all you’re able to see is everything you weren’t able to correct.”

As for what a 50th anniversary with Eccleston would’ve been like, Moffat noted that it would have been “largely the same,” but “more from the point of view of the Ninth Doctor,” especially the ending. “It starts with him, and the slight difference in emphasis was that he was debating whether or not to allow the future to happen,” he said, adding that the big finale moment at the end of the Time War would’ve seen Eccleston’s Doctor asking, “Should I operate the Moment?”, with the Moment offering to show him what would happen if he did. “So it goes back in time and makes the Matt Smith and the David Tennant Doctor imaginary future Doctors who haven’t properly happened yet, but it was otherwise largely the same,” he noted.

Image: BBC

Moffat also had some thoughts to share on the show being tendered during the Utopia 2026 convention earlier this month, tackling the topic of the Christmas Special being canned and the show’s being shopped for a new creative team. “Doctor Who has not been cancelled. Yes, Christmas has been cancelled. Well, to be clear, not all of Christmas, the day will still take place, even if Doctor Who’s not on it,” Moffat shared. “Quite honestly, I’m not altogether sure why they bother doing that, but yes, Christmas, and that’s a black mark.” On that topic, Moffat added, “I don’t like the fact there’s not gonna be a Christmas special. There should always be a Christmas special. There’s not going to be that, but the show will return – very, very definitely.”

Courtesy of Emma/electriccandles on TikTok;
Steven Moffat’s been at Utopia and he’s rather clear that Doctor Who will return in the most comical fashion. pic.twitter.com/5fLHntuDpK

— -𝐉𝐀𝐌𝐈𝐄- | ♟️ (@AMadmanNotABox) June 13, 2026

As for those comparisons between what the long-running show is going through now and when it was shut down in 1989, Moffat says that there’s a very important difference. “This is not like… those of us who are old remember it was 16 years of, ‘Well, we’ll maybe tell you something next week,’ – it’s not that situation, right? So, out to tender is not out to grass. Out to tender means actively seeking a future for Doctor Who,” Moffat explained. “It may take a little bit longer. Oh, so what? How much Doctor Who do you need? I mean, on your iPhones right now is every episode ever made, except for the ones we accidentally lost! So watch those for a while.”

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