Christopher Eccleston’sDoctor WhoReturn Is a Solid Vehicle for a New Side of the Ninth Doctor

Despite the fact that his first audio play in the role has been out fora few weeks now , it still palpate kind of scandalous to live in a world where Christopher Eccleston is back in the proverbial leather jacket asDoctor Who ’s Ninth Doctor . But we indeed are , andit ’s mostly fascinating : if only because it ’s perhaps not quite the Ninth Doctor you could wait .

The Ninth Doctor Adventures : Ravagers is not so much three stories to mark Eccleston’sreturn to the worldof Doctor Who sincehis striking exitfrom the series in 2005 as it is one all-inclusive plot told across three parts . They do n’t all quite work so well — for all the energy it wants to hit the ground run with , hit us en culture medium res as Eccleston ’s Doctor seek to end a minacious play pot with his newfangled familiar Nova ( Camilla Beeput ) , unfold tarradiddle Sphere of Freedom feel curiously deadening . The 2nd and third stories , Cataclysm and Food Fight , capture more of the kinetic speed that defined the revived Doctor Who ’s storytelling in Eccleston ’s TV tenure much more evocatively . They also play for the most part well with both expanding on what we miss out on in the actor ’s short clip on screen while feeling like they ’d sit correctly at home with the likes of “ The End of the World , ” “ The Long Game , ” or “ The Empty Child . ”

There ’s much more sci - fi space adventure compare to the prosy stories of Eccleston ’s sole television receiver season . There ’s a big menace to sentence , pinging us about everywhere from the far future to ‘ fifty London , a sinister if slightly nebulous hydrofoil in evil capitalist Audrey ( Jayne McKenna ) , playing less on the animate being features we got on telecasting and with something more , for salutary or regretful , that feels crib out some of the convoluted time - bend plots of Steven Moffat ’s term of office as Who ’s showrunner .

The Doctor is in, and so very good.

The Doctor is in, and so very good.Image: Big Finish

But to be honest , most Doctor Who fans are not come to Ravagers for the plot of land . Sure , have one a bit better than the trio of stories ’ messy , but serviceable meter - bending risky venture would make it an even more pleasurable hearing experience than it already is , but even as is , the box set was always go to be a must - listen for fans of the series who grew up with the modernistic era of the show , introduce to this uncanny world of telephone set boxes and pepperpot fascists by a large - eared , vauntingly - grinned noncitizen that sounded awfully lot like he was from Northern England ( lots of planets have them , we ’re told — N , not Englands , gratefully ) . And that kind of listener is going to be rewarded ; far and away the infrangible highlight of Ravagers is not just how good it is to have Eccleston back as the medico , nor is it how quickly and comfortably it feels like the role player slue into a role he has not inhabited for over 15 years . Truly , it ’s like he never left at times , an experience as alien as it is profoundly touching . What makes Eccleston ’s medico in Ravagers ultimately so gripping , however , is neither of these things . It ’s that for the most part , the Ninth Doctor in this serial publication feels quite unlike what we ’ve come to know him as . He ’s … happy ?

That ’s not to say Eccleston ’s tenure on TV was devoid of joy , but hyper - condensing the Ninth Doctor ’s entire on - screen presence in the series into a single season all those years ago has , in a sense , warped our idea of who he was as a person , as an embodiment of this long - lived , ever - shifting Time Lord . We do it to all Doctors , retiring and present , roil them down to a few definable traits that make them not just the Doctor , but their Doctor . And Ecclestonwas the Sad One . He was the one defined by pain and trauma , shut off from the world around him even as he press so hard to save it — harrowed by war and the going of his the great unwashed , maudlin , even bitter , at his survivor ’s guilt feelings . The tragedy of theLast Great prison term Warprovided Eccleston ’s solo serial publication in the role with a closed book the show would fill in the gaps of long after he left , but it came to mold our very definition of his variation of the fibre going forrard . The Ninth Doctor was n’t happy , he was tragical , and haunted , and so very compelling because of it .

There are elements of that here in Ravagers , but they ’re kept abbreviated , and to the sidelines for further exploration down the short letter . Instead , Eccleston primarily pay us a medico that is inherently , explosively gleeful . There ’s a cacoethes to his performance that was always there in his time on the show , but here it is the absolute of his play , a glee that comes through as a hero that is unbelievably compassionate , in fear of the admiration and peril around him , a Doctor that so very deeply feels , whether it ’s anger at his foes , the speed of his wit , or the sheer joy he has to be doing what he does across sentence and space . At first , it might sense like too much of a nostalgia electric shock , to be confront with a Ninth Doctor that is as elated as Eccleston is here . But it just take here and now of lightness in the darkness of his graphic symbol on tv set — his debut to Rose , the iconic “ Everybody survive ! ” of “ The Empty Child , ” the slapstick hijinks of “ Boom Town , ” and so many more — and brings them to the bow . It ’s a monitor that what has made Eccleston so affectionately overleap in the series for all these years is that there was always so much potential with the Ninth Doctor that we never got to research . Ravagers is trial impression of that , and that we ’re well on the way to search it .

Image: Big Finish

Image: Big Finish

Eccleston ’s charisma , as utterly delicious as it is to behold , does overshadow a heap of the other things in Ravagers . While it devote us the benefit of largely move us through an otherwise humdrum tale arc , and can make much of its roughly two - and - a - half - minute runtime breeze on by , it mean that other major characters we meet do n’t quite get time to pass off or stand as their own people in comparison to the frenzied Doctor they ’re flitting around the ambit of . While McKenna ’s Audrey is a o.k. villain , this mostly regard Beeput as Nova . In part , it ’s because the news report does her little armed service in own her introduce and promptly waylaid , postulate the Doctor ’s saving of her when things go wrong . Also in part , it ’s because she perhaps below the belt has to be contrast in our minds with this Doctor ’s eventual relationship with Rose Tyler , at some stop in his future . But even without those hurdles , Nova feels more like a generic template for a Doctor of the Church Who fellow than an actual character of her own meritoriousness yet , and although there ’s potential for maturation there , it ’s not quite on show in Ravagers , sitting in the shadow of Eccleston ’s high-spirited performance .

But as we articulate before , what does n’t quite exercise with Ravagers is ultimately not going to matter to a lot of the Doctor of the Church Who lover who are interested in listening to it . The flaw are n’t even particularly disastrous ones in spite of the band either , just issue that would otherwise render it a perfectly fine listening experience instead of a rightfully great one . What people want to work most with Ravagers was Eccleston , and not only does he work , he goes above and beyond to return not just the Doctor we knew and loved all those year ago , but a side of the character we only ever really got to see in moments and asides .

It ’s wonderful . It ’s refreshing . And yes , indeed , it ’s a little bit fantastic .

Image: Big Finish