When Doctor Who returned to the airwaves after an exile of seventeen years, the show was spearheaded by two men who had made significant names for themselves in British television: Russell T. Davies as executive producer and lead writer, and Christopher Eccleston as the mysterious and iconic Doctor. However, while Doctor Who easily re-established itself as an entertainment powerhouse, Eccleston was gone by the end of the first season. His replacement was the media darling David Tennant, who championed the show for the next five years, but Eccleston's departure remained a sore, if rarely-talked about, blip on the otherwise magnificent radar of Doctor Who.

In an interview with Radio Times to promote his role as John Lennon in Lennon Naked, Eccleston spoke briefly about his short tenure as the Ninth Doctor:

I was open-minded but I decided after my experience on the first series that I didn't want to do any more. I didn't enjoy the environment and the culture that we, the cast and crew, had to work in. I wasn't comfortable. I thought "if I stay in this job, I'm going to have to blind myself to certain things that I thought were wrong."

 

And I think it's more important to be your own man than be successful, so I left. But the most important thing is that I did it, not that I left. I really feel that, because it kind of broke the mould and it helped to reinvent it. I'm very proud of it.

What exactly Eccleston objected to so much, that he would actually leave one of the highest-profile roles in British television after only one season, will likely remain a mystery. Contentious as though the circumstances were for him, Eccleston says he is very proud of his work as the Doctor, and the pivotal role he played in bringing the show back into the public consciousness after its unceremonious retirement in 1988. As the series continues to move from strength to strength (now headed by Steven Moffat as executive producer/lead writer and Matt Smith as the Doctor), it would make no sense for Eccleston to tarnish his hard work, or the 47-year old television and cultural legacy he is a part of and helped bring back.