Lead Time Lords: The Ninth Doctor

Hah! Bet you thought I was going to be painting the Sixth Doctor. Well, no. Later. I have plans there, you see, and things to talk about in detail. Oh, detail… So here’s the ‘Ninth’ Doctor (I’m sticking to the pre-Day of the Doctor numbering for the sake of my sanity) as portrayed by Christopher Eccleston.

I really liked Eccleston’s Doctor, but I was disappointed at the same time that his tenure was so short and so defined by a single ‘amazing ™’ companion and character arc. That Eccleston turned down the chance to return to the role for the Anniversary special is also a shame, because I think we lost the opportunity to see him outside the Bad Wolf trappings as well. As it is, he’s something of an interregnum Doctor to me.

 Like his TV counterpart, there’s not a lot to say about this model – there’s very little in the way of alternatives out there – none which are readily available AND of equal quality sculpt-wise anyway. Heresy’s ‘Malcolm Ecclescake’ is pretty much what you’d want from a ninth Doctor figure; yes, the pose is not entirely him, but after version after version of Harlequin’s cross-armed posed old Doctors, the last thing you need is a self-hugging Eccleston figure mimicking his occasional onscreen posture. And maybe he’s a bit more ‘grim oop north’ in his expression than you might like, but otherwise he’s great. Fantastic, even. The jacket is high on detail, the face is suitably angular, there’s dynamism there, and they even got his ears right. Heresy’s model comes in two parts, his ‘sonic’ arm being needed to be glued on, but otherwise required little clean-up.

Colour-wise the limitations of Eccleston’s wardrobe show – black moleskins, battered black navvy’s jacket, and an assortment of toned-down shades of vest, from an olive drab to burgundy to grape. My purple option was decided on just to liven the figure up a bit, and I’ve weathered the jacket and given the trouser legs a bit of a liquorice green-black just to break up the overall darkness there, Initially I wanted a smooth, white marble and gold base to mimic the floors of Cardiff’s Temple of Peace aka Platform One, but once again my limited skill with that sort of thing showed all too clearly (an uneven and distinctly bumpy mess), and so a reddish colour scheme is on my base, once again to prevent the figure from being such a buzz-kill colour-wise.