Eccleston would have been the one that deployed The Moment

From Rose:

(The Doctor sees his reflection in a mirror, and behaves as if he's just regenerated and is just seeing himself for the first time.)
DOCTOR: Ah, could've been worse. Look at the ears.

Really think Eccleston was the War Doctor? I think the episode was pretty clear that he was new into the body.

A Sunday Sweets diversion from Cake Wrecks with some mighty awesome Who inspired confections.

My personal favorite it the Tardis where you can see inside.

Eccleston was never interested in coming back to this show and has been pretty clear about it in the press. If he's been in this ep, he would have filled the David Tennant role of "post-War Doctor Doctor with clear memories of killing all the Time Lords and is still pretty upset about it." (Which I think would have made a lot more sense, emotional arc-wise, but it's not like I'm going to complain too much about an extra hour of David Tennant on my screen.)

John Hurt could have been conceivably replaced by Paul McGann (discarding the extra non-numbered regeneration altogether), but I don't hear any fans clamouring for that.

And what Miz Jessica said.

I am sad that Eccleston wants no more of the property, but not mad. That having been said, how can I tweak his IMDB "known for" section? I REALLY WANNA...

Eccleston was never interested in coming back to this show and has been pretty clear about it in the press.

I recall seeing some commentary several years ago: he disliked working for (I assume) RTD (no names were used) because he felt the atmosphere on the set was abusive--not necessarily to him, possibly, but to the rest of the crew. If that's true, I can see why he would be sufficiently disenchanted by the whole experience to want nothing more to do with it.

Pity, that. But I can't fault him sticking by his principles, even though he's my favorite of the new Doctors.

I wasn't surprised that Eccleston wasn't there, given his press about the DW experience. He'd been firm from the moment it was made public he was moving on that he'd be happy to leave all that behind.

Still, as Consuela says, he's my favorite doctor, and I'd have loved to see a complete regeneration from the War Doctor into him. I guess since it was so emphatically NOT going to happen, I was quietly wishing that it was a smokescreen that it WOULD happen. Heh. Foilers! t River Song voice

ION, WTF Amazon? Apparently it was $4.99 to purchase the Day of the Doctor earlier this morning (which is outrageous for a TV show to begin with) but when I went to get it, it's now $6.99! I am annoyed.

Just watched on iTunes and enjoyed the heck out of it. The three doctors together was brilliant.

Really think Eccleston was the War Doctor? I think the episode was pretty clear that he was new into the body.

Really think you could have phrased that a little more nicely...

Forgot about that. So he wouldn't have been Hurt. For this story, you'd still need that character. For a very different story you'd have Eccleston instead. For a slightly different story you'd have Hurt, Eccleston, Tennant, and Smith... that would have been awesomesauce.

(Nice Eccleston story: A friend was interviewing him recently on the press junket for Thor. He said on fb "I understand that Eccleston didn't really enjoy his experience as the Doctor and doesn't love talking about it, but when I mentioned that my son loved it he said, "I'd like to sign something for him." Who am I to say no to that?" Awwwwww.)

Really think you could have phrased that a little more nicely...

Like this, maybe?

Eccleston could have been in a lot of places here, but not replacing John Hurt, Frank. That regeneration we saw when he stepped into his TARDIS leads directly to "Rose."

Not that I don't think it's neutral--what I do think it is is surprised. Because I was. I'm not the first to mention that here this month.

Doctor Who confuses me. I'm interested in it just enough to see just enough to know about half of what's going on. I want Doctor Who Cliff's Notes.