The Chris Eccleston-shaped hole in the 50th made me sad, too (though watching Matt Smith and David Tennant obviously have a blast together made up for it). My impression is that he had a really terrible time shooting his season, partly because RTD and the production crew had no idea what they were doing (RTD has admitted this and said that they scheduled a day for things back then that they now schedule a week for), and partly because I don't think Eccleston was at all prepared to become a cultural icon overnight. My impression is that he's a much more serious and probably more private personality than either Tennant or Smith, and the whole thing was extremely unpleasant for him. He just didn't want to go back there and no amount of money (or at least not that amount of money that he was offered) could make him do it.

I'm really looking forward to Peter Capaldi. I do love Eleven (God, do we have to start calling him Twelve now? I hope not), but I think Capaldi is going to be great.