Tennant Quits Doctor Who

Bad news for Doctor Who fans: Tenth Doctor David Tennant has announced he is quitting the show before the next season premieres.

Tennant, one of the most popular actors to play the role, made the announcement after winning the outstanding drama performance prize at the National Television Awards.

"When Doctor Who returns in 2010 it won't be with me," he said, according to news reports on the BBC and elsewhere.

Tennant will appear in a 2008 Christmas special before filming four more specials in January. "They'll be the four last stories that I do," he said. This suggests a regeneration taking place in the 2009 Christmas special.

Tennant anticipated fans' dismay, protesting he feels he needs to leave now or never. "I love this part," he said, "and I love this show so much that if I don't take a deep breath and move on now I never will, and you'll be wheeling me out of the TARDIS in my bath chair."

Tennant has done three seasons of Who, with Billie Piper, Freema Agyeman, and Catherine Tate playing his main companions. Tate left the show at the end of the last season, so it's not certain who will be playing opposite Tennant in the upcoming specials.

Tennant has made a game of being coy about his tenure on the show, dropping contradictory hints about his future intentions. The show itself even teased fans in the penultimate episode of the last season, showing the start of a regeneration – only to abort it at the top of the season finale.

Russell T. Davies, executive producer of Doctor Who, said: "I've been lucky and honoured to work with David over the past few years - and it's not over yet, the Tenth Doctor still has five spectacular hours left! After which, I might drop an anvil on his head. Or maybe a piano. A radioactive piano. But we're planning the most enormous and spectacular ending, so keep watching."

The handicapping of potential replacements for Tennant has already begun – a process that in the past has been notoriously off the mark. Candidates favored by oddsmakers include Paterson Joseph (a well-known Anglo-African actor who was on Who once before, as Rodrick in season 1's finale, "The Parting of the Ways"), David Morrissey (a well-known British series actor who was also in Basic Instinct 2 and Captain Corelli's Mandolin), James Nesbitt (another British series actor who was also in the film Millions), and John Simm (who played the Master in Doctor Who's season 3 finale and the lead in the original British Life on Mars.)

A September comment by Davies, that he thought Russell Tovey would be a top pick for the next Doctor, was probably meant only to reflect Davies's respect for the actor. Tovey played Midshipman Frame in the 2007 Christmas Special, "Voyage of the Damned," but is best known for his starring role in History Boys.

Morrissey will be seen opposite Tennant in the upcoming 2008 Christmas special, which is suggestively titled "The Next Doctor." Davies has demonstrated a delight in playing games with casting and episode titles, so this could be Davies's way of saying he already has Morrissey in mind – or he wants us to think he does.

I've always thought the next Doctor should be Hugh Laurie, but he seems happy enough playing his current role, an irritable and idiosyncratic doctor – oh wait.

But as Davies reminds us, we'll have essentially a half-season more of Tennant as the Tenth Doctor before the new era dawns – heightening the already high anticipation for the five upcoming specials.