The rumors we’ve all heard for a while now about David Tennant leaving Doctor Who are true. It’s official: According to the BBC, David Tennant has announced he will no longer be playing the role of the tenth Doctor once filming of the 4 Doctor Who specials in 2009 has been completed.
Tennant said the following during his announcement:
“I’ve had the most brilliant, bewildering and life changing time working on Doctor Who. I have loved every day of it. It would be very easy to cling on to the TARDIS console forever and I fear that if I don’t take a deep breath and make the decision to move on now, then I simply never will. You would be prising the TARDIS key out of my cold dead hand. This show has been so special to me, I don’t want to outstay my welcome.
“This is all a long way off, of course. I’m not quitting, I’m back in Cardiff in January to film four special episodes which will take Doctor Who all the way through 2009. I’m still the Doctor all next year but when the time finally comes I’ll be honoured to hand on the best job in the world to the next lucky git – whoever that may be.
“I’d always thought the time to leave would be in conjunction with Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner who have been such a huge part of it all for me. Steven Moffat is the most brilliant and exciting writer, the only possible successor to Russell and it was sorely tempting to be part of his amazing new plans for the show. I will be there, glued to my TV when his stories begin in 2010.
“I feel very privileged to have been part of this incredible phenomenon, and whilst I’m looking forward to new challenges I know I’ll always be very proud to be the Tenth Doctor.”
It’s always sad to see a Doctor go, especially one who did as brilliant a job as David Tennant. But the show, as always, must be about change. While I’ll miss the 10th Doctor, I can’t wait to see where Stephen Moffat and the 11th Doctor take the show in 2010.
A video of David Tennant discussing his reasons for leaving Doctor Who can be found here.
