David Tennant Confirms He Is To Stand Down As
The Doctor

David Tennant made the announcement after winning the Outstanding Drama Performance prize at the National Television Awards. David Tennant ‘When Doctor Who returns in 2010 it won't be with me’, he said. ‘Now don't make me cry", he added. "I love this part, 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. I'll miss it’. ‘Three years was about the right time to play the role’, he has revealed. ‘I think it's better to go when there's a chance that people might miss you, rather than to hang around and outstay your welcome’. His stint in the show had been ‘the most extraordinary time, it's been bewildering, life changing, very exciting. And just so much fun, such a great show to work on. That's one of the reasons I think it's right to take a deep breath and bow out when it's still fun, when it's a novelty. I don't ever want it to feel like a job, so I want to move on when it still feels exciting and fresh and that means I'll miss it’. David Tennant stepped into the TARDIS in 2005, and will leave the role after four special episodes are broadcast during 2009 as well as the 2008 Christmas special, titled "The Next Doctor", before filming on the four specials starts in January. ‘They'll be the four last stories that I do’, David Tennant has said. The Current Executive Producer Russell T Davies has 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’. A fifth series of the show is scheduled for 2010 – but of course we now know that a new actor will be playing the part of The Doctor - The Eleventh Doctor.