David Tennant Has Had Enough Of This Poxy Doctor Who Lark

Over the last few years David Tennant has firmly established himself as the most irritatingly wacky gonk-faced Doctor Who ever.

But all good things have to come to an end at some point, and that’s why David Tennant yesterday confirmed everyone’s worst fears - he’s making four more Doctor Who specials. No, that’s not it. We meant to say that after making his four Doctor Who specials, David Tennant is going to leave Doctor Who.

It was a sad announcement, and it’s left Doctor Who fans profoundly upset. But at the same time, the news has also kickstarted speculation over who’ll become the next Doctor Who. Finding an actor who can encapsulate David Tennant’s bravery, enthusiasm and range of zany facial expressions won’t be too hard, though, and we hear that fictional 1980s cartoon puppy Scrappy Doo is top of everyone’s wishlist.

Doctor Who has been good for David Tennant. Before he landed the role, he was just a lanky Scottish actor who could effortlessly pull a number of faces that made him look as if his balls were being tasered.

But now? Now he’s Doctor Who he has it all - fame, money, a crowd of people constantly mistaking him for Richard Hammond, a distantly incesty girlfriend - but that isn’t enough. Because of Doctor Who, David Tennant has got to play Hamlet with the Royal Shakespeare Company, albeit a wacky Hamlet who we assume interrupts his famous ‘To be or not to be’ speech 14 times to pull a face like Kenneth Williams being bummed by a goat.

And once you’ve played Hamlet, you can hardly be expected to chase some alien wheelie bins around Cardiff with Catherine Tate again, can you? And that’s why David Tennant has decided to leave Doctor Who at the end of next year. Reuters reports:

“I’ve had the most brilliant, bewildering and life changing time working on Doctor Who,” said Tennant, who described the part as the “best job in the world.” “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.”

So what happens now is anybody’s guess. A new Doctor Who will have to be picked for a start, which means that James Nesbitt should probably start talking to boxy robot dogs as training. But before the new Doctor Who is introduced, David Tennant still has to make four specials to be broadcast over next year. Will they remain standalone and episodic, or will they be take the form of one long, doom-laden story that builds up to Tennant’s death? That remains to be seen.

One thing’s for certain, though - if he’s leaving Doctor Who, David Tennant has probably scuppered plans for that Doctor Who movie. We’d be sad, but anything that keeps Catherine Zeta Jones unemployed is probably for the best in the long run.