David Tennant Is Out Of Doctor Who

After rumors swirled about an upcoming departure, including a season finale that had his character almost regenerating, the BBC have officially confirmed that David Tennant is leaving his role as the tenth version of The Doctor in 2009. He's still got a few more hours of Doctoring left, with four special episodes airing in 2009 that will have him in the role. But, come 2010 when the new season finally premieres, there will be someone different in the role that made Tennant a huge star in Britain. Tennant played the Doctor for three seasons, and said that he loved the part so much that he wanted to leave it while it still felt exciting and fun. I'm not too bummed out at the loss myself; I thought he gave the Doctor a weird over-intensity and took the part too seriously at times, although I don't know if that's the fault of the writing or the acting. If it was the writing, well, that will change too, as Steven Moffat takes over from Russell T. Davies as head writer and executive producer of the show. There's no word yet on who will play the eleventh version of the regenerating Time Lord, but I am all for dusting off Tom Baker (who played the Fourth Doctor and currently provides narration for HBO's Little Britain USA) and giving him the part again.

You can hear the bad news from David Tennant on the BBC site here.