Debate: Who should be the next Timelord?

David Tennant is to quit as Doctor Who at the end of next year.

Tennant took up the role as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor in 2005, and will end his tenure after filming five final episodes, the last of which will be shown early in 2010.

The actor made the announcement just before he won the Outstanding Drama Performance award at the National Television Awards last night. He was up against his Doctor Who sidekick Catherine Tate for their respective roles as the Timelord and his assistant Donna Noble. The series also won the Most Popular Drama award, beating Desperate Housewives, Shameless and The Bill.

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Tennant has been widely hailed as one of the most popular Doctors in the history of the show, which began in November 1963 with William Hartnell in the role.

The BBC confirmed that Tennant would complete the filming of four special episodes to be shown this year and early in 2010, as well as a Christmas special in 2009. There is no series scheduled for next year because of Tennant’s commitments with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

He said: “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 for ever 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, but I don’t want to outstay my welcome.”

Born David McDonald, the actor changed his name to Tennant because the actors’ union Equity does not allow two actors to be listed with identical names. He took over from Christopher Eccleston in 2005, after the show had been off screens for nine years since Paul McGann’s Doctor took off in the Tardis for the last time in 1996.

The primetime sci-fi drama has long been famous for the ability of the Timelord to regenerate and change appearance as he nears death (or as the actor playing him looks for a new challenge). When he took the role, Tennant said that he was fulfilling a childhood dream. “Who wouldn’t want to be the Doctor? I’ve even got my own Tardis,” he said.

In 2006 the readers of Doctor Who Magazine voted Tennant Best Doctor ahead of the traditional favourite Tom Baker, and last year Tennant’s Doctor was voted the “coolest character” on television in a survey conducted by Radio Times.

Tate suggested on Jonathan Ross’s Radio 2 show last year that Tennant may step down after the next series, although Tennant was quick to deny the rumours and said: “Catherine Tate stitched me up good and proper. She goes on Jonathan Ross and makes up a load of old nonsense.”

He said last night: “When Doctor Who returns in 2010 it won’t be with me. Now don’t make me cry. The 2009 shows will be my last playing the doctor.”

The Cold Feet star James Nesbitt has often been mentioned as the actor in the frame to become the 11th Timelord. But the bookmakers Paddy Power favour Paterson Joseph as the favourite to take over the role, offering odds of 3-1 on him becoming the first black doctor.

The Life on Mars star John Simm and his co-star in the political drama State of Play, David Morrisey, are also given odds of 8-1 and 5-1 respectively to pick up the keys to the Tardis.

Russell T. Davies, the programme’s executive producer, said: “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.”

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