David Tennant was announced as the Tenth Time Lord in April 2005. It has been a
life long ambition of David's to play the Doctor. And it was watching the show as a child that inspired him to become an actor.
"From that point on I absolutely didn't want to do anything else,' says David.
'It's odd when I think about it. I don't quite know where it came from or how I could be so
sure that becoming an actor could happen, but it never seemed an unlikely or unusual thought to have. It was probably to do
with being brought up to believe that things were possible and you could be whatever you wanted to be.'
David made his first appearance in the episode The Parting of the Ways after the regeneration
scene, and also appeared in a special mini-episode shown as part of the 2005 Children in Need appeal, broadcast in November
2005.
His first full-length outing as the Doctor was a 60-minute special, The Christmas Invasion,
which was broadcast on Christmas Day 2005.
He has since played the role of the Doctor in three full length 13 part series of Doctor
Who starring opposite Billie Piper, Freema Agyeman and Catherine Tate.
The 2008 Christmas special will be his fourth!
At the end of October 2008 David announced that he was stepping out of the TARDIS and would
be leaving Doctor Who before the series returns in 2010.
David 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 easy to cling on to the Tardis console but I fear that if I don’t take a
deep breath and make the decision to move on now, I 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."
He added: "This is all a long way off, of course. I’m not quitting, I’m back 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 feel very privileged to have been part of this incredible phenomenon. I’m looking forward to
new challenges but I’ll always be proud to be the 10th Doctor."
