Tennant on “I don’t want to go”

It’s hard to believe, but the approaching New Year will mark three years since David Tennant’s regeneration in the concluding half of The End of Time.

In a recent interview Tennant has reflected on his time as the Doctor and his final line.

“I don’t think there was a single moment that was too shaky,” he told the Big Issue. “I left feeling like it had just been a rare and heady time. I never got bored, it was never a chore. I left feeling incredibly good about it and I haven’t really paused to take stock. It’s still something I’m recognised for pretty much all the time and something I’ll forever be proud of.”

Tennant gave his thoughts on his divisive final line (“I don’t want to go”): “I think that was a very clever line. It absolutely made sense in terms of character – that’s exactly what that version of the Doctor would say. So it didn’t break the fiction. But at the same time it was a bigger line than that. It was partly Russell [T Davies] expressing how he felt about leaving the show because we were all leaving together.

“We all felt it was the right time to go – we’d given it all we could – but at the same time we all knew there would be nothing else we’d ever do that would be quite like this. You might have real success doing something else, you’ll work on other things, but whatever happens this is unique. There’s nothing else like Doctor Who. In the world. So yes, it was a bittersweet goodbye.”