David Tennant Is Returning To Doctor Who
Fan-favorite Tenth Doctor David Tennant is returning to the series that made him a star, and he is not coming back alone.
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David Tennant is easily one of the most beloved actors to ever portrayed the nearly omniscient yet easily confused time-traveling extraterrestrial known as The Doctor. While the early 2000s Russell T. Davies reboot of the long-running BBC science fiction series may have kicked off with Christopher Eccleston as a modernized version of the character, it was Tennant’s succeeding portrayal that brought new fans into the fold. There have been a number of other doctors since the Tenth Doctor left the series in 2010 (we’re up to 14 now), but the news that David Tennant is returning to the series is huge news for the hordes of Whovians out there.
It also helps that David Tennant will not be returning alone. Actor Catherine Tate, who portrayed the Tenth Doctor’s Companion (basically a sidekick device so the Doctor can reasonably provide exposition to the audience) Donna Noble. The separation of the two characters is considered an enormously emotionally important event in the recent history of Doctor Who. Previously, they had both appeared in character in “The End of Time” the fifth Christmas special of the series. Till now, that has been the last appearance for both, and given that Donna had her memories of David Tennant’s Doctor wiped as a means to save her life and as part of an alien prophecy, there is sure to be a lot of drama in their return.
To be fair, both David Tennant and Catherine Tate reprised the character in 2013 for the fiftieth-anniversary mini-series “Destiny of the Doctor,” but only in audio form. It says a lot about the density of the Doctor Who franchise that it can be difficult to really follow which character appears when and where in the vast amount of Doctor Who content, which includes the regular series, the Christmas specials, audio dramas, novels, spin-off novels, and probably canonical lunchboxes. As a lifelong Doctor Who fan, it does not seem particularly difficult to get David Tennant to return to the character periodically, which could not be said for former Doctors Christopher Eccleston and Peter Capaldi.
Of course, this is a transitional time for the Doctor Who franchise. Since the departure of David Tennant, the show has run through a number of showrunners and recently circled back to fan-favorite Russell T. Davies. There have also been a number of Doctors: Matt Smith followed Tenant in nearly as beloved a run, followed by a grumpier, more sharp-tongued take on the character by Peter Capaldi (visibly choking back swearwords for the majority of his performance), and most recently, Jodie Whittaker as the first female regeneration of the Doctor. It has been announced that actor Ncuti Gatwa will be starring in the series as the Fourteenth Doctor, making him both the fourth Scottish and first Black actor to lead the series.
Since leaving Doctor Who, David Tennant has appeared in many television series, films, and theatrical productions. He was particularly noted for his villainous turn in Netflix’s Marvel series Jessica Jones, in which he played the abusive, mind-controlling Kilgrave. He also starred in the ITV crime drama Broadchurch and voiced the world’s richest duck in the 2017 reboot of DuckTales.
