I Miss David Tennant As The Doctor. There, I Said It.

Added on 01 June 2011

I was on a BBC screenwriting workshop last summer when the subject of Dr Who arose. (When you're on BBC screenwriting workshops you spend a lot of time talking about BBC shows that actually got commissioned and made.) I was shocked, really really SHOCKED, to discover that virtually everyone in the room - and there were a bunch - was terribly excited about Matt Smith and was quite happy that David Tennant had moved on.

I believe I sat there with a look on my face that suggested.... well, David Tennant as the Doctor when he used to look confused and say, 'What? What? WHAT?'

Now, the end of David Tennant's spell was more protracted than The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest, and it was all very emotionally painful and blah blah blah. Lots of love angst, not to mention Time Lord angst and omnipotent being angst.

[Talking of omnipotent beings, I was once at a Star Trek convention in Glasgow - in around 1991 or thereabouts - when the main guest was John De Lancie. For some reason he took it upon himself to criticise Kevin Costner for playing Robin Hood with an American accent. I stood up and said, 'How d'you know what kind of accents they had back then in England? And anyway... you play an omnipotent pan-dimensional space being with an American accent, how far-fetched is that, you dumbass?'

Well, I didn't actually say that, but I thought of it ten minutes later.]

But you know, it wasn't David Tennant who was writing those scripts. It wasn't his fault. If he'd been given more episodes like Midnight - which came near the end of series 4 and was an absolute beezer, devoid of love, Time Lord or omnipotent being angst - it would have been perfect. Yet they kept giving him two parters with the Earth under the greatest peril and some woman or other looking at him with big eyes and hoping she'd get a shag. Or not.

Anyway, here we are, one and a half series in to Matt Smith's reign, and I just can't get used to him, and I don't care that Amy's pregnant and I really don't want to think that Rory's boring but he is. And I miss watching David Tennant.

I keep thinking... you know there's another David Tennant trapped in an alternate universe with Rose at the end of series 4. What about him?

And I hope they bring him back, but I know it's a hopeless hope, like the one I used to have when I'd hope that Blake would get brought back to Blake's 7, and just like that hope, if my wish is finally granted - [Blake was brought back just so they could pump his stomach full of bullets and spray his blood all over the cheap 1970's cardboard Blue Peter-esque set] - and some BBC executive tells Stephen Moffat that it would be a great marketing idea to bring Tennant's Doctor back from his dimension for an episode or even a two-parter with Matt Smith to give the series a bit of a boost, it wouldn't be long term, and would no doubt end in some other tragedy that would make Tennant's Doctor and Rose miserable again.

So I don't really hope for that, because it wouldn't go well. But I hope for it anyway.