David Tennant, the 34-year-old actor currently appearing in producer
Russell T. Davies’ hit BBC miniseries, Casanova, will trade his frilly
cuffs and randy ways for alien mystery and space-going adventure when he rejoins
Davies on the new Doctor Who, for which Davies is Executive Producer and
co-writer. Tennant will take over as the 10th incarnation of the Doctor
following current 9th Doctor Christopher Eccleston’s departure at the end of the
current 13-episode season. At this point, it is uncertain if Tennant will assume
the role for this year’s scheduled Christmas special or in the first episode of
the series’ second season in 2006.

The revival of the popular
long-running sci-fi television saga has been garnering massive press since its
return to BBC1 on March 26, 2005, with only one episode having aired before word
broke that the BBC had renewed the show for at least one more year and the
aforementioned holiday special. The same day that the news was announced,
tabloids leaked the story that Eccleston had decided to depart the role after
completing only one season for fear of ‘typecasting.’ That story was then
corrected by the BBC, which claimed responsibility for falsely attributing a
quote to Eccleston. It is possible that the plan to replace Eccleston with
Tennant after just one year was already in the works months ago. There is
further speculation that since Tennant is allegedly being paid only half of
Eccleston’s fee – about 600,000 pounds – Eccleston’s departure may have been
prompted by a desire to cut costs on the production.

So far, four
episodes of the new Who have aired to almost universal acclaim, with the
fifth – part two of the show’s first two-part story – airing tomorrow. Next
week, the series is sure to be at the center of another massive media blitz when
the Doctor’s old enemies, the Daleks (well, one of them anyway) return. More
iconic than the Doctor himself, the Daleks appeared in the original series’
second-ever story in 1963 and quickly enveloped the UK in a wave of
merchandise-fueled “Dalekmania” that retailers are surely hoping
will re-ignite this Christmas. And yes, toy Daleks sporting their new series
look are already in production.

Billie Piper, currently playing the
Doctor’s companion Rose Tyler, will return alongside Tennant for the second
season, and already buzz has it that the BBC have quietly mooted the production
of a third season of Doctor Who for 2007. The show airs on BBC1 in the
UK, with deals to air in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Italy. So far,
negotiations to place the series on a US-based network or cable channel have not
been successful.