Doctor Who: David Tennant on Tender, His Advice for New Team & More

Posted in: BBC, TV | Tagged: doctor who

Doctor Who: David Tennant Talks Tender, Has Advice for New Team & More

David Tennant had more to say about Doctor Who being put out to tender, offering some advice to the new production/creative team and more.

Published Thu, 20 Aug 2026 08:11:13 -0500
by Ray Flook
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Article Summary

• David Tennant says Doctor Who going out to tender could spark a fresh era, new energy, and a positive new direction.
• Tennant advises the next Doctor Who team to think fresh, not get trapped by past eras, and reinvent the show.
• On casting the next Doctor, Tennant says there is no fixed template and many very different actors could be right.
• Tennant also weighs how producers may shape Doctor Who around a creative vision and praises Michael Sheen for the role.

Between Steven Moffat, Chris Chibnall, and Mark Gatiss, Doctor Who fans have definitely gotten some distinctly different perspectives on the show's current predicament. After the promise of a Christmas Special was announced last fall, the rug was pulled out from under the possibility of a Doctor Who return earlier this year when Russell T. Davies departed as showrunner, Bad Wolf departed as a producer, it was announced that the Christmas Special never actually existed, and the BBC officially announced that the long-running show would be put out to tender. During a wide-ranging profile interview in Doctor Who Magazine #633, David Tennant offered a silver lining about the tender process: "I think this will provide a new energy, a new direction. Until you have evidence to the contrary, you should regard it as a positive." In addition, he explained why the new production/creative team shouldn't be dependent on the past, dived into the process of selecting a new Doctor, and had some thoughts on Michael Sheen taking on the role (spoiler: he loves the idea).

"Well, only that there's nothing to indicate that it's gone away. It's just going to have a breath and come back in a different form, and that's probably quite exciting, I'd have thought. It might mean a bit of waiting, but luckily Big Finish exists! There will be plenty of Doctor Who stories," Tennant shared. "Even in the gap between 1989 and 2005, either side of the Eighth Doctor TV movie, it kept going. The fire may have dimmed slightly, but it certainly never went out. It was always burning fiercely somewhere. I think this will provide a new energy, a new direction. Until you have evidence to the contrary, you should regard it as a positive."

As for how the new production/creative should approach the long-running show, Tennant pushes back on the idea that they should be looking back on his – or any of the previous Doctors' – runs. "I think it probably needs people not to think that way, doesn't it? Whoever the new team are, need to be able to think fresh and think new and not be too hidebound by expectations of what came before. I guess you need to be inspired by the source material, and then you have your own take on it, just like Russell did back in 2005. The same show, but different."

As for who the next Doctor should be, Tennant doesn't get into specifics, but does believe that most actors would have a go at it and bring something unique to it." In fact, Tennant finds the contrast of being able to "absolutely recognise when someone's right for" the role and there not being "necessarily a checklist of attributes you're looking for" makes it fascinating. "Who's right is one of those rules that can bend in different directions. With something like James Bond, there are a few set points within the casting; you know, there are various notes you have to hit. With the Doctor, it can be William Hartnell, it can be Ncuti Gatwa, it can be Jodie Whittaker, it can be Peter Capaldi… All these are correct solutions to the problem. So it's very hard to speculate without any kind of filters on your search," he explained.

Tennant continued, "There are lots of options available, and there are lots of different ways to do it. I suspect it will probably be led by the creative direction of whoever takes it over. There are so many variables it's impossible to guess, until you have a sense of who might be writing it or who might be producing it… Unless some production company decides to mount some bid around a particular performer, that would be a way forward, I suppose. If a writer or producer had a relationship with a particular actor… I don't know. This is not me hinting at any insider knowledge. I just think there are probably different ways to approach what happens next. I mean, it'd be a way of doing it, wouldn't it? And it might be a way of luring in the BBC, if they got someone shiny."

Of course, a conversation about the future of Doctor Who wouldn't be complete without a question about his long-time friend and frequent co-star, Sheen. How would he feel about Sheen taking on the role? "What a loaded question that is [laughs]! Obviously, he'd be brilliant, and obviously I would tell him exactly how to do it, and he wouldn't listen to any of my advice. It would be amazing if Michael did it, but who knows? I think it really is impossible to say until you know what the plan is – otherwise it's just pure speculation."

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