BBC chiefs nearly exterminated me
ACTOR DAVID SAYS HE MISSES CHRISTMAS SPECIAL Doctor Who star on fears over revamp
David Tennant has revealed the BBC came close to cancelling the revamped Doctor Who after just one season.
The Tenth Time Lord said an alternative ending had been shot terminating the show after Christopher Ecclestone quit.
Ecclestone was at the Tardis controls when the series was spectacularly relaunched in 2005. But he departed the revamped sci-fi classic after just 13 episodes, blaming on-set politics. On New Year’s Day, Doctor Who returns with the 13th Time Lord Jodie Whittaker at the helm of what is now the world’s longest running sci-fi show. Tennant, 48, said: “Christopher Ecclestone wasn’t there for my regeneration scene. He had shot his own bit and they had just left a bit to tie it up. “There was a sense that they might not even have a series two. I have a feeling they even shot a different ending that they would have used.” Adding that he could have ended up a “nearly man”, he said: “Would you would want to be the guy who regenerates and shows up for 30 seconds of a series that never comes back? Then what are you? Do you even count as a Doctor? What would that be?”
At the 11th hour, the show was recommissioned and has since become BBC Worldwide’s biggest seller.
Tennant added his voice to criticism of the decision not to do a Christmas special.
He said: “Being on telly at Christmas, that is the bit I miss most, being in the Radio Times. “It used to be the bit I was most proud of – why aren’t they doing it on Christmas Day any more? What’s going on? Are they bonkers?” Tennant and Billie Piper returned to Doctor Who for the 50th anniversary special, The Day of the Doctor, in 2013 and he has not ruled out returning again. He left after nearly five years – to be replaced by Matt Smith.
The star added: “When you are filming that moment of regeneration, everyone is focused on it, desperate to get it right.
“You go from the absolute centre of this and then you walk out of the door and everyone’s attention just switches off.
“You can feel completely dispensable – an hour ago, I felt like the most important creature on Earth and now it trundles on without me.
“You wonder, ‘ Wha t am I– chopped liver?’
“It is a very weird mix of emotions.”
Doctor Who series 12 guest stars include Lenny Henr y, Stephen Fry and former ER star Goran Visnjic.