The passing of the Tenth Doctor is covered extensively in Saturday's papers. Beware reviews do contain spoilers of the episodes.

The Times has a minute by minute description of the story which it says is a great entrance and a great exit and has a look forward to the Moffat years while The Mail has a big photo feature on the episode. The Guardian describes the outgoing production team as masters. The Sun claims there was a huge electricity surge in the UK as the population switched on their kettles as the episode finished although The National Grid's website appears to contradict this. The paper's reviewer hated the episode calling it an embarrassing spectacle of overacting.

The Herald thought the story was funny and sad, scary and uplifting, threatening and comforting while The Telegraph felt that David Tennant said farewell to the series in thrilling yet emotional style.

Online, Den of Geek says the episode was an 80 minute exercise in just how much David Tennant is going to be missed and Airlock Alpha says the real heart of the episode was the interaction between Bernard Cribbins and Tennant, with both actors able to turn even the smallest piece of dialogue into something spectacular. SFX gives the episode five stars calling it a great finale with very clever writing, and incredibly sad yet resonant final words.

Matt Smith's local paper The Northampton Chronicle says the new Doctor will make the town proud.

The episode commentary, the last with Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner, is now on the BBC website.

For more press items in the last few days see GallifreyBase's Media Summary.

Following the regeneration of David Tennant into Matt Smith, a section of the official BBC Website has been re-branded complete with exclusive preview of the new series.

The promo, which is now also on the BBC YouTube Channel, has no spoilers from The End of Time.



Follow the Doctor Who News Page on

Today sees the Tenth Doctor regenerate into the Eleventh, only the tenth time in Doctor Who's forty-seven year history that the Doctor has regenerated.

It marks the last story for the Tenth Doctor as played by David Tennant, who leaves the series after four years in the role and with 47 episodes under his belt. Tennant departs at the peak of his popularity, and was recently voted the best Doctor ever by the readers of Doctor Who Magazine. His dedication to the role has been tremendous, and he has led the cast of a series that scores incredibly high in the audience appreciation figures. His popularity is such that the BBC made him the centrepiece of its Christmas schedule; he is the first Doctor ever to have featured in a BBC One ident.

Today also marks the end of the Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner era of the series. Gardner and Davies have been involved with the show since the return was first mooted in 2003. Together they have been responsible for the realisation of the revived series and have turned Doctor Who into one of the biggest BBC properties in the first decade of the 21st Century. They have been responsible for 60 episodes and have made Doctor Who must-see television which regularly charts in the top ten programmes of the week. They have cast two Doctors, Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant, and created two spin-offs, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures, both of which have had tremendous success and are due to be commissioned for their fourth series.

All three leave a strong legacy for the new production team to build on in 2010 as the series returns with a new Doctor and a new Executive Producer in the Spring.

BBC News have uploaded this morning's interview with David Tennant. The item contains two clips from The End of Time Part Two, which contain spoilers from Part One.

Tennant later appeared on a BBC Radio 5 Live phono-in, which is available on the BBC iPlayer.

BBC News have also published an article on regenerations past and present.

David Tennant has also talked to MTV about his 'Doctor Who' Mementoes.

The new Radio Times marks Matt Smith out as one of the ten people to watch in 2010. In the magazine, new executive producer Steven Moffat tells why viewers will be transfixed by Smith's portrayal of The Doctor. He describes him as a strong quiet man who conveys gravitas perfectly. "His most powerful moments are when he is very very quiet. in a way that a very powerful person can be... It's all implied strength rather than demonstrated bluster."

Moffat describes Smith as very much the 'nutty professor' Doctor whom the camera adores. "You'll be seeing a lot of that face, suffering, in close-up."

Smith's first series as the Doctor is due to be aired in the UK in the spring.

A new clip from The End of Time - Part Two has been made available today. An audio version of the clip was played on Who on Who on BBC Radio 2 and the full version was seen later on Alan Carr Chatty Man.

David Tennant and Catherine Tate have sparked off a debate on how to pronounce 2010. The topic was one of those discussed in last Saturday's Radio 2 show hosted by the pair when Tennant claimed that the BBC compliance rules insisted on twenty-ten while guest Bernard Cribbins said older people would prefer two thousand and ten. Although the BBC later denied there was any rule, the discussion has been picked up by many papers including The Telegraph in the UK and several papers around the world.

Meanwhile The Daily Mail, always quick to find a story to knock the BBC, has claimed that Tennant has taken over the BBC this Christmas. The paper claims the actor will have made over 75 appearances on the BBC over the holiday period and accuses the BBC of freezing out young acting talent by giving audiences an overdose of Tennant. Conservative MP Nigel Evans has been quoted by the paper as saying : "Sadly the BBC seem to have got themselves stuck in the rut of chasing ratings and going populist". he added "Their public service remit was always about bringing on fresh talent", perhaps forgetting that relative newcomer and 'fresh talent' Matt Smith takes over the role of The Doctor shortly.

For more press items in the last few days see GallifreyBase's Media Summary.

The End of Time Part One received an AI figure of 87.

The Appreciation Index, or AI, figure is a measure of how much the audience liked a programme. A score over 85 is considered excellent. Doctor Who had the highest score of the day on BBC One or BBC Two. The only programme to score higher on the main five channels was the film Gladiator on ITV1, which scored 89 with a much lower audience.

The Sunday night, BBC Three repeat of The End of Time Part One was watched by 590,000 viewers according to unofficial overnight figures. The programme was the 11th most watched multi channel programme for the day and had a share of 2.7%.

With figures available for the whole week, the Christmas day showing remains as the third most watched programme. Final figures will include those who record the programme and watch it within one week, and it is possible the programme will move into second place once these are released next week. The Appreciation Index figure should be available Tuesday.

The BBC has uploaded an exclusive clip from Part Two of The End of Time onto the official website. You are strongly advised not to click on the link if you have not seen Part One as it contains major spoilers from the end of Part One. The clip is only available on the official site in the UK.

David Tennant has spoken of his love for Doctor Who and how it lead him to choose acting for a career. Speaking on Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio Four, to be broadcast Sunday morning, he tells how it was watching Jon Pertwee in the role as a child, that made him want to go into the profession. He also tells of meeting Tom Baker while Baker was playing the fourth Doctor.

Various papers have reported the UK ratings for Christmas day with The Times describing the figures as disappointing for the BBC, while the Guardian concentrated on the BBC's dominance of the chart. The Mirror focused on EastEnders, but describes The End of Time as terrific, while The Star discribed the Christmas audiences for BBC One as huge.

For more press items in the last few days see GallifreyBase's Media Summary.

David Tennant and Catherine Tate today stood in for Jonathan Ross on his Radio 2 show.

Guests included Bernard Cribbins and fifth Doctor Peter Davison.

The programme is available worldwide via the BBC iplayer for the next seven days.