The Guardian Press Launch Coverage

David Tennant today admitted that filming his final scenes for Doctor Who had been "very emotional" – and revealed what his final lines in the lead role will be.

Tennant also admitted he was "jealous" of Matt Smith, who will be seen taking over his role as the Doctor next year.
He was speaking at the London launch of The Waters of Mars, the first of three remaining Doctor Who specials to be broadcast on BBC1 before the end of the year. They are a swansong for Tennant, after four years in the lead role, and for Russell T Davies, the executive producer and showrunner responsible for Doctor Who's hugely successful reinvention.
Smith takes over from Tennant for next year's fifth series of the revived Doctor Who, which is being overseen by new showrunner Steven Moffat, who has written award-winning episodes of the drama including Blink, The Empty Child and The Girl in the Fireplace.
The Waters of Mars is to be broadcast on BBC1 on Sunday 15 November at 7pm, with the remaining two specials to transmit over the Christmas holiday, in which Tennant is expected to bow out in tear-jerking scenes.
At the end of The Waters of Mars, viewers will glimpse some familiar faces who will appear in the Doctor's adventures to come, including Catherine Tate, who plays the Doctor's former companion Donna, and his arch-nemesis the Master, played by John Simm.
"It's fitting and proper he should be there to see the Doctor off – if that's what happens," Tennant teased, speaking of Simm's return as the Master. "The Doctor now knows incontrovertibly that he's running from his own demise."
He described shooting the final scenes as "emotional" but said that as they were filmed out of sequence, the situation did not get too weepy.
Tennant said the last line he said as the Doctor was "You two, with me, spit spot," so it was robbed of any epic quality.
"It was very emotional saying cheerio. Filming the final scene was very, very sad. There's lots of scenes in the final, final story that are very sad and were very sad to play," he added.
The actor said he was excited for Smith because: "I remember how exciting it was starting out on this kind of a journey and nerve-racking. I'm jealous that he's going through that now – but it couldn't happen to a nicer chap. I'm looking forward to not knowing what happens next. I'm looking forward to being a viewer again."
Set on Mars in 2059, The Waters of Mars guest stars Lindsay Duncan as Adelaide – billed as the Doctor's "cleverest and most strong-minded companion yet".
She and the Doctor face terror on the Red Planet in what is being seen as one of his darkest and scariest adventures.
Peter O'Brien, of Neighbours, Flying Doctors and Casualty, guest stars as Ed, Adelaide's second-in-command at the base. "The Doctor finds himself in a situation where he knows what the end is. It's all about whether he can un-knit the inevitable," Tennant said. "With this particular Time Lord's life coming to an end, if he starts fiddling with the fundamentals of time and space, it might lead to his undoing."
Looking back over his time on the show, Tennant said he had originally felt under some pressure in taking on the plum role. "It means so much to so many people. It meant so much to me," he said.
Asked if he felt he was in danger of becoming typecast, Tennant said: "I seem to have managed to do quite a variety of things while I've been doing Doctor Who. I haven't felt that it has been anything other than a positive."
On playing the role, he said: "You're not really expected to follow what went before, you're sort of expected to go your own way and mess it up a little bit. The Doctor is different each time.
"You know James Bond is always James Bond and Tarzan is always Tarzan and Sherlock Holmes is always Sherlock Holmes, but the Doctor is up to you – it's a blank sheet and you can scribble all over it. It's up to you."
He compared the job to being the US president, saying: "You always get to be called the Doctor."
Source: The Guardian