Ending months of speculation and hints, David Tennant has formally announced his decision regarding his remaining in the role of Doctor Who in 2010.  As announced just now by the BBC, the answer is no.  The last of the four specials in 2009 will end with a regeneration, introducing the third "New Who" Doctor and the eleventh Doctor overall.

While full of praise for his time on the show, Tennant says, "I think it's right to take a deep breath and bow out when it's still fun, when it's a novelty.  I don't ever want it to feel like a job."

Certainly Tennant will have his pick of roles to move on to, having spent his gap months with projects ranging from playing a modern man with severe brain damage to his triumphant return to the Shakespearean stage with sellout performances of Loves' Labors Lost and Hamlet.

Showrunner Russell T Davies' is already starting to drop hints about the tenth Doctor's demise.  "I might drop an anvil on his head. Or maybe a piano. A radioactive piano." 

Who will play the eleventh Doctor has not been formally announced, although speculation has been rife almost from the moment Tennant accepted the role and even more rife when it was announced that Moffat would be taking over in 2010, as a new producer usually means a new Doctor.