David Tennant has announced that he will be leaving the role of the Doctor after he finishes filming the next four specials that will air in 2009 and 2010. Of course, that means we have two years or so of Tennanty goodness before the eleventh Doctor takes the helm of the TARDIS.

I’ve been a fan of Doctor Who for more than half my life. I started watching the show when Tom Baker was the fourth Doctor, and he remained the quintessential Doctor for me even through part of Christopher Eccelston’s tenure (I became a convert about halfway through Series One of the rebooted series). But David Tennant has infused the character with a brilliant, manic intensity and even an emotional depth that none of the previous actors to play the character did. Tennant really made the character his own.

So the speculation about who would take over the role of the Doctor is running rampant. My personal choice, though I don’t know if he’s really in the running, is Simon Pegg. True, he’s moved on to movies after doing television shows, and he already played a villain in the new series (as “The Editor” in the first series episode “The Long Game”), but so what. As Shaun and as Nicholas Angel he’s proven he’s got the skill and the potential and word is he’s going to do a decent job as Scotty in J. J. Abrams’s rebooted Star Trek this December. Nick Frost would also be an interesting choice. Of course, if they really wanted to mess with our heads, they could cast John Simm as the next Doctor.

I say we start a “Draft Simon Pegg” movement right now.

What do you think?