Couple of days ago, buried in a BBC report about a possible Doctor Who spin off series was a line about the active development of a film featuring the long-running character. (Or, more to the point, of a script.) /Film pointed out the throwaway line, and speculates that this could be a means of keeping the current Doctor, as incarnated by David Tennant, alive for a while longer.

Tennant just finished filming his run on the TV show, and is set to be replaced by Matt Smith. But Tennant is by far the most popular Doctor the BBC has seen in a long time, and perhaps ever. There’s good reason to want him around a while longer. Furthermore, the Doctor Who revival, starring first Christopher Eccleston then Tennant, as sheperded by Russell T. Davies, has been more successful than I expect the BBC imagined. Development of a feature film isn’t much of a surprise.

There is a lot of speculation as to how this transition from Tennant to Smith is going to work. Some say it’ll be an off-screen regeneration, but I don’t see how that does much to leave open the option to tell more stories with Tennant. Then again, I’m hardly a treasure trove of Who knowledge, and am content to wait and see how this (possible non-) story plays out.