The Abdication Speech

In case you missed this most surreal of moments the other week, here it is for you. I'd forgotten that it is prefaced by Sylar/soon-to-be-Spock and of course Sir Trevor MacDonald (think a black Dan Rather, for our US readers); and then enjoy what follows.

Doctor Who, flanked by guardsmen, and wearing casual evening dress, during the interval at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford where he was then playing Hamlet, announces to the nation (via a packed Royal Albert Hall & the National Television Awards) that he is abdicating as the Doctor in a year's time (presumably to give us, his grieving subjects, time to console ourselves). This announcement is on prime-time TV. And includes the aside that he has to go and kill Patrick Stewart - Captain Picard, of course, to Trekkies, though Claudius in the production of Hamlet in which Tennant was starring.

I love Doctor Who. I think DT has been fantastic. But for sheer OTT ratings, this is simply off the scale.

I adored it.