David Tennant On Rose Relationship & Which Doctor Who Companion Was Hardest Goodbye

Appearing at a question and answer panel at Wizard World Raleigh, former Doctor Who star David Tennant was placed in a rather uncomfortable position when asked which of his companions it was hardest to say goodbye to, Rose Tyler or Donna Noble.

Tennant at first deflected, humorously naming Donna’s grandfather, who played his own important role in the Tenth Doctor’s story.

“Well the hardest one to say goodbye to has to be Wilfred Mott, doesn’t it?” Tennant said. :It was his fault, frankly. And because it’s very hard to look at Bernard Cribbins and not feel moved, frankly.”

He then gave a very considered non-answer to the question.

“It’s impossible question,” he said. “They’re very different, weren’t they? Because one of them – well, they were both love stories, but they’re very different types of love stories, weren’t they? One was a best mate, one was a girlfriend, really.”

Tennant went into more detail, describing how each farewell was tragic in its own way.

“I think what was tragic about the Donna one was that he had to remove all that joy from her, take all those wonderful experiences. The tragedy of Rose, of course, was that they could never see each other again…until they did.”

Tennant really please the fans when he finally said everything that fans have assumed the Doctor was thinking during Rose’s second goodbye, in the Series 4 finale “Journey’s End.”

“How galling to watch someone who looks like you, who basically is you, do all the shagging you didn’t get to do.”

I will now pause so that Doctor/Rose shipper have a moment to catch their breath.

Tennant goes on to talk about how saying goodbye to his own character may have been the toughest thing to do, describing how his Doctor started off as a “bouncy puppy” before being put through several ringers during his tenure. You can hear more in the video below.

Tennant is currently starring in Broadchurch Series 2, airing on BBC and BBC America. He’s signed on to play Killgrave in Marvel and Netflix’s A.K.A. Jessica Jones, premiering later in 2015.

Doctor Who, now starring Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor, will premiere it’s ninth season later in 2015.

(via Buzzfeed)