Is Doctor Who heading for America?

As perhaps the most saleable export currently on its books, it’s unsurprising that the BBC would look to the American market to further push Doctor Who. And if a story run in, er, the News of the World proves to be correct, then it could be making an even bigger effort to crack the Stateside market (not that Who doesn’t already have a following in America, but there's still a lot of headroom there for the Beeb to explore).

The paper’s report suggests that two of next year’s special episodes will be filmed in America as well, and that plans are afoot to bring in a big name American actress to be the Doctor’s assistant in the aforementioned instalments. No names have been mentioned, although the BBC source that the paper quoted did note that the plan was for Russell T Davies to go out “with a bang”, and that “we’re spending much more money on them than normal”.

To us, if this is true, it sounds like the pattern the Bond movies went through for a while, where to help maximise American box office, a Stateside actress was drafted in. Sometimes it worked, such as Halle Berry’s role in Die Another Day, and sometimes it didn’t, such as, ahem, Denise Richards’ efforts in The World Is Not Enough. Notably, Casino Royale didn’t have a lead American actress, and it’s taken more money at the box office than any of the 007 adventures that preceded it.

The story goes on to report that the specials will mark the end of David Tennant’s tenure in the Tardis, and that a regeneration will take place before the start of series five.

Expect speculation along these lines to continue for a good few months yet. But could it be that Christmas 2009 will be the last time Tennant comes out from behind those famous blue doors?