A man in a brown pinstripe suit and long coat leans on a glowing time-machine console in an amber, coral-pillared control room as golden energy streams from his hands.

Original artwork, not a still

The Tenth Doctor

I don't want to go.

— Doctor Who · 2005

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

Ten Doctors had gone out with something like acceptance; this one asks not to. After two series of a Doctor who is clever, funny and heartbroken, the line says he would give up all the future to keep going. Fans still treat it as the regeneration that hurt most, and it passed into Doctor Who history as a comparison point for every farewell that followed.

Context reviewed

In context

Spoilers for Doctor WhoShow the scene

The Tenth Doctor's last words close "The End of Time, Part Two" (BBC One, 1 January 2010), David Tennant's final story and Russell T Davies' last as head writer. Dying of radiation poisoning, the Doctor takes a quiet tour of his companions' lives, glimpsing Rose on New Year's Day 2005 and telling her she will have a great year. Ood Sigma tells him the song is ending but the story never ends. He staggers into the TARDIS, sets it in flight, fights back tears and says this, as regeneration begins.

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