It looks that way. He is the face of the show at the moment, and with branding being more important now than it ever was back in the 60s, 70s or 80s, they will want to do more to hold on to him than the former producers ever felt they needed to do to keep any of the previous actors who played the Doctor.
I cannot understand the reaction of some of the people over on OG though. There was one on there yesterday saying 'I told you so' after apparently predicting that the show would get rested after 2008. The fact is, that prediction has been made so often, by so many people, that sooner or later one of them was bound to be right. And yet the fact that it has happened is taken as a portent of doom, that RTD and DT are now seen as 'bigger' than Dr Who, that the BBC commissioning team are a bunch of idiots, etc etc etc etc
None of them seem to have twigged that Dr Who is making the Beeb a fortune in merchandising and syndication and Auntie is not about to do anything to make that revenue stream dry up.
You only have to go into a branch of Woollies to see what I mean - I was in the Braehead branch last week and there was practically an entire aisle given over to Cyberman masks, Tardis playsets, radio-controlled K9s and action figures including really obscure bit-part characters like the Moxx of Balhoun ... (remember him?!) .
Whatever the Beeb is up to, I don't think we have anything to worry about. In fact, I suspect we can look forward to some spectacular set-pieces in 2009. And we shouldn't forget that before we even get to 2009, we have two Christmas specials and a complete regulart 13-week run to look forward to, plus at least one series of Torchwood (which surely has got to be an improvement on the first series, so it should be, at the least, enjoyable late night telly).
I'm happy.
