A Time Lord's famous last words

As far as final words go they were hardly as epic as Beethoven's "Friends applaud, the comedy is finished" or as humorous as Humphrey Bogart's "I should never have switched from Scotch to Martinis",

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With tears in his eyes the tenth Doctor succumbed to his regeneration with a plaintive "I don't want to go". Then he turned into a rubber faced young man named Matt Smith.

This you know. You were one of 12 million people who watched on New Year's Day as David Tennant made his 10,000th appearance on TV over Christmas, seemingly to make sure that there was no way we could forget him before he embarks on an uncertain career overseas.

I don't intend to dwell on the regeneration itself. For what it's worth I found the 20-minute goodbye to all his old companions a bit wearing and rather an anticlimax after the powerful and beautifully angry yet heroic exchange with the adorable Bernard Cribbins (and yes, I'd die to save Bernard, there's no way I'd let those big hang dog eyes haunt me for the rest of my life).

Rather than offer you yet more opinion on the most talked about programme of 2010 I thought I'd let you make up your mind as to which lead actor on Doctor Who had the best death.

And here they are:

William Hartnell:

The first Doctor, a crotchety old man with an air of menace about him, succumbed to old age after fighting the Cybermen. He warned his companions that this old body of his was "wearing a bit thin". Scriptwriters intended for the old man to rage against the dying of the light by shouting "No, no I simply will not give in" but instead went with a rather sweet and vulnerable "yes, that's good, keep warm".

Patrick Troughton:

The fondly remembered "cosmic hobo" had spent his final story The War Games trying to help a group of soldiers from different times escape from an alien plot to conquer the universe. Unable to return them home himself he is forced to summon the Time Lords, who put him on trial for interfering.

After a noble self-defence of his actions the Doctor is found guilty, exiled to Earth and forced to "change his appearance". As he spins through the vortex he shouts "You're making me giddy".

Jon Pertwee:

The first Doctor to have his episodes in colour the crushed velvet-wearing dandy cut quite the dash. In Planet of the Spiders he was forced to return a mysterious crystal to the spider queen. His body becomes ravaged by the radiation in her cave.

Three weeks later, back on Earth, he tumbles out of the Tardis and into the arms of Sarah Jane Smith, explaining with his dying breath that facing his fears was more important than going on living.

With tenderness he reaches up to brush his companion's cheek and says "A tear Sarah Jane? Oh no, don't cry. If this life is…"

Tom Baker:

After the longest run in Doctor Who history the man with the long scarf stepped aside. Logopolis was a very complicated story involving the mathematical equations of the universe. On Earth The Master tried to take control of the universe using a giant radio telescope. The Doctor climbed up and changed its direction, but The Master tilted the telescope further and The Doctor fell to his doom.

Surrounded by his companions and having visions of those he had lost he beckoned over a mysterious ghostly figure that had been stalking him – it was a future projection of the Fifth Doctor or some such rubbish – and the Doctor said: "It's the end, but the moment has been prepared for."

Peter Davison:

Infected by spectrox toxaemia The Doctor raced against time during The Caves of Androzani to find an antidote for himself and new companion Peri, which he found in the form of bats' milk.

As the planet exploded around them the Doctor carried his unconscious companion to the TARDIS – and dropped half the precious remedy.

Once inside he gave the remaining bat's milk to his friend and breathily explained that there was "only enough for you".

As Davison acted his heart out, actress Nicola Bryant knelt over him and a whole nation was enraptured by her heaving bosom, which somewhat overshadowed the good Doctor.

Again hallucinating about friends and enemies he said: "I might regenerate, I don't know. It feels different this time."

And then, as the screen faded to static he called out to the companion who had died at the hands of the Cybermen: "Adric!".

Colin Baker:

His final words were "carrot juice". Not a very fitting end really, but one that needs explanation. The show was in trouble and unpopular with BBC bosses. It was allowed back on condition that Baker be replaced. The actor had been let down by some absurdly complicated scripts and his character had been one of an absolute maniac. He was last seen at the end of Trial of a Timelord going off with Bonnie Langford. Instead of using him for the regeneration the producers dressed his successor Sylvester McCoy in Baker's outfit for the first few seconds of season opener Time and the Rani and had the Doctor crash land, unconscious and already regenerating as he was found by his enemies. It was later explained he had hit his head during the crash.

Sylvester McCoy:

Gunned down by Triads in the 1996 movie that was meant to restart the series under American direction, McCoy's Doctor was trying to recapture the remains of the Master which had slithered away as a shapeshifting snake.

On a hospital operating table in San Francisco he died when a surgeon got lost in his two hearts and with his last breath shouted "I've got to stop…him".

Paul McGann:

Nothing is known of the fate of the Eighth Doctor. It is likely that it was this incarnation, the one that starred in the above mentioned movie, that fought the Time War that wiped out the Daleks and Time Lords, before turning into Christopher Eccleston in time for the 2005 reboot of the series.

Having beaten the Master by letting him be sucked into the Eye of Harmony at the centre of the TARDIS, he found his record player got stuck and his last words on screen were "Oh no, not again".

Christopher Eccleston:

Moody and dressed like any bloke down the pub the leather jacketed Mancunian had just failed to push the button that would have wiped out the Daleks but also destroyed the Earth.

As the evil pepperpots surrounded him the TARDIS materialised, piloted by companion Rose who had somehow opened the console and absorbed the time vortex, allowing her to finish the job without killing mankind.

Realising that his friend would die if he failed to act the Doctor kissed the girl and sucked the temporal energy out.

As he warned Rose that every cell in his body was dying he said: "Before I go I just want to say you were fantastic, absolutely fantastic. And do you know what? So was I."