The BBC has officially announced that Matt Smith (photo ©Gage Skidmore) will conclude his experience in the role of the Doctor with the 2013 Christmas special “Doctor Who” episode.

This announcement was really a surprise. Only a few days ago we read the news that Matt Smith would still play the Doctor in the eighth “Doctor Who” season. The only ambiguity concerned the possibility that he’d regenerate during the season but it seemed certain that he’d be present at least at its beginning. In the evening (UK time) instead came the bomb.

Yesterday the BBC warned that there would be a major announcement regarding “Doctor Who”, a communication that was strange already. The official press release results published on the BBC website at 21:22 UK time on Saturday, certainly not the most common time for a news of that kind. There are rumors that an email was sent by mistake to people who weren’t supposed to receive it so it was necessary to hurry the news in an official manner.

In the official statement, Matt Smith has expressed his satisfaction and gratitude for having the chance to play the Doctor since the fifth season, which started in 2010. Smith wanted to become a professional footballer but serious back problems prevented him from continuing to do competitive sport. Turned actor in 2003, he became the youngest actor to be chosen for the role of the Doctor.

Steven Moffat, “Doctor Who” executive producer, has expressed his admiration for Matt Smith for the work done in these years and thanked him for what he’s given to the show. In short, from both of them arrived the normal statements that we can expect in these cases but no explanation for the farewell of the actor a few days after the arrival of an opposite statement. Perhaps we’ll know the truth soon or maybe we’ll never know it.

At the moment there’s no information about the fate of Clara, the current Doctor’s companion played by Jenna-Louise Coleman. It’s therefore possible that she’s staying at least initially together with the Twelfth Doctor. At this point, however, no news would be surprising.

Meanwhile, the actor who’ll play the next Doctor must be cast. As it happened in the past when there’s a new Doctor, a part of the audience who loved Matt Smith will immediately criticize him and perhaps even those who didn’t appreciate the Eleventh Doctor will suddenly re-evaluate him.

Lately, critics of Smith, and of Steven Moffat, spoke of a decline in “Doctor Who” audience in UK as alleged evidence of the low quality of the last season. In fact, they proved they just don’t understand how it the audience evolved. Since the beginning of the new series, more and more people have chosen to watch the episodes via BBC services other than watching them “live” and in particular the data of iPlayer viewers arrive much later so the audience seems to be lower than in the past when it’s really not.

Personally, I enjoyed the Eleventh Doctor and surely I’ll miss him but the only constant in “Doctor Who” is change. The Twelfth Doctor will surely be very different from his predecessor: in some ways he might remind of one or more past Doctors but he’ll also have something of his own. While waiting to meet him in 2014 we’ll enjoy the last Matt Smith’s adventures in the special for the 50th “Doctor Who” anniversary and the Christmas special.