WCXX

By Chris Hastings

PUBLISHED: 16:02 EST, 1 June 2013 | UPDATED: 17:11 EST, 1 June 2013

Doctor Who is to undergo another regeneration â€" as Matt Smith has announced he’s quitting the role.

The actor is hanging up his sonic screwdriver after four years and will appear in just two more episodes: the keenly awaited 50th anniversary special in November, and the Christmas Day edition.

Smith, 30, said it had been ‘an honour’ to play the Doctor but added: ‘When you gotta go, you’ve gotta go.’

His departure will be a blow to fans â€" and will spark frenzied speculation about his replacement, renewing the debate about whether the role should go to a female, black or Asian actor.

A senior BBC insider said last night: ‘The hunt for the new Doctor starts now and it is wide open.

'The role has not been offered to anyone and the producers have not settled on a suitable candidate.’

Smith â€" who has just started filming the movie How To Catch A Monster, with director Ryan Gosling â€" said: ‘Doctor Who has been the most brilliant experience for me as an actor and a bloke, and that largely is down to the cast, crew and fans.

‘The fans are unlike any other; they dress up, shout louder, know more about the history of the show â€" and speculate more about the future of the show â€" in a way that I have never seen before, [their] dedication is truly remarkable.’

But he said he felt that Trenzalore, the planet that is home to the Doctor’s tomb, was finally calling him.

Steven Moffat, the show’s producer, said he would miss Smith, who had always kept him on his toes.

He said: ‘Every day, on every episode, in every set of rushes, Matt Smith surprised me: the way he’d turn a line, or spin on his heels, or make something funny, or out of nowhere make me cry, I just never knew what was coming next.’

Smith’s departure could provoke another problem for the BBC, as it has previously been stated on the show that Time Lords can regenerate only 12 times (and so have 13 incarnations).

As Smith is the 11th, that would mean there could be only two versions of the character left. And in the most recent episode, In The Name Of The Doctor, 73-year-old John Hurt briefly appeared as a mysterious figure called The Doctor, which may account for another incarnation.

However, both Moffat and his predecessor Russell T. Davies, who brought the show back in 2005, have both insisted that aspect of the folklore was rewritten long ago. Smith will be outlasted in the show by Jenna-Louise Coleman, who plays the Doctor’s companion, Clara Oswald, as she has signed up for the next series in 2014.

Smith was the youngest actor to play the Doctor when he took over the role from David Tennant at the age of 26.

He has appeared in three series and three Christmas specials and proved popular with both critics and the show’s seven million viewers. He became the first actor to be nominated for a Bafta for the role.

But his success has proved a double-edged sword as it meant he was inundated with offers for other parts.

One source said: ‘He was fantastic as the Doctor but it was always going to be a matter of time. No one stays for ever and everyone connected with the show knows that.’

Smith shaved his head and appeared shirtless for his new role in How To Catch A Monster â€" a far cry from the Doctor’s tweed jacket and bow tie.

During his time with Doctor Who, he has also taken on other roles including playing the homosexual novelist Christopher Isherwood, and Bert Bushnell, a rower at the 1948 London Olympic Games.

He has also just made his directorial debut with the TV drama Cargese, about a teenager whose mother is dying of cancer.

Although Smith’s episodes have been well received, they have not been without controversy. Some commentators feel some of Moffat’s recent storylines have been too complicated and that the flirtation between the two leads is out of keeping with the spirit of the show.

And last week The Mail on Sunday revealed a group of academics had branded the show ‘too white’ and ‘thunderingly racist’ â€" which may increase the pressure on BBC chiefs to cast a Doctor from an ethnic minority.

However, the Corporation and fans alike dismissed the claims.

Will the next Doctor be black - or a woman at last?